Last week we held IR Connect – our first ever full-scale virtual event. With a new name (formerly IR Summit), new products launching, new branding announced, a ton of new content, and a new accreditation program, it’s fair to say it was a jam-packed week!
IR and Connect are focused on helping companies maintain and manage the most critical systems in their business, to keep connections open. Connect is all about the importance of connection and is designed to help facilitate better, stronger connections through seamless technology.
Let’s take a look at some of the key highlights from the week.
Innovation
Kicking off the week, CEO, John Ruthven’s opening keynote talked about our company strategy. Partly driven by structural market changes, like the shift to remote working and significant increase in digital transaction volumes, but also integral to the success of every tech company, we are evolving to become what Ruthven has coined #fitterfasterstronger. Some of our focus areas for the coming year include:
- Accelerating our innovation agenda – developing version 12.0 and more on our cloud platform.
- Transitioning the business to cloud, with a suite of new products coming to market.
- Enhancing the customer experience with our CX360 program.
- Continuing to evolve the company culture.
New branding
Next, Chief Marketing and Product Officer, Kevin Ryder, announced our new product brand architecture – IR Collaborate, IR Transact and IR Infrastructure.
We’ve been around for 30 plus years, so we’re no stranger to an evolution. Ryder said, “This new architecture has simplified our brand to meet the evolving needs of our product strategy and the markets we serve, and give the company greater flexibility to innovate and expand our solution offerings.”
Cloud collaboration support
Ryder followed up with the launch of our first new product in the Collaborate solution suite; support for Microsoft Teams. Powered by our hybrid Prognosis platform, this new solution enables cloud insight to:
- better manage a migration to Teams,
- access real-time performance data on user adoption, device utilization, and service health,
- proactively monitor, troubleshoot and be alerted to issues across the entire UC ecosystem, and
- deliver a high-quality experience to all users.
Excitingly, he was also able to reveal that similar support for Zoom isn’t far away.
Teaming up
We brought in a host of industry experts to share their insights in a range of high-value sessions, including;
UC Today Roundtable, exploring challenges in keeping the remote workforce and customers connected. Hosted by UC Today's Rob Scott, and featuring Steve Macgregor, Digital Workplace Director, BT, and Bill Haskins, Senior Analyst, Wainhouse Research.
IDC Global Market Snapshot, looking at market trends relating to UC challenges and opportunities in Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance. Featuring Michael Araneta, Associate Vice President, IDC.
As well as partner sessions with guest speakers from Cisco, Avaya and ACI Worldwide.
Award winners
The IR Connect Awards are always exciting and a great way for us to celebrate the innovative work our customers do. Winners for this year included:
Innovation Award – recognizing companies using IR solutions in unique ways.
Winner: Capgemini
Business Impact Award – showcasing companies that use IR solutions to deliver exceptional value.
Winner: Humana
Complexity Simplified Award – recognizing companies that have used IRs solutions to gain insight into many different interconnected environments.
Winner: Presidio
Testing 1-2-3 Award – for the most notable utilization of IR Testing Solutions.
Winner: Cigna
Five 9s Award – recognizing companies that are using IR solutions to make systems work better.
Winner: Pulse
Transaction Optimization Award – recognizing companies that use IR’s solutions to proactively optimize their payments environment.
Winner: Absa
ConnectIR Award – for an individual who has posted frequent, high-value content to the IR Community.
Winner: Jonathan McLaren, Vodafone
Congratulations to all our winners and nominees!
All of the sessions will be available on-demand for the few weeks, so it’s not too late to register and get firsthand access to the big news and exciting developments to come out of IR Connect 2020.
Thanks to everyone who joined us and we hope to see you again (hopefully in-person) at IR Connect 2021.
