Uc Today - Out Loud

Customer Contact Week is arguably the biggest and most important contact centre, CX and customer care event on the planet. This year's event starts on the 18th of June in Las Vegas and UC Today will be there to bring you all of news. One of the biggest and most exciting brands attending will be Five9 who provide leading cloud contact centre software. In this episode we speak to them to preview the event to find out why it is so important for providers of CX enablers. 

Unified Communication platforms are some of the most important business systems utilised by organisations. Providing the vital links between departments, colleagues, partners and customers they are the lifeblood of nearly all industries. But are they working to their full potential? Research conducted by UC management specialists Virsae indicates that many are not. Over provisioning, inefficient design and underutilised capacity are just some of their many findings which could be costing businesses millions worldwide. We hear from Virsae about the research and look at the best ways for businesses to try and improve their systems. 

May has been a huge month for Cisco, following all the April news from their collaboration summit where they announced the end of Spark. The rebranding in full began in earnest in May. We follow up all the news and look at the changes that have come into force. Most of these changes seem to be in line with a general transition in terms of strategy from Cisco, where they are looking to focus more one product set, Webex. There was also some breaking news in terms of departures so we explore those as well. 

Digital and business transformation is one of the main focus areas for organisations looking to modernise and ensure they remain relevant within their industries. Avaya have a huge customer base and their latest promotion is designed to help their customers on their transformation journeys. For every organisation digital transformation is a unique process but Avaya are in a critical position to help their customers examine their communication platforms to ensure that they enable the benefits that transformation can bring. 

Emerging technologies like AI are really creating a buzz within the industry, but how do customers take advantage of the benefits? Pure-cloud communications provider Dialpad are here to help. They have added a specialist AI business TalkIQ to their platform and plan to enhance their existing proposition by adding further AI features and tools to their three main business offerings. 

RingCentral were one of the biggest brands at UC EXPO 2018, we hear from them about their attendance at the event and some of the main trends from this year. Once we hear about their expo exploits we then move on to get their take on the current communication industry. 

Toll fraud has for a too long been a major problem within the UK Communications industry. Every year businesses fall victim to various sophisticated schemes which run up huge bills and leave the businesses to pick up the tab. In today's episode we host a panel of expert guests who all see fraud from a different angle within the UK. Tollring are specialists in fraud detection and prevention and they are joined by their partners BT and Daisy Group to discuss the issues and how the industry can better deal with this threat. 

Communication and internet privacy is a hot topic, not just within industry but around the world globally. Government, big business and cyber-crime networks are all working to track and utilise data gleaned from your user activities, whether that’s what you look at or who you communicate with. Providing insights on how to ensure your privacy online BestVPN not only offer comparative VPN reviews but also other insights onto how to try and keep your data private online.

UC EXPO is Europe's biggest communication and collaboration event and 2018 did not disappoint. UC Today attended the event as media partners so in this episode of the Out Loud podcast we take you through all of the main news from the show. From Cisco through to Microsoft and stopping off on the way to discuss the emerging technologies on show at the event, we cover off all of the news for you if you weren't able to make it to the Excel in London.

GDPR comes into force on Friday the 25th of May and the hugely anticipated deadline has created so much buzz in the industry. A set of regulations that further enforce and tighten the restrictions around organisations and businesses managing the personal data and privacy of EU citizens. There are threats of huge fines for those who don’t comply with the new regulations. We speak to Five9 about how they have been preparing and helping their customers to be as ready as possible.

Slack recently announced they have reached an impressive 8 million daily users. So in this episode we speak to them to get their take on the current collaboration market. Since their inception the market has changed dramatically and many new players have entered as competitors. Not only has the competition increased but the market dynamic has changed with a much greater uptake of collaboration tools, like Slack, rapidly expanding the available market for providers.

Creating the optimal user experience is often the main focus for collaboration technology providers but if you don’t meet the general requirements of business it's redundant. Enterprise organisations must ensure security and compliance when looking to implement technology solutions. What are the main considerations for businesses and how can they manage their own requirements for deployment and management whilst enabling users to operate the solutions easily? In this episode we speak to DisplayNote to find out how they address this.

There have been some major changes within Cisco's collaboration unit recently with the rebrand to Webex and some senior staff departing. During a partner collaboration event in London we caught up with Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's collaboration unit Snorre Kjesbu. Snorre was presenting at the event, which took place on the top floor of the Shard building in London and we had the chance to discuss all things collaboration.

As an expert in the field Brian Martin talks to us about voice biometrics. Fingerprints and DNA have long been used within the security industries and law enforcement to identify criminals and fraudsters. The next phase in within security provision maybe a voice database. Companies like Spitch have developed speech solutions to such a degree that keeping the voices of criminals or fraudsters in a database could prevent some of the most common fraudulent tactics that the industry falls victim to currently. We hear from the speech solution specialists about how voice solutions can assist in compliance and how the solutions can assist within all industries when it comes to avoid fraud.

Deployment and management of IP devices has been a headache for organisations, resellers and distributors historically. Solutions that can assist with this often time consuming and inefficient process are invaluable. In today's podcast we hear from Swoop Datacom and Westcon about ForgeServe a solution that can revolutionise device deployments.

Omnichannel communication is one of the hottest trends within unified communications and collaboration technology but in today's episode we focus on voice. The most traditional communication method between customer and organisations voice is still the most important tool in customer service. Red Box Recorders specialise in voice capture and understand the use of voice more than most so we put our questions to them to try and understand more about how it has developed historically. 

April 2018 has proved to be one of the hottest months in Unified Communications and collaboration with loads of breaking news. Publisher of UC Today Rob Scott joins Patrick for a review of the month where they discuss all the biggest and most popular stories. The pair also look ahead to the month of May to speculate about what may occur and examine some of the upcoming deadlines such as GDPR. 

Has the realisation that customer service and CX is the most important factor within business finally dawned on global industry? One of the buzz phrases within UC and C currently, it appears that many organisations have realised that the customer and their experiences are so critical to enable business success. Today on Out Loud we discuss the provision of customer service and how technology platforms are important but not the most vital factor in providing great customer services. 

One of the fastest growing cloud platforms is CCaaS and one of the leading providers for workforce optimisation is Calabrio who understand the benefits. This podcast explores the importance of customer service and how cloud platforms can enhance an organisation’s ability to provide great service. 

Emerging technologies and UC and C platforms within organisations are often cited as being critical to the success of the business but really the people and staff using the systems are more important. User uptake when it comes to technology is crucial to any deployment's success. But how do you know you have the right people to fully utilise technology in the first place? Recruitment, staff training and employee satisfaction are critical factors and today on Out Loud we examine those.