No Jitter Roll: Crestron Unveils Products for Hybrid Work; Ribbon Integrates with Zoom Phone

Welcome to this week's No Jitter Roll, our regular roundup of product news in the communication and collaboration spaces. This week: Crestron unveiled new products to improve hybrid collaboration and Ribbon extended its integration to Zoom Phone. Also, in contact center solution news, UJET integrated its solution with Microsoft Teams and Mutare’s voice traffic filtering product is now integrated with Five9.

Crestron Unveils New Product Categories to Improve Hybrid Collaboration

Crestron, the office communications solutions provider, introduced a suite of products meant to enhance hybrid collaboration between remote and in-office colleagues. The offerings include:

• Crestron Desk Q, which supports QR-code-based reservations and is designed to help with booking spaces like community workstations, hot desks, and hoteling. The touch interface of Desk Touch is designed for semi-private offices, cubicles, and stand-up spaces.
• Crestron Flex Pods is a tabletop wireless audio solution that includes the Flex Pods Hub, a wireless receiver that is connected to the room UC device and communicates wirelessly with up to four Crestron Flex Pods that can be placed throughout the room.
• Crestron Videobar 70 is an Android OS-based, all-in-one collaboration bar designed for medium to large meeting rooms. It includes four high-quality cameras that work together to capture clear, well-framed video of those speaking even at longer distances (e.g., 30 feet.)

“We aim to be the ultimate partner for organizations seeking complete room solutions, company-wide workplace platforms, or both,” stated Brad Hintze, Crestron EVP Global Marketing.

Ribbon Connect Further Extends its Portfolio with Support for Zoom Phone

The communications and networking solutions provider Ribbon Connect is now supporting Zoom Phone, meaning carriers can deliver telecom services to Zoom Phone deployments via Zoom Phone's Provider Exchange. As a partner to that exchange, Ribbon’s solution delivers simplified API integration and verification, automated sales engagement and workflow, a customer portal for self-service, a reseller portal for channel engagement and service provider portal for provisioning and set-up.

According to Jason Gilligan, Business Development Manager for Zoom Phone, this partnership will “accelerate service providers' participation in the Zoom Phone Provider Exchange and… give our end customers the freedom to choose the ideal telecom provider for their PSTN connectivity needs.”

Note: Ribbon Connect is also available for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and Operator Connect.

UJET Integrates with Microsoft Teams to Enhance Customer Experience

The contact center platform provider UJET has announced an integration with Microsoft Teams that allows contact center agents to directly access their organization’s internal experts in real-time via Teams.

Some features of the integration include:

• Directory & Presence Sync: Locate and connect with Teams users outside the contact center using the agent directory.
• High-Quality Voice Service: Use carrier-grade voice services delivered by Microsoft's Direct Routing.
• Call Handoff & Resolution: Use configurable groups within Teams to eliminate manual handoffs.

"Adoption of Microsoft Teams as an enterprise collaboration tool is accelerating,” Anand Janefalkar, Founder and CEO of UJET. “By integrating UJET with Teams, our customers can extend the functionality and power of UJET’s contact center platform to experts across the organization.”

Mutare’s Voice Traffic Filter is now available on the Five9 CX

Marketplace Mutare’s Voice Traffic Filter is now available on the Five9 CX Marketplace, and can therefore be integrated into the Five9 Intelligent CX Cloud Contact Center solution. The Mutare Voice Traffic Filter enables the screening of unwanted voice traffic – e.g., robocalls, spoof calls, spam calls, voice spam storms and vishing (i.e., voice phishing).

“With the rise in spam calls it is critical we help companies with identification, so customers answer calls or texts with confidence,” said Patrice DeLorey, Global Partner Sales Manager at Five9.

This Week on No Jitter

In case you missed them, here are some of our top stories for the week:

• Hotdesking is Critical for Hybrid Office Success: Hotdesking has become the champion growth technology for enabling hybrid work.
• Are We Moving Too Fast with AI?: A sneak peek at some key themes that emerged from a joint RingCentral/Ipsos survey of full-time workers around the world who were asked about their attitudes and expectations regarding the use of AI in the workplace.
• Conversations in Collaboration: Cisco Webex’s Lorissa Horton on AI and Data Security: The Cisco Webex SVP talked about the difference between client-/device-side AI versus the generative AI models drawing so much recent attention. She also argued that enterprise data security should be top-of-mind when it comes to evaluating these emerging AI platforms.