Analysis on CX Today https://www.cxtoday.com/type/explainer/ Customer Experience Technology News Mon, 01 Dec 2025 12:51:56 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.cxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cropped-cxtoday-3000x3000-1-32x32.png Analysis on CX Today https://www.cxtoday.com/type/explainer/ 32 32 Amazon Nova Sonic: The End of the “Robot Pause” in CX? https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/amazon-nova-sonic-the-end-of-the-robot-pause-in-cx/ Mon, 01 Dec 2025 12:51:56 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=80958 You get the sense that we’ve all been waiting for the “awkward silence” in AI conversations to finally disappear. You know the one—where you finish speaking, and there’s that polite but hollow three-second gap while the machine thinks. It’s the uncanny valley of audio.

At AWS re:Invent 2025, the team introduced Amazon Nova Sonic, and it feels like they might have finally bridged that gap. It’s a new speech-to-speech foundation model designed specifically to make conversational AI feel, well, conversational.

Rather than just transcribing what you say and reading back a script, it listens, understands, and responds in real-time—much like a person would. It’s rather impressive, if a bit eerie at first.

The “Under the Hood” Bit

To understand why this is different, you have to look at how we used to build voice bots. The old way was a bit of a relay race: your voice was turned into text, sent to an LLM, processed, turned back into text, and then synthesized into speech. That relay race created lag.

Amazon Nova Sonic uses a unified speech-to-speech architecture. It processes audio input and generates audio output directly. Because it doesn’t have to constantly translate speech into text and back again, it cuts out the latency. It uses a bidirectional streaming API, which is a fancy way of saying it can listen and talk at the same time—just like a telephone call.

Key Capabilities

  • It handles interruptions gracefully: If a customer interrupts to correct a detail, the model stops (“barge-in”), processes the new info, and adjusts. It feels polite rather than robotic.
  • It understands non-verbal cues: It detects laughter, hesitation, or grunts. It also adapts its own tone to match the user.
  • It’s multilingual: Support for English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German is already here or rolling out.

The “Vibe Check”: Why Audio-First Matters

There is a subtle but critical technical shift here. By moving to a native speech-to-speech model, we aren’t just stripping out latency; we are keeping the “data” that usually gets lost in translation.

In the old “Speech-to-Text” method, if a customer sighed heavily or sounded sarcastic, that emotional data was often stripped away when it was converted to plain text for the LLM. The bot read the words, but missed the mood.

Nova Sonic processes the audio directly. It hears the sigh. It detects the hesitation. It allows the AI to respond to the mood of the conversation, not just the transcript. In the contact center, that is the difference between solving a problem and losing a customer.

Where this actually changes the game (Use Cases)

It’s easy to get lost in the specs, but the real question is: where does this actually fix a broken experience? I’ve been looking at a few scenarios where that ultra-low latency is non-negotiable.

1. The “Panic” Call (Banking & Insurance)

When a customer calls because they’ve lost their credit card or had a car accident, they are already stressed. The old three-second “robot pause” between sentences spikes that anxiety. It feels like the machine is failing.

Nova Sonic’s ability to match the customer’s pace and tone—calm, efficient, and immediate—can de-escalate a situation before a human agent even needs to intervene. It’s not just about efficiency; it’s about digital bedside manner.

2. The “Messy” Booking (Travel & Hospitality)

Have you ever tried to change a flight with a voice bot? It’s usually a disaster because humans don’t speak in linear commands. We say things like, “I need to fly to London on Tuesday… actually, make that Wednesday morning, oh, and I need an aisle seat.”

Because Nova Sonic handles “barge-ins” (interruptions), the customer can correct themselves mid-sentence without breaking the bot’s logic. It mimics the fluid, messy nature of real human planning.

3. The Patient Tutor (Education & Training)

AWS highlighted Education First as an early adopter, and it makes perfect sense. In language learning, “latency” kills the flow. If you’re practicing French pronunciation, you need instant feedback, not a delayed grade.

The model’s ability to detect non-verbal cues—like a hesitant pause before a word—allows it to offer encouragement (“Take your time”) rather than just staring blankly into the digital void.

For the Builders: Getting Started is Surprisingly Simple

For the developers and architects reading this, you might expect a nightmare of integration. Usually, stitching together speech recognition, an LLM, and text-to-speech engines is a fragile “Frankenstein’s monster” of plumbing.

AWS has simplified this rather elegantly. Because it’s all one model, you don’t need to manage the hand-offs. You simply toggle access in the Amazon Bedrock console and use their new bidirectional streaming API. It handles the input and output streams for you, much like a standard phone connection.

The most refreshing part? Defining the bot’s personality doesn’t require complex code. You just set a system prompt—something as simple as “You are a friend, keep responses short”—and the model handles the nuance. It lowers the barrier to entry from “PhD in Linguistics” to “Standard Developer,” which is exactly what the industry needs to scale this tech.

Why this matters for CX Leaders

We often talk about “empathy” in CX, but it’s hard to be empathetic when there’s a delay after every sentence. Amazon Nova Sonic removes the friction that makes automated service feel like a chore.

It allows brands to build agents that can handle complex, multi-turn conversations without making the customer want to hang up. And in an industry obsessed with efficiency, making the robot sound a little less like a robot might be the most efficient move of all.

Sources: Amazon Nova Sonic, AWS News Blog

]]>
Microsoft vs. Salesforce: How Do They Compare on CRM? https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/microsoft-vs-salesforce-how-do-they-compare-on-crm/ Thu, 07 Aug 2025 21:58:18 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=70423 Salesforce is the biggest CRM provider in the world, according to 2025 IDC data. Its closest rival? Microsoft.

That said, there’s still quite a gap between the two vendors in CRM revenues. Last year, Salesforce raked in $21.6BN. Meanwhile, Microsoft earned $5.45BN.

Nevertheless, Microsoft did achieve higher CRM revenue growth in 2024, up 11.5 percent year-over-year (YoY). Comparatively, Salesforce’s CRM earnings rose by 9.5 percent.

There are several reasons a business may choose Microsoft for CRM. For starters, consider its familiar UI, multiple deployment options, and broader, interconnected Dynamics 365 portfolio.

That portfolio includes an ERP, enabling converged, first-party workflows that run across the two crucial data systems. Salesforce can’t offer that.

However, Salesforce brings a lot of its own differentiators to the table. For instance, it’s the most comprehensive CRM platform on the market, connects seamlessly with Slack, Tableau, and MuleSoft, and has a vision for a more predictive, prescriptive CRM category.

Against that backdrop, here’s a closer look at how Microsoft and Salesforce really stack up.

Microsoft vs. Salesforce: A Quick Overview

Most CRM market reports frame Microsoft and Salesforce as CRM leaders, not just in their revenue, but in their portfolio depth, vision, and worldwide support services.

For instance, both earned the position of “Leader” in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrants focusing on CRMs for marketing, sales, and customer service.

The tech giants were also named at the forefront of Forrester’s 2025 Wave for CRM software.

Generally, these reports praise Microsoft’s CRM solutions for their deep integrations with the broader Dynamics 365 portfolio, in addition to Microsoft Teams, Power, and Copilot Studio.

Plus, Microsoft’s tools are user-friendly and relatively cost-effective compared to those offered by Salesforce, especially after its latest price hikes.

That said, Salesforce has significant advantages in platform depth, scalability, and ecosystem.

Microsoft vs. Salesforce: Customer Service CRMs

A customer service CRM manages cases, stores data, and powers workflows for smoother customer support and agent journeys.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Salesforce Service Cloud are the vendors’ respective CRM solutions in this category.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service: Strengths and Cautions

Microsoft’s take on customer service is a little more understated, at first glance. But Microsoft is innovating quickly, attempting to catch up.

For instance, companies can now access native AI agents, design their own AI agents with Copilot Studio, and leverage a native Copilot to draft customer emails, automate post-contact summaries, and more.

Plus, the new Dynamics 365 Contact Center aligns closely with the CRM, enabling Microsoft to own more of the service stack than its competitors, including Salesforce.

Beyond that, Microsoft’s tools benefit from deep integrations with Office 365, Teams, Outlook, and Azure. For any organization already heavily in the Microsoft ecosystem, that’s a huge plus. It’s also appealing for IT leaders managing everything on Azure.

In its industry studies, Gartner notes that Microsoft is especially strong in unified agent experiences and “cohesive cloud infrastructure”.

Finally, Microsoft has developed a smooth onboarding process for Dynamics 365, which aligns well with its strengths in intuitivity.

However, its marketplace and features lack the depth of Salesforce, while its reporting and workflow automation tools are clunkier.

Salesforce Service Cloud: Strengths and Cautions

Salesforce Service Cloud is still the go-to customer support CRM for enterprises wanting deep customization and advanced capabilities.

Indeed, the platform is about much more than routing tickets and managing cases. Instead, it brings in AI, automation, and integrations from its vast AppExchange to create seriously capable end-to-end fulfillment workflows.

Salesforce is also pushing to use its Service Cloud technology to solve not just customer cases, but also employee cases, as evident in the recent release of an Employee Service module within the CRM.

The company also offers access to extensive deployment resources (a huge partner network), industry-specific offerings, and advanced analytics tools, boosted by its adjacent Tableau product.

However, the number one differentiator is its platform depth, which is boosted by Service Cloud’s unique product discovery tool: My Service Journey. This supports service teams in plotting out a roadmap while unlocking the most relevant tools for their operation.

However, on G2, Salesforce Service Cloud scores 4.4 out of five stars (as of July 2025), slightly lower than Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service’s rating of 4.5 stars.

Part of the reason for this is the complexity of Salesforce’s tools. Onboarding can be complex, especially for smaller teams, and costs can climb fast, thanks to its layer-cake pricing model.

Microsoft vs. Salesforce: Sales CRMs

A sales CRM comprises tools to support sales teams as they complete tasks, admin, and workflows. In many cases, the CRM will automate a lot of that work, too.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales and Salesforce Sales Cloud are the vendors’ respective CRM solutions in this category.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales: Strengths and Cautions

Microsoft’s sales product prioritizes simplicity and easy-to-implement AI capabilities. Like Microsoft’s other tools, the Dynamics 365 Sales platform can easily connect to tools like Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and the Power Platform.

Also, it comes with various intuitive AI solutions built-in, such as Microsoft Copilot for Sales, with lead and opportunity summary insights. Plus, companies have the freedom to build their own AI agents with Copilot Studio or leverage preconfigured prototypes, including Sales Agent and Sales Chat.

Yet, what makes Microsoft’s sales CRM stand out is how comparatively easy many of the capabilities are to leverage. Features like Smart Paste (which allow reps to copy details from external docs and use AI to fill in CRM fields automatically) save users significant time and effort.

That said, the platform as a whole isn’t customization-friendly. Moreover, Dynamics 365 Sales doesn’t support ML training on custom data, and there are no options for custom prompts and entities. The forecasting tools aren’t nearly as robust as those from Salesforce either.

Plus, Microsoft’s mobile app for sales teams hasn’t been updated as much as the desktop version over the years, which may be a problem for field-based teams.

Salesforce Sales Cloud: Strengths and Cautions

Salesforce has long stood as the go-to leader in sales tech. The Salesforce Sales Cloud is everything its reputation promises. It combines forecasting tools, pipeline management, territory planning, CPQ solutions, and more. The roadmap even includes “Forecast Anything” for cross-model revenue insights, automatic prospecting with AI, and more.

The CRM leader also stands out for its depth, global footprint, and strong community of users.

Additionally, Salesforce makes it easy for companies to customize their AI workflows, with support for multiple external LLMs, and a bring-your-own model approach, as well as custom prompt and action creation.

Still, there are some limitations in Salesforce’s machine learning models, in many cases, forcing companies to work alongside partners or data scientists to enhance model solutions.

The user experience has some issues, too. Reviews on sites like G2 and TrustRadius regularly point out that the system can be overwhelming. And unless users have serious admin support, it’s easy to leave features unused, which results in avoidable costs.

Microsoft vs. Salesforce: Marketing CRMs

A marketing CRM supports a brand’s demand-gen initiatives, helping them build awareness, develop leads, and enable omnichannel engagement.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insight and Salesforce Sales Cloud are the vendors’ respective CRM solutions in this category.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insight: Strengths and Cautions

Since 2023, Microsoft has combined its marketing automation platform with its customer data platform, introducing the new “Dynamics 365 Customer Insights” solution. With this, Microsoft empowers companies to deliver optimized and cohesive engagements across channels.

Like Salesforce, Microsoft gives companies state-of-the-art AI tools they can use for channel selection, segmentation, automation, and content creation.

With the latest Copilot Studio updates, Microsoft now allows marketers – alongside sales and service teams – to build AI agents that can even interact with desktop apps, offering a level of automation that’s just starting to show its potential.

Plus, the fact that Microsoft’s platform seamlessly aligns customer data across sales, marketing, and customer service functions makes it easier to create a unified view of buyers, without extra investment.

However, some customers say that Microsoft’s marketing tools are a little more complex than they’d like, even if the initial installation may be simpler than with Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Additionally, Microsoft doesn’t offer quite as much personalization or as many integration options as Salesforce, making it less appealing to companies with more complex workflows.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Strengths and Cautions

Like most of the tools from Salesforce, the Marketing Cloud is feature-rich and built specifically for larger enterprises. Whether it’s email journeys, SMS campaigns, or dynamic content targeting, this platform can handle it all.

Marketers can also now deploy ready-to-go AI agents to handle campaign planning, segmentation, and even performance reporting.

Plus, Salesforce gives companies the freedom to experiment with APIs, create content with AI, and build multi-step journey workflows.

The biggest issues overall are expense and complexity. Making the most of Salesforce Marketing Cloud generally requires companies to invest in the Salesforce Customer 360 and Data Cloud, too.

Also, working with APIs and integrations does require some technical knowledge. User reviews often mention steep learning curves and the need for specialist support.

Microsoft vs. Salesforce: Who Wins the CRM Battle?

Salesforce still wears the CRM crown. The features run deep, the AI is ambitious, and the momentum is hard to ignore. With preconfigured Agentforce agents rolling out across every cloud, Salesforce is clearly focused on maintaining its position as a market leader.

But Microsoft is no longer in the shadows. Dynamics 365 is proving it can compete in sales, marketing, and service, with an often more affordable approach. Its AI agents aren’t be to sniffed at either.

So, while enterprises chasing scale and deep customization will likely stick with Salesforce, there is a case for many to pick Microsoft, especially those brands that are looking for a speedy rollout and are already investing in the Microsoft ecosystem.

 

]]>
Gartner Peer Insights “Voice of the Customer” for CCaaS 2025 https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/gartner-peer-insights-voice-of-the-customer-for-ccaas-2025/ Mon, 09 Jun 2025 19:53:32 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=71253 Gartner Peer Insights is a platform where verified customers leave reviews of enterprise technologies.

Over an 18-month period, closing in January 2025, customers left 2,270 reviews of CCaaS providers on the platform.

Alongside written commentary, reviewers answered a standard set of questions, grading providers from one (bad) to five (good). In doing so, they rated vendors on their product capabilities alongside their sales, deployment, and support experience.

With this insight, alongside data on the size, industry, and region of customers, Gartner published its annual “voice of the customer” for CCaaS report.

The report shows how the 12 most reviewed vendors match up. Each provider boasts over €50MN in annual CCaaS revenue, in addition to 15+ reviews from customers on Peer Insights over the 15-month period.

They are all grouped into four categories: Customers’ Choice, Strong Performer, Established, and Aspiring. Here’s how they performed:

  • Customers’ Choice: Cisco, Genesys
  • Strong Performers: Content Guru, Dialpad, Nextiva, NiCE
  • Established: AWS, Five9
  • Aspiring: Ericsson (Vonage), Odigo,  Talkdesk, Zoom

Headline Takeaways

Cisco and Genesys are this year’s global “Customers’ Choice” CCaaS providers.

Last year, Cisco placed as an “Aspiring” vendor. Yet, it has shot across the matrix this time around, with 96 percent of its customers now willing to recommend the provider, up from 78 percent in 2024.

The tech giant also scores highly on product capabilities. Cisco has done an excellent job over the past year of leveraging its broader enterprise technology portfolio to enable more differentiated innovation. For instance, it has embedded Thousand Eyes for embedded security – a unique and significant addition as contact centers deal with increasing attacks from fraudsters.

Meanwhile, Genesys continues to impress with its deployment experience, tried-and-tested global services, and ongoing support.

Additionally, the vendor has made moves to boost its pricing strategy, with a simple token-based approach to AI, which allows brands to test, monitor, and implement AI features at a conservative speed. It has also boosted its ecosystem, with first-of-its-kind integrations with the likes of Salesforce and ServiceNow, committing to increased CCaaS -CRM convergence.

Genesys placed only behind AWS for total number of reviews, a positive reflection on its success in acquiring customers. AWS’s success here underscores the potential for hyperscalers to win business in the crowded CCaaS market.

Alongside AWS and Genesys, Five9 and Cisco secured over 100 reviews, reflecting their strong market presence.

Content Guru also fares well in the report, with all 62 customers giving it a review willing to recommend the vendor. It was the only vendor to achieve this feat. NICE also scores well on this metric, with 97 percent of customers happy to recommend the provider.

However, NICE will be disappointed to fall into the Strong Performer category, as a Customers’ Choice provider last time around. This is perhaps due to the limited number of reviews that the vendor received, as it still receives positive scores across the board. Indeed, only 50 customers reviewed the vendor in the 18-month period, that’s little more than a seventh of those that scored AWS.

Elsewhere, newcomers to the study include Odigo, Nextiva, and Zoom. The latter’s inclusion is an indicator of its rapid growth in the space, entering less than three years before Gartner collated these results. Again, that underlines how larger tech providers, with deeper enterprise tech portfolios, are finding success in a space conventionally dominated by pure-play providers.

How Did All the CCaaS Providers Perform?

Here’s a snapshot of some key vendor-specific statistics from the report, alongside original commentary.

AWS

Amazon Connect by AWS is the most-reviewed CCaaS platform on the Gartner Peer Insights website, rubberstamping its position at the market’s forefront.

AWS also scores highly (4.5 out of five) for its deployment and support experience, which underlines Connect’s transition from a platform that businesses piece together themselves to one they can buy with all the bells and whistles attached.

The tech giant also demonstrates a robust global presence, with a large number of enterprise customers across all regions. Indeed, 16 percent of reviews come from businesses worth over $10BN.

Many of these businesses likely chose the provider due to Amazon Connect’s alignment with the broader AWS portfolio, disruptive pricing strategy, and close integration with CRM giant Salesforce.

Cisco

As one of only two “Customers’ Choice” CCaaS providers, Cisco has made massive strides over the past 12 months to boost the Webex Contact Center.

Now, 96 percent of customers would recommend the vendor, up by 18 percent from just 12 months ago.

While it scores well across the board, Cisco receives 4.8 out of five for its product capabilities, with notable strengths in advanced agent assist, security, and voice capabilities.

As of late 2024, the Webex Contact Center is Cisco’s fastest-growing cloud product. Why? Close alignment with its broader portfolio, a large install base of on-premise customers cautiously migrating, and that security nous are likely significant factors.

Content Guru

Often unheralded, Content Guru breaks ground in this report by becoming the only vendor to have all its customers willing to recommend its CCaaS platform: storm.

It also receives the highest rating for product capabilities and sales experience across the entire report, with the latter underscoring the vendor’s focus on developing close customer relationships from the get-go.

On product capabilities, Content Guru proved ahead of the curve in layering a data layer over its platform for improved data sharing, intelligence, and reporting. The UK-based provider was also one of the first to deliver multi-modal AI-led service experiences, emphasizing its ability to predict major industry trends and deliver cutting-edge innovation to customers.

Lastly, the report shows a diverse install base, with many large organizations in the public sector, financial services, and utilities selecting Content Guru for its ability to handle complexity in managing tricky workloads, ensuring compliance, and beyond.

Dialpad

Dialpad rebranded its CCaaS solution in 2024, adding advanced workforce management (WFM) capabilities acquired as part of its Surfboard roll-up.

It brings this together with a quality assurance product, including differentiated features like a predicted customer satisfaction (CSAT) score. That functionality exemplifies how Dialpad drives original innovation with first-party AI, which offers Dialpad more control over its roadmap.

As such, it’s little surprise Dialpad performs best for its product capabilities, rating 4.8 out of five. The provider also achieves this score on its deployment experience.

Dialpad’s sweet spot is midmarket businesses based in the US, with 84 percent of its customers based in North America. Its UCaaS heritage positions it well in this market segment.

Ericsson (Vonage)

Nowadays, Vonage receives more attention for its CPaaS portfolio than anything else. However, it maintains its deep CCaaS install base across Europe and North America.

Its ability to pull CCaaS together with CPaaS and UCaaS into a unified enterprise communications suite is an attractive proposition for the midmarket, where many of its customers sit. Indeed, the report suggests that 68 percent of customers fall under the $1BN valuation mark.

With CPaaS underlying its contact center platform, Vonage can leverage Ericsson’s network APIs for an enhanced voice experience. It also has a conversational AI arm that specializes in voice automation, further accentuating this strength.

On Peer Insights, Vonage scores best for its support and sales experience, recording a 4.3 out of five score for both.

Five9

Five9 is the third-most reviewed vendor on Gartner Peer Insights, underscoring its status at the market’s forefront.

The vendor scores best for its support experience, achieving a 4.7 out of five score in this category. Its drive to boost its partner strategy has helped ensure product expertise is always nearby for global customers. That is likely a significant contributor to this high score.

Additionally, Five9 customers are increasingly willing to recommend the provider, with 86 percent now happy to do so. That’s up from 84 percent last year.

Finally, the vendor has launched a Genius AI strategy to encourage customers to augment their contact centers with the latest tech. With significant emphasis on this approach, it’ll be fascinating to see how its scores change in 2026.

Genesys

Genesys demonstrates a broad customer mix in terms of size, sector, and region. It pairs this with a five-star rating from 75 percent of the 325 customers who reviewed it on Peer Insights over the past 18 months.

Alongside this ability to meet an array of customer requirements, Genesys performs particularly well on product capabilities and deployment experience, reporting a score of 4.7 out of five across both.

For the latter, Genesys has long held a positive reputation, especially within its own on-premise install base. Its customers receive unique playbooks, with sector-specific guidance, to make the best of a still-tricky migration.

That’s a massive fear for many businesses as they recognize that many deployments stall, resulting in a period of hybrid stagnation, where they only leverage a percentage of the seats they’ve bought. Genesys can more effectively allay these concerns.

Nextiva

Go to any US-based contact center event, and Nextiva has likely put its name up in lights. Now, it’s starting to turn that massive marketing budget into business.

Customers seem generally positive, too, with 82 percent of companies willing to recommend the vendor, and the same percentage giving Nextiva a five-star rating.

Most of those customers are pegged to North America and operate within the midmarket, largely thanks to the provider’s long history in UCaaS.

Notably, Nextiva scores best for its deployment experience, picking up a 4.8 out of five score. It also scored impressively on its sales experience, recording at 4.7 rating.

NiCE

As last year’s only Customer’s Choice provider, NiCE surprisingly drops out of the top-right quadrant this time around.

That’s quite the shock, with the vendor receiving the second-highest “willingness to recommend” score from its customers, with 97 percent willing to do so. Four in five of its customers also gave the vendor a five-star review.

Additionally, NiCE scored joint-best in the report for its support experience, boasting a 4.8 out of five rating. Other known strengths include its deep workforce engagement management (WEM) portfolio, in-house AI and automation expertise, and history working with some of the world’s biggest businesses, underpinned by a massive $576BN CCaaS megadeal last year.

However, with only 50 customers contributing to Peer Insights, NiCE has experienced a significant drop in verified reviews, which may have given Gartner less confidence in its positioning.

Odigo

After dropping off the report in 2024, Odigo is back, meeting the entry criteria for CCaaS revenues and number of reviews.

The uptick could be partly due to some European buyers looking for American alternatives, a trend noted by Five9 execs during its Q1, 2025 earnings call. That may have also boosted Content Guru.

Nevertheless, Odigo performs well, with 91 percent of its customers willing to recommend the vendor, and 4.6 out of five scores for product capabilities, sales experience, and deployment experience.

A chunk of Odigo’s appeal is in how it spun off from Capgemini, enabling it to creep into larger organizations that have close relationships with the global services provider.

Talkdesk

Talkdesk makes major gains from its performance in the 2024 edition of this report. Indeed, its customers’ willingness to recommend the vendor is up from 60 to 81 percent.

Its improved product capabilities have helped steer Talkdesk in the right direction, with the vendor extending its industry clouds with more sector-specific innovations, integrations, and workflows. These clouds are a massive differentiator.

Additionally, the company has delivered an innovative Talkdesk Embed product, allowing systems integrators to place CCaaS capabilities at the heart of custom solutions and converge technologies across the front office.

Talkdesk also earns a 4.5 score for its deployments across its offerings, targeting all sizes of customers across its six core industries.

Zoom

Zoom entered the CCaaS market in 2022 with great aplomb. Now, it has 1,250+ customers, with 62 leaving reviews on Peer Insights, even more than NICE.

Its success and already high rating on product capabilities (4.6 out of five) underline its rapid innovation. Yet, also perhaps reflects how much of the CCaaS stack has become commoditized.

In this environment, that broader tech stack is massive in terms of differentiation. Zoom has this, with its entire communications stack on a unified platform. That’s attractive for many buyers, alongside the business’s focus on delivering consumer-grade solutions and its close co-innovation relationship with ServiceNow.

Lastly, with 91 percent of its customers willing to recommend, Zoom ranks much higher on this telling metric than many of the stalwart CCaaS providers included in this analysis.

Final Takeaway – Referencability Is Key

Gartner Voice of the Customer reports are a helpful resource when making buying decisions. After all, industry analysts can have their biases, and these studies help cut through the noise.

However, it’s critical to go deeper. Ask prospective vendors to connect one-on-one with real customers, hear the “worts and all” stories, and make use that insight to not only choose a partner but to get ahead of potential problems before they happen.

Another reason this is essential is that providers can incentivize happy customers to leave reviews on platforms like Gartner Peer Insights, obscuring the reader’s view of what is actually going on.

As such, don’t consider the report to be the be-all and end-all. Those Aspiring providers may, in many cases, be the best partners.

Moreover, other industry players not included within the analysis, like 8×8, Enghouse Interactive, Google, Microsoft, Sprinklr, and UJET, could be worth a closer look.

Earlier this year, CX Today produced an 80-minute video review of leading vendors in the space, with knowledgeable, independent analysts. Check that out here: The Top Ten CCaaS Providers to Watch in 2025

 

]]>
Microsoft vs. Zoom: The Ultimate Enterprise Communications Showdown https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/microsoft-vs-zoom-the-ultimate-enterprise-communications-showdown/ Thu, 05 Jun 2025 18:06:17 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=70426 Microsoft Teams and Zoom Workplace are two of the most prominent solutions within the UCaaS space.

Yet, in recent years, both tech giants have made big moves to extend into CCaaS and are enjoying early success.

As this success builds, both brands will likely go further to unify their enterprise communications solutions.

Indeed, Zoom has brought Workplace and its Contact Center onto one unified platform, which includes conversational AI, workforce engagement management (WEM), and much more.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has extended Teams Phone across the Dynamics 365 Contact Center, so the solutions share a unified voice platform.

In pushing further into the CCaaS space with UCaaS-adjacent solutions, Microsoft and Zoom strive to disrupt the market.

However, they may also steal food off one another’s plates.

Given this, let’s see how they stack up on UCaaS and CCaaS.

Microsoft vs. Zoom: UCaaS Offerings

Zoom and Microsoft are leaders in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS).

Interestingly, while Microsoft Teams ranks slightly higher in the report, Zoom Workspace has a slightly better score on Gartner Peer Insights and G2, the verified customer review sites.

On both, Zoom scores 4.6 out of 5 stars compared to Microsoft’s 4.4 (as per June 2025).

Microsoft Teams has a larger install base, with over 320 million monthly active users.

Most organizations have stuck with the platform thanks to Microsoft’s familiar interface and alignment with Office 365.

Zoom Workplace, by contrast, is the up-and-coming challenger. After dominating pandemic-era video, Zoom needed a reinvention.

Recognizing this, Zoom launched Workplace in 2024, including persistent chat, whiteboards, collaborative documents, task apps, and a free AI assistant.

Microsoft Teams: Strengths and Cautions

One of the biggest benefits of Microsoft Teams is how deeply it’s integrated with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem.

For companies already investing in Microsoft 365, Teams feels like home. Everything from Word docs to Outlook calendars lives inside the same pane of glass.

Teams is reliable, with 99.999 percent uptime guarantees, and it offers a range of PSTN connectivity options (with Direct Routing and Operator Connect).

Plus, Copilot is embedded into everything, ready to summarize meetings, draft replies, surface data from connected apps, and more.

Microsoft also offers businesses deep security and compliance features, alongside modular add-ons like the “Queues” app for smaller contact centers.

However, there are some downsides. The PSTN connectivity options can be confusing, particularly for small organizations.

Companies with advanced telephony needs, such as requirements for SMS or advanced call recording, often find themselves needing to rely on external integrations.

On its own, Teams also lacks the functionality to perform as a full contact center for SMBs. Plus, accessing advanced features can be expensive. For instance, Copilot costs $30 per user per month.

Zoom Workplace: Strengths and Cautions

Zoom Workplace excels in its ease of use, as evidenced by its best-in-class UI.

From the UI, meetings, chat, and collaboration feel like part of the same product, not bolted together. Plus, there are plenty of specialist options available for companies in specific industries.

Zoom also prioritizes customer support. The organization has a robust reputation for addressing problems quickly and efficiently.

Beyond that, Zoom’s AI innovation catches the eye. For example,  its AI Companion can now do much more than summarize meetings. It can generate follow-ups and tasks, assign action items to team members, and translate content in real-time.

The company is even experimenting with a federated approach to AI, which allows its models to rank models by use case to maximize the performance of AI.

Still, Zoom lacks the enterprise suite depth offered by Microsoft. Although it has solutions for task management and online Docs, it doesn’t have broader options like the Power Platform or Microsoft Dynamics (though it does have its contact center suite).

While Zoom is now a leader in UCaaS, some larger enterprises question its long-term roadmap. Is it trying to replace Microsoft, or coexist with it?

Microsoft vs. Zoom: Which Is Best for UCaaS?

From a UCaaS perspective, both companies have a lot to offer.

For the most part, many companies will still choose Teams if they’re already deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, and they’re looking for intuitive ways to build workflows across systems like Teams, Power BI, and SharePoint.

Zoom is more likely to appeal to companies in search of a simpler, lightweight experience that works well out of the box and offers access to intuitive AI capabilities. It can also position itself as the leading alternative, which will appeal to Microsoft-averse buyers.

Microsoft vs. Zoom: The CCaaS Showdown

Zoom and Microsoft are relatively new to the CCaaS space, with the latter only entering the market in July 2024.

However, Microsoft wants to differentiate with its Copilot-first approach and embedded AI agents, with three already packaged as part of the Dynamics 365 Contact Center.

The company also uses its broad Dynamics 365 ecosystem to align CCaaS with other CRM apps and enable that often-touted 360-degree view of the customer.

Zoom is also AI-first. Yet, like with its UCaaS offering, it prioritizes ease of use. That’s valuable in a market usually defined by complexity.

Additionally, Zoom Contact Center customers can leverage WEM and the Zoom Virtual Agent as part of the same platform, extending its capabilities significantly.

Microsoft Contact Centers: Strengths and Cautions

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center benefits from the company’s close relationship with OpenAI, enabling fast and relatively cost-efficient AI innovation.

Copilot assists agents in real-time, offering suggestions, automating routine tasks, and providing real-time support during customer interactions.

In addition to embedded AI agents, Microsoft customers can create and customize their own via the Copilot Studio.

The close connections with Microsoft’s broader product portfolio, including Microsoft Teams, Power, and the broader Dynamics 365 platform, are also noteworthy.

Alongside the Dynamics 365 Contact Center, Microsoft also presents alternative CCaaS options to smaller customers.

For instance, the Microsoft Teams Queues app is perfect for smaller organizations that want to add basic voice-based service solutions to their existing UCaaS system.

With the Unify model (replacing Microsoft’s previous Power model for contact center integrations), companies can also choose to align Microsoft Teams with a third-party contact center solution.

Microsoft’s focus on flexibility is quickly helping it to earn a real place in the contact center market, although it’s still lacking in a few areas.

For instance, Microsoft doesn’t have a robust WEM solution (unlike Zoom). That means companies still need to rely on integrations for certain tools.

Plus, Microsoft is still very new to the CCaaS market. The Dynamics 365 Contact Center only launched last year, and many companies are choosing competitive CCaaS integrations for Teams over Microsoft’s own native solution.

Zoom Contact Center: Strengths and Considerations

Zoom’s biggest strength is its simplicity, driven by its team’s drive to create consumer-grade technology for the enterprise.

As such, companies can get their system up and running quickly, often without worrying about third-party support and partnerships.

For businesses investing in UCaaS and CCaaS, Zoom also makes it easy to experiment with swarming features.

While Microsoft offers a similar capability, contact centers can push contacts to external subject matter experts (SMEs) on the same platform without losing customer context.

Plus, like Microsoft, Zoom is heavily invested in AI, empowering companies to take advantage of its AI Companion without extra fees.

Additionally, organizations have the freedom to connect Zoom with their existing apps and workflows, as well as external telephony options.

They may also turn on adjacent technologies that work as one with the Zoom Contact Center. Zoom Virtual Agent and WEM are two excellent examples here.

Plus, Zoom is its own customer. It resolves about 97 percent of customer queries with its own virtual agents, which helps to generate trust among customers.

It also gained around 1,250 contact center customers with its contact center, within two years of launching in CCaaS. That’s impressive in such a crowded market.

But just as companies have questioned Zoom’s approach to UCaaS, many enterprises also remain uncertain about how the company will continue in the CCaaS space. The UCaaS + CCaaS offering still doesn’t attract a lot of larger enterprises.

Presenting a compelling vision for the contact center of the future will be key to sustaining its CCaaS growth over the long term.

Microsoft vs Zoom: Which Is Best for CCaaS?

Both Microsoft and Zoom are adopting a similar approach to contact center solutions, ensuring they’re deeply integrated with their existing systems, flexible enough to support a range of businesses, and powered by AI capabilities.

Microsoft’s contact center offerings through Dynamics, integrations, and the Teams Queues app, however, do present a lot of options to prospective customers.

Meanwhile, Zoom is better established in the space and can boast a strong list of reference customers.

Microsoft vs Zoom: The Case for a Unified Enterprise Communications Strategy

Realistically, companies don’t actually need to choose between Zoom and Microsoft. Zoom has its own contact center integration option for Microsoft Teams. Both companies support companies looking to mix and match various offerings and tools.

However, it makes sense for businesses to consider using the same vendor for UCaaS and CCaaS. Aligning unified communications and contact center capabilities with the same vendor streamlines technology management. It also enhances collaboration and ensures businesses drive consistent user experiences across systems.

For businesses that decide to take a unified approach, choosing between Microsoft and Zoom is all about priorities. Microsoft will appeal to companies looking for a deeply integrated ecosystem. It also has the “no one ever got fired for choosing Microsoft advantage.”

Zoom grabs the attention of organizations looking for flexible, user-friendly platforms, straightforward pricing, and rapid deployment options.

Learn more about the top benefits of aligning UCaaS and CCaaS platforms here.

 

]]>
Zoho vs. Salesforce: CRM Products, Differentiators, & Pricing (A 2025 Comparison) https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/zoho-vs-salesforce-crm-products-differentiators-pricing-a-2025-comparison/ Mon, 02 Jun 2025 11:04:48 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=69553 Salesforce and Zoho are two of the most familiar names in the CRM software category.

The former has earned a reputation as the “premium” CRM product, with an ecosystem of adjacent technologies, including MuleSoft, Slack, and Tableau.

Meanwhile, the latter is considered a more cost-effective, user-friendly solution, typically leveraged by the midmarket.

However, Zoho also has a burgeoning ecosystem that spans the enterprise, including technologies for finance, HR, the supply chain, and more.

As such, it now serves many larger organizations, while Salesforce is doing more to attract SMBs and the midmarket with its Essentials offering.

These overlaps have meant that the two CRM stalwarts increasingly compete on vendor shortlists.

Additionally, with both pushing AI agents across their CRM ecosystems and beyond, more businesses are considering the best AI providers to bet their future on.

Against this backdrop, here’s how Salesforce and Zoho weigh up on CRM.

Key Considerations When Selecting a CRM Platform

When choosing a CRM, every company will have its own priorities. Some will value simple solutions that are easy to adopt, customize, and integrate with existing workflows. Others will request more bells and whistles to differentiate the customer experience.

Nevertheless, here are some critical considerations to mull over:

  • Business Needs: CRM solutions don’t just support sales teams anymore; they’re crucial tools for marketing, service, commerce, and beyond. Each organization should consider how it can unify a customer view and processes across customer-facing functions before selecting a provider.
  • Extensibility: Consider the solutions and plug-ins that CX teams will need in the future. Evaluate how easily each CRM can integrate with products like Mailchimp, Slack, or QuickBooks. Look for APIs and custom integration options.
  • Customization Potential: No two businesses run identical processes. A platform must allow workflow automation, custom fields, and low-code support. Flexible platforms can adapt more quickly to changing business needs.
  • Ease of Use: Even the best CRM won’t do much if employees are uncomfortable using it. The simpler a platform is, and the more support a vendor offers, either through direct resources or partnerships, the better.
  • Reporting and Analytics: Look for robust dashboards, real-time alerts, and AI-driven insights to measure performance and discover opportunities. Customizable reports – based on a data layer foundation – with pre-built visualization options – are generally preferred.

Other factors to consider may include pricing, security and compliance solutions, AI strategy, referencibility, and more.

Zoho vs. Salesforce: A Feature and Services Comparison

Zoho and Salesforce have a historic reputation as CRM leaders, dating back to the early noughties.

Salesforce regularly appears in the Gartner Magic Quadrant reports as a leader across its sales, service, and marketing reports.

Zoho typically appears in one of the “lesser” quadrants. Yet, that is more down to the report giving more of an enterprise perspective, rather than one for smaller businesses.

On G2, Zoho CRM has an overall score of around 4.1 out of 5 stars (as of June 2025). Meanwhile, Salesforce Customer 360 edges ahead with a score of 4.5 out of 5.

However, on Gartner Peer Insights, Zoho CRM scores 4.3, compared to Salesforce Customer 360’s 4.2 out of 5 (again, as of June 2025).

Sales Management and CRM Core

Zoho CRM and Salesforce Customer 360 promise companies a comprehensive view of their customer, with data aligned from every channel and customer-facing function in one convenient platform.

They allow companies to connect various data sources to their systems and dynamically update information accessible to all sales, marketing, HR, and service teams.

Both platforms leverage AI to score leads, automate tasks, predict sales, detect anomalies, and segment customers.

Salesforce Sales Cloud, aligned with Customer 360, perhaps offers more robust pipeline management, advanced reporting, and highly configurable objects.

MuleSoft integrations also feed essential data from external systems (like ERP or logistics platforms) directly into CRM applications.

On the other hand, Zoho offers more sales enablement features upfront, with a comprehensive set of tools for issuing quotes and purchase orders, visitor tracking, and more, with capabilities usually locked behind higher pricing tiers on Salesforce.

Many organizations praise Zoho CRM for its simplicity, though it still provides custom fields, dashboards, and an advanced low-code platform.

Marketing Capabilities

For marketing teams, Salesforce offers the comprehensive marketing cloud for multichannel campaign automation, social listening, and advanced segmentation.

Companies can create comprehensive marketing workflows, access in-depth analytics, and track results across email, social media, etc. However, survey analytics can be more expensive to access.

Zoho CRM offers many of the same marketing tools as Salesforce, allowing teams to create email campaigns, map customer journeys, segment buyers, and build social media strategies.

There are built-in tools for multi-channel publishing, event management, webinar creation, pop-up forms, and landing page development.

Plus, companies get comprehensive templates to help them design lead-nurturing journeys with minimal effort.

Collaboration Tools and Process Automation

Salesforce has an edge from a collaboration perspective, thanks to its acquisition of Slack.

Teams can tag one another in deal discussions, share files in Slack channels, and track real-time updates to CRM records.

Zoho provides its own pre-built collaboration tools within the CRM toolkit, such as Cliq (similar to Slack), Zoho Projects for coordinating tasks, and a shared feed for updates.

It also offers CRM for Everyone to help democratize CRM intelligence across the enterprise.

Teams can also schedule meetings with colleagues within Zoho, without a third-party integration.

Both companies offer fantastic tools for building workflows and managing task assignments.

The biggest difference is that most users find Zoho’s workflows a little easier to configure, with the intuitive drag-and-drop builder and visual UI.

There are also pre-built blueprints that are ideal for beginners. Salesforce supports more complex workflows, but they can be tricky to set up.

Analytics and Reporting

Both Zoho and Salesforce excel at offering businesses in-depth insights.

Salesforce CRM analytics sets a high bar for sophisticated reporting, predictive analytics, and big-data modeling. It reveals pipeline bottlenecks, suggests next best actions, and provides deep insights for advanced forecasting.

Companies can easily create custom reports and track metrics with real-time dashboards through Salesforce, with employees receiving regular updates via Slack.

Zoho has a great range of advanced analytics too, with unlimited reports and dashboards on every plan, 75+ visualization options for reports, and dynamic data syncing.

It may not match the broad-scale data integration of Einstein or Tableau, but many teams find Zoho’s analytics to be user-friendly, with enough muscle to cover routine reporting needs.

App Marketplaces & APIs

From a flexibility perspective, the Salesforce AppExchange is one of the biggest app marketplaces around, with thousands of integrations to choose from.

Salesforce also benefits from a huge partner network of experts who can help customize the CRM platform.

Businesses with unique workflows, specialized third-party integrations, or in-house development teams often consider Salesforce to be a near-limitless playground for custom solutions.

Zoho’s marketplace of extension options is a little smaller, but still diverse.

Moreover, each Zoho app (CRM, Desk, Campaigns, etc.) comes with open APIs and a low-code builder, letting companies develop specialized modules if needed.

AI Agents

Agentforce by Salesforce allows companies to design and manage comprehensive, unique bots that can handle complex, multi-stage tasks.

Zoho is introducing “Zia agents”, a solution that allows companies to choose from a collection of pre-built models for specific tasks like customer success management or ticket routing.

Teams can also build their own agents with a simple, low-code system.

Again, Salesforce has made more noise around agentic AI, but Zoho has an edge for companies looking for low costs and minimal complexity.

Services and Support

Zoho and Salesforce provide companies with plenty of tools designed to streamline customer service.

Salesforce has the Service Cloud and integrates with Outlook and Gmail for email connectivity.

Companies can also tie in other channels, such as self-service with AI-powered chatbots, and contact center integrations.

The Einstein AI can categorize inbound tickets, make recommendations, and even suggest macros for repetitive actions.

Additionally, companies can use Agentforce to build their own customer support or customer success agents to work across channels.

Zoho CRM also allows companies to connect with customers through various channels, including live chat and social media.

Plus, companies get the built-in Zoho Desk app for ticketing and knowledge base management.

Zoho Desk ensures service teams have real-time access to a customer’s history, open deals, and prior interactions.

Implementation and Onboarding

Salesforce typically requires a more extensive onboarding process, often involving certified consultants or experienced in-house administrators.

Its power and flexibility can be a double-edged sword: large, globally dispersed teams might value the depth, but the learning curve can be a lot.

Zoho is more commonly considered an ideal solution for smaller businesses and teams with limited technical knowledge, although it’s constantly building out its portfolio for bigger companies.

Overall, Zoho does offer a slightly easier setup process, particularly for those who don’t want to seek out external partner support.

Zoho vs. Salesforce: A Pricing Comparison

Zoho CRM Plus is a low-cost option that allows businesses to tap into various solutions without huge monthly fees.

Available from $57 per user per month, it comprises over a dozen CRM apps, crossing service, sales, marketing, and beyond.

However, that’s only the price when billed annually. When billed monthly, it increases to $69 per user per month.

Salesforce’s pricing structure can be a little more complex to understand. Companies can mix and match products under the Customer 360 umbrella, like the Sales and Service Cloud solutions.

There’s also its “Essentials” package, which starts at $300 per user, per year for smaller companies.

However, most companies do end up paying more for Salesforce, particularly when they need access to advanced AI and partner support.

Zoho does keep costs relatively low and makes budgeting more predictable. However, some larger companies might struggle with limited scalability.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Zoho and Salesforce offer advanced CRM platforms, unifying marketing, sales, service, and other teams with AI-driven automation and advanced data insights.

Salesforce is usually the better option for larger companies with complex workflows and unique needs.

However, Zoho is a popular choice for smaller companies searching for simplicity, low costs, and a simple, composable environment.

Wish to explore how Salesforce stacks up against other CRM vendors? If so, check out this Salesforce vs ServiceNow guide.

 

 

]]>
Adobe vs. Optimizely: Which Is the Better DXP? (A 2025 Comparison) https://www.cxtoday.com/customer-analytics-intelligence/adobe-vs-optimizely-dxp/ Wed, 07 May 2025 10:28:08 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=69490 When considering digital experience platform (DXP) providers, Adobe and Optimizely are likely the first names that spring to mind.

Indeed, most industry evaluations – including the latest DXP Magic Quadrant from Gartner – present both vendors as market leaders.

Market analysts also commend the depth of their DXP solutions, which are packed with features to design, orchestrate, and optimize digital customer experiences.

However, there are some crucial differences.

Most consider Optimizely One is easier to use, but the Adobe Experience Cloud is more scalable and benefits from a massive partner network.

Meanwhile, Adobe exhibits a rapid, innovative feature release cadence, while Optimizely concentrates mostly on modularity and simple, scalable pricing.

Yet, that’s a high-level overview. Here’s a closer look to help organizations make the right choice.

Key Considerations When Choosing a DXP Platform

Many market analysts, including Forrester, IDC, and – of course – Gartner, release studies to support enterprises in procuring the best-placed DXP solution.

However, before referencing these resources, brands must visualize what their ideal digital customer experiences look like. That will help isolate the ideal DXP.

Buyers should also look beyond market reports and consider shortlisted solutions based on their:

  • Existing Technology Stacks: Which platform aligns best with existing technology, such as CRM solutions, content marketing tools, etc.? Think about the integration requirements here and the opportunity for vendor consolidation.
  • Use Cases: How will teams use the DXP to enhance marketing, content management, or sales processes? What kind of features will be most important to those users?
  • Purpose: What’s the reason for introducing a DXP in the first place? Will it extend content marketing activities, centralize broader CX initiatives, or become a central hub for orchestrating experiences?
  • Composability: DXP buyers are shifting towards composable, over monolithic platforms. So, consider: how easy is it to customize and adjust the system?
  • Ease of Use: How much training will teams need to use the platform? How easy is it to install, configure, and align with existing tools?
  • Scalability & Future Requirements: How effectively will the system adapt to long-term needs? Does the vendor offer advanced solutions for AI, automation, and upgrades?

Other factors like pricing, support services, and analytics may also come into play, alongside the provider’s record and strategy for security and compliance.

Adobe vs. Optimizely: What Do Analysts and Verified Customers Think?

Both Adobe and Optimizely are neck and neck in terms of rankings across industry reports and verified customer review sites.

In the 2024 Magic Quadrant, Adobe held the top spot by a large margin.

However, Optimizely ranks slightly ahead of Adobe in the 2025 edition, with the analyst citing its rapid growth.

Both companies remain leaders, however.

Adobe ranks high on innovation, brand awareness, and partner support, but falls behind in terms of its complexity and pricing.

Optimizely receives commendation for its platform breadth, modularity, and affordable pricing, but has a slightly skewed focus on marketing and less experience in the SaaS space.

The company slightly outperforms Adobe on Gartner Peer Insights, the verified customer review site (as of May 2025).

Indeed, Optimizely One records an overall rating of 4.5 out of five stars, compared to 4.4 for the Adobe Experience Cloud.

On G2, Optimizely again ranks marginally higher, with a 4.2 out of five stars, higher than Adobe’s 4.1 score.

Adobe vs. Optimizely: A Comparison of Key Features

Both companies offer complete DXP suites, with solutions for journey creation, assembly, and management. They also offer a degree of composability, allowing API-first DXP approaches.

However, there are several differences. For instance, Adobe offers a more comprehensive analytics suite while Optimizely has a greater breadth of native features for marketing teams.

That’s just two examples of many. Let’s take a deeper dive.

Content Management and Creation

Adobe’s Experience Manager solution comes with sophisticated WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) authoring, content modeling, and robust asset management.

Users frequently note the advanced creative and branding features, thanks to Adobe’s heritage in design tools.

However, the portfolio’s complexity can pose challenges for non-technical teams.

Adobe’s focus on creative workflows and integrated design resources makes it an appealing choice for enterprises already immersed in Adobe Creative Cloud.

Optimizely’s CMS capabilities, bundled within Optimizely One, emphasize simplicity, alignment, and intuitive design.

Additionally, its user interface allows marketing teams to move seamlessly between tasks, with embedded AI for content ideation, editing, and layout.

Although slightly younger as a SaaS solution, it supports flexible deployment types (SaaS or hybrid SaaS/PaaS) and encourages composability.

Many reviewers highlight its drag-and-drop environment, real-time previews, and personalization that is highly accessible for marketers.

Personalization and AI

Adobe Target, combined with a Real-Time CDP and advanced analytics, drives Adobe’s personalization features.

The platform leverages AI to surface predictive insights for content, e-commerce placements, and targeted messaging.

Also, many companies appreciate Adobe’s “non-destructive” approach to AI, which enables access to intelligent features while protecting brand guidelines.

Organizations can also experiment with agentic and generative AI tools from the Adobe Experience Platform.

Its Agent Orchestrator to build, manage, and – of course – orchestrate AI agents for DXP use cases is an excellent example.

However, implementing these agents – and broader AI use cases – may require technical expertise.

Optimizely focuses heavily on personalization and experimentation. Its system embeds AI throughout, with tools for content recommendation, traffic allocation, and advanced audience segmentation.

Optimizely Opal can even dynamically adjust web pages based on real-time behaviors and the visitor’s profile.

The provider also offers an approachable no-code interface, facilitating advanced audience segmentation. Plus, the modular capabilities allow companies to easily embed their own AI tools into the system.

Analytics and Customer Data Management

Adobe excels in this category with its real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP), Customer Journey analytics, data visualization tools, and more.

Companies can also draw data from various connected platforms and combine everything into a single interface for end-to-end insights.

The data collection capabilities even allow users to standardize data from client-side sources.

Meanwhile, Optimizely also offers robust capabilities to unify data, with the Optimizely Graph for connecting data sources, and a dedicated content platform.

The platform uses AI to analyze performance, deliver content intelligence, and proactively share recommendations with marketing teams.

Moreover, Optimizely offers real-time segmentation and experimentation dashboards, alongside intelligent solutions for data routing and storage.

However, some users on Gartner Peer Insights have noted that the Graph can be complicated to use.

Ecosystem and Integrations

Adobe stands out for an extensive partner network, where companies can access design agencies, large systems integrators (SIs), and consultancies.

The ecosystem has a global footprint, with robust training programs to assist teams in building, extending, and customizing solutions.

Adobe’s Experience Platform also provides custom integrations with adjacent technologies so companies can integrate it tightly within their existing stack.

Those integrations span Microsoft, Google, IBM, Salesforce, AWS, and numerous others.

Meanwhile, Optimizely’s composable approach has proven central to its rapid growth, allowing brands to quickly swap native features for third-party alternatives.

Optimizely also integrates with virtually all the same solutions as Adobe, but the company doesn’t have the most comprehensive partner network yet.

Overall User Experience

For companies in search of highly sophisticated features, Adobe is a powerful choice.

Although it ranks higher than Optimizely for things like ease of deployment, end-user training, and scalability on Gartner Peer Insights, much of this is likely down to the extensive partner network.

Indeed, analysts and verified customers have noted that Adobe’s product portfolio is complicated, which can lead to a poor experience for nontechnical users.

The learning curve for many features is steep, and success often depends heavily on finding the right partner, which could mean that companies spend more than intended on their system.

Optimizely ranks slightly higher than Adobe on Peer Insights for overall ease of deployment and integration.

Moreover, many consider it the simpler platform, thanks to its highly composable nature and no-code tools.

However, it does fall behind Adobe in terms of overall scalability.

Plus, not all features are as straightforward as they seem. For instance, bridging the gaps between certain modules, like the Optimizely Graph, can be complicated.

How Do Adobe and Optimizely Compare on Price?

Both companies offer a quote-based pricing structure, with no clear “plans” listed on their websites.

However, according to verified reviews, Optimizely breaks its quotes into modules, enabling more transparent pricing.

Meanwhile, it doesn’t cap usage for particular products, reducing unexpected costs as usage increases.

In its Magic Quadrant, Gartner commended Optimizely for its pricing, which lowers the barrier to entry and ensures companies only pay for the services and features they need.

Adobe’s pricing is a pain point for a lot of customers. The organization recently launched a “unified pricing metric”, but it’s only available to certain customers.

Most companies need to invest in the entire Experience Cloud suite for full functionality, which makes Adobe one of the more expensive options, particularly for companies that only need specific features.

Plus, the technical complexity of implementing Adobe means that most companies need to pay extra for partner support with things like deployment, maintenance, and configuration.

Adobe vs. Optimizely: The Verdict

So, which platform wins? Ultimately, it all comes down to the needs of the specific company.

The Adobe Experience Cloud stands out for its sophisticated and scalable portfolio, wide partner network, and AI leadership.

Indeed, the company is constantly innovating and expanding, introducing new solutions to support businesses from various backgrounds.

However, the high pricing and complexity might deter some beginners from using this system, particularly if they have a limited support budget.

Optimizely One is easier to use, designed with a focus on modularity, and ideal for blending content management, personalization, AI, and testing in one place.

The simpler pricing structure will appeal to most smaller and mid-sized brands, but some companies might find the system lacks scale and has hidden complexities.

 

 

]]>
NICE CXone vs. Genesys Cloud: The Ultimate CCaaS Battle https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/nice-cxone-vs-genesys-cloud-the-ultimate-ccaas-battle/ Mon, 31 Mar 2025 20:11:55 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=67948 At the forefront of most analyst reports evaluating the enterprise CCaaS market, two vendors will typically lead the way: NICE and Genesys.

Still, in a crowded market – with hyperscalers, CRM, and UCaaS providers entering the space – these two companies stand out.

Central to this market leadership are both providers’ global support services, deep ecosystems, and – of course – rich portfolios.

Indeed, each offers access to omnichannel communications, data management, workforce engagement management (WEM), journey orchestration, and AI solutions.

Yet, which is the best platform overall?

NICE CXone vs Genesys Cloud: Key Considerations for Selecting a CCaaS Platform

Choosing a CCaaS solution is typically a long process, and there are many analyst studies helping guide organizations toward cutting-edge solutions.

Genesys and NICE have both ranked as leaders on the Gartner Magic Quadrant report for CCaaS platforms thanks to their robust AI tools, scalability, and ease of use (among other reasons).

But, when selecting a CCaaS solution, business leaders need to think about more than just industry rankings. Key points to consider include:

  • Alignment with Business Needs & Cloud Strategy – Determine the appropriate cloud solution (public, private, or hybrid) to narrow down potential CCaaS vendors.
  • The Vendor Ecosystem – Assess compatibility and integration capabilities with existing CRM and UCaaS platforms. Consider integration requirements with other enterprise technologies, including ITSM software, BI tools, and conversational AI.
  • The Contact Center Role – Distinguish between the need for added contact center functionality to UCaaS versus a dedicated, pure-play CCaaS solution for mission-critical service.
  • Core CCaaS Features – Evaluate support for desired customer engagement channels (e.g., voice, chat, email, social media). Also, ensure system scalability to accommodate growth and prioritize an intuitive UI for agents and administrators.
  • Support Services – Verify support services that meet the language requirements of global operations.
  • Customization Capabilities – Determine the level of customization required and if a CCaaS vendor with strong CPaaS ties is necessary for developer-driven customization.

NICE CXone vs Genesys Cloud: A Comprehensive Comparison

Aside from being chosen as CCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant leaders, both NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud solutions have earned numerous additional plaudits for key components of their CCaaS offerings.

For instance, NICE started life as a workforce optimization (WFO) vendor and moved into CCaaS after acquiring inContact in 2016. It still retains its strong WFO capabilities and offers fantastic AI-powered analytics and automation features.

Genesys is well-known for its user-friendly interface, built-in collaboration and UCaaS tools, and flexible, API-driven customization options.

Both solutions also have strong rankings on G2, each earning a score of 4.3 out of 5 stars overall (as of March 2025).

On Gartner Peer Insights, they both earn a score of 4.6 out of five stars.

NICE CXone vs Genesys Cloud: Pricing and Plans

From a pricing perspective, NICE CXone can be a little more expensive to implement than Genesys Cloud. However, options are available for more budget-focused companies.

Plans range from around $71 per month for the CXone Mpower digital assistant to $249 per month for the CXone MPower ultimate suite, with full orchestration or human and AI agents.

NICE offers a sixty-day free trial for beginners and access to solutions that might cost extra from other vendors in premium plans, like advanced WFO tools.

Genesys Cloud CX plans start at $75 per month, per user, with access to analytics, reporting, AI tools, and voice capabilities.

More advanced plans range up to $240 per agent per month, with access to more digital channels, outbound campaigns, and omnichannel routing.

However, on top of that $240 per agent per month plan, brands may pay for extra AI tokens to leverage the vendor’s full AI toolkit.

Contact centers can also mix and match features, choosing options like “digital channels” as an add-on for cheaper CCaaS plans.

Overall, Genesys Cloud might be a slightly more cost-effective solution for mid-sized teams prioritizing built-in collaboration tools and ease of use. However, companies that want to go all-in on AI may end up paying more.

NICE CXOne vs Genesys Cloud: Key Features Comparison

Since both NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud are omnichannel, AI-driven CCaaS solutions, they offer many overlapping features but stand out in slightly different areas.

Customer Engagement and Communication Tools

Both NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud support inbound and outbound omnichannel communications, with solutions for both live and virtual agents.

The platforms enable unlimited voice calling, access to AI-driven chatbots, and call and agent screen recording features. They also offer various dialers (predictive, progressive, and preview) for outbound campaigns.

NICE delivers advanced VoIP calling capabilities with IVR, automated callbacks, ring groups, and call queuing, alongside support for 30 digital channels (such as SMS, social media, email, and chat).

Genesys supports most communication channels and IVR features with flexible routing capabilities. Plus, it offers campaign management tools for marketing and sales teams and native team collaboration tools.

Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) & Agent Assist

NICE leads the CCaaS market in its WEM portfolio, particularly when it comes to WFM.

It offers flexible tools for forecasting and scheduling powered by over 40 different predictive algorithms. NICE also has its purpose-built Enlighten AI suite to enhance workforce operations.

While Genesys does have its own AI tools and agent-assist features, NICE has created more than 25 AI-powered tools specifically focused on improving agent productivity and engagement.

That said, Genesys does perhaps provide NICE with its closest competition in terms of WEM capabilities.

For instance, it presents advanced solutions for gamification and editable AI-generated summary assistants.

Both vendors deliver live KPI alerts, real-time agent coaching tools, and solutions for performance tracking and agent training.

They also offer customer survey tools and omnichannel interaction recording for training purposes, giving businesses more freedom to create custom upskilling strategies.

Data Analysis and Reporting

Data analytics now goes beyond simple call statistics. Enterprises want actionable insights into customer sentiment, agent performance, bottlenecks in service delivery, and beyond.

Both NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud offer a range of intelligent solutions here that centralize data and extract insight.

Moreover, they offer organizations a single interface for accessing speech and text analytics, customer intent insights, and omnichannel customer feedback.

NICE CXone presents more than 90+ pre-built reports (compared to Genesys Cloud’s 30+ templates) for those with advanced reporting needs.

Additionally, it offers access to business process analytics to monitor the performance of specific contact center workflows.

Meanwhile, Genesys Cloud enhances user experiences with agent empathy scoring, advanced customer journey mapping capabilities, and AI-powered engagement dashboards.

Reliability, Security, and Customer Support

NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud promise 99.99 percent uptime, end-to-end encryption, single sign-on (SSO), and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Ultimately, that means both tools are reliable for companies investing in a sturdy ecosystem for customer support.

Both platforms also ensure compliance with a range of industry standards, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, SOC 2, and FedRAMP.

Moreover, both offer organizations incredible onboarding support, training resources, and end-to-end customer service.

NICE CXone gives users direct access to 24/7 customer support, on-site training and webinars, and automated compliance audits (for peace of mind).

Meanwhile, Genesys delivers global support across multiple channels, as well as professional services and consulting add-ons for larger teams.

Users can also expect end-to-end monitoring and encryption from both platforms.

User Experience and Integrations

From a user experience perspective, some companies on verified review sites – like G2 – suggest that NICE CXone has a slightly higher learning curve.

However, it has a reputation for robust migration and onboarding support. Plus, companies have a lot of freedom to customize their ecosystem according to their specific needs, with more than 140+ pre-built integrations.

Genesys Cloud supports more third-party integrations than NICE through its AppFoundry marketplace (with more than 500 third-party connectors). It can also be slightly easier to use and comes with built-in unified communication features for workplace collaboration.

The biggest downside is that Genesys integrations for advanced reporting and WFO capabilities can cost companies extra, even though they’re already built into many NICE plans.

Both solutions support APIs and SDKs while presenting oven-ready integrations with platforms like Zendesk, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, and more.

NICE CXOne vs Genesys Cloud: The Pros & Cons

Every organization’s needs differ based on industry vertical, team size, and customer engagement strategies. The choice between NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud hinges on each company’s priorities.

NICE CXone

NICE CXone reigns as the leader in workforce engagement management (WEM).

For example, it offers near-flawless forecasting accuracy through its 40+ predictive algorithms and provides robust analytics with 90+ pre-built reporting templates.

Large enterprises handling thousands of daily interactions can also leverage Enlighten AI to automate conversations, deliver agent assistance, enhance contact center data, and more.

Pros:

  • Industry-leading AI-powered WFM and scheduling
  • Advanced analytics and customizable reports
  • Flexible pricing options for a range of businesses
  • Excellent customer service and onboarding support

Cons:

  • Slightly steeper learning curve
  • Fewer native collaboration tools

Genesys Cloud

Genesys Cloud could be the ideal choice for organizations focused on customer engagement and internal collaboration.

Its intuitive interface, built-in chat, and video conferencing allow agents and supervisors to collaborate without leaving the platform.

AI-driven coaching, coupled with straightforward analytics, makes Genesys Cloud an appealing choice for organizations that want to streamline the agent experience, too.

Pros:

  • Seamless omnichannel engagement tools
  • Built-in UCaaS features and collaboration tools
  • User-friendly interface and integrations
  • Impressive gamification capabilities

Cons:

  • Limitations on analytics and reporting features
  • Less sophisticated WFM capabilities

NICE CXone vs Genesys Cloud: Making the Right Choice

Ultimately, both NICE CXone and Genesys Cloud feature-rich CCaaS platforms with many overlapping capabilities and features, advanced AI tools, and deep customization options.

NICE CXone is perhaps the better option for companies that want to combine omnichannel customer service and robust customer journey analytics.

It’s also great for people-centric contact centers looking for market-leading WEM tools alongside versatile AI assistants.

Yet, Genesys Cloud may be the better choice for companies that prioritize digital engagement, hybrid team collaboration, and ease of configuration.

 

Join the CX Community That Values Your Voice

This is your space to speak up, connect, and grow with thousands of CX leaders. Share your voice, influence what’s next, and learn from the best in customer experience. Join the conversation today.

]]>
HubSpot Sales Hub: An Introduction, Features, & Pricing https://www.cxtoday.com/crm/hubspot-sales-hub-an-introduction-features-pricing/ Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:29:07 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=67543 HubSpot started life as a software company delivering inbound marketing solutions. Now, it’s one of the biggest CRM platform providers in the world.

Competing with the likes of Salesforce and Microsoft, HubSpot offers a range of dedicated CRM “Hubs” for various customer-facing teams, including customer service, commerce, and – of course – sales.

The Sales Hub is HubSpot’s all-in-one solution for transforming sales processes, combining pipeline management software with conversational intelligence, task management apps, and much more.

Additionally, users can tap into the power of AI with embedded HubSpot Breeze AI.

That’s the short story. Read on for the longer version, unpacking: what exactly does Salesforce Sales Hub have to offer? What are the core features and benefits, and how much does it cost?

HubSpot Sales Hub: The Key Features

Like all of HubSpot’s “Hubs”, the Sales Hub is a constantly evolving ecosystem of tools.

In the last year, for instance, HubSpot has added preconfigured AI agents, via Breeze. That includes an agent that automatically sends proactive outreach to prospects.

Breeze also offers users an upgraded copilot and data intelligence tools.

Moreover, it’s critical to note that all of HubSpot’s Hubs integrate seamlessly. That helps connect the CRM ecosystem, enabling improved data sharing and cross-application innovation.

Indeed, that’s the first of the heavy-hitting features to look out for.

The Unified Smart CRM

All the Hubs centralize customer data within the HubSpot Smart CRM, providing sales teams with an up-to-date, unified view of each customer.

Users may also align data with other CRM systems (for instance, HubSpot integrates with Salesforce).

Streamlined Prospecting and Lead Management

Sales Hub aims to combine everything sales teams need to manage prospects and leads into one space.

Users can manage calls, emails, tasks, and LinkedIn connections, in a single dashboard.

Additionally, they can scan business cards, track when customers open leads, and organize leads into stages (such as new or qualified). Plus, there are tools for scheduling meetings with leads, too.

HubSpot even offers access to forecasting tools for sales teams and free scheduling software to help keep deals moving smoothly.

AI-Powered Assistance

HubSpot’s CRM solutions feature various embedded AI features, with more since the company introduced Breeze.

The Sales Hub offers AI tools for automatically generating emails specific to certain sales scenarios, like follow-ups and introductions. There are even Gmail and Outlook integrations, so users can compose messages with AI in their inbox.

Moreover, there are AI tools for validating leads, identifying the best times to call or contact leads, and determining which “decision-makers” salespeople should target.

Workflow Automation

There are a bunch of automation capabilities built into the HubSpot Sales Hub for things like following up with leads, scheduling emails, or creating reports.

Perhaps the most impactful automation tool is the sales automation “Sequences” solution. It allows users to create personalized sales cadences, with a series of calls, emails, and LinkedIn interactions scheduled over time.

The system can even trigger specific follow-up actions, like creating tasks for other team members or scheduling appointments.

Deal Management & Customizable Pipelines

The Deal Boards in HubSpot Sales Hub are a user-friendly option for deal management, with a drag-and-drop interface teams can use to monitor deals across stages.

Teams can customize pipelines by adjusting stages to align with their processes and even use AI to score the likelihood of a deal closing.

HubSpot’s AI assistant, Breeze Copilot, also assists reps by answering queries related to deals, contacts, and companies, drawing from CRM data to provide contextual insights.

AI-Assisted Sales Coaching & Analytics

For companies that need help reskilling their teams, Sales Hub has several handy features.

As an example, there are coaching playlists to help sales managers review team performance. HubSpot’s AI can also summarize call transcripts, highlighting key insights such as pricing discussions and mentions of competitors. That means managers can use these insights for training.

Sales Hub also offers a bunch of additional insights and reports covering areas like prospecting performance, team efficiency, and deal velocity. For companies with specific needs, there are custom reporting options, too.

Payment & Quote Management

Within HubSpot Sales Hub, teams can generate branded quotes and invoices and manage payments directly. Once a deal is marked as “Closed” or “Won”, teams can send payment requests straight from the deal record, streamlining the post-sale process.

There are also document tracking tools and integrations with accounting and financial software to help keep teams aligned (and compliant).

Additional HubSpot Sales Hub Features

Beyond all of the features mentioned above, Sales Hub also comes with numerous additional tools, like the option to add custom objects to your CRM contacts, a free email templates builder, user permissions for sales and marketing teams, and KPI tracking software. Users also get:

  • VoIP software
  • Task management tools
  • Call logging apps
  • Conversation intelligence
  • End-to-end integrations

HubSpot Sales Hub: Pricing Options

Some of HubSpot’s tools are available for free. For instance, there’s a free sales CRM with essential tools for storing contacts, making deals, and managing tasks.

In addition, users may access email tracking and notifications, email templates, document sharing, integrations, meeting scheduling, quotes, and live chat features.

For those wishing to go beyond the free Sales Hub, there are three other options. as outlined below.

The Starter Plan

Starting at $20 per month per seat, the Starter plan serves small businesses looking to upgrade their sales processes.

The plan comes with simple automation capabilities, goal tracking, and productivity performance tracking for reps.

Ultimately, its likely the ideal option for teams looking to streamline sales activities without spending a fortune on premium CRM applications.

The Professional Plan

HubSpot’s “Professional” Sales Hub plan starts at $100 per month, per seat, with deal stage, task, and lead rotation automation, alongside advanced sequences for automated outreach and custom reporting.

Again, this is a more affordable option compared to many alternatives on the market.

Businesses looking to automate slightly more complex sales processes and gain deeper insights with custom reports will typically leverage this plan.

The Enterprise Plan

Starting at $150 per month per seat, the Enterprise plan includes all the Professional plan’s features. It also introduces custom objects for CRMs, predictive lead scoring, and custom playbooks thrown in.

Additionally, it includes some extra “permissions” for improved security and compliance.

The Enterprise plan suits larger companies with more advanced sales and automation requirements.

Companies can bundle all of these plans (from Starter through to Enterprise) with other HubSpot Hubs (content, service, operations, and marketing).

Plus, there are extra fees for additional apps and features like Breeze Intelligence (which is charged on a per-credit basis).

Salesforce Sales Hub: A Worthwhile Investment?

HubSpot Sales Hub might not be the cheapest sales-focused CRM on the market, but it’s not the most expensive either.

The all-in-one AI-driven sales platform enables teams to streamline processes, improve productivity, and – ultimately – empower sales professionals.

Perhaps the best thing about this platform is that users can start experimenting with the features for free.

From there, they can upgrade as needed, thanks to its flexible pricing plans.

Finally, with new features rolling out for the Breeze ecosystem and AI agent plans, Sales Hub is likely to become even more intelligent (and intuitive) going forward.

 

]]>
The Great Contact Center Debate: Cloud vs. On-Premises https://www.cxtoday.com/tv/the-great-contact-center-debate-cloud-vs-on-premises-bright-pattern/ Wed, 27 Nov 2024 11:00:46 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=65608

 

Watch on YouTube

In this interview, Rob Scott of CX Today sits down with Michael McCloskey, CEO of Bright Pattern, to explore one of the hottest debates in contact center technology: cloud versus on-premises solutions. With a growing push from CCaaS providers towards cloud-only models, Michael explains why Bright Pattern’s philosophy of deployment flexibility—allowing companies to “have it your way”—is changing the game for organizations navigating a complex tech landscape.

Tune in to uncover: Why the Cloud-Only Push? Gain insights into the industry trend of cloud-only solutions and the potential risks they pose to organizations looking for more customized options. Bright Pattern’s Flexible Approach: Discover how Bright Pattern’s platform supports both cloud and on-premises models without sacrificing features or performance, providing a true “have it your way” experience.

Critical Compliance and Data Considerations: Hear about the importance of deployment flexibility when addressing regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and brand trust—key factors for companies handling sensitive customer data.

AI-Driven Contact Centers: Learn how Bright Pattern’s AI capabilities enhance customer service, seamlessly integrating into both deployment types to support evolving CX strategies. This is a must-watch for CX leaders and tech decision-makers looking to future-proof their infrastructure choices while balancing security, compliance, and innovation. Michael also shares predictions for the future of contact centers and what organizations should consider to stay competitive in a shifting market. Next Steps: Explore how deployment flexibility could benefit your organization’s CX strategy.

For more information, visit Bright Pattern.

Thanks for watching. If you’d like more content like this, don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to our channel.

You can also join the conversation on our X and LinkedIn pages.

]]>
AudioCodes Voca Review: A Leading MS Teams Contact Center Solution https://www.cxtoday.com/contact-center/audiocodes-voca-review-a-leading-ms-teams-contact-center-solution/ Fri, 12 Jul 2024 15:00:37 +0000 https://www.cxtoday.com/?p=61078 Designed to transform the way companies access contact center technologies in Microsoft Teams, AudioCodes’ Voca Conversational Interaction Center (CIC) is taking the world by storm. While it’s far from the only solution that aligns MS Teams with CCaaS technology, it’s one of the most impressive options we’ve seen so far.

In fact, the CX Today team actually picked Voca as our number one Microsoft Teams Contact Center solution at this year’s CX Awards. As a leader in the communications software and hardware market, AudioCodes has taken a unique approach to combining UCaaS and CCaaS.

The Voca solution, with its built-in conversational AI capabilities, exceptional flexibility, and lightweight design, could be the perfect CX upgrade for your company.

In this AudioCodes Voca review, we’ll share everything you need to know to make the right choice.

Quick Verdict: Pros and Cons

AudioCodes Voca won our award for being the best certified Microsoft Teams contact center solution in 2024. It’s a robust yet lightweight platform that offers exceptional flexibility and scalability, cost-effective pricing, and built-in artificial intelligence.

Pros:

  • Built-in Azure for excellent reliability
  • Scalable and cost-effective pricing
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Native conversational AI in 14 languages
  • Powerful reporting and analytics

Cons:

  • Some languages aren’t supported (yet)
  • Slight learning curve for the initial setup

What is AudioCodes Voca? The Features

AudioCodess’ Voca Conversational Interaction Center is the certified contact center solution designed by AudioCodes for Microsoft Teams. AudioCodes has a long-standing history of working with Microsoft to deliver solutions for unified communications, collaboration, and productivity.

The Voca offering extends that ongoing partnership, giving companies access to a unique contact center solution built in Azure. Notably, Voca is the first contact center solution for Teams to offer an Azure-native solution built on the Azure Communications Services technology stack.

The omnichannel contact center system brings a host of capabilities into the Teams interface. Some of the key features include:

  • Azure native infrastructure, with media quality, encryption, and security built-in
  • Unified environment for omnichannel interaction management
  • Dedicated call controls within the Worker App
  • Support for a limitless number of contact center agents
  • Web chat, voice, and email support
  • Comprehensive availability status management
  • End-to-end contact center and conversation monitoring
  • Natural language understanding, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech
  • Custom no-code call flow designer with APIs and SDK support
  • CRM integrations for in-depth customer knowledge and personalization
  • Skills-based intelligent routing
  • Overflow thresholds
  • Multi-platform queuing
  • Customizable reports for queue activity, call volume, and more
  • Real-time customizable dashboards showcasing user experience
  • Multi-tenancy support for multi-site organizations and service providers
  • Extensive security backed by HIPAA and GDPR compliance

AudioCodes Voca Review: Pricing and Availability

AudioCodes Voca is a fully certified Microsoft Teams contact center solution, available to companies in regions all over the world. It even supports a wide range of language options, with more than 14 languages available for the conversational AI tools alone.

Like many leading contact center providers, AudioCodes offers a flexible solution that can be tailored to the specific needs of any industry. The company has already empowered countless organizations in the Healthcare, Government, Banking, Insurance, and Manufacturing sectors with this toolkit.

Pricing is one of the strong points of the Voca CIC solution, particularly for smaller organizations. AudioCodes customizes its pricing to suit your specific requirements. In other words, you only pay for the services and technology you actually use.

If you only have 15 agents on calls at any given time, that’s all you pay for, even if you have 50 agents overall. This means companies have much more flexibility to add and remove channels based on call flow duration, call volume, and actual usage.

Audiocodes Voca: The Core Benefits

AudioCodes Voca CIC sets itself apart from other Microsoft Teams contact center solutions in various ways. The powerful and versatile solution is highly adaptable. In fact, AudioCodes can offer companies access to the system through both the cloud and on-premises deployment.

While there are various factors that make Voca an excellent choice for Microsoft Teams users, the biggest benefits of the platform include:

  • The Azure Native Experience: Unlike other contact center solutions which use Connect and Extend models to add contact center functionality to Teams, AudioCodes takes a unique approach. The company leverages an Azure Communications Technology stack, to enable a seamless integration, with exceptional stability and routing agility.
  • Central Conversational AI: Though plenty of contact center leaders offer access to conversational AI tools, they mostly integrate them into an existing system. AudioCodes’ Voca CIC comes with cognitive services already in the platform. There’s even natural language understanding support for more than 14 languages.
  • Incredible automation: With Voca’s no-code automation system, users can quickly and easily build self-service IVR flows and call strategies, leveraging the power of AI. Every agent can use a fully intuitive workflow designer, even without prior coding or development knowledge.
  • User experience: Voca CIC benefits from an exceptional interface designed to enhance user experiences. Supervisors and agents can access native Teams-based interfaces, complete with call controls, presence information, CRM integrations, and more. Plus, the unified interface streamlines omnichannel communication.
  • Valuable insights: AudioCodes Voca’s integrated reporting tools and dashboards are incredible. They allow businesses to make intelligent decisions in real time, gather valuable data about call quality, and preserve compliance. Plus, they can upload all of the data they collect straight to their CRM platforms.

Who Can Benefit from Voca CIC?

With its flexible and lightweight structure, AudioCodes Voca CIC gives businesses from all industries access to the trusted performance and stability of Teams Phone and powerful CX tools. The solution’s versatility is part of what makes it so powerful.

Companies can easily make drag-and-drop changes to their workflows and environment and empower users throughout the business to work collaboratively. With Voca, organizations can create a completely customer-centric approach to business management.

Every workplace user, from informal contact center agents to service desk employees, can access the same streamlined experience, routing tools, and AI-powered features. Plus, AudioCodes Voca connects to more than just Microsoft Teams.

AudioCodes can work with organizations to connect the auto-attendant and Conversational IVR capabilities to a range of systems. You can add the solution to your existing phone system, whether it’s an IP PBX, analog PBX, or a UC solution (like Zoom).

Users can also build Voca on top of their existing contact center, WebRTC-based click to call applications, and SIP trunks. Notably though, the Voca Agent desktop, skill-based routing abilities, and Real-time dashboards are exclusive to the MS Teams experience.

The Verdict

Ultimately, plenty of companies offer powerful contact center solutions for Microsoft Teams. As companies look for ways to improve customer experiences, align their teams, and consolidate their technology stacks, these systems are becoming increasingly popular.

However, in our opinion, the AudioCodes Voca CIC is one of the most impressive contact center solutions on the market. It combines a powerful (and unique) infrastructure in Azure, with state-of-the-art conversational AI, and exceptional user experiences.

If you’re looking for a powerful system for customer experience management that aligns perfectly with Microsoft Teams, this could be the platform for you.

]]>