Aragon Research introduced the “intelligent contact center” concept in 2018.
In doing so, the analyst firm asserted that traditional voice response systems can’t keep up with digital enterprise requirements and customer expectations for personalized, consistent journeys.
As such, it highlighted how service platforms are morphing into AI-enhanced intelligent contact centers (ICCs) that automate processes, accelerate interactions, and surface deeper insights.
With the advent of generative AI, this evolution has accelerated. Indeed, Aragon Research predicts:
“70 percent of ICC providers will use third-party LLMs that they train on their own product and service information.”
Yet, some vendors are better prepared than others to incorporate these new AI technologies into their platforms and lead the intelligent contact center transition.
With the Aragon Research Globe for the Intelligent Contact Center 2024, the analyst isolated the best-prepared few – crowning them “market leaders”.
Here is how the vendor did so, alongside some of its most striking findings.
Inspecting the “Intelligent Contact Center” Leaders
In its study, Aragon Research assessed 15 intelligent contact center vendors and crowned only seven market leaders.
To qualify these leaders, Aragon Research’s team conducted a “rigorous” analysis that “looks beyond size and market share”, which often dominates these reports.
While it does factor global reach into its research, that’s more from a support and sales services perspective. Mostly, the research hones in on each provider’s product-oriented capabilities.
In doing so, Aragon Research splits its analysis into three dimensions:
Strategy
- Product
- Product strategy
- Market understanding and product roadmap
- Marketing
- Management team
Performance
- Market awareness
- Customer experience and feedback
- Financial viability
- Pricing and packaging
- Product feature mix and frequency/quality of releases
- Investment in R&D
Global Reach
- Worldwide sales and support offices
- Locations and time zones of support sentences
- Language support
- References across regions
- Data center locations
After evaluating each vendor across all these criteria, Aragon Research created the following matrix, which features the most prominent tech providers in the space.
“The race to deliver intelligent contact centers is on,” said Jim Lundy, Founder, CEO, & Lead Analyst at Aragon Research, when summarizing these findings.
“It is important to evaluate current and potential ICC providers both on core capabilities for omnichannel capabilities and also for their roadmap for both human and virtual agents.”
Of course, the Aragon Research Globe is only one resource to leverage in making this evaluation – and, as Lundy suggests, further evaluation is critical.
Nevertheless, the report does wade through many of the most familiar names in the contact center tech space – like NICE, Five9, and Cisco.
UJET is another. Despite being a new name in the annual report, the provider has swooped straight into the leader quadrant, swooping past many market rivals.
Much of this is due to its burgeoning market presence, partly thanks to its close partnership with Google. Yet, it does have significant market differentiators in its own right.
As this is the case, it’s a fascinating vendor to consider as businesses work to whittle down their long list of contact center partners.
UJET: The Top Tier Constant
“2024 marks the race for intelligence in the contact center, with generative AI at the forefront of this transformation,” said Lundy.
Thankfully, for UJET, it’s a vendor well-prepared for this transition, with the report noting its “AI contact center offering” as a core strength.
Digging deeper, Aragon Research highlights its AI-powered virtual agent and agent-assist technologies as excellent examples.
Yet, even the best AI is nothing without the data to fuel it. Fortunately, UJET also excels with its data-centric design and deep integration with CRM providers.
As Lundy states within the report:
“One of the modern capabilities of UJET is that customer records are fully unified in the CRM, via its real-time data exchange, with no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) stored in the contact center.”
Its mobile-first design is another example of this forward-thinking approach that Lundy applauds, differentiating the solution in several ways.
For instance, UJET uniquely offers its businesses the opportunity to allow their customers to identify and verify themselves for contact center conversations via fingerprint ID on their smartphones.
Finally, Aragon Research highlights how UJET is well-positioned to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, from SMBs to enterprises.
The one possible challenge the analyst proposes is UJET’s brand recognition outside of North America. But that’s starting to change, thanks in no small part to its close partnership with Google.
Of course, that helps to power its international profile. Yet, UJET also leverages its AI to design cutting-edge applications within its contact center platform.
For example, UJET pulls Google CCAI Insights – a conversational intelligence tool – to build and design the virtual agent that Aragon Research underlines as a significant strength.
Yet, outside of what’s included within the report, it’s perhaps also essential to note how well verified customers rate UJET.
Indeed, the G2 Summer 2023 Enterprise Grid Report for Contact Center found that UJET had the highest customer NPS score across the entire industry – which is quite the feat!
Choosing an Intelligent Contact Center Vendor
The Aragon Research Globe offers excellent insight into the contact center market. Yet, as previously noted, buyers must dig deeper and evaluate vendors against their specific requirements.
Of course, there is much discovery work to do before reaching this stage. For this, Nerys Corfield, Director of Injection Consulting, recommends a framework called the “Seven Ps”.
As she highlights in a recent CX Today interview, these cover: proposition, people experience, performance metrics, profit margins, platforms, pain, and path.
After that heavy lifting is complete, businesses can weigh up various vendors. That includes mulling over various considerations, like:
- Which environment best aligns with our current and future needs? Is that a public, private, or hybrid cloud? Or perhaps even on-premise?
- How well does the solution integrate with my CRM, UCaaS, and WFO platforms? Other enterprise tools – such as the ERP, conversational AI, and ITSM platforms – are also often essential to consider.
- What role does the contact center play within the broader enterprise? Overlaying the UCaaS platform with foundational CCaaS tools may be enough.
- Does this vendor have diverse, effective support services that meet the language requirements of my contact center? That’s crucial if it spans many regions.
- What are the customization needs of the business? When developers wish to tailor much of the service experience, choosing a vendor with close CPaaS ties is crucial.
Indeed, there is a lot to think about. That quick-fire list doesn’t even include scalability, referenceability, channel mix, and more.
Yet, thankfully, by downloading the Aragon Research Globe – and similar industry tools – buyers can open up a pantry full of much more food for thought when weighing up contact center providers.
To discover if UJET’s Intelligent Contact Center platform fits your shortlist, you can also visit: ujet.cx
