CloudBoost Weekly UC & CX Highlights

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Weekly Insight

The communications technology landscape is experiencing significant consolidation as major players merge to form more comprehensive service portfolios, particularly in the UK market. Simultaneously, the boundaries between UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS continue to blur as vendors integrate these previously distinct technologies. AI capabilities are rapidly becoming central to both customer experience platforms and unified communications offerings, with vendors racing to embed conversational intelligence and agentic AI into their solutions. The hybrid work paradigm is driving fundamental redesigns of collaboration spaces and meeting room technologies, emphasizing the need for seamless experiences regardless of participant location. Security concerns remain paramount as collaboration tools become business-critical infrastructure, requiring vigilant maintenance and prompt patching to protect enterprise communications.

Unified Communications

Virgin Media O2, Daisy Group Confirm Merger Into £3Bn Telecoms Titan

Virgin Media O2 and Daisy Group have announced a merger to form a £3 billion B2B UK communications and IT powerhouse, consolidating their business communications and IT services. This significant industry consolidation creates a major new player in the UK enterprise communications market, potentially reshaping the competitive landscape for unified communications and managed IT services.

UCaaS vs. CCaaS vs. CPaaS: What’s the difference?

This comprehensive comparison explains the key differences between UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS cloud communications service models, including how they can be used together. The analysis provides essential guidance for IT and CX leaders navigating the complex cloud communications landscape, helping them understand which solutions best align with specific business requirements and use cases.

VOIPLY Taps Crexendo’s AI-Powered Platform to Charge Cloud Innovation

VoIP provider VOIPLY has selected Crexendo’s NetSapiens platform as their next-generation growth platform to support scalable expansion across the US and Canada. This partnership highlights the growing importance of flexible, AI-enhanced communications platforms that allow service providers to innovate and differentiate in an increasingly competitive UCaaS market.

The difference between a traditional and hybrid meeting room

This article explores how hybrid meeting rooms differ from traditional meeting spaces, emphasizing the technology requirements needed to support effective collaboration between in-office and remote participants. The analysis provides valuable insights for organizations redesigning their meeting spaces to accommodate hybrid work models, highlighting the shift from physical-only to technology-enhanced collaborative environments.

Collaboration

Microsoft Reportedly Set to Avoid EU Fine in Latest Antitrust Saga Twist

Microsoft is likely to avoid EU fines as regulators are expected to accept the company’s latest offer to change Office pricing and unbundle Teams. This development marks a significant turning point in the Teams/Office bundling antitrust investigation and could influence how collaboration tools are packaged and sold in the European market going forward.

Zoom Asks Admins to Update Apps ASAP After Patching Major Security Flaws

Zoom has released critical security updates addressing seven vulnerabilities across its Workplace Apps on multiple platforms, with one marked as high severity due to potential privilege escalation risks. This security incident highlights the ongoing challenges of maintaining secure collaboration environments in enterprise settings and underscores the importance of prompt patching for business-critical communications tools.

The Foundation of Effective Hybrid Working: A Conversation with Shure’s CTO

Shure’s CTO discusses how hybrid working has fundamentally altered team collaboration, highlighting challenges like unfamiliarity with workspaces and meeting room technology in hot-desking environments. The conversation provides insights into audio technology’s critical role in creating effective hybrid collaboration spaces, emphasizing the need for intuitive, high-quality solutions that support seamless interactions regardless of location.

The difference between a traditional and hybrid meeting room

This article explores how hybrid meeting rooms differ from traditional meeting spaces, emphasizing the technology requirements needed to support effective collaboration between in-office and remote participants. The analysis provides valuable insights for organizations redesigning their meeting spaces to accommodate hybrid work models, highlighting the shift from physical-only to technology-enhanced collaborative environments.

Customer Experience & AI

No Jitter Roll: Twilio, Zoho, Forethought, and Dialpad Make CX Platform Announcements

Multiple vendors including Twilio, Zoho, Forethought, and Dialpad have announced significant updates to their CX platforms, with Twilio also forming a conversational AI partnership with Microsoft to enhance agentic AI in customer engagement. These developments highlight the accelerating integration of advanced AI capabilities into customer experience platforms, offering enterprises more sophisticated tools for customer interaction.

Salesforce acquisition of Convergence adds Agentforce talent

Salesforce has acquired Convergence to strengthen its Agentforce engineering team and leadership, bolstering its AI agent capabilities. This strategic acquisition underscores Salesforce’s commitment to enhancing its AI-powered customer service solutions, positioning the company to better compete in the rapidly evolving landscape of automated customer engagement technologies.

Twilio updates conversational intelligence, expands CDP

Twilio has announced closer integration between its Customer Data Platform (CDP) and communications platform, enhancing its conversational intelligence capabilities. This integration enables organizations to leverage customer data more effectively across communication channels, creating more personalized and contextual customer experiences while streamlining the technology stack.

Press Ganey Forsta Acquires InMoment to Expand CX Intelligence Capabilities

Press Ganey Forsta has acquired InMoment, significantly expanding its customer experience intelligence capabilities and creating a more comprehensive CX platform. This acquisition represents ongoing consolidation in the CX intelligence market, providing organizations with more robust tools for gathering, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback across multiple touchpoints.

Sales Tip

When discussing platform migration with prospects, focus on the operational disruption they fear rather than technical specifications. Ask targeted questions about their current pain points: “What happens when your system experiences downtime?” or “How does your current solution handle peak demand periods?” Document specific examples with quantifiable impacts (lost productivity hours, customer abandonment rates). This approach shifts the conversation from abstract concerns about change to concrete problems your solution can address. It also helps you identify the true decision-makers—often those most affected by these operational challenges rather than those with technical purchasing authority. The resulting business case will resonate more effectively with stakeholders who prioritise operational continuity over technical features.

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