In July of last year, I believe that became the first to publicly suggest that Avaya should divest of the company’s data networking business. The one-year anniversary of my ”Cajun redux?” post is approaching and in a coincidence, around this same time Avaya will complete the sale of that part of the company to Extreme Networks. With this confluence of milestones, in this post will ask, does this signify a new day for Avaya or will, at some point down the road, we again be struck with that strange feeling of déjà vu?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A while back I wrote my feelings about the term unified communications. My point in different words is that unification regarding enterprise communications technologies is a type of marketing Camelot. Paraphrasing The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, like the legendary city, an imaginary enterprise communications environment is said to exist with some “impressive architecture … and the chivalry and courtesy of its inhabitants.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In times of uncertainty, it is best to trust our systems. There are systems that keep us safe such as air traffic control, providing that we arrive at safely distant destinations. There are street light systems that help us cross at busy intersections. In our government, we must have faith in systems, including our separation of powers and a free press.For the business world, other systems such as the Chapter 11 processes, may not be well understood, but many experts argue are critical.The Chapter 11 set of processes are especially important at this period of time for the universe of stakeholders that I wrote about recently in "Avaya’s Chapter 11 filing sends waves of disruption." In this follow-up post, I’ll talk a bit about the Chapter 11 processes and provide some information I gained recently that makes me feel just a bit more comfortable about the future for that universe that surrounds Avaya. Part of this is some recent research and part is due to a briefing that I participated in with Avaya corporate treasurer John Sullivan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some weeks ago I wrote that CRM and contact center are on a collision course. I argued that as the technologies used in CRM and the contact center will naturally mash up, the vendors of these traditionally distinct technologies will collide.In this post, I will expand upon that idea and talk about the future and a key aspect that will be important to successful synergies: how each domain leverages behaviors.CRM/contact center collision
The first post argued that a co-mingling of the technologies used in CRM and the contact center worlds have occurred. This has been more of a lending of functionality. Seldom has true synergy emerged.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In part one of this two-part post, I walked through how DevOps and the development philosophies of lean and agile are related. In part two, I make the case that similar to the dynamics I described in Recombinant Communications, where the application programming interface (API) economy and as-a-service industries are making possible revolutionary innovations in the enterprise communications market, these "genetics" concepts also apply elsewhere.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a recent blog post, Recombinant communications: The new 'genetics' of enterprise communications, I drew parallels between the impacts of genetic engineering and how the application programming interface (API) economy and as-a-service industries are changing the enterprise communications market. A set of techniques that are gaining increasing numbers of adherents among software developers in other industries is similarly providing new “genetic” material that also promises revolutionary changes. The innovation framework DevOps, microservices and containers are the tools and constituents of this new “genetic” engineering in the software world. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The numbers involved in Avaya’s Chapter 11 filing are big.A company netting just under a $1 billion per year owes about seven years’ profits to repay the leverage heaped on the otherwise healthy company in an $8.2 billion private equity buyout in 2007.It also has over 5,500 patents and was named in 2012 one the 100 most innovative companies in Silicon Valley. That’s just the beginning of the saga. There are many more stories to tell.+ Also on Network World: Avaya says bankruptcy is a step toward software and services +
All hope for a fair and speedy resolution to the Chapter 11 filing, and so far, so good, according to multiple observers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The arcs of two industries, customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center, are about to entangle. More descriptively, these two industries are on a collision course. Consequences include exciting new innovations in customer experience and dramatic market-wide change.Changing times
Propelled in an age of big data and artificial intelligence (AI), CRM is entering the industry’s platinum age. At the same time, contact center is facing disruption as newer communications protocols come to broader acceptance, old guard companies face transitions, and ways of deploying applications—cloud for one—accelerate in adoption. + Also on Network World: How to conquer a CRM monster +
The two industries have existed in the same universe, that of the key ways that customers interact with an enterprise, but for the most part it's as if they have occupied different dimensions. As CRM matured, it was embraced by marketing, sales and service delivery. CRM and contact center would occasionally interact, such as when telephony call controls were added to a CRM screen or when a service call turned into an upselling opportunity. However, true synergies have seldom really gelled.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
From artificial intelligence to new forms of computing to changes in how we work, learn and play, we live in an era of unprecedented change.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A friend I respect a great deal once told me that using Latin makes you sound smart. So, here I go, consciously throwing the term horror vacui your way.
Horror vacui is a concept originally from Aristotle that, according to Porter, Park and Daston, “By the thirteenth century, scholastic writers were beginning to attribute to nature … a kind of force by which nature resists allowing a vacuum to form.”
Something of this character seems to be happening as people rush to fill the void of no official news about the current business challenges Avaya faces. In absence of any real information, a narrative has evolved in the past several weeks that has not been positive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A few weeks back, I wrote a post contending that, as traditionally defined, the term unified communications has no meaning. Since then, I have had many interesting conversations with people who have varying opinions on the subject. This post is to pass along some of what I have learned.Un-unified
In alignment with my contention, most of the conversations on the subject have confirmed that when someone in a work situation needs to communicate with someone who is not within earshot, they typically use tools that are very, well, un-unified. If we need to talk to someone, we call. We still email as much as any other modality. Second to that, we text and increasingly group message. If we need to share or collaborate on information that is in a document, we webchat. Begrudgingly, we occasionally video chat. A few people do use a single tool for these functions, but more often we choose between a set of tools—applications that are specialized to the task at hand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On numerous recent occasions, Cisco Executive Chairman John Chambers has acted as a harbinger for dramatic changes he and others say face the world because of the pace of technology change.In a video recorded at a recent International Monetary Fund event Chambers says technology “will transform every business model that we see,” predicting that “40 percent of the companies in America, Asia, Europe … will disappear in the next decade.”As dramatic as these predictions may seem, they are not unprecedented in business history. In fact, many of the dynamics at play, although happening at a more accelerated pace today, are in part responsible for the success of the company that Chambers led from 1995 to 2006. In this post, I’ll look at two examples from business history, companies whose fates were intertwined with that of Cisco Systems, and compare to the forces at work today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On numerous recent occasions, Cisco Executive Chairman John Chambers has acted as a harbinger for dramatic changes he and others say face the world because of the pace of technology change.In a video recorded at a recent International Monetary Fund event Chambers says technology “will transform every business model that we see,” predicting that “40 percent of the companies in America, Asia, Europe … will disappear in the next decade.”As dramatic as these predictions may seem, they are not unprecedented in business history. In fact, many of the dynamics at play, although happening at a more accelerated pace today, are in part responsible for the success of the company that Chambers led from 1995 to 2006. In this post, I’ll look at two examples from business history, companies whose fates were intertwined with that of Cisco Systems, and compare to the forces at work today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On numerous recent occasions, Cisco Executive Chairman John Chambers has acted as a harbinger for dramatic changes he and others say face the world because of the pace of technology change.In a video recorded at a recent International Monetary Fund event Chambers says technology “will transform every business model that we see,” predicting that “40 percent of the companies in America, Asia, Europe … will disappear in the next decade.”As dramatic as these predictions may seem, they are not unprecedented in business history. In fact, many of the dynamics at play, although happening at a more accelerated pace today, are in part responsible for the success of the company that Chambers led from 1995 to 2006. In this post, I’ll look at two examples from business history, companies whose fates were intertwined with that of Cisco Systems, and compare to the forces at work today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Over the past weeks since Gartner released its 2016 Magic Quadrant on Unified Communications (UC) there have been a slew of articles explaining, analyzing, extolling, celebrating and otherwise promoting the virtues of all things considered UC.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Netflix Effect has kicked off waves of disruption that are changing how the media business has run for decades. Similar to the Netflix Effect, the API Effect might fundamentally change the ground rules in the industries of companies that provide real-time communications applications to enterprise businesses. The implications for both universes have many parallels and portend possibly massive marketplace changes. What are the Netflix Effect and the API Effect?
What is the Netflix Effect? In the media industry it is the waves of change set off by the disaggregation of content and content production from the traditional methods of creation and distribution (cable and television networks and movie studios).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While channel surfing recently I landed on a reality TV show where people bid on abandoned homes without knowing what’s inside. Occasionally, something of true value is found—maybe even something that might make the new owners wealthy. One might say that something like this happened when Avaya acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) in 2009.Comparatively, Avaya inherited rooms upon rooms where old Aunt Norty had stashed the detritus of her life. There were, however, many treasures. One find, known today as the company’s SDN Fx™ Architecture, might be compared to a Picasso found stashed away in the attic. That’s the good news.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While channel surfing recently I landed on a reality TV show where people bid on abandoned homes without knowing what’s inside. Occasionally, something of true value is found—maybe even something that might make the new owners wealthy. One might say that something like this happened when Avaya acquired Nortel Enterprise Solutions (NES) in 2009.Comparatively, Avaya inherited rooms upon rooms where old Aunt Norty had stashed the detritus of her life. There were, however, many treasures. One find, known today as the company’s SDN Fx™ Architecture, might be compared to a Picasso found stashed away in the attic. That’s the good news.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Guy William Clinch