Welcome to the complete guide to NICE and its UC capabilities, designed to help you determine whether the NICE suite offers everything your company needs to utilise your communications fully.
NICE as a company has a long history dating back to 1986. Founded in Israel, the company initially made systems for contact centers, financial services and business intelligence markets; the engineer that founded NICE even created a telephony voice recording system in the early 90s, followed by ATM software.
Recognized for its expertise in call recording technology, NICE has since broadened its scope to encompass comprehensive solutions for customer experience, contact center, compliance, and financial crime prevention.
NICE now stands as a leading player in the CCaaS and CX landscape.
Just like its competitors (such as Genesys, Five9, and Talkdesk), NICE now features a wide selection of AI-powered tools, from the cutting-edge Enlighten AI, to the NEVA (NICE Employee Virtual Attendant), and more.
If you’re looking for a strong CCaaS solution with strong AI features, all without compromising on UCaaS capabilities, then read more to see what NICE has to offer.
NICE Guide: The Core Features of NICE
NICE is sold as an all-in-one communication package that combines UCaaS and CCaaS capabilities under a single vendor.
This integration aims to streamline communication processes and enhance both employee and customer experiences by providing tools like voice, messaging, video collaboration, and CRM integration in a unified platform.
At the heart of the NICE ecosystem is the “NICE Suite,” which includes features for:
- CXone: NICE CXone is a cloud-native customer experience CCaaS platform that unifies omnichannel routing, analytics, workforce optimization, automation, and artificial intelligence.
- Nice1CX: NICE 1CX is a UCaaS solution that facilitates organization-wide communication and collaboration in one omnichannel environment for optimal engagement. 1CX is largely used as an augmentation to CXone CCaaS for an all-in-one communications provider.
- CXone MPower: Combines AI tools like Copilot and Autopilot to automate customer service workflows across the customer journey.
- Customer Engagement Analytics: Solutions to analyze structured and unstructured data for deeper insights into customer journeys and behaviors.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA): NICE RPA helps organizations automate repetitive tasks and processes. NICE RPA can be deployed across various departments to streamline workflows and free up employees for more strategic activities.
On top of the NICE Suite, NICE also offers a comprehensive cloud contact center, workforce optimization (WFO) toolkit, and CPaaS solutions.
In other words, it allows companies to combine and converge a number of cloud workforce systems, not just communication, into a single platform.
NICE Guide: Advanced Features
As mentioned at the beginning of this NICE guide, the NICE ecosystem is constantly evolving with new enterprise-grade tools and cutting-edge features.
In recent years, the NICE team introduced significant advancements in AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities.
For instance, the NICE Enlighten AI, designed for the CXone platform, features comprehensive workflow orchestration and automation capabilities, allowing businesses to create custom conversational experiences for their clients.
Equally, NICE NEVA gives employees their dedicated desktop assistant, for real-time, in-context next-best-action guidance/
Enlighten AI, as well as NEVA, although largely about external conversations with customers, are built into NICE’s tools for meetings and collaboration, helping with things like automation and Gen AI to summarize every interaction.
Some of the most impressive, advanced features offered by NICE include:
- Real-Time Transcription, Meeting Highlights and Translation: The AI assistant, just like Microsoft’s “Copilot” assistant, helps streamline gathering insights from coversations in real-time so agents can enhance conversations. Through a mix of CXone Mpower SmartSpeak, or the Enlighten AI models, AI copilots can give real-time transcription, translation and phrase detection capabilities that can support employees during calls, with real-time live prompts in addition to post-call summaries.
- Real-Time Authentication: NICE Real-Time Authentication provides secure and frictionless authentication for customers during phone interactions. This voice biometrics solution verifies customer identities in real-time, reducing fraud and improving the customer experience.
- Actimize: NICE Actimize offers a comprehensive suite of solutions for financial crime, risk, and compliance management. Actimize helps financial institutions detect and prevent fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Evidencentral: NICE Evidencentral is a digital evidence management solution designed for law enforcement agencies. Evidencentral streamlines the collection, analysis, and sharing of digital evidence, enabling law enforcement professionals to solve crimes more efficiently.
The NICE Ecosystem: The Flexibility of NICE
One of the things that makes NICE so appealing to companies looking to upgrade their cloud communications strategy is that it offers a versatile range of solutions.
A key feature of this flexibility is NICE’s CPaaS-like capabilities. For instance, CXone, its CCaaS platform, has the capability to integrate with CPaaS solutions with APIs.
Equally, its eminence in the CCaaS sphere has meant that it has managed to secure partnerships with other major players, like Salesforce or Microsoft Teams, that allow you to take advantage of their systems on the platform.
NICE Guide: The Use Cases for NICE
Like its competitors, NICE has proven itself to be a highly versatile platform, catering to a wide range of professional needs across sectors.
Omnichannel Customer Journey Orchestration
NICE CXone enables businesses to deliver seamless, personalized interactions via omnichannel capabilities, spanning channels such as voice, email, SMS, social media, and video. By integrating AI-powered tools like Enlighten AI Routing and predictive dialers, companies can match customers with the most qualified agents in real time while reducing wait times and improving satisfaction scores. This capability is particularly valuable for contact centers managing high volumes of interactions, allowing them to enhance resolution rates and customer retention. Additionally, NICE’s self-service features, such as chatbots and interactive voice response (IVR) systems, empower customers to resolve issues independently while reducing operational costs.
Workforce Optimization and Engagement
NICE Workforce Management (WFM) tools utilize AI-driven forecasting and scheduling to ensure optimal staffing levels based on historical data and real-time demand. These tools help businesses reduce agent idle time, improve service level agreements (SLAs), and lower absenteeism by up to 40%. NICE also provides real-time interaction guidance through AI-driven coaching tools that deliver in-the-moment feedback to agents, enhancing performance and customer outcomes. For sales environments, NICE offers specialized solutions like Sales Performance Management, which includes territory management and compensation tracking. These capabilities are complemented by comprehensive analytics tools that monitor employee performance, call quality, and customer sentiment. Together, these solutions empower organizations to improve operational efficiency while fostering a motivated and high-performing workforce.
NICE Security and Privacy
One thing we really wanted to draw attention to in this NICE guide, is how incredible the platform is at helping businesses protect their data and minimize risks.
For instance, NICE leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud infrastructure, offering redundancy with multiple availability zones to ensure 99.99% uptime and protection against data loss.
Other key features include:
- CXone platform incorporates multiple layers of security, including data encryption at rest and in transit, secure file transfer protocols (SFTP), and HTTPS for secure communications.
- Adherence to stringent global regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and FedRAMP, ensuring the secure handling of sensitive information like personal data, healthcare records, and payment details while recording up to 100% of interactions.
- NICE also complies with SOC 2 standards to maintain high levels of operational security and data privacy.
This comprehensive approach to security and compliance makes NICE a trusted partner for organizations in regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and government.
NICE Guide: NICE Pricing and Plans
At this point, you’re probably wondering how much it’s going to cost to invest in NICE for your team.
The good news is, NICE CXone offers a free 60-day trial of its cloud-based contact center software.
After a trial, NICE CXone offers a range of pricing plans and packages tailored to meet the needs of businesses of various sizes, from small to enterprise-level organizations.
Its pricing structure is tiered, and it depends on what features and capabilities you need.
Digital Agent: Priced at $71 per user/month, is ideal for businesses focusing on digital-first customer interactions. It supports over 30 digital channels, such as email, chat, social media, and messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Voice Agent: Available at $94 per user/month, this is suitable for businesses focusing on voice-based interactions, with features like voice IVR, call recording, and concurrent interaction handling.
Omnichannel Agent: At $110 per user/month, this package combines digital and voice capabilities with blended routing and analytics dashboards.
Essential Suite: Is billed at $135 per user/month and is tailored for businesses needing quality management, performance monitoring, and omnichannel support, including medium-sized contact centers.
Core Suite: Runs at $169 per user/month and includes workforce optimization tools like AI-driven forecasting and scheduling, quality management workflows, and advanced analytics.
Complete Suite: The most comprehensive plan, costs $209 per user/month and is designed for large enterprises requiring sophisticated omnichannel analytics, sentiment analysis, and workforce engagement tools.
NICE CXone’s pricing model is subscription-based and does not charge per minute but rather per user, making it a flexible option for businesses seeking scalable customer experience solutions.
Getting Started with NICE
Getting started with NICE Systems involves a structured and collaborative approach to ensure successful implementation of its solutions.
NICE provides a structured implementation methodology that includes collaboration between your team and NICE’s experts.
This process typically begins with a project plan, where tasks and timelines are outlined. Organizations must ensure their IT infrastructure meets NICE’s platform requirements, including network configurations, supported browsers, and open ports for seamless connectivity.
For developers or businesses looking to integrate NICE CXone with existing systems, the platform offers extensive API capabilities. The integration process starts with defining the purpose of the integration—whether it’s for back-end server-to-server communication or user-facing applications.
Throughout the process, NICE offers support through documentation, developer portals, and dedicated account representatives to guide businesses in successfully implementing their solutions.
NICE Guide: Is NICE Right for You?
NICE Systems may be the right choice for your organization if you are seeking a robust, scalable, and flexible solution for optimizing customer experience through a powerful and highly customisable CCaaS solution.
Its flagship platform, NICE CXone, is highly rated by analysts and offers a comprehensive suite of tools that businesses who rely on both voice and digital channels can benefit from.
CXone’s ability to unify interactions across platforms like email, chat, social media, and video while providing intelligent routing to match customers with the most qualified agents is also a highly useful tool for companies dealing with lager contact center operations.
If your organization values data-driven insights, CXone’s reporting dashboards and analytics tools can offer actionable intelligence to improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
As an added bonus above its competitors, NICE’s WFM solutions powered by AI can aid in the running of the contact center itself, optimizing staffing levels while offering agents flexibility through self-service scheduling options like vacation bidding and voluntary time-off features.
The Future of NICE
The future of NICE Systems is poised to be shaped by advancements in AI-driven automation, expanded integrations, and a strategic focus on transforming customer service operations into profit centers.
NICE’s CXone platform continues to evolve, with innovations such as the next-generation CXone Mpower delivering full-scale customer service automation.
This unified hyper-platform enables enterprises to design, build, and manage every aspect of the customer service journey across front, mid, and back-office operations.
Indeed, the the strength of this CXone Mpower has seen in grow in use by 400% in just under a year.
By combining predictive and proactive AI capabilities with seamless integration of workflows and human-agent collaboration, NICE is redefining traditional contact centers as revenue-generating hubs. This shift aligns with broader industry trends, where businesses increasingly adopt labor-replacing automation to optimize processes and enhance operational efficiency.
By focusing heavily on AI as a way to improve customer interactions, NICE looks set to remain a contender in the CCaaS space.
NICE Guide FAQs
How does NICE CXone pricing work?
NICE CXone pricing follows a tiered subscription model, ranging from $71 to $209 per user/month. Each tier includes different features and communication channels tailored to business needs. For example, lower tiers focus on digital channels, while higher tiers offer advanced omnichannel capabilities and workforce optimization tools.
What is NICE CXone used for?
NICE CXone is a cloud-based platform designed for managing customer interactions across multiple channels, such as voice, chat, email, and social media. It unifies tools like AI-driven analytics, workforce engagement management (WEM), and omnichannel routing to deliver seamless customer experiences in contact centers.
Does NICE CXone integrate with other platforms?
Yes, NICE CXone integrates with popular platforms like Salesforce, Microsoft Teams, Zendesk, and more. These integrations enable seamless data sharing, workflow automation, and enhanced collaboration between systems.
Is there a free version of NICE CXone?
NICE CXone does not have a free version but offers a free trial for businesses to explore its features. Subscription plans start at $71 per user/month.
What are the system requirements for NICE CXone?
NICE CXone requires TLS 1.2 compliance, IPV4-compatible firewalls, Windows 8 or higher operating systems, Chrome or Edge browsers, .NET Framework, and at least 8 GB RAM for optimal performance.
Does NICE CXone charge per minute?
No, NICE CXone charges on a per-user basis rather than per minute. Pricing depends on the selected plan and the included features.
What types of phone numbers does NICE offer?
NICE provides Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers and toll-free numbers (TFNs) for routing customer interactions efficiently in contact centers.
How do I implement NICE CXone?
To implement NICE CXone:
- Prepare your network by opening required ports and configuring IP addresses.
- Install necessary software like NICE ScreenAgent on test workstations.
- Conduct connectivity testing with representatives from your IT team and NICE.
- Deploy the solution across all agent workstations (this can be automated).
- Train staff on the platform’s features and workflows.
For detailed guidance, refer to the NICE Help Center or consult your assigned implementation manager.
