WebexOne 2022 has once again opened up its virtual doors, showcasing the latest additions to Cisco’s collaborations portfolio.
This includes UCaaS, CPaaS, and CCaaS platforms, with many new innovations available across each.
Consider the latter. Despite existing for little more than two years, the Webex Contact Center has already achieved “leader” status in the space – according to Aragon Research. It also features as one of only nine vendors in this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant.
As such, it has benefited significantly from quick speed to innovation – fast establishing a worldwide customer base.
Moreover, Webex shows little sign of slowing down, making four significant announcements at WebexOne, which the vendor hopes will further its CCaaS momentum. These include:
- A Teams Contact Center certification
- New customer engagement channels
- AI-based noise reduction features
- A new agent headset
Below, we delve deeper into each before sharing some other highlights from WebexOne.
The Webex Contact Center Is Certified for Microsoft Teams
Webex will integrate its CCaaS solution into Microsoft Teams in early 2023, enabling skill-based routing of inbound Teams calls.
With the solution, Webex opens itself up to a new market of businesses that harness Teams as their UCaaS platform of choice.
These Teams users may route calls across the business, opening the contact center up to external expertise that lies outside its traditional remit.
Moreover, other departments may harness CCaaS tools more easily and cost-effectively for improved knowledge sharing, customer communication, and collaboration.
Of course, the move raises eyebrows as Microsoft and Webex are long-term rivals in the UCaaS space. Yet, it is a significant win for interoperability and customer experience, as users can access the best technologies within each other’s rich ecosystems.
Also, an opportunity lies here for Webex. As Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research, points out:
Microsoft treats unified communications and the contact center almost like a feature of Office. Yet, Cisco sees the chance to make the Teams experience a better experience than Microsoft can.
There is precedent for that. The example that Kerravala gives is that “Box does document management better for Microsoft apps than Microsoft.”
In addition, given the high regard many hold for Webex’s CCaaS platform – and the infancy of Microsoft’s CCaaS solution – Cisco can offer a solution that Teams businesses can perhaps have more confidence in.
It Now Offers 16 Customer Engagement Channels
Thanks to the evolution of its sister CPaaS platform, the Webex Contact Center now allows consumers to connect with businesses across 16 channels.
New additions include Google Business Messenger and Instagram, which continues to grow its potential for digital commerce.
Of course, this showcases how the intimate nature of the platforms within Webex enables rapid innovation. But it also highlights the benefits of a cloud-native CCaaS platform.
Making this point, Kerravala states:
Cisco has built out its contact center the right way. It could have short-circuited it by maybe acquiring one, but they wanted to make sure it was cloud native.
Once a CCaaS provider is cloud-native, it becomes much easier to drop in new services – like Instagram as a channel.
Indeed, this is often an underappreciated aspect of the contact center industry, as many older CCaaS vendors – which rushed into the market – instead offer big monolithic platforms. As such, they often struggle to innovate quickly.
Webex is the antithesis of this, like fellow market disruptor Five9. It re-constructed its solution a few years ago to become cloud-native and now – like Webex – is reaping the rewards.
New Headsets and AI-Based Noise Reduction Features Are Available
To supplement its Webex CCaaS solution – and those of other vendors – Cisco also unveiled the new Cisco Headset 720 Series, “designed with agents in mind.”
Features include a lightweight 276° rotation boom arm, flip-to-mute, and a one-button to join for Webex and Microsoft Teams. Users can choose between a single or dual ear-styled headset.
In addition, the vendor made its AI-based noise reduction app, already available within the Webex suite, accessible to all users of the Webex Contact Center.
Developed with Krisp, the app provides an AI layer between contact center agents and their microphone/speaker, filtering noise as it travels to and from the customer.
As such, the customer only hears crystal clear, and agents can feel assured that their barking dogs, loud housemates, and noisy washing machines are not hampering the customer experience.
Finally, agents also enjoy uninterrupted audio, allowing them to get straight to the crux of the customer’s query.
The Best of the Rest
In addition to the features above, Webex has upgraded its supervisor dashboard for monitoring agent performance, viewing agent information, and scouring call highlights.
It has also expanded its Analyzer reports, allowing team leaders to drive performance forward by harnessing historical and real-time performance insights.
Yet, the event covered much more than CCaaS. Webex also introduced many new UCaaS capabilities, including:
- Asynchronous Video: Vidcast as part of the Webex Suite is generally available, with an AI-powered editing capability to help users create more engaging and polished content. The asynchronous video feature also comes with a Slido integration.
- Apple Partnership: Users of iPad and iPhone devices can now share content directly from their front-facing or rear-facing camera to the Webex Meetings app with Mobile Camera Share. The functionality includes real-time annotation capabilities for boosted collaboration.
- Calling Innovations: Webex Calling can now integrate with Microsoft Teams so that users can make enterprise-grade calls via Webex within the Teams interface. There’s also Group Call Management available for Webex Calling, so companies can activate internal call center services, improve staff training, measure performance, and boost caller experiences.
- Hybrid Events: Users of Webex will now have access to a new lobby experience for virtual events, with customizable agendas, sponsors, speaker bios, and more. Content widgets make it easy to embed new elements into event websites, and Webex now has a range of production tools to help with adding branding to any event experience.
- The Webex Whiteboard App: This provides an easy-to-use environment for sharing written and drawn content. Whiteboards can also connect with Slido polls, which users may share or save in a Webex space.
Meanwhile, Webex Connect – Cisco’s CPaaS platform – has also undergone somewhat of a transformation, now supporting bot-driven customer journeys in 93 languages.
It now also “connects” with Sycurio to enable commerce experiences and Epic to bolster customer communications in healthcare.
Finally, Webex showcased its Customer Experience Developer Portal, which gives IT teams APIs and documentation to help design more personalized contact center experiences.
Such APIs pave the way for agent desktops, omnichannel routing, journey orchestration, and workflow automation customization.
Eager to learn more about Webex’s CCaaS offering? If so, read our article: Webex: Is It Right for Your Contact Center?
