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:
Sridhar Iyengar[/caption]
