Zoom Video Communications : Building Forward with Zoom at Enterprise Connect Virtual 2021

Events, Thought Leadership

Building Forward with Zoom at Enterprise Connect Virtual 2021

Katrina Tsai

April 7, 20216 min read

Enterprise Connect is the leading enterprise communications and collaboration conference in North America, bringing together decision-makers, channel partners, consultants, technology providers, and analysts to discuss, debate, and learn about issues central to enterprise communications.

2020 brought on a cascade of changes within the enterprise communications industry, and Zoom is honored to participate in this year's virtual event to help attendees understand, plan, and execute their migration to Zoom and build forward effectively.

Here's a roundup of the sessions that were held on Enterprise Connect's March 24 virtual event, Building Forward with Zoom:

Keynote Panel: Building Forward with Confidence

Zoom's Global Deputy CIO, Gary Sorrentino, joined Vincent Pelly, Director of Global Head of IT Infrastructure at Arnold & Porter; Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO at Nutanix; and Aaron Roe, CTO of Products & Solutions at Deloitte to discuss how these companies embrace change to build forward with confidence. The panel talked through how these organizations supported employees during this transformation and thrived using three guiding principles - talent, transformation, and trust. The speakers stressed the importance of thinking outside the box, giving employees the space and flexibility they need to be productive, and handling organization-wide transformations one small piece at a time.

'We as an enterprise, collectively need to think differently. It's so easy for us to get stuck in our standard way of thinking, that this is the right way to do business, or this is the way it's worked for so many years, and I think the last year's really taught us we've got to really reach out and be more proactive, to think broader, bigger.' - Aaron Roe, CTO of Products & Solutions, Deloitte

The Role of Telephony in Your Next Platform

Cari Dick, Zoom Phone Product Marketing Manager, joined Jan Ross, CIO at nThrive, and Venkat Lakshminarayanan, Senior Director of Infrastructure, Engineering, and Operations at ServiceNow, for a discussion about nThrive and ServiceNow's journey with Zoom Phone. The group shared how they implemented the solution and how Zoom Phone's useful features delivered reliable, business-critical communications for their companies. Ease-of-use and availability were key to these customers, both noting that having a platform that easily integrates with their business applications streamlined employee workflows.

'Our stance is, if our colleagues want to use Microsoft Teams, then they're more than welcome to, but our corporate standard for all phone calls is to use Zoom. We know we have the trust there and the commitment to ongoing availability, so we do coexist. Our employees can use Microsoft Teams how they want, but for voice, we recommend and have a standard to use Zoom.' - Jan Ross, CIO, nThrive

Ensuring Enterprise-Grade Security & Voice/Video Quality

As more of our business interactions take place in a virtual space, organizations will expect enterprise-level security and quality of service from their communications platform. Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, and Bill Haskins, Senior Analyst & Managing Partner at Wainhouse Research, joined Mandy Yeung Garby, Global Architecture Manager at Zoom, to review their research on the latest security threats and available defense measures, as well as evaluate the audio, video, and performance across a select group of cloud meetings and calling providers.

'ESG research identified that security of online platforms is the number one challenge in supporting an increased number of remote workers. Consequently, ESG validated that Zoom is a secure platform that businesses can trust across a variety of workstyles and back to office initiatives. - Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group

Adapting for the Office of the Future

The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work, and as employees return to the office, organizations need to adapt their meeting spaces to adjust to these changes while continuing to deliver high-quality audio and video.

Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, and Dave Michels, Principal Analyst at TalkingPointz, joined Zoom's Head of Product Marketing, Janelle Raney, to discuss the latest conference room technology, tactics, and hybrid work strategies that can help keep your employees connected and safe.

'I've had the pleasure using a Zoom for Home device, and you just plug it in and it works. And I think this is going to be really important for including remote people, so they don't feel intimidated by the technology.' - Dave Michels, Principal Analyst, TalkingPointz

From Interop to Integration: The New Ways of Connecting the Modern Workforce

Businesses use a wide range of workplace applications and solutions, and ensuring these tools integrate seamlessly is critical for creating a dynamic and effective workforce. Brendan Ittelson, CTO at Zoom, spoke with Simon Booth, Product Architect at Zoom, to discuss the importance of interoperability between solutions and how the Zoom platform can create a technology ecosystem where customers and partners can connect effortlessly using their choice of best of breed technologies.

'When we think about user experience, it's always putting the user at the center, and looking at how we allow individuals to focus on the collaboration and the activity that they're trying to do. Technology is something that we are excited about and we want to continue innovating in, but it is all in the spirit of further empowering individuals so that they can have that video-first collaboration experience and not need to worry about that underlying technology.' - Brendan Ittelson, CTO, Zoom

Concluding Session: The View from the Enterprise

Ira M. Weinstein, leading analyst at Recon Research, was joined by Ron Chandler, CIO of Harvard Business School; Miriam Murad, Unified Communication Solutions at ExxonMobil; Eugene Pitts, Executive Director at JPMorgan Chase & Co.; and Shawn Rolin, Head of Technology & Global Solution Engineering at Zoom, to offer advice and provide their perspectives on what the future of collaboration technology will look like.

The speakers shared some important lessons, such as the value of a strong partner assisting you in your technology journey and the importance of focusing on the customer experience.

'The big thing for us is we made the move to Zoom. You know, we had a lot of goodwill, both from our users and from our leadership to really do things a little differently. And when we got going on our deployment, we moved about 180,000 people to Zoom in about 10 business days, so that really increased the pace.'- Eugene Pitts, Executive Director, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Be sure to sign up for our May 12 event, Implementing Zoom Across Your Enterprise, for more information on how to plan and execute an enterprise-wide migration to Zoom as your core collaboration platform.

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