Virtualize Your Contact Center Overnight and Get Ahead of New Mobile Workforce Challenges

Irwin Lazar manages research operations, develops and manages research projects, conducts and analyzes primary research, and advises numerous enterprise and vendor clients. Mr. Lazar is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in unified communications and collaboration, covering the collaboration space as an analyst for over 15 years. A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Mr. Lazar is a blogger for NoJitter.com and contributor for searchunifiedcommunications.com writing on topics including IP telephony, UC, cloud, adoption metrics, SDN, SD-WAN, WebRTC, and more. He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press and is a regular speaker at events such as Enterprise Connect , Interop, and IT Roadmap. His earlier background was in IP network and security architecture, design, and operations where he advised global organizations and held direct operational responsibility for worldwide voice and data networks. Mr. Lazar holds an MBA from George Mason University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management Information Systems from Radford University where he received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, Ordnance Corps. His passion outside of IT is Scouting, where he serves as the Chartered Organization Representative for Boy Scout Troop 1882 in Haymarket, VA and holds outdoor coordination and training roles with the National Capital Area Council. He is a member of the American Legion, the IEEE, and is a lifelong baseball fan.

For 25+ years, Robin Gareiss has advised hundreds of senior IT executives, ranging in size from Fortune 100 to Fortune 2000, analyzing their technology strategies and more recently, their ability to serve as trusted advisors to the business. She has developed industry-leading, interactive cost models for some of the world's largest enterprises and vendors. Ms. Gareiss leads Nemertes Digital Transformation research. She also is a widely recognized expert in the communications field, with specialty areas of VOIP/UC, collaboration, and managed/hosted/cloud communications services. She is a sought-after speaker at conferences and trade shows, presenting at events such as Nemertes Navigator360, IDG’s IT Roadmap, UBM’s Enterprise Connect, Enterprise 2.0, Interop, Mobile Business Expo, and CeBit. She also writes a blog for No Jitter.

Mike is the SA Manager for productivity applications at AWS for the Western US, leading a team of solutions architects responsible for technical ownership of Amazon Connect, Amazon WorkSpaces, and AppStream 2.0. In his three years as an SA, Mike worked with some of the largest and most strategic of AWS’ customers implementing Amazon Connect by providing best practices, a consultative approach, and an eye towards the customer experience in Contact Center design. Mike has over 23 years in the Contact Center, Networking, and UC industries, starting out way back carrying a punch tool and Harris test set.

With over 15 years’ experience in Contact Centers, Contact Center Technology and Customer Engagement, Cameron was thrilled to join the Amazon Connect team in 2019. He has worked closely with businesses of all shapes and sizes to help them improve efficiency within their contact centers, while increasing customer satisfaction and reducing spend. When he learned Amazon Connect could help businesses achieve all three of these objectives, he was keen to join the team! As an Australian expat, when not helping companies supercharge their customer service, Cameron and his wife Marisa enjoy recording duets to share with family and friends back home.

Eric Krapf is General Manager and Program Co-Chair for Enterprise Connect, the leading conference/exhibition and online events brand in the enterprise communications industry. He has been Enterprise Connect’s Program Co-Chair for over a decade. He is also publisher of No Jitter, the Enterprise Connect community’s daily news and analysis website. Eric served as editor of No Jitter from its founding in 2007 until taking over as publisher in 2015. From 1996 to 2004, Eric was managing editor of Business Communications Review (BCR) magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine's editor. Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America's Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.