CCaaS Platforms: Must-Have Features, Trends, & Providers

Six contact center experts discuss the latest “must-have” CCaaS capabilities, industry trends, and more

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CCaaS Platforms: Must-Have Features, Trends, & Providers
Contact CentreInsights

Published: October 21, 2024

Charlie Mitchell

CCaaS portfolios are expanding quickly, with providers rushing to offer new workforce engagement management (WEM), journey orchestration, and generative AI (GenAI) solutions.

Meanwhile, many are facilitating new data management strategies, creating playbooks for migrations, and working more closely with vendors of adjacent technologies, like CRM.

CX Today has covered all this extensively. However, some market shifts may have gone undetected.

Recognizing this, we reached out to the following six contact center experts to gather their thoughts on the evolution of CCaaS platforms.

  • Rajesh Chandran, VP of Product Management at Tata Communications
  • Lisa Orford, VP for Contact Center at 8×8
  • Sean Taylor, Global CEO of Content Guru
  • Richard Bassett, VP of Digital, AI, & Analytics at NICE
  • Crystal Miceli, VP of Product & Industry Marketing at Talkdesk
  • Vinod Muthukrishnan, VP & COO at Webex Customer Experience, Cisco

Below, they share the latest CCaaS innovations, industry trends, and providers to watch.

CCaaS Platforms: The Must-Have Features

Here, the six experts share the next-gen CCaaS innovations they believe are “must-haves”, looking beyond the conventional, cornerstone capabilities like telephony, routing, and agent desktops.

GenAI-Powered Interaction Routing

Miceli: One new advancement taking the contact center industry by storm is GenAI-powered interaction routing.

The feature eliminates the need for IVR systems that are a snarl to maintain and are a pain for customers to endure.

Instead, it replaces them with natural language interactions and automated workflows that intelligently route inbound traffic to the right automated solution or live agent.

The technology fosters natural conversations, allowing customers to express themselves freely while the system comprehends and responds effectively.

Talkdesk has witnessed GenAI-powered interaction routing slash abandonment rates, decrease hold time, and improve first call resolution (FCR).

Yet, the most sophisticated of these go a step further and offer GenAI as the method to configure the entire interaction, which also reduces operational costs.

An Overlaying Customer Data Platform

Taylor: While every business that uses CCaaS understands omnichannel communication, Content Guru believes the real differentiator is omni-data.

Beyond managing conversations across channels, CCaaS platforms must unify data from a growing number of systems of record – on average, 13.7 different places of record.

Moreover, according to Deloitte, 92 percent of organizations do not have a single view of the customer that combines all channels and data for contact center agents.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) makes that easy, tracking the customer throughout their interactions and creating an ‘omni-data’ record.

No matter how the customer chooses to reach out, Omni–data from across every contact channel funnels into the CDP.

From breaking down data siloes and supporting agents during interactions to creating new efficiencies for the business, the CDP will power next-generation customer experiences.

Purpose-Built AI

Bassett: Many companies rely on generic AI in their CCaaS offerings, which often lack the industry-specific data, insights, and guardrails needed to deliver accurate, relevant, and appropriate results. This is where purpose-built AI becomes the ultimate advantage.

Purpose-built AI for CX is trained using industry-specific data, including historical customer interactions, and built with the guardrails required to deliver responses personalized to the brand.

A unified CCaaS platform leveraging purpose-built AI enables businesses to design, build, and automate every workflow and – ultimately – fully automate customer service.

For companies aiming to lead in customer experience, investing in a unified next-gen CCaaS platform with purpose-built AI is the key to unlocking the future of CX.

A Framework for Enabling Seamless Experiences

Chandran: In today’s fast-paced business environment, customers expect effortless and cohesive interactions across various touchpoints.

Consider recent research conducted by Tata Communications in collaboration with Harvard Business Review Analytics Services. It found that nearly 55 percent of respondents recognized the need to make interactions more seamless. They believe this is a top priority when evaluating contact center solutions.

Yet, enabling seamless interactions encompasses several critical aspects:

  • Enabling seamless customer interactions at various touchpoints, ensuring a unified experience regardless of the channel.
  • Enabling seamless interactions with agents, allowing support staff to access customer histories and data in real time.
  • Enabling seamless interactions globally, guaranteeing consistent customer support and experiences, regardless of location.
  • Enabling a seamless technology stack that integrates voice, video, data, and analytics, allowing organizations to provide frictionless journeys throughout the customer lifecycle.

Through its Digital Fabric, Tata Communications helps its clients integrate and simplify their IT foundation. This innovative framework seamlessly connects various communication channels, paving the way for a truly unified customer experience.

A Digital Front Door

Muthukrishnan: One capability fast becoming essential for a CCaaS platform is offering a digital front door to the business.

That door features an always-on, highly intelligent, bi-directional virtual agent supporting text and voice interactions.

The multimodal virtual agent serves as the initial point of contact, providing seamless and efficient customer service around the clock.

Such features are becoming indispensable for any contact center striving to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction.

Employee Experience Enablers

Orford: While some may call out a single tool or solution, the new must-have isn’t a piece of tech; it’s customer experience.

That’s why there’s so much interest in technologies like those that enable a single pane of glass customer view, because a better employee experience should always lead to a better customer service experience.

Traditionally, contact centers have handled interactions as a one-off scenario – a chat coming in, a call that needs to be answered, a support issue – but now old-school thinking.

Now, contact centers will consider: is the text from a customer ten minutes ago related to the call they’ve just made?

In doing so, they measure the customer, not the number of times they got in touch.

The challenge is that good customer experience is not about a single tool; it’s about the overall holistic approach in a business, from bringing together the back office and front office to breaking down silo mentalities.

CCaaS Platforms: The Trends

Expecting to see GenAI pop-up across the board? Fear not! The six CCaaS specialists share other trends ripping through the market.

Agentic AI Comes to the Fore

Miceli: Agentic AI agents go beyond reacting to prompts as GenAI does to autonomously anticipate and address real-time operational and customer needs.

Without a human in the loop, agentic AI agents can think and execute independently, interacting directly or in a “headless” motion.

Such autonomy eliminates the need for complex and lengthy pre-configured instructions – and can also enable skills for live agents to be exponentially increased – as multiple AI Agents can work simultaneously and autonomously on behalf of a live Agent in the background.

Imagine a single agent that can answer billing questions, address fraud concerns, make appointments, conduct sales, check order statuses… the possibilities are limitless.

As with any new technology, especially one with autonomous capabilities, oversight and responsible management with AI guardrails are necessary to ensure safe, accurate, and ethical interactions.

Yet, the combination of advanced functionality and robust safeguards makes agentic AI agents a pivotal innovation primed to take over the CCaaS space.

IoT Enables Pre-Emptive Customer Service

Taylor: One trend transforming the CCaaS space is the rise of Internet of Things (IoT)-driven customer service experiences.

Gartner has predicted that by 2026, one in five customer conversations that come through the contact center will be from IoT-connected devices, also known as digital customers.

With Cisco predicting nearly half a trillion IoT devices, these connected devices are changing how customers interact with businesses.

Traditionally, customers would call in to report issues like a power outage. Today, IoT devices, such as smart meters, pre-emptively notify the service provider before the customer notices the problem.

As more digital customers emerge, CCaaS platforms must evolve to manage IoT-driven interactions differently from traditional human-initiated contacts.

While customers still value human connection, IoT introduces automated, real-time data that seamlessly integrates into support workflows.

Proactively responding to IoT alerts before customers reach out enables businesses to anticipate and resolve real-time issues, enhancing overall customer satisfaction.

AI Changes Conventional CX Roles

Bassett: As AI adoption grows throughout the CCaaS space and customer service becomes more automated, CX roles will transform significantly beyond traditional contact centers.

The focus of human involvement will shift towards overseeing AI performance, ensuring seamless AI-human collaboration, and fostering deeper customer relationships.

As such, CX professionals will take on strategic roles, managing AI oversight to maintain service quality and accuracy while dedicating more time to customer relationship management and complex issue resolution.

This transformation will elevate the importance of customer experience roles, making them integral to sustaining brand loyalty and driving business growth.

Therefore, as the roles in customer service evolve, expect investment to move from human-led CX interactions to reskilling the workforce with the rise of prompt engineers and strategy planners. This upleveling of human skill sets may even impact school curriculums and business learning programs.

Real-Time Translation Becomes More Widely-Implemented

Orford: Real-time across multiple languages is not often discussed, but it’s here and impressing everyone when it’s in action.

On multiple levels, it brings improvements. It’s making services more accessible for everyone – and that’s critical in sectors like local government. After all, some councils and regional authorities in the UK have more than 150 languages to deal with.

Immediately, with real-time translation they can offer more accessible services, heighten cultural sensitivity,  and improve the customer experience.

It’s also excellent in verticals such as education, tourism, and the public sector.

Consider emergency services. Real-time translation across multiple languages means there is less chance of miscommunication in urgent situations.

Agent & Supervisor Productivity Tool Gain Sustained Momentum

Chandran: In the CCaaS space, one of the most significant trends is the increasing focus on agent and supervisor productivity tools.

The philosophy is simple: happy employees = happy customers. If a brand invests in tools that empower agents and supervisors – whether it’s AI-powered assist features, workflow automation, or a unified agent desktop – it enhances its ability to do their job effectively.

When agents and supervisors have the right tools, they can deliver better service, leading to higher customer satisfaction. This focus on optimizing the agent experience is a game-changer because if agents are thriving, customers will feel the difference in every interaction.

Tata Communications is tapping into this trend with the launch of InstaCC TX, its cloud agent experience solution.

The solution supports all contact center types—whether cloud, on-premise, or hybrid—and focuses on reducing operational inefficiencies for agents and supervisors while streamlining migration journeys for organizations.

It’s about delivering a Total Experience (TX), which we define as the combination of CX (customer experience), EX (employee experience), User Experience, and Multi Experience.

Proactive Customer Engagement Is Back In Vogue

Muthukrishnan: Outside of the realm of GenAI, a significant convergence is occurring in proactive customer engagement throughout the customer journey.

The best contact center experience is the one that never happens.

Traditionally, companies have considered customer engagement and communication an operational or marketing activity, while customer experience is a contact center issue.

However, when customer engagement and customer experience come together, it becomes clear that contact centers can pre-empt many reasons customers have for reaching out.

By proactively addressing potential issues, keeping customers informed, and ensuring desired customer experience outcomes, organizations can achieve higher customer satisfaction (CSAT).

In many cases, this approach eliminates the need for customers to contact the center altogether.

CCaaS Platforms: The Providers

To close off, the experts introduce the tech providers they work for and why businesses often work with them to manage their CCaaS transformations.

Tata Communications

Chandran: According to IDC research, nearly 30 percent of buyers indicate that their recent contact center technology investments required working with multiple vendors, leading to increased complexity and coordination challenges.

Ideally, businesses select one strategic partner that can manage the complete technology stack and provide a single point of contact for all queries.

Tata Communications offers a single hand to shake for businesses seeking a unified technology stack for a CCaaS deployment.

The tech giant not only offers flexibility with a range of hosted and partner-hosted cloud contact center solutions tailored to fit companies of all sizes and industries, but also provides a single platform for both CPaaS and CCaaS, powering workforce and customer interactions “seamlessly”.

Rajesh Chandran
Rajesh Chandran

Additionally, Tata Communications delivers robust managed services that ensure enterprises fully leverage InstaCC, from transition and migration to project management and service delivery. This includes 24/7 global network operations center (NOC) support, proactive monitoring, and certified service assurance teams.

With command of every interaction, Tata provides 100 percent control, visibility, and 360-degree operational insights, enhancing customer and agent experiences.

Finally, it offers seamless uptime management and comprehensive after-service support—all under one SLA.

Content Guru

Taylor: Content Guru’s niche is large, mission-critical contact centers, those that simply can’t afford downtime.

While countless providers cater to smaller contact centers, Contact Guru stands out for enterprises that rely on their contact centers to handle high-stakes operations.

Sean Taylor
Sean Taylor

Its storm platform ensures uptime, scalability, and resilience under the most demanding conditions for financial services, healthcare, utilities, government, and various other sectors.

Additionally, the Content Guru team specializes in complex deployments, offering robust customization and integration capabilities, ensuring seamless alignment with existing systems while maintaining the highest levels of security and compliance.

For Content Guru, when the stakes are high and performance can’t be compromised, storm stands head and shoulders above the rest.

NICE

Bassett: Contact centers should consider NICE for their CCaaS deployment due to its next-gen CXone Mpower platform, which lets businesses fully automate customer service.

By seamlessly integrating workflows between the front and back office, NICE enables businesses to orchestrate AI and human agents, boosting efficiency and reducing operational costs.

Richard Bassett
Richard Bassett

CXone Mpower consolidates data, knowledge, and AI models into a single intelligent hub, enhancing personalization and delivering real-time, contextual insights.

Such a high level of automation allows contact centers to shift from cost centers to profit centers, offering a blend of proactive augmentation for human agents and AI-driven interactions.

As a stalwart of CX technology, NICE empowers businesses to design, build, and manage end-to-end customer service journeys with “unparalleled” precision and scalability.

Talkdesk

Miceli: Talkdesk is a global leader in AI-powered customer experience solutions and is dedicated to transforming how businesses interact with their customers.

Its platforms, Talkdesk CX Cloud and Industry Experience Clouds, are cloud-native and deliver “exceptional” customer experiences, helping companies drive revenue growth while reducing costs.

Talkdesk’s platforms leverage agentic AI and specialized industry workflows. This enables an intuitive, out-of-the-box solution that automates customer self-service, streamlines interactions, empowers agents, and uncovers valuable insights.

Crystal Miceli
Crystal Miceli

By choosing Talkdesk, companies may gain access to continuous innovation in customer self-service, omnichannel engagement, routing and orchestration, workforce engagement, and customer experience analytics.

With a presence in over 100 countries, Talkdesk serves companies of all sizes, helping them achieve breakthrough results without wavering from its commitment to reliability and security.

Webex by Cisco

Muthukrishnan: Contact centers today are a blend of voice, channels, and core contact center software, alongside all the AI, automation, and systems integration that power it.

Among the few companies with a credible presence in UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS, Webex stands out by unifying these technologies on a single platform.

Its significant investments in AI, leadership in responsible AI, and commitment to scalable, secure AI development are fundamental.

Additionally, AI, security, and privacy are not afterthoughts, features, or bolt-ons; they are part of how it develops products.

For over two decades, Cisco has remained a contact center stalwart, and with its continued fast-paced innovation, it’s a core provider for enterprises globally.

Vinod Muthukrishnan
Vinod Muthukrishnan

Looking to the future, its investments in AI, omnichannel, orchestration, and core contact center technologies are bar none.

When combining its historical pedigree, current growth trajectory, and forward-looking investments, Webex emerges as a contender for any enterprise seeking a robust customer experience strategy and a reliable partner for the future.

Miss out on our previous CX Today roundtable? Catch up here: Contact Center Virtual Agents: Trends, Best Practices, & Providers

 

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