Leapfrog CX Strategies

I’ve always admired Jeff Lawson . I vividly remember the first time he tried to explain Twilio to me. He still had hair back then. I will admit that it took me a few of these sessions to understand Twilio, but I knew Jeff was brilliant. Not only did Jeff build an amazing company with a strong culture, but he also created an entirely new segment in communications. After 16 years of running Twilio,...

In this inaugural episode of Leapfrog CX Strategies longform interviews, host Dave Michaels discusses with Vasili Triant, CEO of UJET, the evolving landscape of customer experience (CX) technology. Vasily shares insights from his extensive career, spanning companies like Shoretel, Serenova, and Cisco, before taking the helm at UJET. **Key Discussion Points:** - **Industry Background:** Vasily’s jo...

The Daves discuss the state of the headset world. Lots of types and considerations. Things you should know - from bluetooth to dect to over-the-ear to earbuds.  

In 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,...

In this episode, we talk about the AV channel and upcoming ISE conference. Featuring Dave Berlin, President & CEO at Visual Image Display; Eric Snider, Chief Technology Officer at CTI; and Danny Rogers, Vice President Global Accounts at AVI-SPL. 

Dave and David chat about the channel with John Cognata of SoftTel amd William Rubio of Calltower.

Dave and David discuss and reflect on 2024. 

Ever wonder what's in a monthly Insider report? The September 2024 report included this: Hey Google, Tell Me About It: Google’s NotebookLM uses LLMs to convert lengthy text from articles, research papers, and other documents into knowledge. NotebookLM has a new trick that turns knowledge into an audible story: an AI-generated podcast that includes playful conversations between male and female...

In 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 conversati...

I 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...

Microsoft’s ambitious plan to unify device ecosystems under one platform has hit several delays. Originally intended to create a unified version of Android for all Microsoft Teams Room (MTRoA) devices, the rollout has so far been non-existent. In this podcast, Dave and David discuss potential reasons why it's taking so long.  Recorded August 2024. 

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 interopera...

In 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...

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 v...

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 i...

Microsoft announced it was what we beleive to be the first Meetings provider to reach one million connected meeting rooms. Just for fun, it also dropped that it has 20 million PSTN users! HUGE. The two Daves discuss the accomplishment, what it tells us, and what it doesn't reveal.  Episode adapted from this video discussion: https://www.youtube.com/live/MhW_ETMfF8c?si=88DOkXsa0jrLV4ak

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...

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...

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 u...

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....

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 ind...

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 i...

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 Ins...

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...

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 experie...