Verint has unveiled a CCaaS platform, which the vendor suggests will \u201ctransform\u201d the contact center landscape.<\/p>\n
Launching the platform at its hallmark Engage event, Verint also introduced a new concept: Open CCaaS, which inspired the CCaaS solution.<\/p>\n
To understand this concept, consider the challenges companies often face with CCaaS platforms.<\/p>\n
Most aspire to offer a single application that contact centers can use to effectively manage all their customer conversations.<\/p>\n
Yet, according to Verint, most lack the openness to succeed.<\/p>\n
For instance, a global business may use different vendors for various voice, digital, and social applications across various locations \u2013 which are impossible to bring into a central environment.<\/p>\n
That is where Verint aims to stand out from the crowd. As Dan Bodner, Chairman and CEO, states:<\/strong><\/p>\n In today\u2019s fast-paced technology environment, brands adopt platforms that are open in all dimensions to future-proof their contact centers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, Verint did not only design a platform to harmonize various CCaaS solutions. The open theme spreads across the many technologies that touch the contact center.<\/p>\n Conversational AI is one such technology, which Bodner was keen to underline. He stated:<\/p>\n They need a platform that is designed to augment their human workforce with an effective team of specialized AI bots to deliver tangible business outcomes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The platform also allows businesses to plug in various other data sources, including third-party CRM and HCM technologies \u2013 for instance \u2013 to augment the user experience.<\/p>\n Alongside its open ecosystem, Verint aims to enable greater flexibility for enterprises by encouraging a \u201cbring your own telephony\u201d strategy.<\/p>\n That goes against the grain in the CCaaS space. After all, many contact centers built their platforms on a telephony infrastructure.<\/p>\n Indeed, many of the first-generation cloud solutions were telephony-first and closed.<\/p>\n Now, that is changing. Yet, the CCaaS conversation still often starts by discussing telephony and interaction routing.<\/p>\n However, “bring your own telephony” aligns with more advanced cloud offerings, according to Keith Dawson, VP & Research Director at Ventana Research<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Writing in a blog for the research firm, Dawson said:<\/p>\n When the core routing system is de-emphasized, an organization is freer to weigh the merits of different business application platforms as the first priority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Verint aims to spread that message to enterprises, which typically suffer from complex contact center environments.<\/p>\n In doing so, it\u2019ll serve up its solution, aim to simplify the contact center architecture, and unify various data streams.<\/p>\n The Verint Engagement Data Hub, which sits at the core of its Open CCaaS solution, will support this objective. Yet, it is only one of the platform\u2019s several eye-catching components.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most eye-catching features of Verint\u2019s Open CCaaS platform are its Engagement Data Hub and embedded Da Vinci AI.<\/p>\n First, the data hub captures and stores data from all contact center systems, including conversational, WFO, and customer experience data.<\/p>\n Naturally, that provides an excellent central information resource for agents to leverage. Yet, it also makes it easier to export data into corporate data lakes for further analysis.<\/p>\n Next, Verint has embedded its Verint Da Vinci AI helps to augment the contact center workforce. According to a press release:<\/p>\n These specialized bots are designed to perform unique customer engagement tasks such as containment, forecasting, compliance, agent coaching, and interaction wrap-up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In addition, the vendor has combined its proprietary AI with LLMs to enhance its Da Vinci AI with new generative AI features. These include automated post-call processing and bot transfers.<\/p>\n With these capabilities, Verint hopes to meet the increasing demand for CCaaS platforms that support a greater sophistication of digital channels, self-service, journey analytics, AI, machine learning, and automation.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, according to the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS<\/a>: “CCaaS vendors\u2019 support for these capabilities often lacks the functional maturity to meet customers\u2019 demands.”<\/p>\n As Verint enters the CCaaS market, it aims to make these concerns problems of the past.<\/p>\n Some may view Verint\u2019s move into CCaaS as a little risky, concerned that the vendor could irritate some of its traditional partners.<\/p>\n After all, its longstanding collaborators \u2013 which include Avaya, Genesys, and Five9 – may perceive Verint to be stepping on their toes.<\/p>\n Verint relies on these partnerships for much of its business, augmenting their contact center platforms with WFO, conversational AI, analytics, and more.<\/p>\n Now, the vendor could represent a threat to their businesses \u2013 which seemed to be the elephant in the room during the announcement.<\/p>\n In this sense, Verint must proceed with caution in positioning its platform \u2013 otherwise, these partners could strengthen their ties with its conventional rivals, such as Calabrio.<\/p>\n Perhaps this is why it is doubling down on the word \u201copen\u201d, highlighting how customers can use its CCaaS solution alongside others, almost as a central operating system.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, there are many notable benefits for moving into the space, which include building on its existing enterprise business and – perhaps – squeezing out other CCaaS players.<\/p>\n With its CCaaS platform, Verint unlocks the opportunity to build upon its existing business inside many enterprise contact centers.<\/p>\n Indeed, lots of the world\u2019s biggest companies already use Verint in their service operations, including 85 of the Fortune 100 companies.<\/p>\n As such, there seems to be a significant financial incentive for the vendor to make the move, with analysts expecting many more enterprises to migrate from legacy systems this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet, perhaps most pertinently, the move represents a somewhat logical next step in the business\u2019s evolution.<\/p>\n As more businesses switch to SaaS models, Verint will have to fight new competitors to preserve its traditional business.<\/p>\n Moreover, many service operations are trying to converge their contact center stack with the guidance of a central CCaaS player.<\/p>\n By becoming a central CCaaS player, Verint can expand its business and ride the wave of these trends instead of getting trapped beneath them.<\/p>\n In doing so, the vendor may avoid the mistake of other best-of-breed vendors that failed to recognize this transition and fell behind.<\/p>\n Zendesk is one possible example of this, which never made its long-rumored shift into CCaaS and has endured a tricky 18 months \u2013\u00a0culminating in a second round of layoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Verint has not endured such struggles, posting steady earnings<\/a>. Yet, the move seems a thoughtful one to sustain its long-term enterprise business.<\/p>\n And, with many other prominent enterprise players recently making the CCaaS shift \u2013 including Google<\/a>, Salesforce<\/a>, and Zoom<\/a> – it is somewhat a sign of the times.<\/p>\nAn Open Platform That Follows a “Bring Your Own Telephony” Approach<\/h2>\n
Core Components of the CCaaS Platform<\/h2>\n
An Elephant In the Room?<\/h2>\n
New Opportunities Arise for Verint<\/h2>\n