A new era of customer experience: Cisco named in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Contact Center as a Service

I’m excited to see Cisco debut in its inaugural 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) with Webex Contact Center being evaluated. Cisco was recognized by Gartner for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision – a real honor for a solution we built from the ground up just under two years ago. You can download a complimentary copy of the report for more details.

A big shoutout to our fantastic product, engineering, and R&D teams who drew from both their personal expertise and Cisco’s two decades of contact center (infrastructure) experience to deliver a modern, scalable, secure cloud contact center platform with Webex Contact Center. New features and enhancements are hitting the market monthly at the pace you’ve grown accustomed to with the new Webex over the past few years. A huge thank you to our customers and Cisco partners for being with us on this journey. I can’t wait for you to see what the team has to show you in the coming months!

With this latest addition, Cisco is recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CCaaS, the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, and the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions. Our combined strengths in these areas are important. We know from customers that the tight integration between Webex Contact Center (CCaaS), our Webex collaboration portfolio (UCaaS), and our Webex Connect cloud communications platform (CPaaS) is a strong market differentiator. We are bringing our vision, ability to execute, and integrated offering together to deliver on the evolving expectations and needs of customers, consumers, and agents.

New expectations from agents and consumers

According to Gartner, 70% of service customer service and support employees want to continue working from home at least once a week post-pandemic. Likewise, 81% of service leaders believe between 30% to 80% of their workforce will primarily be working from home by early 2023. Not only will customer experiences need to be more personalized and consider the needs and preferences of the individuals they interact with, but also consider the needs and preferences of the agents serving them.

Human connection and person-to-person service interactions are ranked as the most critical consideration in “feeling valued by a brand”. People also want the ability to engage with the channel that is most likely to resolve their issue on the first attempt to connect. We’re bringing the full power of Webex to customers and end-users through a single platform, for both our collaboration solutions and customer experience solutions.

Shaping customer and agent experiences of the future

At Webex, innovation and enhancements in one area are applied across others, extending the value of the Webex portfolio. Being able to hear and be heard is essential to agents providing a superior customer experience. Our industry-leading AI capabilities such as optimize my voice and background noise removal, are available in Webex Meetings, Webex Calling, and Webex Contact Center, providing clarity across all interactions. More AI-enabled capabilities are on the way to help agents provide fast, intelligent support to customers.

We are continually adding new digital channels to Webex Contact Center for proactive messaging, agent-assisted, and self-service customer interactions. As a result, businesses can give customers the answers they need in the channel they prefer with exceptional speed and accuracy.

Simplifying the customer journey

We’re also making it easier for organizations to buy and use Webex Contact Center.

Webex Connect (formerly imimobile) is now integrated with Webex Contact Center, allowing for end-to-end orchestration of customer journeys.
Customization is easier than ever with 100+ open APIs, developer portal, and sandbox.
To support our customers’ moves from our on-premises platform to Webex Contact Center with minimal disruption, new migration tools such as transition operational reports are available.
We’ve even made it easier to buy with simpler options through the new Contact Center Flex Plan 3.0.

The team and I are excited about the recognition of our focus and investment in this business. You can expect a lot more going forward.

What’s next for Webex Contact Center

In fact, if you’re reading my blog, it’s likely you already know Lorrissa Horton, SVP & GM of Webex Calling and Contact Center. While I’ve just shared a preview of what’s possible with our Webex Contact Center experience, Lorrissa will be sharing more about how we’re accelerating our vision for Webex Contact Center, backed by details of work already underway. She’ll address important questions like: Why transform? Why now? Why with Webex? You won’t want to miss it so be sure to look for her blog here next week.

Also, WebexOne 2022 is just around the corner. We’re dedicating an entire day to our customer experience solutions, including our cloud contact center and cloud communications platform. Mark your calendars and plan to join us virtually in October for an event you won’t want to miss.

For additional views on Webex Contact Center, have a look at some of the latest reports and industry recognition:

Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.