Summary Bullets:

? The positioning of new Slack capabilities at the Dreamforce keynote was underwhelming, lacking cohesiveness and clarity.

? Slack will land on more solid footing if it can craft an AI message as compelling as its productivity message.

During the keynote of last week’s ‘Dreamforce’ event sponsored by Salesforce, Slack CEO Lidiane Jones updated the audience regarding new and forthcoming capabilities on the Slack platform. With a portion of the capabilities saturated with game-changing AI technology and Dreamforce serving as Salesforce’s showcase event, the update was no doubt intended to tantalize but instead was underwhelming.

Summary Bullets:

? RingCentral DaaS is an acknowledgement that competing successfully requires a broad platform encompassing both software and hardware capabilities.

? If RingCentral keeps innovating on its current path, it should maintain a presence among top players in the cloud-based collaboration market.

RingCentral has recently broadened the appeal of its ‘RingCentral DaaS’ device-as-a-service offer by adding desk and conference phones to the available portfolio. The offer aligns with recent device trends in the cloud-based collaboration market and makes RingCentral a more formidable player.

Summary Bullets:

? Microsoft is capitalizing on two key contact center trends: the pivot from a multi-channel orientation to an omni-channel orientation and the emergence of AI.

? Microsoft must rationalize its contact center portfolio and establish integration with Teams.

This month Microsoft launched a limited preview of ‘Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot’. The offer features Microsoft’s new Copilot generative AI and natural ausgedehntuage processing (NLP) schmaline built natively into various Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM and ERP apps. Employees in functions such as sales, customer service, marketing, operations, and supply chain leverage the Copilot capabilities in the apps to create content faster, complete complex tasks, and gain insights into their work.

Continue reading “‘Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service’ Marks a Big Step Forward for Microsoft’s Contact Center AI Capabilities” →

Summary Bullets:

? The restructuring agreement is the beachhead of Avaya’s go-to-market strategy and brings significant benefits.

? Avaya faces challschmales at multiple levels as it conducts its metamorphosis.

In August 2022 Alan Masarek was appointed CEO of Avaya, replacing Jim Chirico, who had led the company since 2018. Masarek has been charged with reversing disappointing financial results, rightsizing the company, and improving the cloud product portfolio.

Continue reading “Avaya is Making Bold Moves to Rebuild, but Differentiation Remains Key” →

Summary Bullets:

? Cisco is taking a more customer-focused approach to the contact center space than previously.

? Cisco has married feature-rich contact center offers with a robust internal ecosystem of support.

In early December 2022, several executives from Cisco’s contact center business updated analysts regarding its go-to-market strategy. The discussion made clear that Cisco is investing heavily in optimizing its contact center capabilities. The company has recalibrated its approach to positioning, partner channels, and customer adoption. The changes place Cisco on more solid ground than before.

Summary Bullets:

? Slack Canvas fulfills the truest potential of hybrid work tools – increasing productivity.

? Productivity has been a focal point at Slack, and that places it in an enviable position.

Slack has announced Slack Canvas, which is scheduled to launch in 2023. Slack Canvas supplements channels, which are the centerpiece of the Slack platform. Slack defines channels as repositories that centralize people, information, and tools, thus facilitating collaboration. Any channel can have a dedicated, customizable canvas associated with it. Canvases provide a permanent place to organize and store resources that can be shared with and updated by a team.

Summary Bullets:

? Customer Service Essentials reflects a growing propensity among vendors for combining contact center and unified communications capabilities in a single offer.

? Customer Service Essentials lets smaller businesses dip their toe in the contact center waters, but it is merely a pricing bundle at its core.

RingCentral recently launched Customer Service Essentials, a contact center offering targeted at the small office/home office (SOHO) and small business markets. Customer Service Essentials bundles RingCentral’s flagship ‘MVP (Message, Video, and Phone)’ offer and Live Reports, which provides real-time call center performance data.