This week was a hot one for both the news and the weather!

The hottest news came from the M&A space, with Zoom snapping up cloud contact centre specialist Five9 in a deal valued at $14.7bn, as well as ZoomInfo acquiring Chorus.ai. We also rounded up the biggest announcements from last week’s Microsoft Inspire partner event.

Zoom Eyes up Contact Centre Space

The videoconferencing giant announced its intentions to buy contact centre specialist Five9 for a cool $14.7bn.

After experiencing one of the most impressive growth stories in the modern era of communications by amassing over 300 million users on its meetings platform, its sights are clearly focused on the contact centre space.

Like Zoom, Five9’s software is highly scalable and delivers a comprehensive suite of applications that allows management and optimisation of customer interactions across many different channels.

Eric S. Yuan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Zoom, stated:

“Enterprises communicate with their customers primarily through the contact centre, and we believe this acquisition creates a leading customer engagement platform that will help redefine how companies of all sizes connect with their customers. We are thrilled to join forces with the Five9 team, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Zoom family”

The Biggest News from Microsoft Inspire

The tech titan’s made a host of announcements at last week’s annual Inspire event. Along with the news that it was integrating Teams with Dynamics 365, it also revealed that it was bringing Windows to the cloud, as well as new enhancements to employee experience platform Viva, including the arrival of Viva Partner Integrations, with a host of content providers to choose from, including Qualtrics, Workday, and many others.

The vendor also revealed that Microsoft 365 Lighthouse is now entering preview to provide managed service providers with a central location for security management. There are templates to help with securing data and devices and tools to help partners quickly identify and respond to threats, like device compliance alerts and anomalous sign-in.

ZoomInfo Acquires Chorus.ai

SaaS provider ZoomInfo acquired Conversation Intelligence specialist Chorus.ai for an undisclosed sum.

The purchase will expand ZoomInfo’s total market to $70bn, and experts believe that growth will begin immediately, with positive adjusted operating income within the next year. Chorus.ai has built a reputation in the analytics environment for using AI and machine learning to capture and analyse customer calls, emails, and meetings, unearthing new insights into the client.

Henry Schuck, ZoomInfo Founder and CEO, said of the purchase:

“The acquisition of Chorus will accelerate our vision to deliver a modern go-to-market platform that brings together best-in-class intelligence with comprehensive data management, workflow, and engagement software, empowering companies to effectively execute their revenue-generating strategies.

“With the largest Conversation Intelligence patent portfolio in the industry, Chorus will advance each aspect of our vision by surfacing a new category of insights, illuminating new workflows, and enabling more targeted engagement at scale”

Mitel Transitions A  Thousand Workloads Into Google Cloud

Business comms provider Mitel has been working with RiverMeadow Software, a Cloud Migration Services and Premier partner of Google Cloud, to move 1,000 workloads into the Google Cloud environment within less than 90 days.

Mitel recently decided to move its workloads into the cloud to leverage automation, standardisation, and consolidation benefits.

Digital Space Partners with 8×8

The recently rebranded MSP bolstered its UC&C capabilities by teaming up with 8×8. It will leverage 8×8’s Experience Communication-as-a-Service offering.

Neil Muller, CEO at Digital Space, said: “As a result of our close working partnerships with industry-leading vendors, we are able to provide our customers with world-class IT solutions across our connected and productive spaces and I am proud to announce that our best of breed portfolio will now be further complemented by 8×8’s solutions.

“8×8’s capability provides true global reach for delivering UCaaS and CcaaS solutions, which will integrate with and work alongside our customers’ existing digital portfolios to successfully enable change and drive business growth”

What do you make of this week’s happenings? Let us know on our social media channels!



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