Cisco is poised to acquire privately-held Slido, a Bratislava, Slovakia-based technology company that fosters higher user engagement levels ―before, during, and after meetings. According to a statement from Cisco:
“The Slido technology will be a part of the Cisco Webex platform and will enhance Cisco’s ability to offer new levels of inclusive audience engagement across in-person and virtual experiences”
Slido has over seven million monthly users that leverage its audience engagement platform that enables real-time feedback and insights before, during, and after meetings and events. This is what Cisco’s Webex platform stands to inherit. There’s even the ability to create dynamic polls, Q&As, quizzes, word clouds, surveys, and more.
As events become increasingly virtual, having such a capability to facilitate live events can be a big way to distinguish yourself from the competition. On a practical level, how does this work? Meeting participants can join an audience with an event code or link sent to their smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Once you join, you can respond to polls, ask questions, and provide feedback.
Having such a capability at a point in time when in-person events like voting, community meetings, and conferences are all virtual, could ensure a big win for inclusivity when measures such as critical votes are needed. Cisco has reassured its customers that Slido will align with Cisco’s strict data policies.
Cisco also said it would buy UK-based IMImobile for $730 million. The company creates omni-channel experiences via social, messaging, and voice channels. Cisco said it has seen a rise in its CCaaS Contact Center as a Service being deployed because more people now work from home. The new solution will provide several benefits, including giving agents contextual customer data to personalize chats. Businesses can also build workflows and personalize customer journeys with said technology.
The acquisition is still subject to the IMImobile board of directors accepting the terms of the agreement. Once complete in the first quarter of 2021, the IMImobile team will join Cisco’s Contact Center business unit. The unit is led by Omar Tawakol, Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Contact Center, Cisco Collaboration.
Andrew Gilman, Head of Marketing and Alliances, NWN, a Cisco partner, told UC Today that the acquisitions are both about driving engagement and making it easy to adopt innovation in our new virtual reality. He continued, adding in a statement:
“With customers looking to adopt more cloud business communications and collaboration, and head away from legacy premises-based platforms, we’ve seen an increase in the number of new apps/tools, like Slido and IMImobile”
He said that the tools are valuable, too, and that they can help support employee and customer experiences, which he argues is needed in today’s environment with IT, departments stretched to the max as he put it. Before we head into 2021, it is important to note that several companies have made what many have called strategic acquisitions as they realize they need to step up their game.
Which companies do you predict will make more purchases in hopes of beefing up its capabilities in 2021? Let us know on social media.