NiCE has expanded its Salesforce partnership, announcing a deeper CCaaS-CRM integration.
The integration builds on the 2022 release of Bring Your Own Telephony with Salesforce Service Cloud Voice.
Back then, NiCE, like many CCaaS competitors, embedded its voice channel within Service Cloud.
Now, the contact center stalwart is adding workforce engagement management capabilities (WEM) into the CRM desktop and providing an integrated channel set.
In doing so, NiCE doesn’t present competing capabilities, as with similar Service Cloud integrations, but offers a unified channel mix and inserts unique features into the CRM.
Indeed, while NiCE has yet to specify which WEM tools it will augment the CRM with, it leads the CCaaS space in resource planning and may provide many value-adding capabilities.
Additionally, the vendor has pledged to join the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network, claiming to be the first CCaaS provider to do so.
By establishing a bidirectional Zero Copy integration with Salesforce Data Cloud, NiCE can pull data from its CXone Mpower solution into the customer data platform (CDP), and vice versa.
As a result, NiCE creates a shared data foundation not only with Service Cloud, but all the other applications businesses have plugged into Data Cloud.
Ultimately, that sets the stage for mutual customers to leverage AI agents, connect workflows, and potentially automate end-to-end customer fulfilment.
These AI agents may be NiCE Mpower or Salesforce Agentforce agents, running on the CXone Mpower Orchestrator and leveraging the combined intelligence on the CDP.
“This renewed partnership with Salesforce marks more than just deeper integration; it signals a vision for the future of customer service,” said Barry Cooper, President of CX Division at NiCE.
Together, we will collaborate to help businesses move from disconnected touchpoints to intelligently orchestrated experiences that span the entire customer journey.
“As our partnership grows, so does our commitment to helping our mutual customers lead the way in AI-powered service.”
Alongside AI agents and the potential for automation, the shared intelligence on Data Cloud can filter into Service Cloud, ensuring a unified customer view.
However, that data also becomes available to other customer-facing functions, like marketing, sales, and commerce, who can leverage it for smarter engagements and campaigns.
As such, the new integration breaks down system and functional silos. Kishan Chetan, Executive VP and GM Service Cloud at Salesforce, stressed this, stating:
Together, we’re helping organizations move beyond channel silos and orchestrate intelligent, outcomes-driven interactions at scale, ultimately delivering greater value to our mutual customer through continued innovation.
Interestingly, the announcement comes just a week after Salesforce invested $750MN in NiCE’s chief CCaaS rival, Genesys.
Yet, despite that investment, the CRM leader stressed its desire to avoid playing favorites.
Sure, some may be able to bring products to market first, yet Salesforce wishes to service its fellow contact center providers with opportunities to build similar innovations.
As such, expect others to follow NiCE and join the Salesforce Zero Copy Partner Network.
However, NiCE’s orchestration capabilities may help it stay ahead of the competition. As Zeus Kerravala summed up:
With CX, there are too many silos. Salesforce addresses the front end of the customer journey, and NiCE the back end. This allows businesses to automate workflows across the entire journey, creating significantly better experiences.
Alongside this announcement, NiCE has also established partnerships with AWS, ServiceNow, and Snowflake, aiming to support more customers in tying together end-to-end fulfilment flows.
Ultimately, this is another step on that journey. Yet, given Salesforce’s CRM dominance, it’s a significant leap forward.
