Enterprise connect 2022 is now one for the history books, but there is still news that (we) have yet to cover - coming out from the event.
During Enterprise Connect 2022, held (on March 21-24), Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a new set of machine learning-powered capabilities. The new features enable contact center managers to enhance forecasting precision, capacity planning, and scheduling for contact center workloads.
This, not only; has massive customer service implications like shorter wait times, but it also means reducing some of the strain felt by agents and managers who have to address rising ques. In a statement, an AWS spokesperson told GetVoIP News:
"Building on Amazon Connect’s existing capabilities, our new services will help contact centers better predict customer service workloads, determine ideal staffing levels, and schedule agents accordingly, reducing manual, error-prone work."
The ML application, a seemingly practical one, allows Amazon Connect users to predict customer service levels while determining how many one might deploy to staff customer queries. These new capabilities are another step in Amazon Connect’s strategy to help its customers easily optimize the whole contact center.
Leveraging machine learning and analytics technology -Amazon Connect will also soon anticipate incoming voice and chat channel ques. As such, AWS says the technology can then project how many agents are needed to perform the duties of that workload. It can then automatically create schedules based on the customer’s historical data in Amazon Connect.
Amazon Connect Targets Agent Accuracy
Amazon Connect, according to AWS, now supports tens of thousands of AWS customers. Those customers, also according to AWS, support more than 10 million contact center interactions each day - using the contact center platform.
With that front (of) mind - AWS hopes to extend a lot of value to these customers, noting that its customers using Amazon Connect’s new capabilities can achieve forecast accuracy as high as 99%. When it comes to staffing efficiency, that number could climb as high as five percent. AWS went on to say:
"Contact centers represent one of the most critical venues for businesses to interact with their customers," hence the push for greater accuracy during contact center interactions. The company further noted:
"The ideal number of agents to address inbound inquiries is necessary for businesses to provide a positive customer experience and manage their contact center operational costs, 75%, driven by staffing."
Amazon wants to replace many outdated processes that contact centers use to make some of these determinations. "Some organizations still use spreadsheets to manually forecast customer demand and schedule agents accordingly, which is labor-intensive and inefficient," AWS wrote in a blog post. The company notes that others still rely on costly and difficult-to-integrate third-party solutions that deliver (what it calls) a "disjointed experience."
Amazon Connect's new ML features are now available in preview - free of charge for select connect customers in the U.S. East (N. Virginia) and U.S. West (Oregon) regions. AWS said that it is working on support for Europe: more specifically, London (initially). Services will be available in the Asia Pacific region: Sydney in the coming months.
Once available generally, the ML capabilities will follow Amazon Connect’s pay-as-you-go pricing model once generally available.
8x8 at Enterprise Connect 2022
As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, there was tons of news to make it out of the conference, and 8x8, per usual - made quite a few announcements. During the 2022 conference - it launched several new XCaaS (Experience Communications as a Service) features that include:
The industry’s first integrated cloud phone and contact center solution in the Philippines, which the company notes: "increase 8x8’s full PSTN replacement services to 50 countries and territories." The UCC firm even released a slew of features that include call parking modes, shared notes, and directory filter options for 8x8 Frontdesk - an experience 'composed for high volume call handling,' according to the firm.
Finally, 8x8 released some advanced enterprise video meeting capabilities, including breakout rooms, polls, detailed post-meeting summaries, etc.
Dialpad Partner Awards
Following a solid third quarter (largely fueled) by partner sales, Dialpad launched a partner award program.
Looking back on Dialpad's 2021 fiscal year, the company experienced overall growth of 90% in deal registrations. It had 88% growth in new contracts YoY, and its Partner Account Manager team; a 2021 creation – had a 30% rise in active partners.
With solid benchmarks under its belt, the launch of its inaugural partner award recognized Technology Solutions Brokerage of the Year — Telarus, Regional Partner of the Year — MR2 Solutions, and Technology Partner of the Year — Intercom.
Cisco Announced Countless Webex Updates
Cisco announced a new set of innovations that help organizations personalize the hybrid work experience for employees. It also announced an industry-first partnership with Ford to create the ultimate mobile office. Users can enjoy the entire Webex collaboration experience from the comfort of an electric vehicle.
Cisco also introduced Webex Go, a solution that extends a Webex Calling business line natively to mobile devices. According to Cisco, “What that means is you can make and receive business calls using your Webex Calling phone number, over the cellular voice network, using your mobile phone’s native dialer.”
Verizon Unveiled FMC for Microsoft Teams Phones
Verizon Mobile FMC functionalities for Microsoft Teams are now a reality. The service integrates Verizon Wireless business numbers with Microsoft Teams, ultimately lending the full-fledged enterprise-grade voice quality and policy management experience of Teams calls, all from a mobile device.
The feature is also available via providers: T-Mobile, British Telecom, Intrado, Orange Business Services, Pure IP, Swisscom, etc. The offering - powered by Microsoft, is called Operator Connect.
Bandwidth Launched Voice Authentication Integration
Fraud in the contact center happens in all forms, according to Pindrop - a leading voice authentication firm. Privately held Pindrop and works with some of the world’s largest financial/banking institutions, insurers, and retailers. Its most recent venture: is enabling its users to integrate Pindrop with Bandwidth at a carrier level.
"This gives enterprises a faster, more direct route to migrate contact centers to the cloud with Pindrop’s mission-critical authentication and anti-fraud technology already built-in," Bandwidth wrote; in a statement.
With the launch of its out-the-box integration, Bandwidth essentially proposed something monumental. It wants to rid the contact center of this annoyance: answering security questions to confirm one's identity.
