Masergy to Offer CCaaSMasergy to Offer CCaaS

When I read yesterday that UCaaS provider Masergy had just introduced a cloud contact center offering, I immediately suspected that the solution was based on BroadSoft CC-One. Why? Because the phrase "predictive analytics and Salesforce capabilities" appeared in the press release title, and these attributes are defining features of the Transera contact center solution BroadSoft acquired one year ago. Plus, Masergy has been providing UCaaS based on BroadSoft applications since 2012.

The headline from my No Jitter post discussing BroadSoft's Transera acquisition began "UCaaS/CCaaS Consolidation." In a conversation on the CCaaS offering, Dean Manzoori, VP of product management for UCaaS at Masergy, reinforced the need to have an integrated solution was an important reason for adding cloud contact center. I asked Manzoori if Masergy was one of the partners that had been looking to BroadSoft to add contact center. "Absolutely. We recognized, and what we were hearing from the field (i.e., sales), was that we had a gap. Especially in the enterprise space. We couldn't be effective without a fully featured contact center solution."

I asked how Masergy had been filling that contact center gap to date. "We have the traditional inbound, voice-only call center solution based on BroadSoft. It does the job for companies where the call center is a cost center, but that is a very small segment of the customer base," Manzoori said. For companies that wanted Masergy UCaaS but needed more than simple call center, Masergy "remained agnostic," he added. "We could connect to any contact center the customer chose: inContact, Serenova, Five9, premises-based Avaya, etc."

The agnostic approach meant, however, that the Masergy customer would need to build a direct relationship with the contact center provider. This created a challenge for his customers -- "they didn't know who to call with problems," he said. With the combined UCaaS-CCaaS offer, customers get "one throat to choke."

Masergy is one of the first providers to make the combined UCaaS-CCaaS solution from BroadSoft, announced in November 2016, generally available, as Manzoori confirmed. "BroadSoft chose us as a torch, as a beacon. They chose us as much as we chose them," he added. Masergy chose them indeed; the company deployed the BroadSoft cloud contact center for its own help desk and network operations center to 70 or so users.

Via email, Arnab Mishra, VP, BroadSoft Contact Center, expanded on the relationship.

"Masergy has been a close and successful partner of BroadSoft for many years, and we're excited that Masergy has selected the BroadSoft Business CC-One application to build out their cloud contact center portfolio," he said. "Masergy's strength in unified communications enables us to partner together to bring a seamless enterprise-wide communications solution to their customers. By combining the contact center and unified communications solutions, these businesses will improve first contact resolution and customer satisfaction, while also streamlining their operations via a single provider with an integrated solution."

Masergy is hitting the ground running with the new combined solution, Manzoori explained energetically. "We have a dozen prospects already engaged. We've provided demos. We've trained every part of the value chain: how to qualify, and do initial discovery and detailed discovery. The proposal system is updated and the contract templates are fully done. We can price and sell it today."

Packaging was very important, Manzoori said. "Our omnichannel agent license is bundled: voice, Web chat, email plus analytics for one price. Omnichannel Salesforce edition a different price. One company can combine omnichannel licenses with Salesforce licenses in the same account."

Some of the confusion in existing cloud contact center proposals is how usage is priced, said Manzoori, , who will be participating at Enterprise Connect 2017, March 27 to 30, in Orlando, Fla., in a hybrid cloud mock RFP session. With Masergy SIP trunking, "you don't pay for inbound traffic. If a call comes in via SIP trunking, there is no inbound charge, unless it is a toll-free call."

While still a relatively small part of privately held Masergy's overall revenue (described as in excess of $250 million by the company's CEO in August 2015), Manzoori reported that the applications side of the business has grown 40% year over year in topline revenue since 2012, and that it is the fastest growing part of the business. Not having to send customers to a third-party contact center provider should help sustain that performance.

(Editor's note: This is an updated version of the original post, which incorrectly stated that Masergy was the first provider to offer the combined UCaaS/CCaaS BroadSoft solution. The first is actually BroadSmart.) Follow Sheila McGee-Smith on Twitter and Google+!
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