EC18 News Roundup: Covering the Gamut of CommunicationsEC18 News Roundup: Covering the Gamut of Communications

Enterprise Connect 2018 is officially behind us, a week jam-packed with product news delivered from a host of the 190+ exhibitors on the show floor.

While some of the industry's heavy hitters shared their messages from the main stage (like Microsoft's updates to its Teams ecosystem and 8x8's blended UC and contact center offering), plenty of other announcements warrant attention, too. Because, as EC18 GM Eric Krapf wrote on No Jitter last week, "there's not much in our industry today that can't be considered a hot technology." With that in mind, here's a roundup of some of the news coming out of EC18.

Contact Center News
The contact center segment continues to be a hotbed of innovation. In addition to 8x8's UC-contact center portfolio mentioned above, EC18 brought to light several other category-breaking moves: Twilio's launch of Flex contact center as a service and Avaya's Mobile Experience solution. Oh, but those are just the tip of the iceberg!

Avaya IDaaS
Avaya also announced it's partnering with Post-Quantum, an identity and cyber security specialist, to develop an identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) offering aimed at improving data security in contact centers, where fraudulent account access attempts can be a problem. IDaaS incorporates biometrics for authenticating mobile callers, leveraging blockchain to enable contact centers to authenticate a customer's identity and data as well as to record interactions for improved transparency and auditability, Avaya said.

Initially, IDaaS will be used for identification and authentication for Avaya Mobile Experience, with availability as a standalone service to follow.

"We now have the ability to take verified identities and bind them to the actions they conduct," said Laurent Philonenko, SVP and GM of Solutions and Technology at Avaya, in a prepared statement (watch Philonenko's Industry Vision Address here.)

Talkdesk Goes After the Enterprise
Last year, call center software provider Talkdesk told me it was going after the enterprise by way of its partner ecosystem and its AppConnect enterprise app store. Well it looks like the traditionally SMB-focused provider has made some progress in those efforts; the company announced its Enterprise Contact Center Platform, a cloud-native, microservices-based solution aimed at contact centers with 500 or more agents. The platform includes a visual flow designer, attribute-based routing, omnichannel agent state, and integrations to popular enterprise applications. It also has SOC 2 Type II certification and security support for HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and upcoming GDPR regulations, Talkdesk said.

Enterprises including Acxiom, Keysight Technologies' Ixia Solutions Group, and Zumiez have already deployed the platform.

Additionally, Talkdesk announced partnerships with Afiniti, which applies artificial intelligence (AI) to contact center interactions, and ClearView, which offers a workforce optimization solution.

Genesys Makes Strategic Moves
In the weeks leading up to EC18, Genesys announced it would be acquiring customer journey analytics provider Altocloud. Then during the event, the company introduced an AppFoundry marketplace that includes integrations for its full portfolio, including PureEngage, PureConnect, and PureCloud platforms. AppFoundry today contains more than 200 apps, integrations, and services; leading partners include Amazon Web Services, ConvergeOne, Plantronics, and Vidyo, Genesys said.

Additionally, Genesys announced the integration of its omnichannel routing engine with Salesforce Service Cloud Lightning. This allows joint customers to more easily share data from the two platforms for improved management and automation of customer journeys across phone, email, Web chat, and text channels.

What's New with NewVoiceMedia?
At EC18, NewVoiceMedia unveiled its Spring '18 release, marking the launch of an omnichannel solution that's fully integrated with Salesforce digital channels. Additionally, NewVoiceMedia has integrated its speech analytics solution, called Conversation Analyzer, with Salesforce Einstein Analytics. Now with built-in Einstein dashboards, enterprises can use Conversation Analyzer to transcribe calls and glean insights to help improve customer experience.

Symbee & Amazon
Customer engagement solution provider Symbee, long focused on delivering integration software for Avaya platforms, introduced Symbee Connect Suite of Solutions for Amazon Connect, a browser-based agent solution for PCs and mobile devices. It offers consumption-based pricing to align with AWS's model for Connect.

One element of the suite, Symbee Connect Fusion, integrates Salesforce Lightning and other CRM solutions with Amazon Connect, while Symbee Connect Engagement is for driving digital interactions in the contact center.

Click to the next page: Phones, Endpoints, and UC Management NewsPhones, Endpoints, and UC Management News
While communications is increasingly a software play, as EC program co-chair Beth Schultz discussed in a mainstage panel of industry executives (watch the video here), that certainly doesn't eliminate the need for hardware and endpoint devices... nor for management or monitoring. The need spurred a variety of announcements from device manufacturers and management providers.

Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Support
AudioCodes announced support for Microsoft Teams across its portfolio. For example, its One Voice for Microsoft 365 suite now includes Teams-specific products and capabilities, and the 400 series of HD VoIP devices now includes a color touchscreen IP phone running a native Teams client. In addition, it has enhanced its session border controllers to support direct routing with Teams, enabling enterprises to integrate bring-your-own-trunk services; allows policy-based routing for Teams with the AudioCodes Routing Manager; and provides provides call recording in Teams via its SmartTAP 360° interaction recording solution.

In other Teams-related news, Yealink unveiled two enterprise-grade media phones -- the T56A, for personal desktops, and the T58A model, for executive rooms and C-level users -- and a conference phone for Teams. All three phones feature the Teams user interface and support Teams calling and meeting features. In addition, the CP960 conference phone uses a combination of Yealink's HD voice technology and Harmon's acoustic engineering. It is meant for use in huddle rooms and medium- and large-sized meeting spaces.

Also for meeting rooms, collaboration provider StarLeaf showcased its GTm family of systems, which allow enterprises to deploy meeting room solutions that work for Teams as well as Skype for Business, the company said. And, HP introduced the HP Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms G2 with Skype Room Systems. It comprises a 43-inch 4K conferencing display, an optional Center of Room Control touchscreen panel for managing conference calls, and HP Presence Sensor for detecting when participants enter meeting rooms.

This list of companies making moves in tandem with Microsoft is far from complete. As Schultz wrote on No Jitter, the Teams hardware ecosystem also includes meeting room systems from Lenovo, new conference room phones from Crestron and Polycom, and new mobile phone stations from Plantronics (which, just after EC, announced its planned acquisition of Polycom). Further, Microsoft is certifying interoperability between Teams and existing hardware solutions from BlueJeans Network, Pexip, and Polycom.

Provisioning, Management, and Monitoring Plays
On the provisioning and management front, cloud communications provider Masergy announced an automation tool for UCaaS user provisioning. The tool uses a RESTful API and automates provisioning triggered by Active Directory (AD) or SaaS HR applications, synchronizes AD with the UCaaS platform, and eliminates dependencies on unfamiliar UCaaS admin portals for managing users.

Jabra, known for its UC headsets, and Unify Square, known for its Microsoft UC management solutions, announced a partnership that brings Jabra headsets into Unify Square PowerSuite device performance and operations management software. PowerSuite will now offer troubleshooting, inventory reporting, and other management services for Jabra headsets. In addition, Unify Square launched managed services and consulting offerings for businesses transitioning from Skype for Business to Teams.

Another UC management provider, Voss Solutions announced general availability of VOSS-4-UC Contact Center, a management solution integrating VOSS-4-UC and contact center into one administrative portal. Management capabilities include fulfillment, quality assurance and analytics, and billing. It features a non-technical interface for making service changes, a self-service portal for end users, and dynamic provisioning of agent resources, Voss said.

Click to the next page: Speech Tech and Analytics NewsSpeech Tech & Analytics News
The Speech Technologies track was new at EC this year, drawing some first-time exhibitor faces to the event. On the conference program, our annual Innovation Showcase put the spotlight on six innovative speech technologies: Deepgram Brain, Gridspace Sift, NewVoiceMedia Conversation Analyzer, Nuance VocalPassword, Omilia Conversational Virtual Assistant, and Speechmatics. On the mainstage, AWS focused its keynote presentation on efforts made with its speech-enabled assistant Alexa, coming to the enterprise with the Alexa for Business managed service offering.

Nuance Unveils Voice Engagement Platform
Nuance Communications, one of those new faces to the EC18 show floor and Innovation Showcase participant, announced a new set of core capabilities for its Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Platform, using advancements in the automation, speech recognition, and text-to-speech technology that comprises its Voice Engagement Platform. Highlights include:

VoiceBase Expands
Speech analytics company VoiceBase has enhanced its Speech Analytics API with the launch of an SQL-like language, called VoiceBase Query language (VBQL), designed for analyzing calls. Using VBQL and a Web-based analyst workbench, analysts can build call categories and query spoken words, temporal patterns, over-talk, silence, fuzzy matching, and more. A new Categorization Engine applies categories to calls in near real time, and delivers results via the VoiceBase API and the new BI Connector, which can then be combined with existing data and user-supplied metadata and visualized using standard business intelligence tools like Tableau or Qlik, VoiceBase said.

Voxbone Announces AI-Based Speech Analytics Service
Communications-as-a-service provider Voxbone announced it's making its Speech Analytics service available to enterprise customers using the company's voice services. Customers simply have to activate the integrated AI-based speech analytics tool through Voxbone.ai or through API, and they can then get actionable insights from spoken conversations between customers, agents, and teams, the company said. The service works to bridge analytics platforms like VoiceBase and CallMiner with audio content in real time or asynchronously, allowing enterprises insight into sentiment analysis, talk-time metrics, keyword scanning, and more.

CallMiner Enhances Analytics Platform
CallMiner has enhanced its cloud-based customer engagement analytics platform, CallMiner Eureka, with better data integration and interoperability through the Eureka Cloud Connector and a new Ingestion API. In addition, it introduced new administration features and reporting for system monitoring, unified processing for real-time and after-contact speech analytics, and a tenfold increase in the platform's scalability.

Click to the next page: Communications, Conferencing, and Video NewsCommunications, Conferencing, and Video News
Here's a look at some of the other notable announcements to cross our desks.

IntelePeer Launches Atmosphone
Cloud-based communications provider IntelePeer launched Atmosphere Messaging. Featuring full API support, Atmosphere Messaging text-enables landline and toll-free numbers. In addition to the messaging capabilities, enterprises gain access to analytical tools to monitor and manage SMS performance, full API documentation and quick-start guides for developers, compliance information for understanding regulatory issues, a scalable architecture, and 24x7x365 support. In the future, IntelePeer customers will also have access to voice and messaging through popular business applications and services.

Comcast Business Introduces VoiceEdge
Comcast Business enhanced its cloud-based phone service, VoiceEdge, with one-click conferencing. VoiceEdge Conferencing, available to all VoiceEdge subscribers, supports calls with up to 50 participants. Additionally, management controls allow conference hosts to view and identify participants, eliminating the need for individuals to announce themselves when joining. The service works with Mac, PC, iOS, and Android-based devices, and for extra security includes PIN protection for conferencing.

NEC Video-Enables Offerings
Via a partnership with Vidyo, NEC announced the addition of embedded cloud video to its Univerge Blue ONDemand Collaboration cloud platform.

"By integrating with Vidyo, NEC significantly enhances the visual capabilities of its software-powered, UC suite," said Dave Michels, UC analyst with TalkingPointz and No Jitter contributor. "

Vonage Releases New Enterprise Plan Cloud communications and CPaaS provider Vonage (watch its EC18 Industry Vision Address here) announced an enterprise plan featuring unlimited voice usage within the U.S. as well as new onboarding services aimed at helping larger organizations create custom solutions. The enterprise onboarding services include a dedicated engineering support team for problem resolution and analysis, customer success manager for overseeing account relationships, and consultants focused on accelerating onboarding for Nexmo CLI and the use of SDKs and APIs, Vonage said.

Additionally, Vonage announced it has received a second patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that relates to innovations in Vonage's Adaptive Routing technology. The patent broadens Vonage's patent coverage with a feature enabling the replacement of a primary route for message delivery with an alternate route. It's based on an automated risk analysis that identifies whether the primary route quality is likely to decrease, Vonage said.

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