Journey Named Best of Enterprise Connect 2020Journey Named Best of Enterprise Connect 2020
Startup focuses on security for customer interactions; additional awards presented in four technical categories.
March 31, 2020
Customer experience is a hotbed of innovation for enterprise communications vendors; at the same time, awareness of the importance of security throughout the communications ecosystem is growing. Put these two factors together, and you have Journey, a Denver-based startup that’s coming out of stealth mode with a bang — by winning this year’s Best of Enterprise Connect Overall Award for the industry’s top innovation.
Journey has earned this recognition for its Journey Identity Platform, which, as the company describes it, “aims to make it easy for enterprises to establish trusted interactions with their customers that simultaneously solve for security, customer experience and privacy using an encrypted network and a platform of best-in-class identity solutions that can be dynamically applied using the enterprise’s existing mobile app.”
Journey was founded by Brett Shockley, an industry veteran with experience in top posts at Avaya and Cisco. He also founded Spanlink, a call center vendor acquired by ConvergeOne in 2014.
In addition to the Overall Award, the Best in Enterprise Connect program recognized innovators in the following categories:
Best Innovation for Meeting Rooms (three-way tie)
Avaya: Avaya Spaces, a simple cloud solution that integrates friction-free web meetings and team collaboration into one app
Kramer Electronics: VIA GO², which gives iOS, Android, Chromebook, PC, and Mac users instant wireless connectivity with advanced presentation technology, featuring content streaming for 4K mirrored images and video playback
RingCentral: for a new product to be announced shortly
Best Innovation in Customer Experience
Journey: Journey Identity Platform, described above
Best Application of Artificial Intelligence (three-way tie)
Genesys: Genesys Predictive Engagement, new capabilities now working within Genesys Cloud to enable businesses to anticipate individual customer needs, building on every interaction across multiple channels and events to improve and personalize future engagements
Pexip: Adaptive Composition, an AI-powered technology with real-time face detection, auto-framing and optimized use of screen real estate; works with any camera-enabled device
Theta Lake: Compliant Collaboration Archive, a new module within Theta Lake’s Compliance Suite for recordkeeping, archiving, and eDiscovery requirements for video, audio, and collaboration chat, with on-demand compliance risk analysis using AI and machine learning across leading UCaaS platforms (RingCentral, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, LogMeIn, Red Box).
Best Innovation for Advancing Employee/End User Engagement
Embrava (winner) — Embrava Desk Sign, a smart sensor IoT device designed for hot desking, office hoteling, and activity-based working
Mio (runner-up) — Mio's new intercompany federation for Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Cisco Webex Teams enables users to seamlessly chat with external business contacts who use a different messaging app than they do
Journey was chosen as Best in EC Overall from a field of six finalists. The other five finalists were:
Genesys — Genesys Predictive Engagement, described above
Glia — Glia Conversational Compliance AI Framework, a part of Glia's digital-first customer service platform that provides guidance for provisioning, measuring, and managing AI-driven virtual assistants that converse with customers and operator assistants that guide agents
Mio — Mio's new intercompany federation for Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Cisco Webex Teams, described above
Omilia Natural Language Solutions — Omilia Cloud Platform miniApps, zero-touch natural language microservices that handle a single dialog task; instantly deployable to any call center provider and seamlessly adapted to any CCaaS service creation environment
Pexip — Adaptive Composition, described above
In selecting this year’s Best of Enterprise Connect Award winners, a panel of independent industry experts reviewed 50 entries. Our judges were:
Jon Arnold, principal, J Arnold & Associates
Brent Kelly, president & principal analyst, KelCor
Steve Leaden, president, Leaden Associates
Sheila McGee-Smith, founder & principal analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics
We announced our Best of Enterprise Connect Award winners during today's Enterprise Connect Virtual event. Check out the full programming, available live and on demand, here.
