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No Jitter Roll: Recapping This Week’s Contact Center NewsNo Jitter Roll: Recapping This Week’s Contact Center News

In this No Jitter Roll, we cover the latest news from Uniphore, Khoros, Windstream Enterprise, Krisp, Startek, and Palo Alto Networks.

Ryan Daily

April 15, 2022

3 Min Read
No Jitter Roll: Recapping This Week’s Contact Center News
Image: banphote kamolsanei - Alamy Stock Photo

Welcome to the latest edition of the No Jitter Roll. In this edition, we share a roundup of contact center-related news and then look at a service for at-home employees that allows them to use SASE to connect back to their corporate office.

 

CCaaS News: AI Capabilities and Acquisitions

In addition to contact center news coming from Zoom and Genesys this week, several other vendors shared announcements, including:

 

  • Uniphore acquires Colabo: Conversational automation provider Uniphore announced that it acquired AI-based knowledge automation provider Colabo. With the combined offering, contact center agents will be able to use Colabo's capabilities, including AI-based answer recommendations and answers to customer questions. This news comes after Uniphore's recent funding round and last year’s acquisition of Jacada and Emotion Research Lab.

  • Khoros makes platform enhancements: Customer engagement provider Khoros shared its 2022 Spring release, which includes new AI-based automation features and user interface updates. The new features include: Agent Assist features that provide agents with recommendations for troubleshooting Guides and Community Knowledge articles, a Synchronous Agent mode to allow agents to prioritize webchats, and a co-browse feature that allows agents and customers to navigate a webpage simultaneously. Additionally, Khoros has added a voice integration with Amazon Connect, which allows agents to handle voice calls within the Khoros platform.

  • Windstream Enterprise adds omnichannel capabilities to CCaaS product: Communications provider Windstream Enterprise announced new features and omnichannel capabilities for its OfficeSuite UC Contact Center Service (CCS) product. OfficeSuite UC CCS provides a single platform for voice, chat, and text messaging, and Windstream Enterprise provides a multimedia license that allows enterprises to bundle multiple communications channels together. The platform has added skills-based routing, where admins can route incoming communications to an agent based on priority, proficiency, and availability.

  • Krisp and Startek partner on noise cancellation: Customer experience provider Startek announced a partnership with AI-based noise cancellation company Krisp to bring its background noise removal capabilities to its contact center service. With Krisp, agents on Startek's platform will be able to filter out unwanted noises and echoes from customer calls. Additionally, Startek will continue to work with Krisp in the development of AI-based contact center tools as part of this partnership.

 

Palo Alto Releases Service for WFH Employees

Elsewhere in the industry, cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks announced the general availability of Okyo Garde Enterprise Edition, a Wi-Fi 6-enabled router that works in conjunction with Palo Alto's SASE service Prisma Access. With the router and Palo Alto service, users can connect to their corporate network and secure unmanaged at-home devices like printers, VoIP phones, and other devices, Palo Alto said. Additionally, users can create separate private and personal networks with the service, and account admins can assign and manage devices and subscriptions for employees through a single interface.

 

''The home has now become an important edge of the enterprise network that requires secure connectivity. A blended home network with all the traffic funneled through consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers creates a new set of cybersecurity challenges for companies," Brandon Butler, research manager at IDC, said in the announcement.

 

The service is currently available in the U.S. and Canada from Palo Alto Networks or its NextWave partners.

About the Author

Ryan Daily

Ryan Daily is an associate editor and blogger for No Jitter, Informa Tech's online community for news and analysis of the enterprise convergence/unified communications industry, and program coordinator for Enterprise Connect. In her editorial role, Ryan is responsible for creating and editing content, engaging social media audiences, and leading the brand's diversity and inclusion initiative. In addition to this role, Ryan assists with the programming and planning of the Enterprise Connect event.

 

Before coming to Informa, Ryan worked as an editor for Perfumer & Flavorist magazine, where she regularly contributed in-depth feature articles for the flavor and fragrance industry and played a crucial role in two industry-related events: World Perfumery Congress and Flavorcon. Before this, she worked at Hallmark Data Systems and developed landing and web pages for various B2B publications.

 

She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Northern Illinois University and a master’s in writing and publishing from DePaul University. In her free time, Ryan enjoys going to live music events, running with her dog Iris, drawing, and watching movies.