talkingpointz

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CX Today's Charlie Mitchell presents an inspection of the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CPaaS.

He's joined by Dave Michels, Lead Analyst at TalkingPointz, and Rob Kurver, Founding Partner of the CPaaS Acceleration Alliance.

Together, they discuss some of the big talking points from the Gartner MQ, which include:

• The report's significance for the CPaaS space 
• Twilio has got competition! 
• Telcos influencing the CPaaS market 
• The unlucky few to miss out on inclusion

Thanks for watching. If you’d like more like this, don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to our channel.

You can also join in the conversation on our Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

Watch on YouTube.

CX Today's Charlie Mitchell presents a deep-dive of the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS.

He's joined by Dave Michels, Lead Analyst at TalkingPointz, and Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research.

Together, they discuss some of the big talking points from the Gartner MQ, which include:

• Talkdesk losing its market leader status 
• Genesys maintaining its pole position 
• NICE being unable to break free 
• Is Cisco's positioning reasonable?

Thanks for watching. If you'd like more like this, don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to our channel.

You can also join in the conversation on our Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

Dave and Evan chat with Brian Day the newly named CEO of Fuze.

Last month, Fuze named Brian Day its new CEO. Actually, Brian announced it himself in a blog post that also reemphasized Fuze's commitment to enterprise customers. 

Fuze was among the first UCaaS providers (under it's original brand Thinking Phones) to penetrate larger customers. While most providers started small and are working their way up, Fuze started big and has been (until recently) working its way to smaller accounts. 

Brain explains the differences in targeting enterprises vs. small and medium businesses, and why Fuze is taking deliberate actions to primarily focus on large accounts.  

Prior to being CEO, Brian was the CFO at Fuze. He has 25 years as a successful financial leader and operator at high-growth companies, most recently at Apperian where he also served first as CFO, and then CEO through its sale in 2016.

Brian has a B.A. in Economics from the University of New Hampshire, and also accidentally got a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

Dave and Evan chat with Julian Codorniou, Vice President of Workplace by Facebook.

Julien joined Facebook in 2011 to build the EMEA gaming team and then led the global Platform Partnerships team, helping Facebook partners to build, grow and monetize their apps with Platform. Prior to Facebook, Julien was director of business development at Microsoft Corp where he created and launched the BizSpark program.

Workplace is growing very fast, and it appears it's just getting started. This app has the potential (funding, engineering, innovation, capability, global reach, etc.) to radically transform enterprise communications . . . enterprise wide. 

Under Julien's leadership, Workplace serves more than 3 million paying users at companies including Walmart, Starbucks, Nestle, Telefonica, Grab, Spotify, Chevron and many more globally. 

In this podcast we get a better idea how Workplace is different from other enterprise social/messaging apps as well as from Facebook itself. Julien explains how Workplace started as an internal project and how Workplace balances familiarity with the unique requirements of business customers. 

Nidal Abou Ltaif is known for his desire to help his customers use technology to make a difference in people’s lives. 

Nidal joined Avaya as the sales leader for the Middle East in 2003. In early 2014, was selected to lead the newly formed Global Growth Markets theater that includes MEA, Turkey, Russia, India, and China. In August 2015, he was named President of Avaya International with responsibilities for Europe, Middle East and Africa & Asia Pacific

Nidal has responsibilities for sales, services, engineering, and vertical solutions. He has been instrumental in Avaya’s transformation from niche voice/IP telephony player to its leadership position for UC and CC. 

He is known for his ability to foster long lasting relationships with customers and employees. Many of the associates Nidal has mentored went on to have successful careers in technology across the Middle East and Africa. What sets him apart is sincere concern for others. 

Devoted to the principles of customer-centricity, leaders without titles, and accountability at the workplace, Nidal has fostered an environment that makes innovation everyone’s business – whether they’re an Avaya employee or customer. Prior to Avaya, Nidal works at NCR and AT&T. 

For more enterprise communications content, see TalkignPointz.com

Dave and Evan chat with Amy Barzdukas about her fascinating year of launches as the CMO of Poly. We learn that friends don't let friends conference with earbuds, her Spartan approach to glamping, and the world needed the Poly Studio. 

Amy Barzdukas is an EVP and CMO at Poly. She is responsible for Poly’s global marketing strategy and execution. Barzdukas has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry. She joined Polycom in 2015 as Vice President of Global Solutions Marketing and was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer in 2017. She retained the CMO role after Plantronics and Polycom merged into the new Poly. 

Prior to joining Polycom, Barzdukas served as VP WW Marketing for HP’s Business Personal Systems group and had a successful 16-year career at Microsoft with multiple leadership and GM roles.

Dave and Evan meet with Praful Shah, the Chief Strategy Officer at RingCentral. We discuss recent acquisitions, life as a pediatrician, and stadium names. Praful is responsible for defining RingCentral’s business, product, and marketing strategy. He brings more than 20 years of experience with major technology companies in the software and cloud industries. Before joining RingCentral, he worked at WebEx from its founding days until its acquisition by Cisco in 2007. 

Shah holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communications engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in India and a master’s degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University.

Dave and Evan meet with Ilya Bukshteyn, the Partner Director over Teams Devices at Microsoft. We discuss how Microsoft is changing, new types of devices, and of course Tesla cars. 

Ilya was there when real-time communications started at Microsoft. Actually, he was there when most things started at Microsoft as he's been there for about 25 years. He made the transition from SfB to Teams and wants to make sure you can too, so works to make sure that you have an ecosystem of high quality, certified devices for desktops and rooms. 

Dave and Evan meet with Bryan Martin to discuss the history of VoIP, UCaaS, video,  the cloud, and 8x8.

Bryan Martin is 8x8’s technological visionary, leading the company’s drive to patent a range of disruptive and innovative technologies. With an excellent sense of how cloud communications transform enterprise communications and customer service, Bryan led 8x8 as CEO from its early days as a VoIP pioneer. Before becoming CEO in 2002, he held the positions of Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technical Officer and Senior Vice President, Engineering Operations.

Martin holds 64 United States Patents in the fields of semiconductors, computer architecture, video processing algorithms, videophones, and communications. Internet Telephony magazine named Bryan one of the “Top 100 Voices of IP Communications.” Bryan also served on the California Broadband Task Force for the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, and later became Chair of the task force’s Emerging Technologies and New Applications Working Group.

Bryan is a member of the IEEE and Tau Beta Pi and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Dave and Evan meet with Tsahi Levent-levi to discuss WebRTC, video, and IP-based communications. 

Tsahi has over 15 years of experience in telecommunications, VoIP video, and networking technologies. He has collected numerous titles in his career including CTO, Entrepreneur, Analyst, Engineer, developer, and more. Titles aside, his main role is to align a communications strategy with business objectives. 

Tsahi is one of the most well known thought leaders on the subject of WebRTC. He’s published numerous articles and training materials related to WebRTC and believes it’s one of the most significant recent communications developments. 

Tsahi holds an MSc in Computer Science, and an MBA. He has been awarded three patents and advises clients on  the patent processes. 

In this podcast we get into WebRTC as well other communications technologies and applications such as healthcare and travel. 

Tsahi stays close to industry standards and the standards making process. He has previously acted as chairman of various activity groups within the IMTC (regarding interoperability of multimedia) and now holds the position of W3C Evangelist for all things WebRTC.

Visit Tsahi's site: BlogGeek.me

Dave and Evan meet with Michael Quinn of Q Advisors about mergers and acquisitions in enterprise communications.

Michael Quinn is a founding partner of Q Advisors, and shares his insider views on industry M&A activities. With more than 25 years of international operations and investment banking experience in the telecommunications industry, Michael has originated, structured, and executed more than 100 deals totaling more than $4 billion in transaction value. 

Michael has led transactions for Q Advisors' clients including: Arkadin, Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc., Broadcore, Grande Communications, Hudson Fiber, Masergy Communications, Neverblue, One Source Networks, NuVox, Inc., and WildBlue Communications. 

Prior to forming Q Advisors, Michael was a founder of and Chief Corporate Development Officer for VeloCom Inc., a Latin American wireless services provider, where he was responsible for capital raising and acquisition activities. Michael began his career with the New York-based law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He later became a partner in the Denver-based law firm Holland & Hart LLP, guiding their international corporate finance practice.

Michael received a B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. He is currently on the Advisory Board of The George Washington University School of Business and on the Board of the Elliot School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. 

Michael is currently on the Board of the Cloud Communications Alliance (CCA), also serving as Secretary.

In this podcast, Dave Michels and Evan Kirstel chat with Colin Berkshire, a regular yet mysterious contributor to TalkingPoitnz.

Colin has an opinion on a lot of things - possibly everything, but especially Apple, Asia, 4G/5G, and Bell Labs. He's been a regular contributor for several years now, yet no one has met him. He guards his privacy and "Colin Berkshire" is a pen name. He does not use social media and doesn't directly respond to comments.

He does read them, and he's been known to indirectly respond with a separate, new post.

In this podcast we cover a lot of ground and air too. We get right into 5G and Colin explains that if you exclude cell phones, it's a great technology. We learn how to ascertain the proper amount to bribe, and why Tim Cook isn't a thief and doesn't want Colin's money. 

Many people inquire if Colin is real. He finds that humorous and responded directly in a post titled: Do I Exist? He does. And now, for the first time, you can hear him in this podcast.

Here's a few of his greatest hits:

I Beat Apple
Betting on Magenta
The Best Money Government Can Buy
Reflecting on Bell Labs Era
AT&T and Verizon's Towers

Colin is technical, analytical, opinionated, historical and sometimes hysterical. He's mostly retired and enjoys rolling his eyes at just about everything, but does so with piercing accuracy. Colin is genuinely surprised that he enjoys writing posts, and even more surprised that anyone reads them. 

One of the benefits of changing TalkingHeadz from a video to an audio format is that Colin agreed to participate.