Market Perspectives

We are happy to share some insights about Salesforce drawn from our latest Value Index research, the 2023 Ventana Research Value Index: Customer Experience Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management, Customer Experience Management, Field Service, customer service and support

Contact center infrastructure is continuing to shift to the cloud, and with it comes more innovation and more agent capabilities. Increased customer service expectations require faster response through a variety of channels. Agent interactions have also become more complex as automated self-service applications complete most of the simple interactions agents would otherwise support. Plus, agents are increasingly empowered to make proactive decisions to help customers, and must synthesize more information coming from multiple sources. That they have to do so in real time, often from home without peers or supervisors around to give them guidance, adds to the challenge. This evolution to more complex tasks means agents require better support from contact center technology.

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

Technology for managing contact centers is transforming quickly due to innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). It is also splintering into multiple market segments that overlap: Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), conversational AI (which is a modern form of self-service), cross-functional analytics, and integrations with tools for sales and marketing users. For buying organizations, it can be hard to identify exactly which vendors and market segments serve specific needs. For example, a business that needs a chatbot can go to dozens of suppliers with varying degrees of specialization, and with different approaches to the underlying business problems creating the need in the first place.

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, agent management, AI & Machine Learning, customer service and support

Organizations are looking for ways to enhance their tools for both internal and external communications. Several unified communications (UC) companies are now producing platforms that combine UC with contact center functionality, with varying degrees of underlying integration. Building up those contact center components is a way for some firms to differentiate their offerings, with some vendors trying to make the contact center platform more of a business toolkit, tying it to the back office. Dialpad is among the companies taking this approach, notably by building out its use cases for artificial intelligence (AI), as well as building an underlying automation toolset and continuing to develop its analytics offering.

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, customer service and support

Contact centers are investing in a wealth of new ideas for better assisting their agents. These include engagement tools, better knowledge management and a more robust hiring pipeline and retention strategies. Also, a rising theme from many contact center users and providers is the availability of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies. Ventana Research asserts that by 2026, three-quarters of organizations will have expanded the stakeholders influencing customer experience software buying decisions resulting in greater accountability and better resource allocation. This suggests that contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) vendors need to be able to express the value of contact center tech more broadly, including the ability to boost customer acquisition, loyalty, value, and other outcome-based key performance indicators (KPIs).

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center

Contact centers are undergoing a radical reshuffling of the workforce, partly because the pandemic shifted agents to remote work. But the trends were in place to reorganize the world of work long before the pandemic. Digital contact channels, which are gaining popularity, require workers that are better informed and capable of handling more complex and interdependent interactions and processes. That’s changing the nature of training, management and even process design between departments. Organizations have to provide agents with appropriate tools to collaborate and communicate with peers and supervisors, and also with peers in the back office who participate in all sorts of customer-facing or customer-adjacent processes. It is also important to provide supervisors with visibility into agent activity. That means extending existing coaching and evaluation methods, and Ventana Research believes that by 2025, 9 in ten organizations will have deployed agent management systems with features specifically built to provide supervisors the ability to manage and coach agents working from home.

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, agent management

Contact center technology is moving to the cloud at a slow but consistent pace. That has allowed the Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) segment to grow steadily, opening the door to many different approaches for managing the infrastructure needed to serve customers. Some vendors try to include everything under the sun in their offerings to appeal to the widest possible market. Others, like 3CLogic, are taking a more surgical approach, focusing on specific aspects of the call-handling process that reflect each vendor’s expertise.

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, customer service and support

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcase advances in the productivity and potential of business applications as well as technology that contributes significantly to the improved processes and performance of an organization. Our goal is to recognize technology and vendors that have introduced noteworthy digital innovations to advance business and IT that optimizes organizational resilience and workforce readiness.

Topics: Customer Experience, Contact Center, Customer Experience Management, customer service and support

In the present-day market where the gap between consumers and the vendors they engage is shrinking, an organization’s ability to deliver a personalized customer experience is more important than ever. Consumers expect interactions that are intuitive, agile and accessible across a wide variety of channels. Ensuring an experience that exceeds expectation and creates an environment that is relational rather than transactional, however, is becoming increasingly challenging.

Topics: Contact Center, Customer Experience Management, customer service and support

We are happy to share some insights about Enghouse Interactive, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Lifesize, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Mitel, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Elevēo, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Playvox, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about RingCentral, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about 8x8, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Five9, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Salesforce drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Alvaria, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce

We are happy to share some insights about Cisco, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Content Guru, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Talkdesk, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Genesys, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

We are happy to share some insights about Calabrio, drawn from our Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about Avaya, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce

We are happy to share some insights about Verint, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of modern components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

Ventana Research is happy to share some insights about NICE, drawn from our latest Ventana Research Value Index: Agent Management, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. Ventana Research defines agent management as a set of tools that incorporate a core of traditional workforce management and quality management software, with the addition of recent components like intelligent virtual assistants, agent-assistance or guidance driven by artificial intelligence, and automation via workflows that streamline processes and provide connections to back-office functions. Agent management suites often include knowledge management, desktop integrations, gamification, and customer collaboration tools like co-browsing and bot-assisted chat.

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Subscription Management, agent management

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data