There is a lot of buzz, and rightly so about AI in today's CX conversations, but one of the underlying and most relevant focus areas for companies is in the area of Compliance.

Compliance, in the CX world means many things, and it is a lot to digest in terms of all of the acronyms that exist. How data is properly safeguarded is top of mind, and that is why regulations such as GDPR, PCI, SOX, HIPAA, TCPA, IRAP and others exist today.

Last week the partners of True North Advisory met in Nashville, TN for three days with the purpose of reviewing our progress of our clients, as well as to update how the industry changes are and will be affecting our clients decision making going forward.

At True North, we work with many early stage companies who are trying to complete the ecosystem of direct and indirect channels. One of the holy grails in this ecosystem is the Strategic Partner

As technology continues to advance rapidly, it's important to keep an eye on the latest developments that could have a big impact on the customer experience (CX). Here are five technologies that I believe will be game-changers in the CX space

At True North Advisory, we have a number of both emerging companies as well as larger more mature companies that come to us asking the question, "What is the right framework to begin to develop the overall go-to-market strategy for my company?”

At True North, because of our strong heritage with our Managing Partner’s experience with both Service Provider and Enterprise, we have been providing advisory work to our early stage companies around the topic of when and how to enter the Enterprise and Service Provider market. Many early stage companies have designed solutions specific to the Enterprise or Service Provider, but are naive as it relates to understanding the vast differences in go to market (GTM) motions that they require.

At True North Advisory, many of our clients have brought to market innovative and differentiated solutions that have excelled in the commercial market. Typically, they have been birthed in a specific vertical such as financial services or retail, and have gained traction within that vertical.

Coincidentally, I had lunch with a friend, Chris Koehncke, Co-Founder of Kranky Geek and a WebRTC enthusiast. We discussed how the pandemic accelerated the adoption of video conferencing and calling. More and more people are now comfortable using video for everyday communications. Pre-pandemic, it was normally used within a niche community of technologists. It’s considered a must-have tool for folks conducting business as well as for students to access their teachers and institution for learning. Even the word “Zoom” is used as a replacement for “meeting”.

At True North, many of our clients have or are in the process of building out a partner framework/program that combines both a high touch from the vendor as well as ownership by the channel.

At True North, a majority of our clients are entrepreneurs and founders who are all asking the same question to us, "How do we navigate this economic downturn?" While each client has its own unique issues as it relates to this subject, there are common themes that are pertinent to all of our clients and prospects.

You never think about your customers being unhappy, but inadvertently you’ll end up in situations where you have upset or even angry customers. There are many reasons you end up in these situations and in my experience, the most challenging and most stressful situations were caused because of a service outage. I remember one outage at BroadSoft in particular, where we made the 6 o’clock national news. Ouch!. As the old saying goes, your character is not defined by how you are on your best days but how you act on your worst days. Here’s a few tips on how to handle these uncomfortable situations.

Many of us have ‘working during COVID stories’. Ours is about starting and growing a business while quarantining during the beginnings of this pandemic.

We were very excited to hear Microsoft announce its acquisition of ReFirm labs. You can view the press release here. We want to congratulate co-founders Terry Dunlap and Peter Eacmen; CEO Derick Naef and the ReFirm team for having a vision, executing on the vision, and building great value - value clearly recognized by Microsoft.

As many of you know, we started True North Advisory in March of 2020. We started the business as a totally virtual business which it remains today. We are truly a child of the pandemic.

By Scott Hoffpauir, Managing Partner

Last Wednesday evening I was one of three judges at a local business school competition, Salem State University. The Dean of the Bertolon Business school was enthusiastic for their students to present the plans for their start-up businesses. Many of the students at Salem State need to work full-time jobs as they earn their degrees. As a newly accredited business school, Salem State is providing the necessary tools to ensure student success. It was impressive that all finalists were so well prepared; the presentation, the business case, it was all first-rate. The one quality that stood out the most, however, was their passion!

Everyone is used to LinkedIn as being your professional profile for showcasing your work accomplishments. If you’re a super user, you’ll be following your top companies for their latest news or updates. But that’s all it was, a generic marketing tool for those looking for jobs and for companies just trying to be relevant in a social media universe.

Recently, Microsoft and Cisco announced mobile enhancements for their collaboration offerings. Looking back, mobility has always been an add-on, but now mobility has become a core tenant to their solutions. While the enhancements offered by both companies offer similar end user functionality, how they do it is quite different. Let’s explore some of the differences and the pros / cons of each.

After a week of SXSW sessions (and a few parties) I wanted to return to a topic that I have considered the key to unlocking the next level of customer engagement: enterprise knowledge. Now, to be honest this is not my idea but one beaten into my head by Conversational AI pioneer Raj Tumuluri, a good friend for 25 years. Raj, with his team at Openstream, has been helping large enterprises with building enterprise knowledge.

A few weeks ago, I joined the Meta-verse by purchasing an Oculus Quest headset. I heard so much about these that I decided to see how far the technology has advanced. It’s been a while since I’ve tried a set of VR glasses.