Mike Tyson famously said “Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth”, and this quote has been on my mind recently as I’ve been reading General Stanley McChrystal’s book “Team of Teams“. In General McChrystal’s case, the metaphorical “punch in the mouth” was the surprisingly successful effort of Al Qaeda in Iraq… Continue Reading
Strategy
The End of the World is Just the Beginning
2019 was the best year in human history. It’s all downhill from here. That’s the claim made in a fascinating book I’m reading, called The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan. The book is long and complex, but I will recklessly attempt to summarize the ideas from the book in… Continue Reading
In praise of local service providers
It’s a new year, and with this new date on the calendar it’s a natural time for reflection. I took last week off work, and spent most of the time with my family, taking hikes and watching movies. (By the way, Netflix’s collection of Christmas movies is astonishing to someone who doesn’t watch Hallmark –… Continue Reading
Metaswitch’s future: Azure for Operators
When Microsoft announced its plan to acquire Metaswitch, they talked a lot about the promise of 5G, but made no significant announcements about their plans for the voice applications that are used by the majority of Metaswitch’s customer base. That changed today (September 28, 2020). Azure for Operators Today Microsoft announced a new initiative named… Continue Reading
How do your subscribers prefer to communicate?
One of the buzzwords among contact center vendors these days is “omnichannel” – the idea that customers can communicate with you via all available methods of communication. What is omnichannel? For a large retailer this might mean that a customer can ask a question via any of the following means: phone email text message web-based… Continue Reading
Metaswitch acquisition is complete: now what?
Today we received confirmation that Microsoft’s acquisition of Metaswitch is complete – just over two months after the preliminary announcement. At the time the pending deal was first announced there were a lot of questions about what it might mean – and to be honest most of those questions remain unanswered. I’ve given my opinion… Continue Reading