The People I Work For

The People I Work For

How a minute long commercial reminded me of what really matters

I don’t usually watch commercials. Between my wife, my son, and my dog there is always someone in the room more important to me than whatever ads are trying to sell me. The other night there was one ad I couldn’t turn away from, however. It spoke to the heart of the work I do. In the middle of the Boston Celtics playing the Milwaukee Bucks GE ran a commercial with a beautiful tagline: “Technology is how we do things.People are why we do things.”

In 12 words the marketing gurus at GE summarized everything I do as CTO at Zappix. Every day I push our technology to the next milestone. My team and I are constantly exploring the best ways to grow Zappix technology. Programming and building technology is how I make Zappix better, but the reason I have the motivation to put all of that time and energy into the company I work for are the people our technology serves.

“I have one main objective: making life easier for the people who use our technology.”

At the end of the day those people, the customers of our customers, are the why behind what I do. The world of technology is constantly shifting. There will always be better, faster, and more efficient technologies being developed. As CTO it’s my job to make sure everything we implement at Zappix stays focused on one main objective: making life easier for the people who use our technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs50FL9lC9w

What I Do Every Day

Sometimes keeping our goal in mind can be a daunting process. The contact center world is currently exploding with new technology and amazing potential. The temptation as a tech lover is to get sucked into the coolest new development without thinking through the entire process. Virtual Assistants, Conversational Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and more three letter acronyms than I’d like to think about are bounced around the office every day. NLP, RPA, AI, TTS, ASR, the list is seemingly endless and yet I’m tasked with managing it all.

The only way to see through the clutter and recognize the best technology to integrate into the Zappix platform is to remember the goal. NLP (natural-language processing) is impactful because it can make interacting with Visual IVR as simple and pleasant as talking to a friend.RPA(robotic process automation) gives the interactions users have with Zappix real results without the need to involve a contact center agent. AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning can help our entire platform adapt to the tendencies of users and make an already fast experience even more efficient. At the end of the day, the most important technology we can build is the technology that impacts our users in the best possible way.

Why I Do What I Do

The magic of Steve Jobs and the rise of Apple was never because they used the most advanced technology. The company has always had competition that comes close to matching their technical specifications. Apple grew to the massive enterprise we see today because through all their advancements and every new product Steve Jobs kept his mission in mind: the best user experience is a simple one the user doesn’t even need to think about. I take the same approach at Zappix. I know the myriad of complex automation and technology that run our self-service platforms, but I want the user journey to be so straightforward and efficient users never need to think about the amazing technology serving them. Users want results right now in the most simple to use platform they can find. That’s why I build what I build.

Simple, straightforward, customer service success. As CTO the technology I create is important, but it’s not truly my main focus. Traditional IVR systems force consumers to sink time and effort into a tiresome process. Zappix self-service platforms transform the user journey during contact center interactions. That’swhat I do.The people I work for are the people that use Zappix to solve their problems. My work can make their complicated lives just a bit easier.

That’s why I do what I do