How Nextiva is Unifying Business Phone Systems with Nextiva’s CIO: Josh Lesavoy

Brief Interview with Nextiva’s CIO who has played a significant role in the company's development. This interview is brought to you by Rich Technology Group.

Introduction of the Host:

Acting as a core team member of Nextiva from day one, Josh Lesavoy is Nextiva’s Chief Information Officer who has played a significant role in the company's development. The primary responsibilities of Josh include handling system infrastructure, network, IT, networking across the world, and ensure smooth service to customers.
 
After having an interview with Josh Lesavoy, we discovered a lot regarding the field. When asked about the revolutionizing the business communication world, Josh got into the details of the challenges faced, upcoming plans and products, and the company’s direction toward customer satisfaction.

​Josh also shared details regarding Nextiva’s contribution in the recent events in the past two to three years and how this platform has supported the need to work from home. In this interview, Rich Technology Group has covered how Nextiva integrates with existing systems, what makes Nextiva stand out in the industry and other exciting details.  Watch the Complete video of the Nextiva’s CIO; Josh Lesavoy, conducted by Rich Tehcnology Group.
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 ​What is Nextiva, and what do you guys offer? 

Josh explained Nextiva is a VOIP Communication company for businesses. He explained that the people at Nextiva always had the vision to offer business communication services to connect. Offering voice, video, collaboration, and other services and products along with the multi-channel solution, Josh added that Nextiva serves more than a hundred thousand businesses worldwide and has got contact centers, CRM, and innovative business communication solutions. 
 
Nextiva operates on their custom-designed platform named NextOS that has integrated and streamlined most of the communication on a single forum. To learn about the in-depth details and how it has modernized the old phone system, we asked Josh the following question: 

​What does updating the old phone system look like? 

Josh replied that it is essential to talk about their journey before answering this question. Following up on the details, Josh said that Nextiva started providing VOIP services from the cloud. There were not many solutions working on the cloud-based system at that time, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Their goal was to make things flow from cloud to cloud, so they built this platform for businesses of all sizes. It marked their beginning.
 
According to Josh, the modernization began in 2014 when Nextiva created its NextOS platform.
 
 Josh: Platform is just a generic term now, but what it means is creating a single place where all your business communication tools, applications, channels, and everything is unified by one experience.
 
Josh answered that as a customer, you need single login for everything no matter you are using call queues, CRM data, sales, leads, etc. The point is to add everything to one place by providing it through one platform. Nextiva, can provide accurate and actionable data, which is something no one else is doing.
 
Nextiva does provide the ability to collaborate with existing platforms and systems. It offers several tools, an easy integration system, and a top-rated support team that has shifted businesses of all sizes. As several companies fear to adapt to new systems, our next question to Nextiva’s CIO was:

How Nextiva integrates with existing systems, and how it offers everything under one roof? 

Josh answered this question by replying that Nextiva launched its NextOS platform and that release was a significant step in providing a more accessible and single pane of glass experience. He added that the key is that the customers do not require our help, but they can get self-help and perform self-service, and that was possible by making the platform intuitive. Josh also explained about Nextiva’s upcoming service named Nextiva Connect. 
 
Josh: Soon, we’ll launch Nextiva Connect, where you have one screen to look at, and all communication is visible in one view. You can manage history and conversations with customers. The customer's whole story is in one place, so we have an idea when they call.
 
Josh further added that they'd be able to take the data through APIs and the whole vision and complete view of customers become visible.
 
With the recent events of the pandemic, the need to work remotely or on the go became an essential element in the business industry. In situations like these, effective communication mediums and resources were a requirement. As Nextiva has played an enormous impact to minimize the communication gap in times like these, the next question that followed Josh was:

How is Nextiva answering the need to work from home or work remotely at this point?
 
 Josh answered this question by saying Nextiva is a cloud-based service, and it does provide a full-speed collaboration system. Because of this, they were already in a position to help businesses work from home. Nextiva’s service was used in healthcare, airline, restaurant chains, etc. They distributed the company throughout the country, which was essentially the use case for most of their users.
 
Josh: We were evolving and innovating quickly, so as a company, we have been very fortunate because we were already in that position, and we are happy that we were able to help so many businesses survive and stay alive. We get message after message from people about how they could survive because of our products and services. It makes me feel good about it.
 
Next, we asked Josh about Nextiva’s upcoming plans and how it explores the new horizons of the telecommunication and VOIP platforms. The complete question was:

Is there anything else that you like to share on the horizon or is new or upcoming at Nextiva? 

Josh: What we are doing now is just scratching the surface of what is possible. The vision is to purpose the NextOS to focus on human-to-human connection and ensure that the customer is being served through automation and technology.
 
Josh further added that the faster you resolve customers' problems, the happier they are. So, the goal is to work through customers' data and interactions using the platform, so they don't have to call you, chat with you, etc. Considering human connection as the most aspect of the business, Josh added that creating a meaningful relationship is essential to Nextiva, so they power human relations and work on automation to provide convenience.

What are some of the things you guys feel make you different and stand out from other Businesses out there? 

Josh considered several things that made Nextiva stand out from others in the industry, such as team, collaboration, right combination, fantastic support team, advanced technology, and risk-taking.
 
Josh: The number one thing is our team. We are blessed to have great people. We have a pretty decent number of people that are still there from the beginning. Every team member adds value. It is incredible to me, especially now, how so many people have really stepped up and just got extra engaged to help the customers. We have the right combination.
 
The other thing that Josh regarded important is the direct involvement of the business founders in the activities. By saying that Nextiva has the best support and technology team, Josh appraised all the members.
 
Josh: The core requirement of having a reliable network has set us apart and has enabled us to accelerate. We have made mistakes, learned from them for the benefit of our customers, and that has helped us as well.


What sized company does Nextiva tend to work with? Is there any size restriction? What kind of industries can benefit the most from Nextiva’s services? 

Josh answered that in the beginning, their average business size was tiny. Most of them were home-based. As the technology matured, the size of the businesses also grew. Today, most of the companies Nextiva works with having small to medium size. It also has a lot of large enterprise customers. Answering Nextiva’s relation with different industries, Josh added that some of the most significant healthcare, restaurant chains, legal, and many businesses having distributive workforce get Nextiva’s services. 


How Nextiva is a good fit for a potential customer? 
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Josh: Any good business will do their research, and they will find that Nextiva is a top provider in the VOIP space. I would encourage them to reach out to us. When they go through the decision-making process, we show them the demos and find out what best for their business needs.
 

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