Top 10 Tips Unified Communication Experts Want You to Know

Vice President for Quality and Operations Support and Transformation and CIO of semiconductors firm SOITEC, Laurent Maumet was a European CIO of the Year finalist in 2016. In an exclusive interview, he shared his tips on excelling as a leader, social media and more:

"DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS ALL ABOUT CHANGING THE CULTURE AND THE MINDSET OF PEOPLE AND, OF COURSE, TRAINING."

Elka is the VP and a Senior Fellow for Digital Transformation over at Frost & Sullivan. With 20 years of market analysis and strategic consulting experience, her in-depth understanding of competitive dynamics and market trends is pretty impressive. Before becoming VP, Elka was Global Program Director, Unified Communications for 11 years. Elka offered an insightful take on customer experience:

"Knowing what to do with customer feedback is the key to creating loyal customers. Product, sales, and marketing teams understand that in order to enhance the customer experience and provide value, they must properly listen to the Voice of the Customer."

David Danto is a consultant, analyst, and Director of Emerging Technology of Unified Communications nonprofit Interactive Multimedia and Collaborative Communications Alliance. With over three decades of experience, Danto provides problem solving leadership and innovation for firms in the corporate, broadcasting and academic realms. We were lucky enough to catch up with Danto and talk all things UC from industry challenges, technology mistakes, smarter working strategies, future tools and more. He said:

"SMARTER WORKING EMBRACES THE CONCEPT THAT WORK IS WHAT YOU DO, NOT WHERE YOU GO"

Blair is the co-founder of UCStrategies.com, an industry resource for enterprises, vendors and system integrators regarding the unified communications arena. Most importantly, she is also the president and principal analyst over at COMMfusion, meaning she spearheads two different projects that provide insights, help and consultancy to anyone who is seeking to get clued up on unified communications. Speaking at UC EXPO 2017, Blair commented:

"there are so many different elements and components that make up a collaboration solution, and they don't all work well together."

CMO of ShoreTel and previously the VP of Marketing for Mitel, Mark specialises in understanding the UC marketplace through his understanding of sales force and marketing alignment. Knowing about branding, the flux of business interests and acquisitions of all kinds, Mark takes all experiences he can to push his knowledge further. Speaking to Crimson Marketing, Mark asserted:

"We operate in a highly leverage world. Sales teams far less leveraged. Our ability to provide opportunities, new relationships to explore is really what it’s about, but you’ve got to maintain that relationship with the brand all the way to closure and afterwards."

Founder and CEO of Jaymie Scotto and Associates (JSA), Jaymie oversees all of her company's activity. Awarded the "Most Outstanding Telecoms PR Agency", JSA provides their clients with excellent marketing, PR and event planning services. In an interview with HotShot, Jaymie revealed the secrets to the success of her company:

"When I look at the PR reports of JSA, they’re like a staircase, and right when we experience a wonderful spike in growth is when I’ve let go of something and hired someone that is better and more passionate about that, and let go of that duty and given it to the right pair of hands who is inspired and built for that role."

As Vice President and Service Director of Nemertes Research, Irwin is incredibly knowledgeable about collaboration tools and how they can be implemented within companies. As a result, Irwin is a Unified Communications guru and certainly solidifies Nemertes Research as leaders in the field. When speaking to the EM360 team about the role of how technology affects roles, Irwin noted:

“When your role is transformed, you have to make sure your skills transform with that."

Gabriella is a Marketing Consultant at Penguin Strategies. Working across multiple B2B technology accounts to manage marketing strategy has given Gabriella some fantastic insights in unifying communications. As a result, Gabriella has taken it upon herself to write some fantastic guides on generating B2B leads. Most noteworthy is perhaps her LinkedIn guide, where she states:

"Providing thoughtful content and promoting it across LinkedIn profiles and groups in a successful campaign can set you up as a thought leader. People who search for solutions in group discussions are likely to remember you and your company."

Julie is an expert in a fast-growing field: telemedicine. She is the Vice President, Virtual Health and Innovation of the Children's Health System of Texas and as a result is probably the most unusual expert on this list. While her work is certainly extraordinary, Julie gives some fantastic insights into her work. In an interview with MedCityNews, Julie stated:

"It's on behalf us as telehealth directors, innovators, do-ers, to say 'let us show you how you can do it well,' without compromising how that patient needs to be seen."

Evan is the Co-Founder and Chief Digital Evangelist of EviraHealth; a Boston based B2B company that links health-tech clients through social media. Furthermore, Evan was a former advisory board member of both Penguin Strategies and Hookflash Inc. and as a result is a veteran of the industry.  Evan stated in an interview with #AskTheCEO that for B2B sales, it is best to go with an influencer that you have respect for. He remarked:

"I think it's important to get on social media and see who you respect and admire... and go based on that verses a sale pitch."