It’s been another busy week in the CX space. The NICE CEO has had his say on Microsoft’s CCaaS offering, there’s been layoffs and resignations at Five9 and Webex, and Zoom has confirmed its largest ever contact center deal.
Here are the extracts from some of our most popular news stories over the last seven days.
NICE CEO Pours Cold Water on Microsoft’s CCaaS Entrance & Expertise
Barak Eilam, CEO of NICE, has shrugged off Microsoft’s entrance into the CCaaS space.
The CEO did so during an earnings call on Friday, where NICE reported another successful quarter of double-digit revenue growth.
During the call, a financial analyst questioned Eilam on whether NICE is already battling for deals against Microsoft on CCaaS shortlists.
The answer was a resounding “no”, with Eilam seemingly unimpressed with the tech giant’s entrance into the already crowded CCaaS market last month.
“With respect to Microsoft, I know it got a lot of headlines, [but] I must say, we see zero activity in the field,” he said.
We don’t see their go-to-market effective [and] they do not have the domain expertise to speak about CX.
While some may nod their heads at this, there are other points to consider (Read on…).
Five9 to Layoff ≈180 Employees, Aims to Drive “Shareholder Value”
Five9 will reduce its workforce by seven percent, which equates to approximately 180 employees.
The company revealed the news in an SEC filing, claiming that the move is part of a larger plan to increase shareholder value.
Indeed, the filing states that the staff reductions are “part of the Company’s broader efforts to drive balanced, profitable growth, further supporting our positive, long-term outlook and focus on increasing shareholder value.”
It also suggests that Five9 will “substantially complete” actions from within the plan, including making those job cuts, by the end of 2024.
Already, the company has kickstarted that process, notifying all impacted employees yesterday (August 20, 2024).
Before sending out those notifications, Five9 CEO Mike Burkland shared an email to all employees.
In the email, Burkland noted that his and the company’s immediate priority is to support the affected staff members through this transition.
That support includes severance and job transition assistance.
Burkland continued:
I have enormous confidence in Five9 and each of you as we continue to align and execute as one team.
That confidence comes as Five9 revenues continue to grow at a double-digit rate, which is seemingly impressive in the crowded CCaaS market (Read on…).
Zoom Signs Its Largest-Ever Contact Center Deal, Surpasses 1,100 CCaaS Customers
Zoom has secured its “largest-ever” deal for a new contact center customer.
The unnamed company chose the enterprise communications giant’s top-tier Elite CCaaS package coupled with Zoom Phone.
According to Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, it did so after evaluating multiple contact center offerings, with a particular focus on architecture, roadmap, and AI.
The company then landed on Zoom, citing its brand recognition and customer-focused innovation.
“Ultimately, it boils down to the trust,” said Yuan during an earnings call.
They know we can innovate. We innovate faster. We can innovate together. And, given all the features that we promised before, we did deliver.
Alongside the megadeal, Zoom revealed that it has surpassed 1,100 Zoom Contact Center customers.
Zoom added 117 “large deals” that included CCaaS in Q2 to reach that number. That’s up from 90 in the previous quarter.
Many of those deals came from displacing existing CCaaS providers. Indeed, in its top ten contact center wins, Zoom replaced four rival cloud offerings with the other six on-prem migrations (Read on…).
Senior Figures Leave Webex Amidst Cisco’s Layoffs & Collaborations Squeeze
Jono Luk has become the latest high-profile departure from Cisco Webex.
The now-former VP of Product Management at Cisco Webex has seemingly left on his own terms to become the Chief Product Officer at SumerSports.
In doing so, Luk aims to achieve a better work-life balance.
“I decided to shift gears and leave Cisco to find a different balance in my life,” posted Luk on LinkedIn.
“Without getting into the details, my husband and I are looking forward to growing our family, so I need to find a role that gives me the ability to have the impact I want in a space that I love, in the way that I need.”
His leave follows last week’s departure of Javed Khan and the recent exit of Lorissa Horton, who Luk will report to as she’s now the SumerSports CEO.
Cisco described the previous layoffs as part of a restructuring plan that will reduce its global workforce by seven percent. That equates to 5,500+ job losses.
The move marks Cisco’s second round of layoffs in 2024, adding to the departure of approximately 4,000 employees in February (Read on…).
