Nextiva - What makes it different

Nextiva is a VoIP phone company whose services we use and have also implemented for several of our clients. In the last 12 months we had used and changed 2 providers. Nextiva was our 3rd try and whilst we were hoping to be 3rd time lucky. It was around 2 months since we had begun using their products and the overall experience was excellent. There were a few major disasters. But the Nextiva team worked with us through those and ensured that the issues were resolved.

Al who heads and manages the VoIP business didn't want to take any chances. And hence decided to take a trip to the Nextiva office so we could see and meet the team. He asked me to go along. It took me less than a nano second to say Yes. The reason was simple. The temperature in Connecticut was below 0 and Nextiva offices were in Arizona where the temperature was in the 70s and 80s.

We arrived at the Nextiva offices in Phoenix on Friday morning. I was stuck by the posters on the walls.

These are interesting. But not surprising. Its fashionable these days for offices to put up posters designed by HR and PR agencies that say all the right things and position the company in a good light for its visitors and employees.

We met the Sales Director Ira, who welcomed us warmly. Interestingly the first thing he did was take us on a tour of the office. It was an impressive office with several dashboards being monitored on large TV LED screens. But what caught my attention was the people. They all seemed extremely happy, smiled a lot and were genuine and warm even when they were speaking to strangers, also known as customers on the phone.

We met with Josh their CIO. I was interested in learning from him their technology platforms, their development processes and their underlying philosophy. Not surprisingly it revolved around people. The decisions were based to a large extent on what can keep people interested and engaged to do good work. We met several of the team members, all of who in addition to being extremely nice knew their stuff.

One person who made an exceptional impression on me was Paul. We already knew Paul was an amazing person just by the way he had stepped in and helped resolve the issues we had had. On meeting him we were surprised to see how young he was. And how clear he was in his concept of " We need to do Whatever it takes to meet the customers expectations".

Cara a team member described herself and everyone there when she said, "Its a great place to work where everyone is enthusiastic and bubbly and love what we do."

All of the above cannot happen by chance. It needs a leader and a visionary. I was fortunate to meet 1 of the 2 founders, Tracy. He took us for lunch and it became very clear that the founders had a clear vision of what they wanted and the fact that having a great team was the only way to get there. Whilst that was a good thing I was puzzled as it seemed to me that it cannot be enough. And then during some conversation Tracy mentioned details of some minor issues. I was curious as to how he would know, until he explained that he reviewed every single support ticket. It all started making sense.

When the founders are personally focusing on customer service and people the probability of success grows exponentially. No wonder then that the founders have tasted major success in their previous ventures. And I have no doubt that Nextiva too which is already a very successful company will be a major player in the VoIP vertical in the next couple of years.

The visiting cards of the sales and marketing teams say, "Amazing Service". The Tech team cards say, "Amazing Support'. I say "Amazing People".

The debate over Vaccines

For over 200 years vaccines have been the norm in countries all over the world. It has helped eradicate several diseases including the dreaded Polio. The major concern around vaccines seemed to be that because of the cost and logistics of getting it to every single corner of the world a significant portion of children, estimated by the WHO at around 20% were not able to receive vaccines.

It was therefore surprising to see a debate about vaccines in the US in 2015. A debate on whether parents can be compelled to have their children vaccinated. Earlier this week, the "federal government has confirmed more than 100 people across 14 states have now developed measles. Public health officials suspect the outbreak, which is concentrated in California, began when an infected person visited Disneyland in Anaheim in December."
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/5/inside_the_vaccine_war_measles_outbreak


The reasons being given for them to have a choice was the "Freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution". You would expect that these arguments were coming from a few people with radical views. These are mainly from the conservative right. I was shocked when a section of the Republican party seemed to endorse this point of view. Notable amongst them was Senator Paul Rand, who shockingly is a medical doctor. He claimed that vaccines can cause “profound mental disorders”.

Hence its no surprise that the Democrats are highlighting the dangers. Hilary Clinton contributed with her own tweet.

The point of view which advocates "Freedom" seems to have an extremely flawed understanding and interpretation of the word. "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. When a group of people demand their right to choose, they forget that their right comes secondary to the the right of everybody else's, to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Hence any action or inaction by them that leads to anybody else losing their inalienable rights cannot be a right they have.

Hence its my contention that we have the freedom of choice if and only if, it does not encroach upon others freedom of choice as well as their inalienable rights. It is my opinion that getting ones children vaccinated is not a matter of choice. It would be irresponsible not to. Irresponsible to their child as well as society which would be unnecessarily exposing its children to the totally avoidable risk of being infected. All because a group of people claim that their rights take precedence over the rights of a society.

False Memories

I've always been fascinated by friends and colleagues who thought they had great memories. They remembered almost everything. Problem was on several occasions what they remembered was no where close to what actually happened. Even when I showed them notes, they still insist their memory could not have been wrong. I've always been confused by this as on all occasions it was obvious that they truly believed what they were saying.

I recently came across a talk that addressed this issue, albeit in a much more serious way where these memory lapses had dramatic consequences. Check this out.

"Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus studies memories. More precisely, she studies false memories, when people either remember things that didn't happen or remember them differently from the way they really were. It's more common than you might think, and Loftus shares some startling stories and statistics --  and raises some important ethical questions."

Virtual Reality. A real expereince.

Yesterday Freia got home a piece of cardboard. She excitedly showed us what she called Google Cardboard. We weren't impressed.

And then she put her phone in it and asked me to take a look. It was Paul McCartney performing "Live and Let Die". It was 3D and was really good. And then Freia said, "Turn around". I did. I turned around and it was like virtual reality. And just when I thought I'd seen it all, I realized that there was more. I could look up and down and all around and it was beautiful From every position and every angle. This was Amazing.

And all the virtual reality experience needed was Google cardboard, an inexpensive piece of cardboard and a regular Android phone. This is an experience you've got to have. So go get yourself a Google Cardboard. Or better still, build one.