Shows
TalkingHeadz PodcastChatz: June 2025 Infocomm and SeachangeIn this episode of TalkingPointz Chatz, Dave Michels and David Danto unpack a series of “sea changes” sweeping across tech and communications. They start by examining how AI engines are replacing traditional search tools, reshaping how users find information. The conversation shifts to LinkedIn’s emergence as the dominant professional social platform in the wake of Twitter’s decline. Most notably, they dive into the evolution of meeting room technology – from proprietary video appliances to streamlined BYOD/BYOM setups – and highlight the manufacturers that are embracing this shift, including Barco, Jabra, Logitech, and others. It’s a fast-paced, thoughtful loo...
2025-06-0215 minTalkingHeadz PodcastAndy Says RTO Five Days a WeekIn this episode of TalkingPointz Talking Headz, David Danto and Dave Michels, joined by Metrigy Research’s Irwin Lazar, dive into the hot topic of Amazon’s recent push to bring employees back to the office full-time. They unpack the real motivations behind the memo, revealing its connections to industry-wide layoffs and corporate real estate pressures and other explanations. This candid conversation offers a fresh perspective on what the return-to-office push from Amazon’s CEO is truly all about..
2024-09-2835 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Scott WhartonI was conflicted when Scott Wharton announced his plans to leave enterprise comms to save the world. I was elated the world would now be saved, but what a loss. It was like one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for episodes of the Twilight Zone. - Dave Michels. Scott Wharton is a seasoned expert in enterprise comms and video, with a notable career spanning influential roles at Broadsoft, Vidtel (a company he founded and sold), and Logitech. His vision and leadership have always aimed to revolutionize the industry by enabling seamless communications across modalities and platforms. His insights into...
2024-09-1947 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz Chatz with Ilya on MDEP.Microsoft has a new operating system, it's based on open source Android, will appear first in Teams meeting rooms, and it's called MDEP. The latest TalkingHeadz podcast has Dave Michels and David Danto chatting with with Microsoft’s Ilya Bukshteyn exploring the Microsoft Device Ecosystem Platform (MDEP.) This will be a customized Android distribution aimed at enhancing device interoperability and security through centralized updates and rigorous standards. It addresses challenges like inconsistent Android versions across OEMs, emphasizing long-term benefits such as improved stability and reduced maintenance. While MDEP is poised to become integral to Microsoft Teams dev...
2024-07-1547 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Kevin McMenamy, CTO of NeatIn this engaging episode of TalkingPointz - Talking Headz, hosts Dave Michels and David Danto chat with Kevin McMenamy, the CTO of Neat, to delve into his fascinating journey through the video conferencing industry. Kevin shares insights from his early days at Cisco, where he contributed to pioneering video technologies like IP telephony video and telepresence, to his current role at Neat, where cutting-edge video solutions are developed. The conversation covers the evolution of video conferencing, the challenges and triumphs of integrating multiple firms into Cisco, and the vibrant, innovative culture at Neat that keeps Kevin passionate a...
2024-07-1143 minTalkingHeadz PodcastMTR Ecosystem Shakeout?Dave Michels and David Danto dive into the Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) ecosystem, examining its evolution, current dynamics, and future implications. They highlighted Microsoft's milestone of surpassing 1 million MTR installations and discussed the market impact of Cisco joining the ecosystem, potentially disrupting vendor success and market strategies. It's an impressive ecosystem of vendors that has expanded over the years to meet the growing needs of the Teams community. However, one of the last vendors to join the ecosystem, Cisco, is also one of the largest. The inclusion of Cisco, described as a significant and potentially di...
2024-06-1033 minTalkingHeadz PodcastWhy Are So Many Comms Execs Quitting?In this episode of Talking Points Chatz, Dave Michels and Dave Danto discuss the high turnover rates among C-suite executives in various industries, particularly in the tech sector. They note that numerous high-profile leaders, including the CEOs of Nice, AWS, Twilio, and Bandwidth.com, have announced their departures recently. Danto highlights that a record number of CEO changes have occurred in the US, attributing it to factors such as the stress of navigating companies through the pandemic and current economic uncertainties. Michels and Danto explore the impact of AI, financial instability, geo...
2024-05-2115 minTalkingHeadz PodcastOctober Insider ReportMost 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...
2022-11-0930 minTalkingHeadz PodcastDavid Sipes Answers the Call at 8x8Dave and Evan discuss life in the UCaaS driver's seat with Dave Sipes, the CEO of 8x8. We cover XCaaS, the economy, Teams, stadiums, and much more. Many of us met Dave during his 12 year stint at RingCentral, ending with the role of Chief Operating Officer. It was an extraordinary period for RingCentral. Dave led innovation, engineering, global sales, marketing, customer care, international operations, corporate development, and business development. Dave left RingCentral in June of 2020 ... and emerged as the CEO of 8x8 in December of 2020.Before joining Rin...
2022-05-2435 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Kira Makagon of RingCentralDave and Evan meet with Kira Makagon, Chief Innovation Officer, RingCentral.Kira is a serial entrepreneur that landed at RingCentral in 2012. In her current role as Chief Innovation Officer she leads product strategy, product management and design, engineering and R&D. She has had a tremendous impact on RingCentral. Before RingCentral she co-founded several technology companies, including Octane (acquired by E.piphany NASDAQ: EPNY) for $3.2 billion, and RedAril (acquired by Hearst). Learn more about Kira at KiraMakagon.com. Kira is one of the most influential p...
2021-06-2433 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Rowan Trollope of Five9Dave and Evan meet with Rowan Trollope, the CEO of cloud contact center provider Five9. Rowan was named the CEO of Five9 in May of 2018. Though many of us within the industry met him during his three years as the head of Cisco Collaboration. Rowan is passionate about how digital transformation revolutionizes the way we communicate. He is a self-proclaimed geek and self-taught software developer. He has an eye for aesthetics, and during his term at Cisco, the collaboration group earned 20 aw...
2021-06-0450 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Salesforce VP and Author Karen MangiaEvan and Dave chat with Karen Mangia, VP Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce. Karen Mangia focuses on strategies for personal and professional success, and she regularly works with executives, managers and future leaders at companies of all sizes globally. She published two books in 2020: Listen Up! How to Tune In To Customers, And Turn Down the Noise and Working From Home: Making the New Normal Work For You - both from Wiley. We cover a lot of topics, especially work from home. #WFHCommitted to d...
2021-05-2532 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with John Saw, EVP at T-MobileEvan and Dave chat with John Saw, the CTO of T-Mobile. John Saw is the EVP of Advanced and Emerging Technologies at T-Mobile, and is responsible for constantly evaluating ways to disrupt wireless communications. John was previously the CTO at Sprint and came to T-Mobile as a result of the companies merging. John was also the CTO at Clearwire before the company was acquired by Sprint in 2013. John earned a Doctorate, Master’s, and Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from McMaster University, Canada, and has six U.S. patents in wireless technologies. In 2017, the FCC chairm...
2021-05-1140 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz Podcast with Bill Wignall, CEO of SangomaEvan and Dave chat with Bill Wignall, the CEO of Sangoma Communications. You may not be that familiar with Bill or Sangoma, but both are industry giants that have outperformed their peers and the broader industry. Bill has guided Sangoma through tremendous growth and transformation, largely through acquisitions. Sangoma is known for its plug-and-play, enterprise grade solutions. The company is the primary producer of Asterisk and FreePBX, the two largest open source communications projects in the world. These systems power countless systems and providers around the world. ...
2021-04-2740 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with OJ and Simen of NeatEvan and Dave chat with OJ Winge and Simen Teigre, the founders of Neat. Neat came out of stealth at Zoomtopia 2019. The company is new, but on day one had extensive expertise in both video and video hardware. OJ and Simen were part of Tandberg which is arguably the most innovative source of video technologies (both before and after its 2010 acquisition by Cisco). Both OJ and Simen went to Cisco, both left and became involved in two separate video startups: OJ with Acano and Simen with Pexip. Th...
2021-04-0640 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Karl Hantho, President Americas, PexipEvan and Dave chat with Karl Hantho of Pexip. Pexip is the result of a 2019 merger between Pexip and Videxio -- both started by a group of visionary industry veterans, both offshoots of Tandberg. They set out to break down the barriers which were making enterprise video conferencing expensive, and difficult to use, manage and scale. Pexip provides interoperability with Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and other video services, and also offers a complete end-to-end meeting and calling solution. Karl Hantho is president of the Americas. Prior to Pe...
2021-03-2136 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingheadz with Chris MacFarland, CEO of MasergyEvan and Dave chat with Chris MacFarland, Chairman and CEO of Masergy. Masergy Communications is a software defined networking services company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Plano TX. Its offerings include advanced networking services such as Managed SD-WAN, UCaaS, CCaaS, and Managed Security. Chris MacFarland joined Masergy as COO in 2008 and was promoted to CEO and Executive Chairman. Prior to Masergy, he has served in various senior executive positions at BroadSoft, McLeodUSA, Allegiance Telecom, Verio, OnRamp, CompuNet, and Compu-Tek International.Chris was selected as a 2017 Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Top CEO, Tech Tita...
2021-03-1241 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Logitech's Scott WhartonEvan and Dave chat with Scott Wharton, VP & GM, Video Collaboration at Logitech. Logitech is well known for its PC and USB peripherals, and it has recently emerged as a major player in enterprise video. The company has been a key partner to Microsoft, Zoom, Cisco, Google, and many others. It has also been instrumental in building a bridge between smart room vendors and video conferencing services. Prior to Logitech, Scott was the founder and CEO at Vidtel, a pioneering cloud-based service that interconnected enterprise video systems to c...
2021-02-2332 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Tom PuorroEvan and Dave chat with Tom Puorro, EVP and GM Products at Poly. Tom leads the global development team, which is responsible for audio, video, and headset solutions at Poly. He joined Poly in 2018 and was part of the formation of the new company/branding after the merger of Plantronics and Polycom. Prior to joining Poly, Tom served as VP and GM of Cisco Collaboration's UC Technology Group He led Cisco’s $2 billion strategic acquisition and integration of BroadSoft, Inc.
2021-02-0834 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Jeff Teper, CVP Microsoft TeamsEvan and Dave chat with Jeff Teper, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft 365 Collaboration with Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Jeff leads the product design, and engineering teams for Teams (and a few other areas too) with the aim of empowering people and organizations to collaborate. Though he's been at Microsoft for close to 30 years, he's still inspired by its core mission of connecting people everywhere with tools and technologies to create, build, and achieve more together.There may not be any other enterprise communications app as successful as Microsoft Te...
2021-01-2144 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Anand Janefalkar CEO and Founder of UJETEvan and Dave chat with Anand Janefalkar, CEO and Founder of UJET. UJET is a new kind of CCaaS company, cloud native, designed and built for modern communications. That means it natively integrates with other cloud apps, without duplicating data, and is built for modern, multi-modal communications. Anand is passionate about creating better business results through more natural communications. He started UJET to modernize the Contact Center by addressing long-standing design flaws and conventional thinking that have failed to evolve in parallel with changing human interaction landscape....
2021-01-1236 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with SVP GM Cisco Collab, Javed KhanEvan and Dave chat with Javed Khan, SVP and GM of Cisco Collaboration. Javed Khan leads Cisco’s multi-billion-dollar Collaboration business which includes the Webex portfolio of Meetings, Teams, Rooms, Calling, and Contact Center. In this podcast we discuss the WebexOne conference that Cisco hosted earlier this month. Prior to this position, Javed was running Cisco’s Cloud Calling business. He and his team were responsible for the strategy and execution of product management, development and partner operations for the Cisco Cloud Calling Portfolio. This includes Webex Callin...
2020-12-2833 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Craig Malloy, CEO of LifesizeEvan and Dave chat with Craig Malloy, the founder and CEO of Lifesize. There are few, if any, executives in enterprise video who have seen what Craig has seen. He founded Lifesize in 2003, and other than a brief break, he's been at the helm the whole time. Lifesize started as a vendor of premises-based, proprietary video equipment. The company has gone through a few different industry transitions, pivots, and demand shifts, and today offers a standards-based, cloud-delivered services for meetings - oh, and customer engagement too. I...
2020-12-1639 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Craig Malloy, CEO of LifesizeEvan and Dave chat with Craig Malloy, the founder and CEO of Lifesize. There are few, if any, executives in enterprise video who have seen what Craig has seen. He founded Lifesize in 2003, and other than a brief break, he's been at the helm the whole time. Lifesize started as a vendor of premises-based, proprietary video equipment. The company has gone through a few different industry transitions, pivots, and demand shifts, and today offers a standards-based, cloud-delivered services for meetings - oh, and customer engagement too. ...
2020-12-1639 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz Podcast with Rory Read, CEO of VonageEvan and Dave chat with the recently named CEO of Vonage, Rory Read. In this podcast we get to know the new dude in charge at Vonage. Rory Read joined the Company as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors in July 2020. He was previously Chief Operating Executive for Dell Technologies, and also served as CEO and President of Virtustream, a Dell Technologies business. Rory also served as Executive Vice President of Dell Technologies Boomi, a SaaS integration platform provider. Rory played a lead role in the $67 bi...
2020-11-2841 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz Podcast with Rory Read, CEO of VonageEvan and Dave chat with the recently named CEO of Vonage, Rory Read. In this podcast we get to know the new dude in charge at Vonage. Rory Read joined the Company as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors in July 2020. He was previously Chief Operating Executive for Dell Technologies, and also served as CEO and President of Virtustream, a Dell Technologies business. Rory also served as Executive Vice President of Dell Technologies Boomi, a SaaS integration platform provider. Rory played a lead role in the $67 bi...
2020-11-2841 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Cory DoctorowEvan and Dave chat with the legendary tech activist and author Cory Doctorow. Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- a contributor to Boing Boing and the author of young adult novels like HOMELAND, PIRATE CINEMA and LITTLE BROTHER and novels for adults like RAPTURE OF THE NERDS and MAKERS. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Enterprise users of communications and technologies need activists too. We cover a lot of g...
2020-11-1958 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingheadz with Javier Soltero on Google WorkspaceListen now (53 min) | Evan and Dave chat with Javier Soltero, VP & GM of Google Workspace. Javier wants you to re-think G Suite. Actually, he wants you re-think suites and in general. He explains in this podcast the logic and intent of rebranding G Suite to Google Workspace. We also cover some of the changes at Google Cloud, and Javier explains why enterprises can trust Google with their data. Go ahead and download this episode, voice is a great way to meet and chat. Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-10-1853 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingheadz with Javier Soltero on Google WorkspaceEvan and Dave chat with Javier Soltero, VP & GM of Google Workspace. Javier wants you to re-think G Suite. Actually, he wants you re-think suites and in general. He explains in this podcast the logic and intent of rebranding G Suite to Google Workspace. We also cover some of the changes at Google Cloud, and Javier explains why enterprises can trust Google with their data. Go ahead and download this episode, voice is a great way to meet and chat. Javier Soltero became the VP of G Sui...
2020-10-1853 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Cameron Weeks, CEO of EdifyListen now (41 min) | Evan and Dave chat with Cameron Weeks (Twitter/LinkedIn), CEO and co-Founder of Edify. We strive to have guests that span the industry, and this episode has it it all. That's because Edify offers UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS. Actually, that's not even broad enough. Cameron and Team Edify are on a mission to redefine business communications, cloud, omnichannel, and customer engagement. He believes that the technologies today enable a totally new approach: Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-10-0941 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Cameron Weeks, CEO of EdifyEvan and Dave chat with Cameron Weeks (Twitter/LinkedIn), CEO and co-Founder of Edify. We strive to have guests that span the industry, and this episode has it it all. That's because Edify offers UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS. Actually, that's not even broad enough. Cameron and Team Edify are on a mission to redefine business communications, cloud, omnichannel, and customer engagement. He believes that the technologies today enable a totally new approach: Cameron Weeks is the driving force behind Edify Labs. The company is only two years ol...
2020-10-0941 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Tony Bates, CEO of GenesysListen now (48 min) | Evan and Dave chat with Tony Bates (Twitter/LinkedIn), CEO of Genesys. Many factors are currently contributing to the interesting and uncharted territories in which businesses now find themselves. From the global pandemic, to the continued rise of AI and the cloud, as well as the ever-evolving understanding of customer experience. For our guest today, Tony Bates, the confluence of these forces, and a desire to constantly innovate and scale both propel and ground his work. Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-09-2448 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Tony Bates, CEO of GenesysEvan and Dave chat with Tony Bates (Twitter/LinkedIn), CEO of Genesys.Many factors are currently contributing to the interesting and uncharted territories in which businesses now find themselves. From the global pandemic, to the continued rise of AI and the cloud, as well as the ever-evolving understanding of customer experience. For our guest today, Tony Bates, the confluence of these forces, and a desire to constantly innovate and scale both propel and ground his work.Tony shares some reflections on Skype, and takes us through...
2020-09-2448 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz Noreen Allen, BandwidthListen now (40 min) | Evan and Dave chat with Noreen Allen, CMO of Bandwidth Inc. Noreen has been the CMO of Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) since 2012. She is responsible for driving revenue across all lines of its business. Her specialty is building powerful, category-leading brands and creating scalable revenue engines for tech companies. Over the past twenty years, she’s been part of multiple rounds of fund raising and M&A activity and helped three companies IPO. Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-09-0940 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz Noreen Allen, BandwidthEvan and Dave chat with Noreen Allen, CMO of Bandwidth Inc. Noreen has been the CMO of Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) since 2012. She is responsible for driving revenue across all lines of its business. Her specialty is building powerful, category-leading brands and creating scalable revenue engines for tech companies. Over the past twenty years, she’s been part of multiple rounds of fund raising and M&A activity and helped three companies IPO. Her prior roles include: VP, Global Marketing for e-commerce software provider, ChannelAdvisor; VP, Marketing for Host...
2020-09-0940 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Alan Duric of WireEvan and Dave chat with Alan Duric (Twitter), the CTO/COO and Co-Founder of Wire. Wire, based in Zug Switzerland, is a provider of secure collaborative communications, Wire offers messaging, voice and video calling, and file-sharing services all protected with end-to-end encryption. The Wire app launched in 2014 with secure messaging. Over the years it has expanded into a full communications suite while retaining strong end-to-end encryption. In this podcast Alan shares some new features that are coming, Prior to Wire, Duric has worked with several com...
2020-08-2740 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Alan Duric of WireEvan and Dave chat with Alan Duric (Twitter), the CTO/COO and Co-Founder of Wire. Wire, based in Zug Switzerland, is a provider of secure collaborative communications, Wire offers messaging, voice and video calling, and file-sharing services all protected with end-to-end encryption. The Wire app launched in 2014 with secure messaging. Over the years it has expanded into a full communications suite while retaining strong end-to-end encryption. In this podcast Alan shares some new features that are coming, Prior to Wire, Duric has worked with several com...
2020-08-2740 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Stewart Butterfield of SlackEvan and Dave chat with Stewart Bufferfield, the co-Founder of Slack. Slack is the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems, and drive their businesses forward. In this podcast we cover a lot of ground, including Microsoft, recent acquisitions, Slack Connect, Amazon Chime, Enterprise Grid, and more. Stewart has been regularly recognized for the foresight and innovation that has helped him build two companies. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Mag...
2020-08-1053 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Stewart Butterfield of SlackListen now (53 min) | Evan and Dave chat with Stewart Bufferfield, the co-Founder of Slack. Slack is the leading channel-based messaging platform, used by millions to align their teams, unify their systems, and drive their businesses forward. In this podcast we cover a lot of ground, including Microsoft, recent acquisitions, Slack Connect, Amazon Chime, Enterprise Grid, and more. Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-08-1053 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Bruce McClelland, CEO of Ribbon CommunicationsEvan and Dave chat with Bruce McClelland, the recently named CEO and President of Ribbon Communications. Ribbon Communications is a global communications and network solutions provider to service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure sectors. Bruce is a technical business leader with a proven history of developing and growing businesses. Previously, Bruce was CEO at ARRIS and led its sale to CommScope, where he served as COO. During his tenure at ARRIS, Bruce held multiple leadership positions and had a key role in the successful acquisition and integration of multiple c...
2020-07-2137 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Bruce McClelland, CEO of Ribbon CommunicationsEvan and Dave chat with Bruce McClelland, the recently named CEO and President of Ribbon Communications. Ribbon Communications is a global communications and network solutions provider to service providers, enterprises, and critical infrastructure sectors. Bruce is a technical business leader with a proven history of developing and growing businesses. Previously, Bruce was CEO at ARRIS and led its sale to CommScope, where he served as COO. During his tenure at ARRIS, Bruce held multiple leadership positions and had a key role in the successful acquisition and integration of multiple c...
2020-07-2137 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz With Ryan Hollenbeck of VerintDave and Evan chat with Ryan Hollenbeck, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Customer Experience at Verint. Ryan Hollenbeck is responsible for driving global corporate marketing, solutions marketing, marketing communications and operations, analyst and public relations, and sales enablement. Ryan also serves as executive sponsor of the Verint Customer Experience Program that focuses on gathering a deep understanding of the customer journey and translating that information into actionable insights.We cover actionable intelligence, the difference between WFO and WEM, how the pandemic impacted Verint and its customers, a...
2020-07-1437 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz With Ryan Hollenbeck of VerintDave and Evan chat with Ryan Hollenbeck, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Customer Experience at Verint. Ryan Hollenbeck is responsible for driving global corporate marketing, solutions marketing, marketing communications and operations, analyst and public relations, and sales enablement. Ryan also serves as executive sponsor of the Verint Customer Experience Program that focuses on gathering a deep understanding of the customer journey and translating that information into actionable insights.We cover actionable intelligence, the difference between WFO and WEM, how the pandemic impacted Verint and its customers, a...
2020-07-1437 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Anthony Bartolo of AvayaDave and Evan chat with Anthony Bartolo, the Chief Product Officer at Avaya. Anthony Bartolo is responsible for product development, product management, emerging technologies and corporate strategy across Avaya’s premise and cloud-based solutions. He rejoined Avaya last November, and reports to CEO Jim Chirico.Bartolo has over 30 years of functional and general management experience in transformational, high growth environments, ranging from start‑ups to large cap public companies. He returns to Avaya after having spent the last several years at Tata Communications where he served as its EV...
2020-06-2241 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Anthony Bartolo of AvayaDave and Evan chat with Anthony Bartolo, the Chief Product Officer at Avaya. Anthony Bartolo is responsible for product development, product management, emerging technologies and corporate strategy across Avaya’s premise and cloud-based solutions. He rejoined Avaya last November, and reports to CEO Jim Chirico.Bartolo has over 30 years of functional and general management experience in transformational, high growth environments, ranging from start‑ups to large cap public companies. He returns to Avaya after having spent the last several years at Tata Communications where he served as its EV...
2020-06-2241 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Dmitry Netis of Q AdvisorsDave and Evan chat with Dmitry Netis of Q Advisors, a global investment firm focused on enterprise communications. Netis heads Q Advisors' origination and business development efforts. He has over 24 years of experience that combines finance, venture investing, sell-side equity research, and operational industry experience across the telecom, media, and technology (TMT) sector. Most recently, he consulted for several public and private company clients under the practice he founded, Dmitry Netis & Company LLC, and was the CFO/COO of privately-held CafeX Communications. He was also a Managing Director and Se...
2020-06-0935 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Dmitry Netis of Q AdvisorsDave and Evan chat with Dmitry Netis of Q Advisors, a global investment firm focused on enterprise communications. Netis heads Q Advisors' origination and business development efforts. He has over 24 years of experience that combines finance, venture investing, sell-side equity research, and operational industry experience across the telecom, media, and technology (TMT) sector. Most recently, he consulted for several public and private company clients under the practice he founded, Dmitry Netis & Company LLC, and was the CFO/COO of privately-held CafeX Communications. He was also a Managing Director and Se...
2020-06-0935 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Antony Passemard of Google CCAIDave and Evan chat with Antony Passemard, Applied Conversational AI and CCAI lead at Google Cloud. This is a naturally intelligent conversation about how AI is changing the contact center. We cover terminology and then get into how Google is leveraging its vast AI capabilities to improve customer service - at other companies. Antony has been in IT for over 20 years and spent the last 12 working on Enterprise products and partnerships at companies like Yahoo, Salesforce.com, AWS and now Google Cloud. Today Antony heads up product an...
2020-05-2940 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Antony Passemard of Google CCAIDave and Evan chat with Antony Passemard, Applied Conversational AI and CCAI lead at Google Cloud. This is a naturally intelligent conversation about how AI is changing the contact center. We cover terminology and then get into how Google is leveraging its vast AI capabilities to improve customer service - at other companies. Antony has been in IT for over 20 years and spent the last 12 working on Enterprise products and partnerships at companies like Yahoo, Salesforce.com, AWS and now Google Cloud. Today Antony heads up product an...
2020-05-2940 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz News with Voicemails 0420Dave and Evan discuss recent enterprise communications news. We discuss this Insider Report: https://talkingpointz.com/april-2020-insider-report/Voicemails: Blue Jeans: 4:40Starfish: 11:152600Hz: 14:15Workplace by Facebook: 21:10Pexip: 25:30 Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-05-2629 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz News with Voicemails 0420Dave and Evan discuss recent enterprise communications news. We discuss this Insider Report: https://talkingpointz.com/april-2020-insider-report/Voicemails: Blue Jeans: 4:40Starfish: 11:152600Hz: 14:15Workplace by Facebook: 21:10Pexip: 25:30
2020-05-2629 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Del Currie of Sneek.IO on Persistent VideoDave and Evan chat with Del Currie, Head of Solutions at Sneek.io. Sneek.io provides what's known as persistent video. Though, it's not persistent video. It's really better described as a next generation of presence that involves frequent snapshots. Instead of a green or yellow icon, Sneek.io users see frequent snapshots of their colleagues, and presence can be seen if he or she is in the photo. A single click turns that snapshot into a live video chat. Persistent video can be viewed as a n...
2020-05-1136 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Del Currie of Sneek.IO on Persistent VideoDave and Evan chat with Del Currie, Head of Solutions at Sneek.io. Sneek.io provides what's known as persistent video. Though, it's not persistent video. It's really better described as a next generation of presence that involves frequent snapshots. Instead of a green or yellow icon, Sneek.io users see frequent snapshots of their colleagues, and presence can be seen if he or she is in the photo. A single click turns that snapshot into a live video chat. Persistent video can be viewed as a n...
2020-05-1136 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Sri Srinivasan, GM Cisco CollaborationDave and Evan chat with Sri Srinivasan (LinkedIn/Twitter), the new GM of Cisco Collaboration. In this discussion we talk about organizational changes, Sri's priorities, Webex in March, and what Sri learned from Microsoft. Prior to recent promotion, Sri was responsible for Webex including Meetings, Teams, Calling, and room hardware. Sri has broad software experience across platforms and products. His career has spanned numerous roles including software development, development lead, architect, performance & scale engineering, program management and engineering general management. Sri has been a hands-on technical architect with deep d...
2020-04-1937 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Sri Srinivasan, GM Cisco CollaborationDave and Evan chat with Sri Srinivasan (LinkedIn/Twitter), the new GM of Cisco Collaboration. In this discussion we talk about organizational changes, Sri's priorities, Webex in March, and what Sri learned from Microsoft. Prior to recent promotion, Sri was responsible for Webex including Meetings, Teams, Calling, and room hardware. Sri has broad software experience across platforms and products. His career has spanned numerous roles including software development, development lead, architect, performance & scale engineering, program management and engineering general management. Sri has been a hands-on technical architect with deep d...
2020-04-1937 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Mary McDowell, CEO MitelDave and Evan chat with Mary T. McDowell, CEO of Mitel. In October 2019, Mary McDowell was named the CEO of Mitel. Many industry professionals first met McDowell during her term as CEO of Polycom. She exited Polycom when it was acquired by Plantronics (now known as Poly) in 2018. Prior to Polycom, McDowell was an EVP at Nokia, where she was in charge of the company’s $15B global feature phone business and oversaw Nokia’s developer and app store organization. She also previously held senior positions at Compaq Computer and H...
2020-04-1233 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Mary McDowell, CEO MitelDave and Evan chat with Mary T. McDowell, CEO of Mitel. In October 2019, Mary McDowell was named the CEO of Mitel. Many industry professionals first met McDowell during her term as CEO of Polycom. She exited Polycom when it was acquired by Plantronics (now known as Poly) in 2018. Prior to Polycom, McDowell was an EVP at Nokia, where she was in charge of the company’s $15B global feature phone business and oversaw Nokia’s developer and app store organization. She also previously held senior positions at Compaq Computer and H...
2020-04-1233 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Murali Sitaram, GM YammerDave and Evan chat with Murali Sitaram, GM of Microsoft Yammer and Office 365 Groups. Yammer is an enterprise social networking service used for internal communications within organizations. Microsoft acquired Yammer in 2012, but hasn't done that much with it - until recently. Yammer got a whole new look. Although Yammer and Teams offer a lot of the same functionality, the two apps are positioned as complementary rather than competitive. Yammer and Teams are both included in all Office 365 and Microsoft 365 enterprise plans.Sitaram is the GM of Yammer a...
2020-03-3040 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Murali Sitaram, GM YammerDave and Evan chat with Murali Sitaram, GM of Microsoft Yammer and Office 365 Groups. Yammer is an enterprise social networking service used for internal communications within organizations. Microsoft acquired Yammer in 2012, but hasn't done that much with it - until recently. Yammer got a whole new look. Although Yammer and Teams offer a lot of the same functionality, the two apps are positioned as complementary rather than competitive. Yammer and Teams are both included in all Office 365 and Microsoft 365 enterprise plans.Sitaram is the GM of Yammer a...
2020-03-3040 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz News and VoiceMail 2-20In this TalkingHeadz podcast, Dave and Evan discuss the news and events of February, with special guests via voicemail. We discuss the February Insider Report, published the first week of March on TalkingPointz. Insider Reports summarize and analyze the major news and events from the prior month. You can subscribe to Insider Reports at https://talkingpointz.com/pricing/
2020-03-1026 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz News and VoiceMail 2-20In this TalkingHeadz podcast, Dave and Evan discuss the news and events of February, with special guests via voicemail. We discuss the February Insider Report, published the first week of March on TalkingPointz. Insider Reports summarize and analyze the major news and events from the prior month. You can subscribe to Insider Reports at https://talkingpointz.com/pricing/ Get full access to TalkingPointz Insider at talkingpointz.substack.com/subscribe
2020-03-1026 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Craig Walker, CEO DialpadDave and Evan chat with Craig Walker, the CEO of Dialpad.Craig Walker is the co-founder and CEO of Dialpad, a born-in-the-cloud UCaaS provider. Previously he led Dialpad Communications Inc., (acquired by Yahoo! for $50 million), a pioneer in VoIP services, and later co-founded GrandCentral (acquired by Google for $100 million). Dialpad has raised $120 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, and Iconiq Capital. Craig was a technology venture investor at Sterling Payot Capital and TeleSoft Partners and was also a corporate attorney at top tier law f...
2020-03-0935 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Craig Walker, CEO DialpadDave and Evan chat with Craig Walker, the CEO of Dialpad.Craig Walker is the co-founder and CEO of Dialpad, a born-in-the-cloud UCaaS provider. Previously he led Dialpad Communications Inc., (acquired by Yahoo! for $50 million), a pioneer in VoIP services, and later co-founded GrandCentral (acquired by Google for $100 million). Dialpad has raised $120 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, and Iconiq Capital. Craig was a technology venture investor at Sterling Payot Capital and TeleSoft Partners and was also a corporate attorney at top tier law f...
2020-03-0935 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with John Hernandez, SelligentDave and Evan chat with John Hernandez, the CEO of Selligent. John Hernandez is well known in the communications industry as a contact center pro. In August of 2017, he took those skills to Selligent, a marketing cloud. Selligent leverages automation and AI to improve the customer experience. Selligent's marketing platform provides a cohesive, flexible platform designed for agile, marketers. Seligent's services are complementary to both CRM and contact center initiatives. While there are indeed other marketing clouds, and while some contact center solutions understand rudimentary marketing, Selligent o...
2020-02-1934 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with John Hernandez, SelligentDave and Evan chat with John Hernandez, the CEO of Selligent. John Hernandez is well known in the communications industry as a contact center pro. In August of 2017, he took those skills to Selligent, a marketing cloud. Selligent leverages automation and AI to improve the customer experience. Selligent's marketing platform provides a cohesive, flexible platform designed for agile, marketers. Seligent's services are complementary to both CRM and contact center initiatives. While there are indeed other marketing clouds, and while some contact center solutions understand rudimentary marketing, Selligent o...
2020-02-1934 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Jeff Lawson of TwilioDave and Evan chat with Jeff Lawson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio. Jeff Lawson realized that communications are essential to every business. He got the idea as a result of his experiences as an entrepreneur and developer during a time when the API model for technology services was emerging. Lawson and co-founder Evan Cooke created Twilio, and effectively created a new enterprise communications category: Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS). Twilio has enabled small, medium, and large enterprises to create powerful communications enabled applications. It also sp...
2020-02-1251 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Jeff Lawson of TwilioDave and Evan chat with Jeff Lawson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Twilio. Jeff Lawson realized that communications are essential to every business. He got the idea as a result of his experiences as an entrepreneur and developer during a time when the API model for technology services was emerging. Lawson and co-founder Evan Cooke created Twilio, and effectively created a new enterprise communications category: Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS). Twilio has enabled small, medium, and large enterprises to create powerful communications enabled applications. It also sp...
2020-02-1251 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Brian Day, CEO Fuze.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...
2020-01-2129 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Brian Day, CEO Fuze.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...
2020-01-2129 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Quentin Gallivan, CEO of BlueJeansDave and Evan chat with Quentin Gallivan, CEO of BlueJeans Network. Quentin was named the CEO of BlueJeans in August 2017. He brought to the company extensive experience in growth. As a founding executive at Verisign he grew the company to $1.5B in revenue (and took it through an IPO). He also grew cloud-based security market leader Postini to more than 35,000 customers (and over 10M users) before its acquisition by Google. He's well regarded as a numbers man, but comes across fairly well-rounded in this interview. The takes Dav...
2020-01-0638 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Quentin Gallivan, CEO of BlueJeansDave and Evan chat with Quentin Gallivan, CEO of BlueJeans Network. Quentin was named the CEO of BlueJeans in August 2017. He brought to the company extensive experience in growth. As a founding executive at Verisign he grew the company to $1.5B in revenue (and took it through an IPO). He also grew cloud-based security market leader Postini to more than 35,000 customers (and over 10M users) before its acquisition by Google. He's well regarded as a numbers man, but comes across fairly well-rounded in this interview. The takes Dav...
2020-01-0638 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Yaniv Masjedi - CMO NextivaDave and Evan chat with Yaniv Masjedi, CMO at Nextiva. Yaniv Masjedi started building the Nextiva marketing engine on day one (day one of Nextiva) about 12 years ago. That involved introducing to prospects this crazy concept of a cloud-PBX. Nextiva offers UCaaS, video, team chat, and CRM services. It is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ. As CMO, Yaniv is responsible for Nextiva's marketing and branding efforts including demand generation, advertising, marketing communications, and thought leadership. Yaniv actively blogs about marketing on several industry and professional sites as well...
2019-12-2132 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Yaniv Masjedi - CMO NextivaDave and Evan chat with Yaniv Masjedi, CMO at Nextiva. Yaniv Masjedi started building the Nextiva marketing engine on day one (day one of Nextiva) about 12 years ago. That involved introducing to prospects this crazy concept of a cloud-PBX. Nextiva offers UCaaS, video, team chat, and CRM services. It is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ. As CMO, Yaniv is responsible for Nextiva's marketing and branding efforts including demand generation, advertising, marketing communications, and thought leadership. Yaniv actively blogs about marketing on several industry and professional sites as well...
2019-12-2132 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Milton Chen, VSeeDave and Evan chat with Milton Chen, founder and CEO VSee. Milton is a video pioneer that has built VSee into a powerful telemedicine platform. Telemedicine is no longer a fringe idea, in fact, some insist on dropping the "tele" part because it's just medicine now. It can save lives, and improve healthcare, and reduce costs. VSee serves over 1000 companies including Walgreens, MDLIVE, Trinity, DaVita, HCA, Seton, McKesson-US Oncology, and others. VSee was founded in 2008 by two Stanford PhD students, Milton and Erika Chuang. The ori...
2019-11-2631 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Milton Chen, VSeeDave and Evan chat with Milton Chen, founder and CEO VSee. Milton is a video pioneer that has built VSee into a powerful telemedicine platform. Telemedicine is no longer a fringe idea, in fact, some insist on dropping the "tele" part because it's just medicine now. It can save lives, and improve healthcare, and reduce costs. VSee serves over 1000 companies including Walgreens, MDLIVE, Trinity, DaVita, HCA, Seton, McKesson-US Oncology, and others. VSee was founded in 2008 by two Stanford PhD students, Milton and Erika Chuang. The ori...
2019-11-2631 min
TalkingHeadz on Enterprise CommunicationsTalkingHeadz with Paul Jarman of NICE inContactDave and Evan chat with Paul Jarman, CEO at NICE inContact. Paul is a pioneer of the CCaaS, movement. Paul was instrumental in guiding inContact from its roots in telecommunications to its leadership position in the cloud-delivered contact center sector. He has been a part of every major enhancement the company has made since 1997.Mr. Jarman has spent his career building a service-driven business focused around both customers and employees, resulting in a strong corporate culture with high retention rates of both groups. Prior to joining inContact, P...
2019-11-1138 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Paul Jarman of NICE inContactDave and Evan chat with Paul Jarman, CEO at NICE inContact. Paul is a pioneer of the CCaaS, movement. Paul was instrumental in guiding inContact from its roots in telecommunications to its leadership position in the cloud-delivered contact center sector. He has been a part of every major enhancement the company has made since 1997.Mr. Jarman has spent his career building a service-driven business focused around both customers and employees, resulting in a strong corporate culture with high retention rates of both groups. Prior to joining inContact, P...
2019-11-1138 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz podcast with Julien Codorniou of Workplace by FacebookDave 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...
2019-10-2837 minTalkingHeadz PodcastTalkingHeadz with Mark Strassman Goto SVP and GM at LogMeInDave and Evan chat with Mark Strassman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Unified Communications and Collaboration at LogMeIn. Mark serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager for LogMeIn’s Unified Communications & Collaboration business unit overseeing market-leading UCC products GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, Jive, Grasshopper and more. Mark joins LogMeIn from BlueJeans Networks, where he served as the video collaboration company’s Chief Product Officer. Prior to BlueJeans, he was Senior Vice President of Products at Blackboard, Inc, a leading provider of video and collaboration technologies for the education indus...
2019-09-1835 min