See How Enterprises are Tackling AI, Cloud, and More

January 9, 2025

Written by Eric Krapf, General Manager and Program Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect Publisher

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025! This year is shaping up to be a crucial juncture for some of the biggest technology trends driving the enterprise collaboration/CX industry. The most obvious example is AI, where enterprises need to move from proof of concept to proof of value – but there are other critical trends including cloud migration, where CCaaS continues to grow and UCaaS needs to add value beyond just telephony replacement. Then there’s video collaboration, which is entering its next phase as (some) enterprises take another run at forcing remote employees back into the office.

To understand what’s really happening in these areas, the best place to turn is enterprise collaboration/CX tech leaders, and the Enterprise Connect 2025 program is chock full of these real-world experts. When it comes to AI assistants, I’m super-excited that a pair of leaders from Fannie Mae, the mortgage financing provider, will be on hand to tell the story of their business’s Microsoft Teams rollout. The big question with all of the AI assistants is where and how they deliver real value to users at scale, and I’m looking forward to the Fannie Mae team sharing the results of the past several months of pilots.

When it comes to CCaaS, we’ve got a couple of great case studies that will help guide your enterprise through your own process of modernizing your contact center technology. On Tuesday, Jennifer Herron and Craig Griffis of the University of Michigan will discuss how their migration to the cloud allowed them to “redefine” their contact center. And on Wednesday, Tony Joseph of Rollins, Inc, parent company of Orkin and other pest control brands, will talk about how a company with a history of acquisitions can take a “multi-cloud” approach to enabling its contact center.

On the topic of AV, Chad Hess of AdventHealth will describe how his organization is taking action to gain better management capabilities, so as to better serve the users of his enterprise’s large meeting room estate. Also, from the public sector, Ian Trollope, deputy CIO for the City of Phoenix, will talk about how the nation’s fifth-largest city is taking a strategic approach to using technology to provide better service to citizens. And we’ll have a pair of university IT leaders, Jim Oligney from Florida State and Michelle Reid from the University of West Georgia to discuss what it means to build a collaborative campus.

Finally, we’ve got a couple of case study panels—one UCaaS-focused, featuring IT leaders from Keurig Dr Pepper, Commonspirit health system, and St. Leo University; and one AV-focused, featuring representatives from Westfield Insurance and the University of Central Florida.

And to top it all off, we’re following up most of these with a half-hour of post-session networking. This is an idea we tried for the first time last year, to great success. After the formal session concludes, we’re setting the rooms aside so that those in attendance can stick around to continue the conversation informally with the speakers and their fellow attendees. It can be hard to find people with common interests at a large event, so having the time to meet and engage with those who share your interest in a particular topic is a great way to learn more and make new connections.

Last but not least, we have “Case Studies in Communication Strategies” the Strategic Impact Summit that I described in my newsletter just before the holidays. These take place Monday morning and will offer a wealth of insights on key strategic topics from enterprise IT leaders.

I hope you can join us in Orlando for Enterprise Connect 2025. Our lowest rates expire next week, so register now!