This week’s announcements center around team collaboration and CRM integrations, home office videoconferencing devices, cloud contact center capabilities, wireless meeting devices, and a visual collaboration platform.
Salesforce Releases Slack Integrations
Having recently closed its acquisition of Slack,
Salesforce this week revealed a series of pre-built integrations between the team collaboration application and its CRM platform. The goal, not unexpectedly, is to facilitate connections within sales teams, improve productivity, allow salespeople to get work done wherever they are, and establish a single source of truth, Salesforce said.
The company’s Slack-first sales capabilities are:
- Digital deal rooms — Sales team members can join digital deal rooms set up for collaboration around a customer or deal cycle. Within a deal room, users can view and update Salesforce records and access their files, conversations, and data in a single view from within Slack, Salesforce said
- Automated daily briefs — Sales team members will receive personalized action-item lists of tasks, meetings, and priority deals
- Swarming — A Slack swarm channel allows service reps to collaborate on high-priority cases with other employees and external partners
- Expert finder for swarms — This capability will automatically identify experts to add to a swarm, considering availability, capacity, and skills
- Shared insights from Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Datorama — AI-powered intelligence will surface directly in Slack channels
- Marketing workflow notifications — Changes in a marketing journey will trigger notifications with a Slack channel, so teams can take action immediately if necessary
- Automated notifications for Tableau data — Users will receive a Slack notification on changes to Tableau data, like when a sales pipeline dips below a threshold
- Tableau watchlist digests — Users will receive a daily update on selected metrics and trends. Additionally, Subscriptions will automate dashboard updates in team channels
Zoom Expands Zoom for Home Device Options
Zoom this week announced three new compatible devices for its Zoom for Home portfolio, enabling the use of a TV for video meetings. They are:
- Amazon Fire TV Cube — With a second-generation Fire TV Cube, the Zoom app for Fire TV , a compatible webcam and a Micro USB-to-USB adapter, users can join video calls on their TVs. Fire TV Cube also supports hand-free control, via Alexa voice commands
- Dten Go with Dten Mate — As noted in last week’s No Jitter Roll, this combination allows users to create a touch-enabled video meeting system from any TV.
- Portal TV from Facebook — Portal TV supports Zoom on Portal, which lets users attend Zoom Meetings and use features like breakout rooms, screen sharing, and virtual backgrounds
Enlighten XO Leverages AI for Automation
Enterprise software provider
NICE this week launched Enlighten XO, a service that analyzes customer platform interactions to discover automation opportunities. Enlighten XO uses AI models to identify customer intents, training phrases, and problem-solving activities for the purpose of building customer self-service applications. With Enlighten XO, contact centers can streamline digital self-service applications by using data from past interactions to optimize future self-service capabilities, NICE said.
As we look to 2022, enabling assisted self-service options will be a growing area, as contact centers look to make self-service portals more personalized, automated, conversational, and proactive, Mila D'Antonio, principal analyst for customer engagement with Omdia, told No Jitter. "That will be achieved through automation, intuitive user experience, AI-powered knowledge bases, digital assistants who can guide the user through self-service, and the ability to connect the back office to the front office to eliminate data silos," she added.
AT&T Advances Cloud Contact Center Capabilities
AT&T this week revealed new AI-powered capabilities for its cloud contact center platform. The updates, aimed at improving the customer experience and allowing contact centers to better adapt to fluctuating call volumes, are:
- Intelligent virtual agent – this self-service functionality can integrate with major AI technologies, allowing customers flexibility in using applications the best fit their needs, AT&T said
- Cloud connectivity – supports the ability to scale connectivity, via AT&T’s MPLS network, up and down rapidly based on contact center requirements.
- Integration with AT&T’s Office@Hand – Provides business users and contact center agents with shared presence and consolidated directories, AT&T said
Crestron Expands Wireless Presentation Device Portfolio
Workplace technology provider
Crestron this week introduced the next generation of its AirMedia presentation devices: the entry-level AM-3100 receiver; the AM-3200 receiver, an updated version of its legacy AirMedia product; and the AM-TX3-100 Connect, an adaptor for wireless sharing. The AM-3100 , which supports wireless presentation on AirMedia’s secure network, is suitable for huddle spaces, classrooms, or lobbies, Crestron said. In addition to wireless presentation capability, the device has an HDMI display output and various USB interfaces for wireless conferencing and touch interactivity, the company said.
Meanwhile, the AM-3200 supports both wired and wireless presentation on a single room system — enhancements include HDMI and USB ports for built-in display control, as well as an audio output for interfacing with room audio, Crestron said. The AM-TX3-100 Connect adaptor enables wireless content sharing for guest presenters who don’t need to download software or connect to a network, Crestron said.
The AM-3100 Receiver is priced at $1,000, the AM-3200 at $1800, and the AM-TX3-100 at $800. Crestron's AirMedia portfolio is now available for pre-order and works with the Crestron Flex digital workplace platform on any device. The AM-3100 and AM-3200 devices will be available in September, with the connect adaptor shipping date to be determined.
Mural Offers Free Visual Collaboration
Mural, a digital workspace technology provider,
this week introduced a free plan enabling
hybrid workers to collaborate without time constraints, after previously offering a 30-day free trial. This free plan includes five collaboration boards, unlimited members, and access to facilitation features such as timers, voting sessions, summoning participants to direct attention, and private mode, Mural said. The free plan also includes access to over 250 templates for team building and activities, as well as educational resources, Mural added.
Mural’s free plan includes integrations with Zoom, Cisco Webex, and Microsoft Teams. By sharing a link, visitors can participate in any mural. Mural's free plan, as well as upgraded Team+, Business, and Enterprise plans, are available to customers worldwide.
Ryan Daily, No Jitter associate editor, contributed to this article.
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