CXTech Week 20, News and Analysis

The purpose of this CXTech Week 20 newsletter is to highlight, with commentary, some of the news stories in CXTech this week. What is CXTech?  The C stands for Connectivity, Communications, Collaboration, Conversation, Customer; X for Experience because that’s what matters; and Tech because the focus is enablers.

Examples of what falls into CXTech includes: Programable Telecoms / Communications, CPaaS, UCaaS, CCaaS, open source telecom software, CPaaS enablers, Multi-Factor Authentication / Instant Authentication, Telecom APIs, WebRTC, Cloud Communications, CPaaS enabled services, omni-channel, telecom infrastructure as code, telecom service dashboards, the myriad of UIs making APIs and enablers and services useable beyond coders.

You can read more about why we’re testing out this definition in the following weblogs: TADSummit State of the UnionWhat’s in a Name Part 1 and Part 2 discussions.

I wrap up the newsletter with a section covering, “People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff.”

You can sign up here to receive the CXTech News and Analysis by email. Please forward this on if you think someone should join the list, I also publish this on my weblog. And please let me know any CXTech news I should include.

 

Edited Transcript of AVYA earnings conference call or presentation 9-May-19

In reviewing the transcript, the large legacy portfolio continues to drag Avaya down. It’s a tough challenge as change costs, it’s much easier for a competitor as it’s new revenue. I remember the SDH to ATM to IP transition for large corporates. The Telco account manager for a bank said, “But we just convinced <large banking group> to move to ATM on the promise it was future proof and offered better QoS.”

When we lifted the covers on how bank was using the pipes, it was all adapted to IP anyway. The customer was ahead of the telco. The problem was the sales guys didn’t want to let the geeks talk to each other (coz they may say the truth).

When they did, it’s a long story on how that happened, within 3 months ATM was switched off, and all services were migrated to IP. The account revenue remained the same, and the bank had much greater control over their network and app performance. It could be time for Avaya to let the geeks talk to each other and quickly remove the legacy mess across their customer base.

Who should Acquire Avaya

Breaking up is the only option. Avaya’s whole portfolio is a complicated, multiple overlapping product mess from lots of acquisitions. Avaya has struggled to consolidate the legacy product mess.  It’s simpler to just target their customers directly, as Microsoft and Cisco have done for over a decade, and in the past 5 years the UCaaS players have also been quite successful.

Why a Mitel Avaya Merger Would Improve the Unified Communications-as-a-Service Market

I can only assume the rationale is Mitel and Avaya would be consumed by sorting out the internal mess, so leaving other players to grab market share.

 

CPaaS Segmentation

In response to many questions over the past year on how different CPaaS (Communication Platform as a Service) providers compare, the general confusion given the rapid increase in the number of providers claiming to be CPaaS, and the likely continuation of that confusion given the evolution of the CPaaS market. I thought it would make sense to provide a CPaaS segmentation I use when evaluating providers. To get a better handle on this CPaaS segmentation, with quantification on market sizing, TADSummit is the only place to be.

TADSummit agenda updates

We have 3 TADSummits this year!

TADSummit Asia (28th May online)

TADSummit Americas (15-16 Oct) – draft agenda just published.

TADSummit EMEA (19-20 Nov) – draft agenda just published.

Whether you’re a developer, CIO, technology provider, or telco; it’s an exciting time in telecoms (communications if you prefer). Technologies once hidden in the ivory towers of telcos and their suppliers are now freely available to be programmed into applications, services and business processes. By programmed, I not only mean through APIs, but through easy to use web forms.

TADSummit 2019

France sets up Le Voice Lab

Raising French global competitiveness in programmable voice. A group of 20 companies and 10 labs in France working on Voice. Working together to create a marketplace to compete with the privacy-invading internet giants with our own platform. Yes, its David against several Goliaths. But we have to try.

You can learn more at TADSummit EMEA from Karel Bourgois. Should the UK follow their lead?

 

Brightlink Grows Cloud PBX via Stitchtel Acquisition

More consolidation in CXTech. Brightlink I’ve considered to be a VoIP / UC provider. Its positioning is now CPaaS. Check out this CPaaS Segmentation to better understand all the different CPaaS players out there.

 

Coaching for Customer Retention — The Athletic Way by Eric Broulette at Hudl

Living in the US means I see first-hand how youth sports is massive. Sports is not part of the state education system. It’s all privately funded and out of school hours. Yesterday my son was at track & field practice from 6:30-8PM. Practice sessions are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with a weekend meet as well that can go on for 8 hours! I didn’t realize the commitment was so great.

The coordination around practices requires significant real-time communications, weather being a key factor. Hudl is an interesting service in helping training and promotion of teams. I was at a meet last weekend watching my 9 tear old son compete in the javelin and long jump. 9 year old boys do not listen, full stop. However, seeing a video of what they did is likely the only thing to get past the noise going on in their heads about Minecraft, Clash of Clans, Cupcake and Dino, etc.

Programable telecoms is a small piece of the Hudl solution, but shows its the essential spice of almost every service.

 

7 Forever Stocks to Buy for Long-Term Gains

Twilio’s on the list!

 

UCaaS Mistakes MSPs Should Avoid

This article was clearly written by someone working at the coal face. I can not agree more with the key message “Keep It Simple”.

UCaaS Features: Can a Solution Offer Too Much for Your Client?

Clearly the answer is a resounding Yes! UC has been around for decades, so the features keep piling up. I see in many Asian countries WeChat / WhatsApp and the mobile phone is good enough for many businesses large and small.

 

People, Gossip, and Frivolous Stuff

Antón Rodríguez Yuste is now a Senior Software Engineer at Inditex

Anton was with us at the first TADHack back in 2014.

Karim Zaki is now Co-Founder & COO at IN3

Karim has been a regular attendee at TADSummit, sponsoring us last year with Cequens.

Michael Crossey is now Director, Software Business Development EMEA at Ciena

I’ve known Michael since Aepona, a pioneer in Telecom APIs.

Marija Pavlovic is now Solution Architect at TeleSign

Congrats Marija 😊

 

Following up on the Clique Story…

In CXTech Week 17 newsletter I highlighted a post by Clique, as an example of marketing lies. Where they claimed to be a “company who pioneered CPaaS” (they started in 2017 with a conferencing API). It’s a bit like describing my move to the US in 1999 meant I pioneered America 😉 Well, it looks like the problems ran even deeper as you can read in article above.

 

Subscribe to CXTech News distribution list here.