This Month in Telecom: October 2018
This Month in Telecom is a monthly news round-up on VoipReview.org that aims to give our readers a fast and easy way to catch up on the latest news and top stories that are trending in the voice and telecommunications space. Check in every month to find out more about stories you may have missed in regards to new companies, mergers, trends, and other telecom advancements.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories in telecom for the month of October.
RingCentral Completes Acquisition of Dimelo
California-based global enterprise communications and collaboration solutions provider, RingCentral (NYSE:RNG), announced this month that it has completed the acquisition of Dimelo, a leading cloud-based digital customer engagement platform headquartered in Paris, France.
The acquisition enables RingCentral to accelerate enterprise transformation to deliver next-generation digital customer experiences and further solidify their position as the #1 cloud communications provider in the world. The deal also enables both companies to help empower agents by efficiently managing customer interactions across digital channels through a single interface with Dimelo’s AI-based smart routing engine.
Vlad Shmunis, the chairman, founder, and CEO of RingCentral, has this to say about the latest acquisition:
“Dimelo enables us to deliver on our vision to empower people to communicate and collaborate using any mode of choice. Through our strategic acquisition of Dimelo, we are continuing to strengthen and deepen our product portfolio of next-generation customer engagement solutions to meet customers’ preferences for interacting with businesses using digital channels.”
Recent Global Survey Reveals Steadfast Growth and Expanding Use of Embedded Videos for Customer Engagement
Vidyo, Inc., the leader in integrated real-time video collaboration solutions for businesses, recently partnered with BlogGeek.me, a specialist in WebRTC, to unveil their latest study focusing on the growth and expanding use of real-time video applications in businesses.
The report entitled The Rise of Embedded Video Communications: Video Becomes Mission Critical for Customer Engagement revealed that 80% of product development professionals feel that embedded video is crucial to support customer engagement. The report also highlights that more than 65% of the surveyed participants indicated plans to embed videos into their applications in the next 12 months, an increase of 35% from last year.
Gary Schwartz, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Vidyo, has this to say about their latest findings. “These results show that real-time embedded video is fast becoming a vital factor in customer communication strategies across vertical markets,” said Schwartz. “Research indicates that with so many interactions shifting to self-service, customer service organizations find that the more complex the request, the more appropriate the video channel is for resolution.”
8×8 Launches Enterprise-Grade Team Messaging Solution to Deliver Better Customer Experiences
To help enterprises deliver better customer experiences at scale, 8×8, Inc. (NYSE:EGHT), leading communications provider of cloud voice, video, collaboration and contact center solutions, announced the integration of Team Messaging into the 8×8 X Series solution. Through this integration, 8×8 enables teams to easily connect and collaborate in real time, thereby helping businesses to transform their employee and customer experience with one system of engagement across video, voice, collaboration, and contact center and one system of intelligence on a unified cloud platform.
Dejan Deklich, the Chief Product Officer at 8×8, has this to say about their latest product offering:
“8×8 X Series with Team Messaging allows companies to standardize on one cloud communications platform. This helps all employees communicate and collaborate more effectively with each other, and optimize every moment of engagement with customers and partners.”
Key features and benefits of the 8×8 X Series with Team Messaging include:
- Automated deployment capabilities for enterprise-wide scale and adoption.
- Public rooms for cross-department and cross-organization collaboration.
- Searchable archives for capturing and retaining institutional knowledge.
- Private rooms for select audiences.
- Interoperability with third-party messaging platforms.
Fuze Rolls Out New Product Enhancements to Redefine Communication and Collaboration for the Mobile-First Workforce
Recognizing the challenges facing today’s mobile workers, Fuze, the leading cloud-based communications and collaboration platform provider, has recently rolled out new enhancements to their unified collaboration platform. The new enhancements to the Fuze Platform help increase choice, safety, and flexibility for mobile users with rich app functionality for smartphones and tablets.
“Fuze extends the power of the Fuze unified collaboration platform to mobile workers, enabling them to seamlessly participate and contribute to workflows regardless of their physical location,” said Derek Yoo, the Chief Product Officer and Co-founder at Fuze. “By managing connectivity challenges, addressing the increased possibilities enabled by the availability of 5G and IoT use cases, and providing one-click access to meetings and the sharing of documents, Fuze allows mobile workers to focus on more productive tasks.”
Additionally, Fuze offers mobile users with a plethora of options for personalization, including programmable muting, snoozing cycles, and customized shortcuts and widgets. These additions help mobile workers control how and when they stay connected, empowering them to do their work anytime and with any device they prefer.
Votacall Adds Speech Enabled Call Center to the Chitchat SaaS Speech Suite
In keeping with the company’s promise to “elevate a call center’s ability to deliver an enhanced, always-on customer experience”, Votacall, the leading provider of hosted VoIP solutions and business communications system, has added Speech Enabled Call Center functionality to its enterprise SaaS speech suite.
This new addition to the Votacall chitchat SaaS product helps simplify queue and streamline resource management by offering an Agent one-touch access that allows users to enter and exit a Call Center Queue at any time and from anywhere, with the use of any device. Additionally, the newest enhancement addresses Call Center Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery functionality, processes, and plans as chitchat helps to simplify an agent’s ability to truly be always-on and anywhere.
Andy DeAngelis, the Chief Operating Officer at Votacall, has this to say about their latest product offering:
“There is an absolute need in the call center space for simple to access and simple to use features that promote the distributed call center and always-on, anywhere agent. Votacall chitchat with speech-enabled call center addresses this need. We believe that this Cloud-based Speech feature will be a tremendous advantage and value to our hosted VoIP call center clients.”
Windstream Enterprise Unveils Its Latest Unified Communications Enhancement
To give enterprises and mid-market businesses the opportunity to unify all communications channels and increases customer experiences, Windstream Enterprise (WE), the Arkansas-based provider of advanced network communications solutions has enhanced its XCaaS service. This latest enhancement takes advantage of Mitel’s 4.1 version of its industry-leading UCaaS and CCaaS solutions to deliver full omnichannel contact center capabilities to support better communication and collaboration for businesses.
“As next generations enter the workforce, demand for different types and channels of customer interactions are increasingly based on where, when and how the customer wants to engage,” said Austin Herrington, the Vice President of Product Management at Windstream Enterprise. “Organizations that can deliver a truly differentiated and superior customer experience perform better, operate more efficiently and can quickly develop market loyalty. This additional service offering helps create that environment.”
