A Virtual Shoot-out: Alcatel-Lucent versus AspectA Virtual Shoot-out: Alcatel-Lucent versus Aspect

The two vendors opt for virtual events to get in front of cusotmers and analysts: Who was more effective?

I just finished a total of about 7 hours in virtual events over the past two days. Here are my thoughts– good and bad – while the memories are fresh.

Alcatel-Lucent Analyst Event
* The Good News: From a production standpoint, it was much better than ALU's virtual analyst event last year.

* The Better News: The event was delivered via live video. (There was one taped segment, from AT&T speaking as an ALU customer, but that did not detract from the "live" vibe of the event.) In a setting reminiscent of a television stage, a paid-talent moderator introduced various ALU executives, asked questions delivered to him from the web interface on his au courant (and prominently displayed) iPad. He kept the 90 minute session moving along at an impressive clip. I personally submitted two questions via the online tool and they were presented to the executive team which was nice validation that they weren't just asking and answering canned questions. The ALU executives rose to the challenge of the live format and there seemed to be very little teleprompter reading going on.

* The Not-so-Good News: For the enterprise analyst, there was very little content offered. I know enterprise only represents about 10 percent of the company's revenue, but enterprise analysts were invited to the event. For us, it was like the keynote sessions of live meetings in the past without the typical market-specific breakouts that follow. I'm always happy to hear the corporate-level story, but for an enterprise analyst it was like getting the appetizer and no entree.

* Bottom line: Last year's virtual session was too long, this year it was likely too short.

Aspect Customer Experience Online
The Aspect Customer Experience (ACE) Online was a virtual user group event held in lieu of an in-person event for the first time. It included general sessions with Aspect executives, so-called "in-the-trenches" breakout sessions and the ability to network with peers via chat.

* The Good News: Aspect typically didn't invite analysts to its user group events and they haven’t had an analyst meeting since Aspect was acquired by Concerto five years ago. So a virtual event was better than the no event of years past.

* The Better News: For a first effort, Aspect did a pretty good job. Using the same VShow interface I didn’t care for last year when used by Alcatel-Lucent, Aspect managed to keep the flow going with a mix of pre-recorded video segments from user group presidents past and future, CEO Jim Foy and CTO Gary Barnett. This was mixed with two audio-only live sessions, one with three customers ably moderated by EVP Global Sales Mike Sheridan and the other an executive Q&A session. Once again, I posted questions on the live tool and was happy to see them asked of the executives.

* The Best News: Lots of good insight into the next release of Aspect’s flagship platforms. Exactly what I would expect to see at a live user group meeting and was pleasantly surprised to see offered here. Kudos to product directors Serge Hyppolite and Brett Williams for creating and delivering great main tent and breakout sessions.

* Bottom Line: 6.5 hours after it began, the number of attendees listed by the tool remained at about 85% of the peak number during the general session, a testament to the level of engagement Aspect achieved. The event was well worth the time and I'll go back over the next few days to see a few more of the breakout sessions.

Who won the shoot-out? For this enterprise-centric, contact center analyst it was no contest. Aspect won hands down.