During the initial transition from PBX, UCaaS and CCaaS’s primary selling point was the mere fact of ‘being in the cloud.’ However, with the cloud becoming so prevalent, providers need to develop new differentiators and value propositions.
“For 2nd– and 3rd-generation users, the cloud isn’t so exciting, requiring providers to enrich their propositions significantly,” notes Pragma MD, Will Morey.
Another noteworthy trend impacting the cloud communication market is the increase in budget typically allocated to solutions like Salesforce, HubSpot, and their counterparts, requiring special attention to integrations.
“The cost of these solutions can amount to up to 10 times the cost of a voice solution,” Morey notes.
“This means that having your voice solution integrate perfectly into your very expensive CRM or vertical market applications is absolutely critical.”
Finally, we have hyper-personalization: people seeking solutions that work for them as individuals. This trend effectively means that solutions not only need to be tailored to their vertical market but also to their specific role.
“Two individuals from the same vertical market can have very different requirements for solution integrations, as they’re using two completely different sets of applications in their day-to-day work,” Morey explains.
Of course, there’s the overarching trend of AI, constantly being implemented in new ways to leverage UCaaS and CCaaS experiences.
Attuned to these trends, Ericsson-LG Enterprise have worked to deliver APIs enabling their partners to deliver on this evolving set of requirements. As ELG’s exclusive distributor in the UK, Pragma continuously utilises them to create new integrations, adaptations, and add-ons for ELG’s iPECS Cloud solution.
In the last few months, Pragma has worked closely with CoSoft, a voice centric developer and software specialist, and released three products developed using ELG’s APIs, and a fourth one is coming out soon. All heavily feed into these trends. Here they are.
Connect for iPECS: Nuanced Integrations, Enhanced Productivity
Using ELG’s APIs, Pragma has developed Connect for iPECS Cloud to offer a hyper-integrated experience for businesses. This not only includes seamless integrations into popular applications but also tailored integrations into market- or business-specific ones.
“Other than lots of off-the-shelf applications like Zoho CRM, Salesforce, SAP, and HubSpot, we offer very bespoke integrations as well,” Morey says.
A rather unorthodox example demonstrating the richness of integrations Connect can offer is Pragma’s customer in the Livestock Management industry.
“They’re quite a big business, and they were very reluctant to change from their existing platform, as it enabled them to integrate into compliance-critical software for livestock management,” Morey shares.
It was an all-or-nothing situation: either allowing integration into the software or no deal. While other providers reviewed it and said they couldn’t integrate, Pragma managed to help the business tap into a significant opportunity for UCaaS that had been sitting dormant.
“We’ve worked hard on ensuring sure that Connect enables our reseller partners and users to always be in a position where integration is possible, thanks to this incredible set of APIs from Ericsson-LG Enterprise,” Morey says.
Whether it’s vertical software like Vincere for recruitment, a very bespoke CRM, or any other niche application – Connect is up for the job. It also integrates out-of-the-box with productivity and project management apps like monday.com, Asana, and Clockify.
“We’re seeing the value of these integrations in allowing businesses and employees to manage both their voice and projects in one interface, and we’re developing that into more vertical markets,” Morey shares.
Contact for iPECS: Transformational CCaaS
Another experience layer of iPECS Cloud developed using the ELG APIs is Contact, offering what Morey defines as a “transformational CCaaS experience.” Contact allows businesses to communicate with their customers using True Omnichannel, fully integrated AI chatbots, and other advanced features.
“Our most significant CCaaS differentiator with all our layers and versions of the solution is that by relying on these APIs, we can offer very strong back-office integration,” Morey explains.
“What you often find with CCaaS is that it’s great at facing the customer, but when you want it to face back into other parts of your organization, it can be quite limited,” he says.
Thanks to Contact being fully integrated into iPECS Cloud, businesses get to enjoy a seamless flow of information between the front office and back office.
Engage for iPECS: AI-Driven Chatbot Experiences
Another interesting solution Pragma have developed based on ELG APIs is Engage – an intelligent add-on typically sitting alongside Connect or iPECS Cloud. Engage integrates the business’s website back into the iPECS Cloud platform using a simple widget, opening a host of opportunities.
“You can initiate a chatbot operating 24/7 in AI mode, scraping and learning the content from your website and websites that you directed to,” Morey explains.
Instead of working on open internet content, the Engage AI works in a curated content environment, ensuring its answers are relevant and accurate. It can then direct queries to human agents or initiate video or voice calls straight off the website into iPECS Cloud.
“It’s a great way to integrate the website back into the iPECS cloud environment, turning it into an active, easy-to-use window into your team back in the office.”
iPECS Sidekick: The AI That Knits it All Together
Last but not least is Sidekick, the AI engine stitching everything together. Sidekick enables transcription and related capabilities including sentiment analysis, scoring, and more.
“This can prove very valuable, for example, for businesses who still take orders over the phone,” Morey notes.
What makes Sidekick slightly different compared to other transcription add-ons is its ability to integrate much of the transcribed content back into the CRM, too.
A new Sidekick function coming soon is AI-based Music on Hold:
“This new function, to be launched in the upcoming month, is a true demonstration of the speed and agility with which AI is moving,” Morey says.
The new functionality, essentially a Music on Hold AI-driven engine within Sidekick, will auto-generate a script based on the customer’s content.
“Customers can adapt the script, add keywords, make suggestions, ask for a tone of voice, choose a male or female speaker, and even a specific accent,” Morey shares.
Sidekick will then generate the voice-over and the music itself – which will be right-free since it’s been generated by AI – and produce a final version, ready for instant upload onto iPECS Cloud.
“We’re all about innovating for our customers,” Morey concludes. “Other than the MOH function, we recently added a WhatsApp integration to Connect, and constantly work to deliver more features and versions to match market needs.”
For more information and ongoing updates about Pragma’s iPECS Cloud offerings, visit their website here.
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