Uc Today - Out Loud

Presenter Patrick brings you the latest news update from 2019. The UC Today News Update will bring you regular videos and podcasts summarising the biggest stories from the worlds of unified communications, collaboration and customer experience.

There have been some pretty major developments in the worlds of Cisco communication and collaboration over the past few weeks. Some further details have emerged clarifying Cisco's provision of cloud calling within its Webex platform. In this episode the guys analyse the latest news in terms of Webex Calling and PSTN provision. As well as the latest platform updates they also explore Cisco's product portfolio in terms of hardware. The new Cisco headsets complete the full stack solution which can offer a host of benefits to organisations as a whole. Get all of the latest feature update news and some speculation about possible future developments in this episode. 

The primary communication method used between businesses and their customers is still voice. The rise of omnichannel communication has increased the mediums by which customers can communicate, but voice still leads the way providing the richest interactions. Being able to fully utilise and analyse the data gleaned from voice interactions is critical for businesses to understand and enhance their own performance. Red Box is a global leader when it comes to understanding and leveraging the power of voice data and in this podcast we explore how it helps some of its partners do exactly that. Red Box provide the crucial data and its partners have worked to develop innovative solutions that can transform business processes. We hear from a selection of Red Box partners about how they use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to leverage voice data to develop transformative use cases.

There is a lot of hype within the industry about the potential for CPaaS, communications platform as a service, to transform business communication globally. Leading communications specialist and software provider, Ribbon Communications, has recently unveiled the results of a global survey analysing the procurement plans for organisations of all sizes. The results show that around the globe businesses are looking to the latest technology platforms to enhance their business processes and adopting CPaaS platforms appears to be of burgeoning interest. 

Contact Centre providers throughout the industry are looking for ways to enhance their platforms to improve potential CX provision for end customers. Many are looking to emerging technologies to provide the next generation of innovation that will drive improvements. Google Cloud Contact Center AI is pioneering development in the sector looking to improve customer experience as well as streamlining operational efficiency. Customer experience and contact centre technology specialists Genesys first partnered with Google over a year ago and in this episode we hear about why they are extending the scope of the integration.

Contact centre is one of the communication industry's most innovative sectors. In this episode we are joined by both Mitel and Talkdesk to discuss the latest announcement, that they will partner to provide an enhanced enterprise contact centre solution. At first the partnership might sound like a strange marriage Mitel, giants in the traditional communications market, and Talkdesk, new kids on the block in CCaaS provision, but dig a little deeper and all sorts of benefits appear. The partnership will form a new product in the Mitel portfolio, MiCloud Connect CX, an all-in-one contact centre powered by Talkdesk in the cloud. Today we hear all about the new arrangement from both parties. 

Presenter Patrick brings you the latest news update from 2019. The UC Today News Update will bring you regular videos and podcasts summarising the biggest stories from the worlds of unified communications, collaboration and customer experience.

Enterprise Connect is arguably the biggest event on the unified communications and collaboration calendar. Collaboration technology and platforms are taking a more prominent role every year and 2019 is no exception. With the rising popularity of platforms like Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Teams and Slack, more and more organisations are finding themselves in the difficult position of having to select a single platform to move forward with, but what if they didn’t have to choose? Mio enables seamless communication between workplace chat apps and at this year's Enterprise Connect they took the award for Best Innovation for Collaboration. In this episode we hear from their CEO to find out more about the platform and get his reaction to their success.

Industry events and trade shows often encounter the same issues, they are expensive and inconvenient for vendors, sponsors and attendees alike. The concept behind Collaboration Week NY 19 was to rectify some of these issues by providing a smaller, local and more focused event to provide everyone involved with the benefits whilst avoiding some of the usual draw backs. The event provided the opportunity for attendees to visit manufacturer, service provider and end-user venues in the New York City area alongside their UC and Collaboration colleagues and peers. Including site tours, presentations, panel discussions and thought leadership content the event concluded at the end of February and in this episode we review some of the main takeaways. 

Technology trends impact all areas of business as they permeate and enhance the platforms that they operate. UCaaS platforms are becoming increasingly popular with businesses looking to leverage the benefits they can offer in terms of functionality and flexibility. But what are the latest technology trends that are going to impact the next generation of UCaaS platforms? In this episode we try to find out by examining the next wave of technological developments that will transform the capabilities of UCaaS systems.

Unified Communications as a service, or UCaaS, is now a well-established market globally. Organisations understand the potential benefits of 'as a service' or cloud delivery models which offer them the flexibility, scalability and security to stay ahead of their competition. Another huge benefit to such a model is the ability to quickly uptake and deploy new features and functions, as well as incorporating multimedia communication methods. As UCaaS is now established as the primary growth area within communications we wanted to find out what the future might hold for the platforms in terms of development and innovation. One of the market leaders in the UCaaS field join us in the podcast to look into their crystal ball to imagine what the future might hold for the world of UCaaS.

It has been a little while since the last Cisco podcast. In this episode we take a look at the latest news since the final recording of 2018. There haven't been any dramatic announcements but more messaging has been coming out of the Cisco Collaboration division reaffirming their commitment to their collaboration principles. Simplification and interoperability are increasingly important but the focus on cognitive collaboration is increasing as Cisco try to use their expertise to bring more and more context into collaborative experiences.

Last week UC Today bought you the news that Gartner, the world's leading research and advisory company have scrapped their magic quadrant for unified communications. Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) refer to a series of market research reports that rely on data analysis methods to demonstrate market trends, such as direction, maturity and participants. The unified communication quadrant has been stagnating for quite a while and the news that Gartner are now scrapping it hasn’t come as a surprise to the industry. In this episode I am joined by RingCentral who give us their reaction to the decision and analyse some of the reasons behind it.

Providing customers with exemplary experiences is undoubtedly hugely important for businesses. Now more than ever customer experience is one of the most crucial differentiating factors for organisations to stand out from the crowd and get ahead of their competitors. Providing great experiences isn't always easy and organisations must consider the security and privacy implications of the latest innovative platform that could improve their service provision. In today's episode we speak to the experts to find out how businesses can ensure that their customer's security and privacy is maintained whilst giving them the best possible customer journeys.  

During January we focused on some of the emerging technology trends within CPaaS platforms and now we hear about another potential development from TeleSign. Telesign are one of the world's leading providers of global customer identity and engagement solutions and they have been pioneering work around mobile, or phone, number identification. The premise of being recognised by a brand by your phone number rather than a username, or other detail, has various advantages and we explore some of the potential applications within business in this episode.

Being able to offer customers a truly reliable, scalable and secure collaboration platform isn't always easy for resellers and service providers. Choosing the right platforms to invest in and then having the capability to provide them as a global solution are often hurdles too high to overcome. As one of the world's leading providers of telecommunication networks Telstra are determined to help their partners do exactly that. That’s why they have been working with Cisco to develop a cloud collaboration platform that allows partners to own the customer relationship but in turn provide those customers with a tailored solution that offers enterprise quality and scalability. Telstra Cloud Collaboration with Cisco, or TCC, utilises Telstra's enterprise global network in conjunction with Cisco's HCS to create a tantalising offering for partners. In this episode we speak to Telstra to find out all about it.

UCaaS is one of the fastest growing technology markets globally. With the proportion of cloud communication deployments increasing, more and more organisations are looking to leverage UCaaS platforms. For service providers and resellers the market is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive forcing them to uncover the latest innovations to differentiate their offerings. Mobile native services are now one of the highest priorities for the modern business so being able to offer customers a truly enhanced mobile experience could be of huge value to providers. Metaswitch have launched their new Max UC platform that promises to redefine Mobile Native Business Communications and Collaboration Services. They join us today to tell us all about it.

As our January focus on CPaaS draws to a close we wanted to look ahead to see what future developments might be in store. Market leaders Twilio have been developing CPaaS for a number of years and in this episode they look at innovations that might formulate the future of the platform. Traditionally CPaaS platforms have offered integrations with voice, chat and SMS functionality but the capabilities of the platform are yet to be fully realised. How will emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, XR and bots be utilised in the CPaaS platforms of the future? We speak to the experts to find out. 

Historically contact centres have acted as the main conduit between customers and businesses but the means in which consumers want to reach out has transformed in recent years. Consumers are demanding more when it comes to their interactions with organisations and now businesses are looking to provide a more proactive approach to service. How do you provide a truly proactive customer service experience? In this episode we examine the main benefits of proactive service, for both consumers and businesses, as well as the crucial factors that need to come together to enable this.

In this episode of Out Loud we look ahead to the Cloud Comms Summit which will be taking place in London in March. Hosted by the Cavell Group the event promises to be a key gathering for the Service Provider community. As thought-leaders in the European future voice and VoIP marketplace Cavell Group provide analytics and insights across the industry. Later this year they will be hosting their Cloud Comms Summit in London and we will be there to bring you all the news and key themes from the event. Today we preview the event which will provide the platform for Service Providers in the cloud communications industry to share best practices, discuss key trends and meet the biggest industry vendors.