Is that a Blockchain in your Pocket? Hugo Feiler on TalkingHeadz

TalkingHeadz is a series of interviews with the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we check in with Brad Hintze, EVP Marketing at Crestron. 

Brad beleives that the foundation for marketing success is contingent on the combined strength of one's ability to: a) build (and ship) fantastic products, b) clearly communicate why one's product is excellent, and c) create the right tools to win more customers. 

While that may sound interesting to some, it's 1 Beyond that got us hooked. Crestron has a built a strong collaborative reputation with its Flex video conferencing systems, and that story got better about a year ago when it acquired 1 Beyond. 

1 Beyond has been in business for 20 years, but the past seven have seen exceptional growth. The story got even strong with the  when it opted to acquire 1 Beyond.  Crestron was demonstrating its new capabilities earlier this year at ISE Barcelona, where seven One Beyond cameras collaborated so effectively that any meeting can become compelling. 

Crestron's Flex solutions integrate video conferencing, wireless presentation, and smart room control. The company works closely with Microsoft Teams and other platforms as well, and 1 Beyond isn't it's first date to the rodeo either: Crestron has announced partnerships with Huddly, Shure, and Jabra, too.

Prior to joining Crestron, Brad served as the Vice President of Consumer and Brand Marketing at SnapAV, where he designed and led marketing efforts and strategies. Before assuming that role, Brad held the position of Senior Director of Product Marketing at Control4 where he was responsible for directing product marketing strategy and development.  

TalkingHeadz is an interview format series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we check in with David Petts, SVP Cloud to Cloud Business Group at Mitel. 

Our podcast was recorded just a few days after Mitel announced its acquisition of Atos Unify. We do discuss it, but there's more unknowns than knowns. 

David Petts is a seasoned sales and customer success executive with a proven track record of driving revenue growth and profit improvements across multiple product segments. With extensive expertise in enterprise servers, PC's, systems management software, business mobility, unified communication, and content licensing, David has a comprehensive understanding of the technology industry.

David is well-versed in adapting go-to-market strategies to the specific dynamics of different geographic. David is a team-oriented leader who values collaboration and is dedicated to achieving success for both his team and the company.

Mitel is a leading global provider of communications and collaboration solutions. Founded in 1972, the company has a long history of innovation in the telecommunications industry and has grown to serve customers in more than 100 countries around the world.

Mitel's product portfolio includes a wide range of solutions for businesses of all sizes, from small and medium-sized enterprises to large enterprises and government agencies. In addition to its core products, Mitel is also known for its commitment to customer service and support. 

TalkingHeadz is an interview format series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we check in with Michael Beckley, Founder and CTO of Appian. 

Appian is the unified platform for change. It promises to accelerate businesses by discovering, designing, and automating important processes. The Appian Low-Code Automation Platform unifies key capabilities needed to accelerate workflow. 

As CTO, Michael drives the technical vision for Appian. He leads Appian’s product and solutions marketing teams, and oversees customer initiatives worldwide. Michael serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for the University of Virginia’s Computer Science Department and is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

TalkingHeadz is an interview format series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we check in with Raluca Monet of Google's Chrome Enterprise Recommended (CER) Team. 

Chrome is a very popular internet browser, but there's more to than many realize. Chrome Enterprise offers organizations a number of advanced features. Chrome Enterprise Recommended recognizes solutions that leverage Chromebooks, Chrome Desks, and ChromeOS. 

Chrome Enterprise offers a number of management and security features that can benefit a variety of use cases. There are several CER programs, and in this episode we dive into CER CCaaS. 

Although Chrome can work with several premises-based solutions, the CCaaS sectors have embraced the browser over traditional software clients. Once the agent's desktop is on a browser, why bother with a full PC?  Chromebooks are less expensive to purchase, secure, deploy, and maintain. 

Raluca  works directly with CXO level executives to improve profitability and create sustainable growth for corporations. Raluca’s areas of expertise include strategy formulation, organizational transformation, operational strategy, profit improvement and performance measurement. She joined Google in 2015. 

The 2022 Season Finale of TalkingHeadz features Jeff Lawson, CEO and co-Founder of Twilio.  

Jeff is always clear, articulate, and friendly. I'm proud to say Twilio was born during my shift as a telecom analyst, and it's been exciting to watch it grow and transform. 

Jeff presented to analysts before the recent Twilio Signal Conference. He claimed that Twilio is always ahead of the industry. That's a bold (fighting words) statement, but he backed it up with a common sense observation. Twilio's customers create solutions that, in general, can't be purchased (yet). 

Lawson and Twilio more or less created the CPaaS category, an enterprise comms sector that is becoming a little crowded. That's probably one of Twilio's motivations to go broader and become a customer data platform (CDP) provider. 

CDP may seem totally unrelated to CPaaS, thus many perceive the change as a pivot. While there's some truth to that, Jeffs sees it as more of a logical extension. A lot of the CPaaS use cases support marketing, but they tend to be transactional rather than strategic. Twilio wants to better activate the information on customers that enterprises have, and the first step is to create a consolidated view.  

Regardless of how you spin it, this public, multi-billion dollar company is once again a startup that's defining (or converging) a new category. Check out this interview to get a better idea of what is on Jeff's mind. 

TalkingHeadz is an interview format series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we check in with Sid Rao, the  GM of Amazon Chime SDK. 

I fondly remember Biba, a WebRTC video/messaging startup . There was a lot of excitement over WebRTC about ten years ago. Biba was acquired by Amazon and relaunched as the Amazon Chime app in 2017. 

Chime was a lot like Webex and Zoom, but worked entirely in a browser. Both Vonage and CenturyLink (now Lumen) were early resellers of the meeting application.  The app worked well, but wasn't a bit hit. Vonage moved to its own video solution, and CenturyLink turned to apps such as Zoom and Teams. 

AWS discovered that its customers were more interested in Chime's underlying WebRTC than the meeting app. Amazon created WebRTC APIs,  effectively making WebRTC a service rather than a tech stack. This model was a better fit for AWS, so at its reInvent conference in 2018, AWS launched the Chime SDK.  

Then came the pandemic and a boom in most things video. AWS customers and partners used Chime to create all kinds of solutions. K-12 education, for example, needed video for remote education.  Chime obliged, and did so with simple hardware requirements for end users. Blackboard presented its success story at reInvent 2021. 

As for the original Chime app, it's been getting better thanks to new capabilities of the Chime SDK. The Chime app isn't particular popular,, nor marketed. It does well within Amazon, both as an internal meeting and chat app and with many of AWS's large customers. 

Most TalkingHeadz episodes are interviews, but in this episode we Dave and Evan cover current events.

TalkingPointz Insider Reports publish the first week of every month and cover the enterprise news that mattered the prior month. In this podcast, Dave and Evan discuss the most recent Insider Report covering the news of October 2022.

The October 2022 Insider Report was published on Nov 2.

Most Insider Reports are about 10 pages long, but designed for easy skimming. This podcasts only covers a condensed selection of topics.

Subscriptions to Insider Reports can be purchased here. A personal subscription is $588/year. 

TalkingHeadz is an interview format podcast series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we chat with the CMO of NICE Ltd, Einat Weiss.

Einat has over 24 years of experience spearheading messaging, digital transformations, marketing strategies, and brand recognition.  She joined team NICE in 2018, and has held the CMO position for over four years. The same four years that NICE has blossomed into a comprehensive provider of customer engagement solutions.  

Einat holds an MBA, Marketing degree and a BA in Computer Science.  Prior to joining NICE, she held marketing positions at BMC, SAP, and Alvarion. 

TalkingHeadz is an interview format podcast series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests.  In this episode, we check in with the new CEO at Avaya: Alan Masarek. 

Many people in the industry met Alan while he was the CEO of Vonage.  Alan was one of the more accessible of the comms CEOs to customers and analysts. It's not clear if his experience at Vonage or his  bicycle ride across the US was better preparation for his new job.  

Some might say that Avaya doesn't have a cloud, but Masarek certainly arrived under one.  His appointment in late July coincided with a disastrous quarter (which still hasn't been filed), and that was just weeks after a major fund raising round. The cloud over Avaya is so dark, it's very survival is questionable. 

A major change at Avaya was clearly needed, and Alan appears to have the credentials, experience, and vision. The question is if he will have enough time to right the ship. 

TalkingHeadz is an interview format podcast series featuring the movers and shakers of enterprise communications - we also have great guests. In this episode  Dave and Evan  realize that NEC is one of the largest companies in enterprise communications, and when it comes to the NEC family of UNIVERGE products, there's a good chance Ram Menghani is involved.

Ram has broad experience in all aspects of product and business development. He's been with NEC for over 21 years. We suspect he has worked  for other companies, but he doesn't list any on LinkedIn.  He has reason to call at least three countries home which makes him an SVP of the world. 

In this discussion we get into the broader NEC line for UCaaS solutions and how it's partnership with Intermedia is so unique.