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5 Intriguing Call Center Acquisitions from the First Half of 2018

By Shai Berger on June 7, 2018

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We’re about half-way through 2018, and the pace of acquisitions in the call center space has been brisk. We’ve seen transactions for every size and covering a wide range of technology. It always amazes me how dynamic and fluid this industry is. Below are the 5 most interesting deals I’ve seen so far. An honorable mention goes out to Mitel’s acquisition by a private equity firm and departure from the public market. (Kind of the reverse of Avaya’s move last year.)

It’s interesting that three of the five deals below are related to “analytics” or “intelligence” of customer behavior. That’s emerging as a key frontier in the broader world of customer interaction management. Four of them include “AI” or “machine learning”, although those terms are being used so casually now, they are almost meaningless.

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The Twilio / Amazon ‘Stack’ Will Dominate the Next Call Center Era

By Shai Berger on February 27, 2018

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Today’s cloud-based call centers are increasingly built on top of platforms created by Amazon and Twilio. That includes newcomers like TalkDesk and Serenova, legacy vendors like Avaya and Genesys and companies from adjacent sectors expanding into call center like ZenDesk. For better or worse, this “stack” is going to define the contours of the next generation of call center. That raises a lot questions and suggests some predictions too.

Is this ultimately going to help or hinder innovation? Raise or lower prices? What should we make of the fact that both platforms are now offering their own call centers (Amazon with “Connect” and Twilio with “Flex”)? Is that a caution against building on top of platforms that may end up competing with you, or is this simply the new reality of the software universe?

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Avaya Accelerates its Cloud Pivot with Reorg and Spoken Acquisition

By Shai Berger on February 7, 2018

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Last week was a big one for Avaya as they held their first customer conference since emerging from bankruptcy at the end of last year. The newly public company (NYSE:AVYA) was eager to show strength and forward momentum. By all indications, they stepped up to the plate and convinced analysts and partners that they are on track for success.

On day one, they blasted out of the gate with a major announcement: the acquisition of Spoken. This deal gives them a boost in their effort towards becoming a more cloud-oriented business.

The pivot-to-cloud was a pervasive theme throughout the show. For example, the company has a new “Cloud Business Unit” helmed by Mercer Rowe, who joined the company just a few weeks ago. But there are always two sides to a “pivot” – if you’re putting more weight on one foot, the other foot is getting less weight. What is Avaya willing to leave behind in its effort to accelerate towards cloud? I think I know… Continue reading →

Legacy Call Center Vendors Jockey for Position

By Shai Berger on January 16, 2018

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Legacy Call Center Vendors Jockey for Position Last week I wrote about the cloud-based call center gang. This week, let’s look at the “legacy” gang. Yes, the term “legacy” is used in a negative way these days, but I don’t mean it that way. I just want to group together companies that have been selling call centers for many years, compared to the relative new-comers. (If there’s a nicer term, someone please let me know in the comments.)

As you would expect, the large call center vendors are jockeying for position fiercely. Avaya’s recent bankruptcy created an opportunity for competitors to pounce. Meanwhile, they are all worried about the threat “from below”, i.e. newer cloud-based competitors that started by focussing on small business, but are moving steadily up-market.

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The Hidden Power Structure of Cloud Call Center Vendors

By Shai Berger on January 9, 2018

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The Hidden Power Structure of Cloud Call Center Vendors The cloud has radically transformed the call center industry. This shift, now chugging along into its second decade, has been well covered and is no longer surprising.

Imagine if someone from this industry time-traveled to 2018 from, say, 5 years ago. (Admittedly, not a great pitch for a sci-fi movie.) To him, the growing number of agent seats served from the cloud would be quite expected. But what would be unexpected is the new power centers created by that shift. Two companies, neither of which would be top-of-mind for our time traveler, have grabbed strategic territory in the new ecosystem, and they seem poised to dominate even further. Continue reading →

Top Contact Center Acquisitions of 2017

By Shai Berger on November 21, 2017

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Top Contact Center Acquisitions of 2017 It’s been a very busy year for acquisitions in the contact center space. The ongoing “cloud-ification” was one of the main driving forces. (We covered that topic here and here.) But other forces were in play as well.

When the news of an acquisition breaks, we focus on it for a few days — think about what was motivating the buyer and seller — and then move on. The river of news never stops, after all. But It’s good to look back and see what patterns can be discerned when we take in the whole picture.

Below is a list of the contact center acquisitions that we think were the most impactful in 2017.

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Avaya Chugging Through Chapter 11, But the World’s Not Waiting

By Shai Berger on July 18, 2017

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Avaya Chugging Through Chapter 11, But the World’s Not Waiting We’re now 6 months into the largest bankruptcy event in the history of the call center industry.

Avaya filed for Chapter 11 protection in January. The negotiations among the many stakeholders have happened behind closed doors so it’s hard to assess where we are along the timeline.

Only one significant event has been visible to the public so far: In March, Avaya agreed to sell its networking business to Extreme Networks for $100 million. That move was received positively by analysts and commentators.

But the big question remains: Are we a month away from a resolution? A year? No one knows. As the bankruptcy continues, the patience of partners, analysts and customers wears down. Each day is also another opportunity for competitors to pick away at Avaya’s customers.

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Some Fuzz Around Call Center Cloud vs Premise

By Shai Berger on June 13, 2017

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Were you glued to last week’s Comey testimony like I was? The Fired FBI Director had some great phrases that are already appearing on t-shirts. My favorite was the use of “fuzz” to describe uncertainty. I said to myself, “Lordy, I gotta work that into my next blog post.” Luckily, my weekend reading pointed naturally to an appropriate topic.

The evolution of contact centers from premise-based to the cloud has been covered many times here. I’ve often described it as an “inevitable migration”. Turns out there are dissenting views on the inevitability part. Furthermore, vendors are finding ways to blend the best of both worlds. There is, indeed, some “fuzz” around what is and isn’t cloud.

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Will Avaya’s Chapter 11 Be Like Aspect’s or Like Nortel’s?

By Shai Berger on January 24, 2017

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Will Avaya’s Chapter 11 Be Like Aspect’s or Like Nortel’s? Industry watchers have been on the edge of their collective seats over the last year, wondering how Avaya is going to resolve its financial troubles. On Thursday, Avaya ended the speculation by announcing that they would enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Aspect’s successful bankruptcy last year is an obvious comparison, one that even CEO Kevin Kennedy made in his announcement. But another comparison that folks are throwing around is Nortel’s disastrous bankruptcy from 2008 that took over 7 years to resolve. Which model will Avaya follow? That’s the big question, and we’re grateful to have some big brains weigh in… Continue reading →

Genesys Buys InIn – Biggest Merger in Call Center History?

By Shai Berger on September 1, 2016

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Genesys Buys InIn This isn’t my normal posting time-slot, but I just had to put down a few thoughts on yesterday’s news. In what is probably the largest merger in our industry’s history, Genesys is buying Interactive Intelligence for 1.4 billion dollars.