Sunday News Digest – Five9, Cisco and more on AI

16 weeks until Christmas folks, and boy it’s been another awesome year for the industry.

Here’s the week in review from week commencing 26th August 2019 from across the unified communications, collaboration, and CX tech industries.

As usual, the team here at UC Today has been working hard to stay ahead of the trends, reporting on the latest news and announcements as they happen. However, if you haven't had a chance to keep up with all of our content over the last week - don't panic.

We've put together a list of our top five stories from the last seven days so that you can stay on the cutting edge!

AI in the Meeting Space

Artificial Intelligence seems to be everywhere these days. It's on your smartphone, in your collaboration apps, and even hanging out in the contact centre. So, does intelligence belong in your meeting rooms too? We caught up with some of the leading experts at Logitech, Lifesize, and Cisco to find out as part of our latest insightful roundtable.

Speaking to some of the market leaders in the meeting room space, we learned what the current appetite is like for AI in the meeting room today, and what businesses need to do to prepare for changes in the landscape. We also got a behind-the-scenes look at what Logitech, Cisco, and Lifesize customers consider to be the biggest benefit of the intelligent collaboration space. Check out the roundtable to learn more.

Discussing the Rise of XaaS

As the cloud grows increasingly popular, businesses are beginning to wonder why they should bother with the headache of maintaining their tools and services in-house. Everything-as-a-service or "XaaS" is one of the fastest-growing trends in the technology world, changing the way that we access everything from communication platforms, to contact centres. This week, we spoke to Frost and Sullivan Principal Analyst for Digital Transformation, Rob Arnold.

Rob told us that people are feeling increasingly comfortable with the idea of XaaS overall, particularly in the UCC space. We also took the opportunity to talk to Rob about the concept of the "hybrid era" in the UC space, and how the value of the CSP is changing to suit a new landscape. Check out the interview for an in-depth insight into the changing world of as-a-service offerings.

 Cloud Proves to Be A Major Boon for Five9

We all know that cloud is the future of communications, but we're only just starting to see how beneficial and disruptive this agile technology can be for today's vendors. Leaders in the cloud communication and collaboration environment, Five9 recently announced higher than expected revenues for its second quarter.

The revenue for Q2 of 2019 was $77.4 million - an increase of 27%. The company noted that one of the primary reasons for its continued growth was an ongoing focus on the cloud and the benefits that this environment could bring. Learn more about Five9's success in the cloud in the exclusive interview between CEO Rowan Trollope, and UC Today.

MessageBird Updates Two-Way Business Texting

Customers are continually searching for newer, more convenient ways to communicate, particularly when they're dealing with customer support. It's up to today's businesses to keep up with the ever-evolving demands of their modern marketplace. MessageBird believes that a big part of the path to the future is two-way business messaging.

Last year, MessageBird took on the challenge of two-way messaging for the first time when they launched their programmable conversations tool. Now, they hope to unify customer interactions for businesses using a single API that spreads across everything from SMS to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Here's what we learned by speaking to Robert Vis, CEO of MessageBird.

Cisco takes another bite of the Cherry

Finally, Cisco took yet another step in its continued growth strategy this week with the acquisition of CloudCherry. CloudCherry is a cloud-based solution designed to help businesses map and understand the complete customer journey. Together, the brands plan to work in tandem to support call and contact centre agents in today's experience-focused marketplace.

According to press releases about the recent acquisition, CloudCherry will solve a real difficulty for Cisco's vast contact centre customer portfolio, by helping them to take the guesswork out of customer support. Through machine learning and artificial intelligence, Cisco will give businesses of all sizes the opportunity to create more immersive, personalized and predictive support experiences. Vice President and General Manager for Cisco's cloud contact centre solutions, Vasili Triant expressed his excitement about the upcoming acquisition.

We have a big announcement coming after Labor Day (USA) this week, watch this space!