Author Wall of Fame: Paul Stockford

Wall of Fame / Jun 2020 / Wall of Fame

In recognition and appreciation to Paul Stockford, Founder, President and Chief Analyst, Saddletree Research, our June 2020 Wall of Fame Author.

Area of expertise:

Demand-based contact center market trends, issues and opportunities.

What is your background in the industry?

Began as an industry analyst at Dataquest in 1989 and have been in the industry ever since. After four years as Group Director of the Telecom and Datacom Group at Cahners In-Stat Group, I founded Saddletree Research on November 1, 1999, and have never looked back.

What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

Going out on my own as an analyst, knowing that I would be shunned or not given a chance by most larger companies, and would be ignored by companies with Gartner/Forrester tunnel vision. Saddletree is still here 21 years later and a lot of the companies that wouldn’t even consider working with Saddletree aren’t. Sorry Nortel.

What do you see as the greatest challenge facing the contact center industry?

Modernizing. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting scrambling by many contact centers to set up a home-agent workforce and AI-enabled solutions so they could continue their customer care mission has been a real wake-up call for the industry. The challenge will be to get funding, modernize technology, ensure business continuity plans are in place, and learn best practices and management appropriate for the “new normal.”

What would contact center folks be surprised to learn about you?

To quote Rockin’ Rod Stewart, “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”