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Do you ever think to yourself, “This meeting could have just been an email.” It’s a common occurrence in the workplace: meetings that could’ve been emails, emails that could’ve been chat messages, daily interruptions that aren’t necessary at all. And forget about productivity once you finally make it home, especially if you are a parent. To help us with this time management conundrum, we interviewed Julie Morgenstern, organization and productivity consultant, speaker and author of Time to Parent. In this episode of Communications. Transformed., we discuss: Building a culture of organization and time management in your company How to keep you and your employees motivated throughout the day Productivity tricks for the in-office and at-home workers Making the most of our time at home with loved ones

Everyone wants to be more productive. With so much content out there on productivity, how do you know you’re getting the best advice? Bob Pozen, Senior Lecturer at MIT and the author of Extreme Productivity, shares with us several practical tips on improving our productivity. He discusses: How to manage large projects effectively Combining productivity and collaboration How to host effective meetings Maximizing Your Personal Productivity: How to Become an Efficient and Effective Executive (Details and sign up for the 2020 course at https://link.8x8.com/2pQF6da)

As your organization grows, you’re faced with a host of challenges.  In addition to things like having enough office space, developing a solid onboarding plan, and making sure your company culture is maintained, one of the most important elements is your network.  What does it take to move your business, specifically your customer support centers, to the cloud?  On this episode of the Communications. Transformed. podcast, we sat down with Josh Adler, a Business Analyst at Collette Travel, to talk all about:  What it takes to move a contact center to the cloud.  What are the most important things to get right in order to make the transition a smooth one for everyone involved?  How is AI and machine learning going to play a role in the customer contact center moving forward?

This is probably the only podcast that’s ever been interrupted by the national anthem.  Why? Well, for this episode of ‘Communications. Transformed.’ I sat down with Dan Gingiss to talk about customer experience — at the Wrigley Field Rooftops during a game.  Dan is international keynote speaker, customer experience consultant, author and co-host of the ‘Experience This' podcast. He came on the show to share his expertise about all things customer experience.

We sat down in Chicago with Beth Schultz for an action-packed interview about the coming technologies in enterprise communications. Beth is the Editor of No Jitter, a leading publication on enterprise technology. She’s also the Program Co-Chair of Enterprise Connect and the upcoming conference Workplace Connect produced by UBM Tech. On this episode, she dives deep into 5 huge trends she sees coming to enterprise communications including video, speech analytics and collaboration. In addition, host Randy Ksar asked a few rapid-fire questions to get to know Beth’s background and hobbies a little more.

Which tools do your contact center agents need to access to provide the best customer experience? What are the latest innovations in the contact center technology realm that will drive peak performance? On this special episode, 8x8 Contact Center expert Kay Phelps and CEO of LANtelligence, Martin Tracey share insights on how 3 key technologies can drive peak performance of your contact center. You will learn how artificial intelligence (AI), speech analytics and agent enablement tools can boost both efficiency and effectiveness. Discover how to leverage these technologies to improve performance and boost your Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) scores. The conversation is moderated by Mike Aoki, President of Reflective Keynotes.

Bring your best. Leave nothing behind. On this special episode of Communications. Transformed., host Randy Ksar sits down with Amelia Generalis, SVP of Human Resources and Workplaces at 8x8, to talk about the collaborative culture at 8x8 and what it takes to find success as individuals who choose to bring their best to work day after day.

On this episode of ‘Communications. Transformed.’, host Randy Ksar chats with Vijai Gandikota and Ryan Morrissey from 8x8. Vijai and Ryan take a deep dive into analytics and AI for the contact center. They explain not only the obvious importance and benefits these features bring to a company, but how the 8x8 Contact Center solution can provide workflows and reporting to enable the best use of the data.

Are you looking to tech to better your process or your customer? With the pace of digital transformation and new tech increasing day by day, it can be easy to get caught up in the latest trend without considering how it can be used to better your customers, not just your own business. On today’s episode of Communications. Transformed, we hear from George Maldonado, CEO of CIT Solutions in Miami, FL. He shares his view of what new tech is on the horizon and its impact on providing the best customer experience possible.

It all comes back to user experience. Visibility, connectivity, and reliability are all core to a positive user experience. Joe Monaco and Sal Miglino of The Monaco Group are passionate about ensuring their customers have the right products, at the right price, with the best support possible. And that’s only achievable through a unified communication system and working to see digital transformation in customers who haven’t been able to keep up. Join us for this great episode as Joe and Sal share how The Monaco Group are changing the user experience game and be sure to listen in for Joe’s surprise twist answer to Randy’s rapid fire questions.

Your PBX is slowing you down. An on-premise PBX is often unreliable--not just in terms of the inevitable outage, but in the costs associated with frequent and necessary upgrades and dwindling spare parts as the industry starts to embrace the soft phone. On today’s podcast, we share a previously recorded conversation between Reza Kamran, cloud communications specialist, Michael Barbaro, Senior Vice President, Town Fair Tire and Dennis Beckus, Vice President IT at Silver Peak, Inc. You’ll hear two real world examples of companies who migrated from legacy on-premise PBX to cloud communications, including the challenges faced, the evaluation process and the benefit gained.

More features, better security, lower costs. Is there anything digital transformation can’t do? On today’s podcast you’ll learn the driving trends in Unified Communications as a Service and Contact Center as a Service and hear how a forward thinking, innovative leader successfully implemented his company’s digital transformation. Kevin Dunn, CIO, CISO of US Retirement & Benefit Partners shares their success story of how they integrated applications, enabled remote workers and empowered both administrators and users to easily manage their platform. Enjoy the podcast!

On today’s podcast, we share a previously recorded conversation between Tim Richter, contact center specialist, and Thomas Hill, CIO of Live Oak Bank. Live Oak Bank is an innovative, technology enabled virtual bank. They are also the largest SBA Lender in the country. Thomas shares a real-world example of Unified Communications as a Service and its benefits. He also discusses the steps his company took to move to a full cloud technology strategy. Lastly, Thomas shares how Live Oak Bank used this strategy to preserve business continuity during a full disaster recovery.

At #EC19, the Plantronics and Polycomm teams announced a new company name, Poly. We chatted with Shawn Puddester and Clint Edwards to learn more about who the new Poly is, why the cloud is important in their communications products and a few rapid-fire questions #EC19 style. Guests: Shawn Puddester, VP, Global Service Providers, Poly Clint Edwards, VP SA, Global Cloud & Service Provider Solution Group, Poly

We wrapped up Day 2 of #EC19 with conference takeaways from John DeLozier, VP Channel at 8x8 and channel partner Erik Bishop, Managing Partner, Recon Solutions LLC.

Day 2 at #EC19 we chatted with great guests about their experience at #EC19 and how communications have transformed their business. Guests included: Bryan Martin, Chairman of the Board and CTO at 8x8 Greg Meyer, VP of Revenue Management, iCruise / WMPH Vacations

We've brought the Communications. Transformed. team to Orlando, FL where we're podcasting live from the Enterprise Connect conference. Today, we chat with Vik Verma, CEO of 8x8, who shared his insights on communication, collaboration, and the future, as well as Will Simons, Director of IT at Movement Mortgage, who gave his perspective on the need for real-time communication. Tune in and subscribe to be the first to hear the latest trends and insights direct from #EC19!

On this episode, we get a recap on the retail conference NRF 2019 from 8x8’s David Chase and 8x8’s Randy Ksar continues his interview with retail strategist Carl Boutet. They cover how retailers can motivate customers to walk into a store, innovative in-store experiences, and the future of retail management at McGill University in Canada. Listen and tweet @8x8 with your questions.

On this week’s episode, we chat with Jeanne Bliss, the customer experience pioneer and CEO of Customer Bliss, about crafting extraordinary customer experiences. Jeanne pulls from her expertise to discuss how C-suite executives can drive the customer experience, tips for businesses to create a culture of customer success, which KPIs you should focus on and more. Tune in!

On this episode, host Randy Ksar looks back at the world of retail in 2018. From the extinction of treasured stores to the blurring of the physical and digital retail space, guests Russ Chadinha and expert Carl Boutet, share their highlights of the year that was and provide some intriguing insights on what retailers need to know to thrive in the new year.