It’s that time of the week when we round up the latest news emerging from the unified comms and collaboration industry.
Hot off the presses is the news that Five9’s shareholders have rejected Zoom’s multi-billion dollar bid for the company. Meanwhile, Google introduced a contact centre solution built on Chrome, and 8×8 CEO Dave Sipes spoke with UC Today’s Tom Wright about its global expansion and hitting 100,000 Teams seats.
Zoom’s Five9 Bid Denied
The video conferencing giant’s journey to acquire the cloud contact centre specialist for $14.7bn has ended unceremoniously. The writing was on the wall last week when Five9’s shareholders were advised to reject the takeover due to the decline in Zoom’s share price since the bid was announced in July.
“While we were excited about the benefits this transaction would bring to both Zoom and Five9 stakeholders, including the long-term potential for both sets of shareholders, financial discipline is foundational to our strategy,” stated Zoom CEO Eric Yuan.
“The contact centre market remains a strategic priority for Zoom, and we are confident in our ability to capture its growth potential”
Operator Connect Gains New Carriers
Microsoft Operator Connect added nine new carriers as the service became generally available.
AT&T, Colt, Gamma, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Optus, Singtel, Telefonica Global, Telia, and Telstra International join as launch partners – taking the total carriers to 21.
The service is billed as the third option for voice in Teams, alongside Direct Routing and Teams Calling Plans. It allows businesses to plug in services from certified carriers with less of the complexity that comes with Direct Routing.
Google Brings CC Solution to Chrome
The internet giant revealed a new contact centre solution built on its Chrome operating system (OSS), which was devised in conjunction with 8×8, Cisco, Edify, Five9, Genesys, RingCentral and Vonage.
Thomas Riedl, Director of Product for Enterprise and Education at Google, stated:
“These solution providers have optimized their products for Chrome OS working closely with our partner engineering team and are driving innovation within the contact centre industry”
“We are excited about the improvements we’re bringing to our contact centre customers in collaboration with Chrome Enterprise Recommended partners.”
Microsoft’s Talking Points from Enterprise Connect
Hybrid working was the topic of conversation at this year Enterprise Connect.
The event kicked off with a keynote speech from Microsoft Teams General Manager, Nicole Herskowitz. She addressed the hybrid challenge that many businesses are grappling with, as well as revealing a range of updates for the Teams platform.
She explained that Microsoft has broken hybrid working down into three key areas: meetings and calls, group meetings, and events.
“We think about these areas as a continuum that covers all types of communications with one-on-one calls on one end, group meetings in the middle and large-scale events at the other end,” she explained.
“Each of these three areas requires digital transformation in the hybrid world. And yet, out of necessity, many organisations have just solved the most pressing most common need first, the middle, making it an all-online-meetings, all-the-time world”
8×8 CEO on Growth, Expansion and Frontdesk
UC Today’s Tom Wright caught up with Dave Sipes to catch up on some of the company’s recent highlights.
He opened up on the company’s global expansion, including its recent forays with its XCaaS solution into China and Russia. Sipes also touched up on the recent news that 8×8 now has over 100,000 business employees using its 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing offering.
“We’re having a lot of success in the core markets; Europe is very strong and also in the UK public sector,” he said.
“Microsoft is strong so in many places but where they’re slightly stronger is some of those governments in EMEA so we see a little skew in that direction but it’s a pretty broad offering globally”
The vendor also launched its Frontdesk offering at Enterprise Connect, claiming that it will transform the receptionist role across both unified communications and customer experience.
