Zoho One lets enterprise leaders manage almost every aspect of their business using a single platform. The comprehensive business management software developer enables everything from accounting features to Customer Relationship Management and advanced telephony functions. Most recently, Zoho released a set of major updates to Zoho One and added a new API called PhoneBridge.
I spoke with Sridhar Iyengar, Zoho’s European Managing Director, who told me all about their new telephony API. PhoneBridge by Zoho provides telephony features from within Zoho apps, lets customers make calls from Zoho apps, and integrates with more than 50 telephony vendors. It even provides contextual data on incoming calls, making it a charming solution for contact centers.
“We don’t just enable Unified Communications – we believe in contextual UC, and see that as an important difference. When you contextually embed UC tools, they become less of about being a vehicle and more about enhancing the contextual experience”
This level of consecration on enhancing UX and CX is something a growing number of developers now realize is essential to consider when building UC systems.
What Does Zoho’s PhoneBridge API Do?
Zoho’s business apps have long supported integrations with telephony providers that unify enterprises, but PhoneBridge goes above and beyond helping teams connect. It brings context into communications, which ‘doesn’t happen in a vacuum,’ according to Iyengar, ‘it happens within a defined context.’
For contact centers, context reigns supreme, most notably throughout customer and partner communications. Be it a salesperson chatting with a prospect, a support agent assisting a client, HR evaluating a candidate on a video call or everyday workplace collaboration, most of today’s business communications take place in a Cloud-environment.
If agents have to leave that environment to communicate, contact centers could end up with unproductive employees. Not only is this costly, according to Iyengar, but UC systems are by definition, structured to offer flexibility. He proceeded, stating:
“Collaboration and communication should be contextual to where agents do their work, not the other way around”
Introducing Zoho One, Next Generation
Zoho also revamped Zoho One and its User Interface, which now extends the use of Orchestly. With Orchestly, Zoho users can create, optimize, and manage their entire business workflow using a new drag-and-drop UI. Zoho further enhanced its already robust platform by adding 35 distinct apps that let businesses leverage solid AI, messaging, search, and business intelligence features, too.
With these updates and the debut of PhoneBridge, Zoho further raised the bar for UC system developers by making convenience and affordability ‘standard’ with its business management platform. The implications of this are significant and could impact employees and partners alike who rely on secure Cloud infrastructure for collaboration and communication to impact their bottom line.
Such crucial hallmarks are necessary for the UC space, particularly at the competitive rates Zoho extends. Any contact center or enterprise taking advantage of Zoho and each of its updates should, thus, experience a valuable ROI if they leverage the tools to enhance their vulnerable points.
