From the value of cloud voice to combatting downtime and, of course, AI in the voice channel, voice services maven Barbara Dondiego, CEO of AVOXI, shares her insider’s perspective on the state of the art in providing voice support for customer service engagements.

There are a few options for keeping POTs going in 2024 – but those with existing POTS line services today should still take an aggressive approach to phasing them out.

Despite the massive shift to VOIP over the last 20 years or so, Plain Old Telephone Service (aka “POTS”) delivered over copper lines continues to serve a purpose in enterprise telecommunications. As of last year, the FCC estimated that there were still more than 40 million POTS lines in use within the United States alone.

Why POTS Survives

The continued use of POTS lines is driven by a number of factors:

However, the POTS line market continues to shrink (from a high of more than 120 million lines). As such, most carriers no longer want to offer such services, preferring instead to focus on VoIP or wireless communications. Recent deregulation in the US, along with retirement mandates in Europe, are either increasing the cost of POTS lines or raising the prospect of full decommissioning. As reported earlier this year by CNN, AT&T has applied to the California Public Utilities Commission to allow it decommission its remaining POTS lines, currently serving almost 600,000 residential and business customers. None of this is new. Previous NoJitter posts by Aaron Storeman and Phil Edholm in 2022 raised the alarms for telecommunications managers and encouraged proactive action to prepare for rising costs, and to evaluate alternative approaches. Still, large numbers of POTS lines remain in use as telecom managers haven’t found suitable alternatives, are comfortable paying the rising cost, or haven’t taken the time to develop a POTS migration strategy.

New Options For POTS Replacement

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As much as product vendors and service providers like to tout the features and functionalities they offer, real-world impact can be a far more telling indicator of value as companies evaluate existing or assess potential new vendors. With this in mind, Metrigy created its MetriStar Top Provider Award program, which recognizes excellence based on customer sentiment scores and measurable business outcomes achieved using customer experience (CX) and workplace collaboration technologies.

Today we’d like to recognize AudioCodes, Cisco, Google, HP|Poly, JBL, RingCentral, and Verizon as winners of the 2024 Workplace Collaboration MetriStar Top Provider Award in five respective product and service categories, those being: unified communications as a service (UCaaS), meeting apps, team collaboration apps, room video conferencing systems, and headsets. To earn Top Provider designation, these companies received at- or above-average sentiment ratings from customers and had among the highest percentage of customers with measurable business success using the designated technology.

Additionally, the MetriStar program also awards providers that score well on either customer sentiment or business success, but not both.

The 2024 MetriStar winners, by product category, are:

For those counting, this year’s program amounts to 11 MetriStar Top Provider awards, eight Top Customer Sentiment, and six Top Business Success awards across the five product categories, for a total of 25. Metrigy would like to congratulate each and every winner for their show of real-world impact.

If you’re interested in more details, tune into our Workplace Collaboration MetriStar episode on our MetriSight podcast, available on our website, our YouTube and BrightTalk channels, and in podcast players.

The MetriStar Awards program is part of Metrigy’s MetriCast Service, which also includes our MetriCast study on technology adoption and providers in use; market forecast and shares across select customer experience and workplace collaboration technology categories, with quarterly updates; and MetriRank vendor ratings across select categories.

Improved productivity is the big promise of “connected workspace,” Metrigy’s term for tools that allow employees to accomplish, collaborate on, and manage content-and project-related work in a self-contained workspace. And of course AI is beginning to play an integral role.

Connected workspace apps can improve productivity by bringing together project and task management with knowledge bases and document repositories, along with communications and collaboration apps, in a single interface. That means no more time wasted application switching, among other productivity benefits. AI, especially generative AI, can facilitate and ease work tasks.

Connected Workspace and AI Adoption

To understand the state of adoption for connected workspace applications, including AI use, Metrigy conducted two studies: one to understand how companies perceive this technology from a business-level perspective, and the second to assess end use. In our Connected Workspace & Collaborative Work Management: 2024-25 study with IT leaders and other business stakeholders at 157 companies in North America, we found that 58% of companies already have adopted a connected workspace app. Of those companies, nearly 32% have allowed access to the AI capabilities available with these apps. End user adoption, measured in the second study, mirrors what we found at the company level: Slightly less than one-third of 171 end users studied are actively utilizing generative AI capabilities within their connected workspace apps.

Of those end users not using AI today, 53.8% say their companies haven’t enabled AI features. Interestingly, 48.1% of users say AI capabilities are available but aren’t relevant to their jobs. This suggests that while AI holds promise, its implementation and usefulness can be highly dependent on how well it aligns with the specific needs of different roles.

AI-Powered Features in Connected Workspace Apps

Connected workspace apps are available from a variety of vendor types, from pure-play startups to well-established providers in the areas of communications and collaboration, content collaboration and management, productivity, and task/project management. As such, AI features in connected workspace apps is quite diverse, depending on vendor focus. Here are some example capabilities that are either available now or coming:

The Most-Valued AI Capabilities

In the Connected Workspace & Collaborative Work Management: 2024-25 study, auto-generated summarization bubbled up as the top value of generative AI for both content-related activities (nearly 90%) and projects (83.3%). Content summaries can be particular valuable when there’s a high level of complexity and/or a considerable volume of documentation or notes to wade through, especially if the summaries include actionable insights for users to follow. For project management, summarization aids in keeping stakeholders informed and aligned without the need for sifting through a complex plan.

Regarding AI-powered search, end users find universal search capabilities across all apps within a connected workspace to be slightly more valuable than conversational AI. Universal search helps users quickly find relevant information across disparate tools, which can be a significant time-saver compared to the more interactive, but sometimes less precise, nature of conversational AI.

Looking Ahead

As AI technology continues to evolve, connected workspace app providers will add more and more advanced functionality into their products. The key to maximizing AI’s benefits will be ensuring that its features align closely with user needs and job functions. For organizations, this means not only layering in AI technologies, but also providing the necessary support and training to help users leverage these tools effectively. Ultimately, the goal is to create a workspace where AI enhances productivity, provides actionable insights, and supports a more efficient and collaborative working environment.

Successfully migrating Cisco Unified Communications Manager to Webex Calling requires a proactive approach for PSTN access management and dialplan transition. Key requirements include ensuring reliability and performance of voice traffic as well as maintaining support for local site survivability to ensure resilience. Service providers certified for Cloud Connect for Webex Calling offer a seamless way for organizations to take advantage of the benefits of cloud calling while minimizing risk.

In this webinar we’ll share insights and best practices for migration of Cisco on-premises, and cloud-hosted calling to the cloud and deliver practical guidance to ensure success.

Migrating Your Cisco CUCM to the Cloud

Presented by: Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst, Metrigy
Greg Zweig, Director of Solutions Marketing, Ribbon Communications
Wade Hamblin, Director, Product Management, Cisco

Date: September 24, 2024
Time: 11:00 am ET

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In this episode, Metrigy’s Diane Myers talks with Greg Zweig, senior director of solutions marketing at Ribbon, about what Microsoft’s decision to shutter its Azure for Operators business means for service providers using Metaswitch solutions. They’ll discuss near-term steps operators can take to enusre their voice networks remain operational, as well as what they should be thinking of longer term.

Connected workspace applications and platforms enable organizations to create a single location from which employees can accomplish, communicate about/collaborate on, discover important information for, and manage their work. In this webinar, Metrigy’s Beth Schultz, VP of research and principal analyst, will share insights from recently published research on connected workspaces and collaborative work management. You’ll learn:

Connected Workspace: Getting Work Done, Collaboratively

Presented by: Beth Schultz, VP of Research and Principal Analyst, Metrigy

Date: September 17, 2024
Time: 11:00 am ET

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Customer Sentiment and Business Success Define Award Program

August 21, 2024 – Research and advisory firm Metrigy has named 11 workplace collaboration vendors as top winners of its 2024 Workplace Collaboration MetriStar Award program, based on customer sentiment ratings and business success data in five key technology areas driving successful employee engagement.

Metrigy determined these results solely on insights from 998 IT leaders with operational and/or procurement responsibilities for key workplace collaboration technology categories in Metrigy’s Workplace Collaboration MetriCast 2024 global research study. The value of the MetriStar Award is that it is based on customer ratings of providers, as well as quantitative metrics correlating the use of a vendor’s products and services with measurable business success.

“Once again, this year’s MetriStar awards reflect vendor success in delivering products and services that customers rate highly and that deliver measurable business value,” says Irwin Lazar, Metrigy president and principal analyst. “MetriStar results provide IT buyers and operators with a clear assessment of vendor performance to enable informed purchasing decisions.”

Metrigy’s Workplace Collaboration MetriStar Awards, and corresponding reports, cover the following workplace collaboration technologies:

Each report features three recognitions, as follows:

MetriStar Top Provider – Recognizes technology providers whose customers achieved high business success and that received at or above-average customer sentiment ratings
Top Business Success – Highlights providers whose percentage of customers achieving business success is at or above average
Top Customer Sentiment – Highlights providers whose customer sentiment scores are at or above average

Customer Sentiment analysis: Using a 1-to-10 scale, research participants rate providers on a variety of key performance indicators, including technical features, response time to problems or questions, reliability, security, AI capabilities, value, innovation, and more. Those with an overall mean score that is at or above average achieved “Top Customer Sentiment.”

Business Success analysis: Study participants provide data on changes to their business metrics, such as revenue, operational costs, and employee productivity, resulting from adoption of the specified technology. Metrigy then calculates the average of each providers’ customers that achieved at or better than average metrics. Vendors with at- or higher-than-average percentage of their customers with successful metrics achieved “Top Business Success.”

Those providers that are top in both of the metrics are awarded a MetriStar Top Provider Award. For more details, please see our MetriSight announcing the results.

This year’s MetriStar Top Provider winners (in alphabetical order) are the following:

Metrigy’s MetriStar Top Provider reports help companies choose the best provider for each respective category. Metrigy clients have access to the reports, and they are available for purchase on our website at www.metrigy.com.

Metrigy’s Irwin Lazar takes us inside the MetriStar program and shares which providers have earned Top Provider Awards, based on customer sentiment scores and customer business success, and award highlights.

As vendors have rolled out generative AI copilots and virtual assistants, most are doing so by paying an additional license fee to gain access to generative AI features. This additional cost leads IT and business leaders to question the value of generative AI and if sufficient ROI exists to justify the additional licensing cost. Even those with access to free generative AI virtual assistants may incur some costs such as user training and additional management overhead to set appropriate security, compliance, and privacy policies. Thus, the million-dollar (or $30 per month per user) question is “How do I determine ROI on my AI spend?”

DETERMINING ROI

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