It’s hard to remember pre-pandemic, but way back then, UCaaS and mobility were slowly converging. Several providers were expanding into UCaaS, such as
T-Mobile with Dialpad and
Verizon working with Cisco. During the pandemic, CCaaS became central, and suddenly all of the UCaaS companies became CCaaS providers.
Now it seems both of those trends will converge with mobile CCaaS. Today,
Mavenir and Crexendo announced an intriguing partnership. The two companies announced a strategic two-way partnership that expands each of their portfolios. Crexendo will add Mavenir’s CCaaS solution to its portfolio of products for service providers, and Mavenir will add Crexendo’s UCaaS solution to its portfolio for mobile network operator partners.
Each company gets a better-tasting portfolio, referencing the imagery of chocolate and peanut butter used in their briefing with analysts. Mavenir gets a mobile-optimized UCaaS that service providers can brand their own, and Crexendo’s providers get a brandable, multi-channel CCaaS.
Crexendo keeps popping up in the news. The company acquired NetSapiens in 2021, which gave it the SNAPsolution UCaaS platform. Crexendo's NetSapiens platform has over 200 independent service providers supporting over two million UCaaS users. NetSapiens reported 40% growth last year.
Crexendo had an entry-level CCaaS already, but omnichannel and other expanding user requirements have outgrown it. This new engine from Mavenir offers an omnichannel customer engagement solution. Mavenir was selected after exceeding a detailed CCaaS feature analysis conducted by Crexendo.
Mavenir is known primarily as a cloud-native Network Software Provider. It supports over 250 mobile network operators and claims that 50% of the world's mobile subscribers use its voice or messaging technology.
Most of us think of 5G and mobile operators when we think of Mavenir, but it also developed this omnichannel CCaaS solution that was released about two years ago. It’s about to get a lot more exposure.
Neither company is a household brand, but that’s partly by design. Both encourage its provider customers to use their products under a new brand name, private-label solutions are not new, but they seem to be gaining popularity again as the sector consolidates around a few global brands.
Each company is introducing new offerings based on this partnership: Mavenir Connect 2.0 Powered by Crexendo and Crexendo CX Powered by Mavenir.
The new Mavenir Connect 2.0 Powered by Crexendo offers a UC suite with voice, messaging, conferencing, and collaboration, as well as integrated mobile messaging and a mobile user experience on Android and iOS.
The new Crexendo CX Powered by Mavenir features its omnichannel CCaaS, chatbots, and automation tools — all hosted in Mavenir’s cloud. It supports voice, email, SMS, webchat, social, and messaging services, including Apple and Google business messaging services. That’s all the right terms, but most compelling is that the solution is mobile optimized. It’s designed to work with smartphones (and deskphones) and has native support for several mobile features, including RCS.
The CCaaS solution also has a human-in-the-loop feature that forwards chat history to an agent should a call need to be escalated to a human agent. It can be used in both inbound and outbound applications.
Crexendo is adding the new CCaaS under its current pricing plan known as “sessions not seats.” Crexendo has a usage-based model for providers, but most providers charge by the seat — #lucrative.
The companies are still working on the roadmap for integration between the UCaaS and CCaaS offers, so the initial launch will primarily be a light integration. A tighter integration is planned.
It seems that both companies come out ahead with this deal. Crexendo gains a presence in mobile carrier networks. At the same time, many UCaaS providers would like to add an omnichannel CCaaS under that they can brand as their own.
Most importantly, it positions both companies to benefit from several trends, including the convergence of UCaaS, CCaaS, and mobility, the rise of private-label comms, and UCaaS + mobility. Also, the CCaaS + CPaaS trend is another one, so I should probably mention that
Mavenir acquired Telestax last year.
It’s an interesting combination that likely benefits all parties; both vendors and their over 450 service providers.
Dave Michels is a contributing editor and analyst at TalkingPointz.