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Interview with Andrew Wood

by | May 26, 2021 | Interviews,

Andrew Wood

Andrew Wood

Global Senior Strategy Lead, Cloud Unified Communications & Contact Centre at Vodafone Business

Key Topics:Future of Work, Future of CX, UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS
Location:Catwick, United Kingdom
Bio:

Thought leadership in Future of Work, Digital Workplace and Digital Customer Experience.

Extensive global experience in Cloud Unified Communications, Team Collaboration, Contact Centre and Communications Platform as a Service.

Strong career background in Cloud & Managed Services transformation and working with major vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft & Ring Central.

Experienced Global Head Of Portfolio Management / Head of Practice / Head of Strategy.

BA degree in Business Information Systems & qualified part 1 & 2 TOGAF Enterprise Architect.

How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?

My career started in 1986 at Plessey Telecommunications in the QA department supporting the ISDX PBX. I have then worked in product management leadership , CoE leadership and Strategy leadership roles over the past 35 years. I have experienced and been involved with many industry transformations form TDM to IP Telephony, On-Premise to Hosted Voice and now Vendor Platform based UCaaS, CCaaS & CPaaS. I lead UC strategy globally for Vodafone business and passionate about innovation, best practice, customer success & being a great team mate for my colleagues.

What sub-topics are you most passionate about?

Strategy, innovation, transformation & best practices.
Unified Communications, Team Collaboration, Omni Channel Contact Centre, Immersive Experiences, AI/ML – Natural language processing, Virtual Assistants, Task / Process automation, Contactless or low contact environments.
Digital CX, Digital Workplace, Hybrid Workplace, Platforms, API’s, Business model innovation, Customer Success Management

Who influences you within these topics?

Customer meetings and feedback. Analyst community – Gartner, MZA, Cavell Group, IDC, Frost & Sullivan, Omdia. Vendor community – Microsoft, Ring Central, Cisco, 8×8, Twilio, Five’9s, Amazon, Facebook. Industry press – No Jitter, UC Today. Innovative start ups – Zoom.AI, Poly.AI, MIO. Wider IT industry leaders – Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg. Thought leaders – Dr. Lynda Gratton – London Business School.

What challenges are brands facing in this space?

1) Return to office and hybrid working from Oct’ 21.

2) Strategy development and capability development with HR in the driving seat.

3) Best practices and case studies.

4) Measurement of success and failure.

5) Employee experience.

6) Organisational productivity in a hybrid environment.

What do you think the future holds in this space?

See three huge waves of transformation in the UC space. Move from On Premise systems to Cloud UC services then the following transformations: Wave 1 – (Integrated) – Use of API to communication enable workflows and processes; Wave 2 – (Intelligent) – Use of AI to drive task, process automation and CX; Wave 3 – (Immersive) – Use of Mixed Reality to create next gen collaboration services.

What brands are leading the way in this space?

Vodafone Business, Microsoft, Ring Central, Twilio, Google, Facebook.

If a brand wanted to work with you, which activities would you be most interested in collaborating on?

Podcasts, webinars, whitepapers, speaking opportunities, product innovation, video interviews.

What are your passions outside of work?

My family, sports, still play football, huge NFL fan and recently built a home gym in lockdown. Gardening, love movies, music & eating out. Would like to travel again.

What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?

Email.


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