This week’s updates center around UCaaS expense management, meeting updates, videoconferencing technology, an SLA for integrated UCaaS and CCaaS, and call transcription analytics.
Tangoe Furthers UCaaS Expense Management Initiatives
Tangoe, a provider of IT and telecom expense management software and services,
this week expanded its UCaaS expense management offering, which is an extension of Tangoe One, its cloud application.
Tangoe has added the following new features/functionalities for UCaaS expense management:
- Granular visibility into cost and usage
- Fraud, abuse, and misuse identification
- Accurate cost allocations and chargebacks
- Call center, customer service, and help desk monitoring
- Integrations with accounting and human resource information systems
- Expert advisory, including benchmarking analysis and rate/usage optimization recommendations
“As companies continue to adapt to the new dynamic work from anywhere environment, proper management of technology expenses has never been more critical. To stay productive and prevent such issues as fraud and misuse, what’s required are deeper insights into service costs. The greater visibility into services being used, who’s using them, and where costs are being allocated — the better it is for the business,” Paolo Sellari, senior product manager, Tangoe said via email.
Google Brings Admin Features to More Users
Available only to Google Workspace for Education customers previously, these features will be rolling out in the coming weeks and include:
- More meeting co-hosts — Meeting hosts can assign up to 25 co-hosts, allowing them to use host control during a meeting. This feature will be available to users with personal Google accounts and Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Frontline, and Nonprofits plans and G Suite Basic and Business customers.
- Meeting moderation and safety controls — Meeting hosts and co-hosts can now limit who can share their screen, send chat messages, mute all users, and end meetings. This feature will be available to Google Workspace, G Suite Basic, and Business customers but not available for individual Google Workspace or Google accounts.
- Quick access setting — With this setting, meeting participants from your domain can automatically join a meeting, regardless if they use a mobile app, desktop device, or call into the meeting. This feature is available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Business Standard, and Business Plus plans, but not available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Frontline, and Nonprofits and G Suite Basic and Business customers.
In addition, Google said it will introduce an admin console setting to control host management features in the coming month and has added the ability to search for a participant within a meeting.
Dten Adds Display Flexibility
Video collaboration device maker Dten, specializing in Zoom Rooms environments,
this week unveiled the Dten Go (see image below) collaboration device designed to turn any TV or display into a multi-touch videoconferencing system.
For a touch-based interface, the Go device wirelessly pairs with Dten Mate, a companion 10-inch tablet with mirroring technology. Laptop users can wirelessly screencast to Go while using Mate for annotating and whiteboarding, Dten said. Among the capabilities are a smart camera system and an advanced microphone array, which features Dten Audio AI sound suppression technology and echo cancellation, as well as IT support options, and a dock accessory for the Mate tablet. Customers can also utilize Go with Mate to create a Zoom Rooms kiosk, remote receptionist, or virtual help desk, Dten said.
Dten Go with Dten Mate, priced at $1,299, is available for order directly from Dten's website or via sales channels.
Pexip Updates Self-Hosted Videoconferencing Software
Pexip, known for providing videoconferencing interoperability, last week updated Pexip Infinity, its self-hosted, virtualized, and distributed multipoint conferencing platform, to version 26.
- 1+33 layout – for large meetings, this view option displays one speaker prominently and up to 33 other participants on the sides and below the speaker. It’s available as a tech preview for all customers, Pexip said.
- Adaptive composition layout for inactive users – Participants who turn off or move away from their camera will now be represented in the meeting interface with a symbol indicating that video is disabled, Pexip said.
- Microsoft CVI improvements – Microsoft Cloud Video Interop (CVI) enables third-party video teleconferencing systems and personal video devices to join Teams Meetings. Participants who dial-in from a video system will now receive notifications when someone has joined and is waiting in the lobby.
- One-touch join – Microsoft Teams meeting invites from external organizers can include one-touch join if the organizer is using the Cisco Webex/Teams integration.
- Pexip telehealth improvements – Healthcare organizations can now send customizable, familiar links to patients so they can join telehealth visits via SMS or email.
- Image resilience and quality – Updates provide for improved WebRTC full-motion and still image presentations, as well as for video and audio browser calls over slow networks.
8x8 Releases XCaaS Global SLA for Enterprises
Cloud communications provider
8x8 this week announced a global, financially backed five-nines service level agreement (SLA) encompassing UCaaS and CCaaS services available on its integrated
XCaaS platform. With employee communications and contact center uptime and reliability critical for success, especially given the shift to a hybrid workforce, having one SLA that spans UCaaS and CCaaS “provides organizations with a single point of accountability and confidence,” Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst at ZK Research, said.
AWS Reveals Analytics for Call Recordings
AWS last week announced Transcribe Call Analytics, a machine learning-powered conversation insights API that gives businesses the ability to analyze call recordings and pull out actionable insights. This API combines speech-to-text and natural language processing models trained to assist customer service and sales teams in improving their understanding of customer-agent interactions, identifying trends, and tracking performance metrics, AWS said. Organizations can also learn about customer and agent sentiment, call drivers, and conversational characteristics like non-talk time, interruptions, loudness, and talk speed, and use the automated call categorization feature to tag conversations based on keywords/phrases, sentiment, and non-talk time, Amazon added.
Transcribe Call Analytics is available on a pay-as-you-go basis, billed monthly, based on a
tiered pricing model.
Ryan Daily, No Jitter associate editor, contributed to this article.
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