October 2, 2024
First Cuts
October 31, 2023
First Cuts: Cisco Webex Powers Up Their AI Product Story
By Jim Lundy Topic:Artificial Intelligence and Unified Communications and Collaboration, Intelligent Video Conferencing Issue: How will AI offerings, including Generative AI, impact how people collabora
March 20, 2023
First Cuts: OpenAI Comes to Microsoft Dynamics
By Jim Lundy and Betsy Burton Topic: Artificial Intelligence, Digital Workplace, and CRM Issue: How will AI offerings, including GPT, impact how products and services help humans get work done? V
December 16, 2021
Ericsson Buys Vonage for $6.2 Billion As the Race for 5G Services Heats Up
View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Ericsson announced its entry into the UC&C and Intelligent Contact Center markets with the acquisition of Vonage for $6.2 billion. Ericsson indicated that the need for enterp
July 23, 2021
Zoom Buys Five9 for $14.7 Billion and Sets the Stage for the Consolidation of UC&C and Contact Center
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Zoom announced an agreement to acquire Five9 in an all stock $14.7 billion dollar deal this week. With a 25X revenue multiple, the deal signifies the beginning o
March 25, 2021
Bigtincan Acquires ClearSlide and VoiceVibes as Sales Enablement Market Begins Consolidation Phase
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Bigtincan announced that it was buying ClearSlide from Corel for an undisclosed price. Separately it announced it acquired VoiceVibes to add Conversational Intellig
December 22, 2020
The Hack of SolarWinds and Why Your Enterprise May Be at Risk
by Craig Kennedy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: SolarWinds disclosed that it had been hacked by an undisclosed foreign government entity, resulting in at least 18,000 customers being exposed to malware hidd
October 6, 2020
Nintex Buys Archrival K2 as Process Automation Market Begins Consolidation Phase
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Nintex announced that the company has reached an agreement to buy K2 Software, Inc., which provides process automation solutions. The combined entity will make Nint
July 17, 2020
Google Remakes G Suite Into a Work Hub, Challenges Microsoft
by Jim LundyView a PDF of this First Cut.Summary: In one of the most complete makeovers of G Suite in years, Google unveiled a new integrated app experience that blends all of the G Suite collaboration and communication
July 16, 2020
The Race to Add AI to Marketing Clouds: Salesforce Buys Evergage
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Salesforce has bought customer data platform provider Evergage to strengthen its overall 1:1 personalization for its marketing platforms. Event: On February 7th, Sales
October 11, 2019
Avaya and RingCentral $500M Partnership Will Force UCC Consolidation
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Avaya and RingCentral announced a strategic partnership that will see Avaya selling Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral (ACO) to its large on-premise install base.
April 17, 2019
Google Makes AI Model Development a Must Have for the Enterprise
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Google announced over 25 new artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, that included an AI platform offering, on-premise AI capabilities, and a full content analyti
January 29, 2019
Dropbox Buys HelloSign; Moves Beyond Cloud Content Management Into DTM
by Jim Lundy and Samra Anees View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Dropbox announced its intent to buy HelloSign, enabling Dropbox to expand outside of cloud content management by offering a complete digital transac
January 24, 2019
Nintex Launches Nintex Sign to Streamline DTM Journeys
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Nintex announced its own eSignature solution, Nintex Sign, which is powered by Adobe Sign. This move enables Nintex to offer a complete digital transaction manageme
September 26, 2018
Google Enhances Dialogflow for More Intelligent Contact Centers
by Nicole Speciale View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Google is adding AI-powered virtual agents, analytics, natural language understanding (NLU), and more to its Dialogflow offering. Google also introduced its
June 14, 2018
Conga Adds eSignatures and Buys Octiv – The New Race for WCA
by Jim Lundy View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: In two recent moves, Conga added eSignatures to its content automation platform, effectively ending its partnerships with DocuSign and Adobe. It also announced the
IBM Launches Intelligent Video Surveillance Solution
by Nicole Speciale View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Pelco by Schneider Electric is joining forces with IBM to provide in-depth Analytics for security applications. Event: On April 11, 2018, Pelco announced t
June 12, 2018
Nextiva Launches AI-Powered NextOS
by Nicole Speciale View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: NextOS, a new platform from Nextiva, is powering Nextiva Service CRM, Nextiva Chat, and Nextiva Surveys. NextIQ is the new AI feature that integrates Machine
May 17, 2018
Five9 Enhances Its Cloud Contact Center with Artificial Intelligence
by Nicole Speciale View a PDF of this First Cut. Summary: Five9 revealed the enhancement of its Cloud Contact Center Platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as one of several moves to promote personalized Customer
May 1, 2018