Customer experience improvement remains a top initiative for business and information technology leaders. The stakes are high in CX. My research has found that 95% of companies now compete on CX and, last year, two-thirds of millennials admitted to switching brands because of a single bad experience. Contact centers and the customer experience professionals who staff them are the unsung heroes of many businesses.
Unplanned downtime — whether it involves minor service interruptions or major system outages — extends far beyond technical glitches. Downtime affects the foundation of business operations and profitability, resulting in long-term consequences. Splunk Inc. analyzed unplanned downtime’s financial and nonfinancial implications by surveying 2,000 executives from some of the world’s largest companies — the Global 2000.
Cisco Live was held last week in what has become my second home, Las Vegas. I had dubbed this the most important Cisco Live in the Chuck Robbins era, as the company is looking to put a stake in the artificial intelligence ground. Simultaneously, Cisco Systems Inc. is integrating its Splunk acquisitions and reshaping the security business in real time. For most companies, doing one of these things would be all-encompassing, but these are not typical times.
At VeeamON 24 last week in Florida, the opening general session was kicked off by Tamecka McKay, chief information officer for the City of Fort Lauderdale, who touted the city as an economic hub with industries as diverse as aviation, technology, finance, marine, and tech — and no state tax. The city is also home to soccer phenom Lionel Messi. After introducing Veeam Inc. Chief Executive Anand Eswaran (pictured), McKay discussed her current challenges and those she faced as CIO of the Broward County Public Schools — everything from 1,000-year floods to ransomware attacks.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Arista Networks Inc. as a publicly traded company, and to celebrate, the company held a special event at the New York Stock Exchange, which is not only the exchange that trades ANET stock but also one of the early Arista customers. However, the shindig at the NYSE wasn’t the only way the company marked the IPOiversary. Arista also announced some artificial intelligence-related news.