Welcome to this week’s No Jitter Roll, our regular roundup of product news in the communication and collaboration spaces. Leading off this week, we highlight: GoTo's launch of GoTo Connect CX, a CX-centric package of communications solutions; Twilio RCS, which allows organizations to use Rich Communication Services (RCS) to message end users with enhanced graphics and interactivity features; Mitel's debut of its Common Communications Framework, which enables an organization to leverage its on-premises assets while also using cloud-based communications platforms, as well as its Secure Cloud offering, which helps organizations lock down their data.
NJ also notes several partnerships: Zayo will resell RingCentral; AvaSure, Oracle and Nvidia are developing an AI-powered virtual concierge for health care; and via a partnership, IntelePeer brings Pindrop's voice authentication and security solutions to its portfolio.
Lastly, we note several reports and surveys. CallMiner released its annual CX Landscape Report, which found that Gen AI deployments cost more than respondents expected it would; an Unqork survey noted that tech debt and legacy systems stifle innovation; and, a Talkdesk survey found that while AI chatbots are helpful, respondents still want easy access to a live agent.
The IT and business communications solutions provider launched GoTo Connect CX which combines capabilities in the GoTo Connect portfolio into a single customer experience (CX) focused package:
GoTo Connect CX is available everywhere GoTo Connect is offered.
The customer engagement platform solutions provider announced the global availability of Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging via its Programmable Messaging and Verify APIs. Twilio RCS provides:
Twilio’s RCS messaging is available in public beta globally to all businesses in Programmable Messaging and generally available in Verify.
Previously, the adoption of RCS was limited by its availability only on Android devices. However, RCS will be supported on iPhones starting this month (September 2024). Check out the following articles about RCS:
The business communications provider announced the Mitel Common Communications Framework and Mitel Secure Cloud. The Common Communications Framework is an open blueprint for unified communications (UC) interoperability so organizations can deploy a consistent communications experience across on-premises and customer, partner, or Mitel-hosted cloud models. The Framework can support organizations 250 to 10,000+ users, across one or multiple locations.
The Mitel Secure Cloud provides a dedicated instance and three levels of data, operational sovereignty and compliance, secure integration with third-party cloud services and business applications, as well as guidance from a global managed services teams.
Mitel Secure Cloud is now available in the UK and will be available in Germany in Q4 of 2024. It will expand to additional European countries throughout the first half of 2025.
The audio, video and collaboration solutions provider launched Jabra ClearSpeech, an AI-driven speech enhancement and noise suppressor for headset users. This new feature will be available directly within Engage AI Voice Coaching Software. Essentially, the solution is ‘taught’ to distinguish between speech and non-speech, such as echoes, music from the radio in the background, barking dogs or traffic.
Jabra ClearSpeech is available today via a free upgrade for current Engage AI customers. Engage 40 and Engage 50 II users have the possibility to control Clearspeech directly on the hardware through control units.
The audio technology provider released its new Q-SYS control plugin for the TeamConnect Ceiling Medium (TCC M). Now available in Q-SYS Designer Asset Manager, the Q-SYS control plugin for TCC M offers direct management of LED control, audio levels, output gain, mute functions, Sennheiser TruVoicelift, and speaker positioning within the Q-SYS control system.
The communications infrastructure provider and RingCentral announced a strategic relationship to launch a new offering, Zayo UC+ with RingCentral. This offering delivers RingCentral’s cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solution to Zayo’s customers.
AvaSure, which provides acute virtual care, is collaborating with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to develop a virtual concierge solution built with NVIDIA’s full-stack AI technology. This AI-powered virtual concierge will enable smart rooms in hospitals and health systems. Using a 'wake word,' nurses will be able to request additional support from colleagues and access language translation services, and more. The solution is expected to be available next year (2025).
The communications automation solution provider partnered with Pindrop, which provides voice authentication and security solutions. Through the partnership, Pindrop Passport and Pindrop Protect are now available via IntelePeer’s AI-powered solutions. This will allow AI-powered and/or automated systems within a contact center to receive the intelligence needed to authenticate callers.
Pindrop Passport is a multi-factor solution that passively authenticates callers as they naturally engage with a call center. Pindrop Protect assesses risk based on factors on every call to help avoid fraud. Overall, the Pindrop solution analyzes an inbound caller’s voice, device, behavior, network, and risk patterns.
CallMiner released its annual CX Landscape Report in partnership with Vanson Bourne, a market researcher for the tech sector. The report found that 64% of respondents claim to be in the early stages of AI adoption when it comes to collecting and analyzing data about CX and satisfaction.
Of those, 63% have already found that implementing AI technology was more expensive than anticipated. These higher-than-expected costs included, perhaps unsurprisingly, the cost of integrating AI technology with existing systems (49%), and the cost of maintaining AI technology/ infrastructure (43%).
700 global senior decision makers from contact center and CX departments participated in the CX Landscape Report survey, including in the US, U.K. and Ireland, South Africa, France, and Germany. Respondents hailed from organizations that had a contact center with 100 or more employees across healthcare (public and private), financial services, technology, and retail sectors. The full report can be downloaded here.
Unqork provides a codeless development platform. According to its recent survey, nearly 80% (or more) of respondents say technical debt caused cancellation of business-critical projects and organizational paralysis, delayed innovation, and increased costs.
According to Unqork’s survey, the use of generative AI-powered solutions to generate new code and applications does not remove the problem of existing code and the tech debt that comes with it. Even AI-generated code can require painstaking, manual management, including security risks, quality and manageability challenges, and bugginess.
Morning Consult conducted the study on behalf of Unqork between July 26 – August 2, 2024. They sampled 500 business and technology leaders across the United States in four industries: financial services, insurance, healthcare, and the public sector. The study was designed to gather insights into the challenges and opportunities faced in enterprise application development, technical debt, legacy systems, AI adoption, innovation, and digital transformation. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
(Editor’s note: Check out this article for more on Gen AI and technical debt.)
The provider of AI-powered CX technology solutions released some of the results from its Talkdesk Future of Finance: AI Consumer Trends Survey. Two of the findings from the report include:
Talkdesk conducted the survey in August 2024 on the online platform Pollfish. It polled 1,500 American consumers ages 18+ on various questions regarding their interactions with their financial services providers and their experience using AI chatbots.
In case you missed them, here are some of our top stories:
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