8 Questions for 8x8 VP for Contact Center (EMEA) Chris Angus
Chris Angus is 8x8’s newly-appointed VP for Contact Centre in the EMEA region. It’s a role that almost seems made for him, given his experience across multiple aspects of our industry. Chris has worked with companies of various sizes to deliver a wide variety of solutions, and that expertise will be incredibly valuable in his new role, especially for customers in countries like the UK that are going through an incredible period of transition in their communications technology landscape.
I put eight questions to Chris about where he sees the sector going and what opportunities lie ahead.
Q: More and more organisations are realising that the clock is ticking on the upcoming copper switch-off in the UK. How big an issue is this going to be?
Chris Angus (CA): It’s the end of an era. Many people understand the telephony landscape as copper wires connecting every home, every business, and everyone across the UK. But times change. And switching off copper infrastructure offers UK organisations a chance to move away from what’s been done before, and unlock a lot of potential for the future.
Some organisations are prepared for this massive change, others are not. In both cases, the move will present a number of opportunities. First of all, it will accelerate the transition to VoIP and more agile, cloud-based solutions that enable better remote work and collaboration while reducing infrastructure costs.
As the trend towards unified communications continues, we’ll also see changes in how telephony services are packaged and delivered.The copper switch-off will encourage investments in more advanced communication tools, such as video calls, voicemail-to-email, and integrations with other digital platforms.
In addition, artificial intelligence and automation will almost certainly play a larger role in the telephony market. Virtual assistants and chatbots will handle routine customer service inquiries, improving efficiency, and customer experience.
Q: What other drivers will impact the telephony market in the next few years?
CA: Ultimately, digital is the main driver. So that means we are going to see more emphasis on moving from on-premises to cloud-based telephony and more improved unified communications.
Q: What new capabilities are emerging?
CA: The main one is the ongoing move to the cloud. The vast majority of organisations are still using on-premises solutions, but over the next few years, we will see more and more of them switch to cloud-based communications.
With moving to the cloud, companies are able to understand exactly what new innovations they can offer customers from a unified communications and contact centre perspective. That means not only video-based support experiences, but also a role for AI and machine learning in ensuring speedy answers to customer inquiries. AI won’t just be for customer engagement, though, as it will also enable organisations to gather a lot more data—and have it analysed quickly—which should result in better service and offerings.
Q: Is AI going to make that much of a difference to the contact centre?
CA: It’s easy to see why the vast majority of the conversation is around AI because of the perception that AI brings multiple benefits to the contact centre. A recent survey by 8x8 supports that point of view finding that:
- 94% report AI has improved productivity
- 93% report AI helps resolve customer issues
- 87% report AI reduces effort for agents
- 74% report AI increases revenue
The top two reasons for using AI, according to 8x8’s research, are for customer self-service automation and for real-time agent assistance. Other key use cases focus around analytics, performance management, quality management (QM), and workforce management (WFM),
In most cases, at least in the near future, organisations will use conversational AI and chatbots to quickly resolve issues or assist with repetitive and mundane requests while conserving their contact centre’s most valuable resource, live agents, for more complex operations.
These AI-powered innovations are already everywhere, including voice translation and better guidance for agents, and as a result, contact centres are seeing performance improvements like fewer dropped calls. It’s an exciting time.
Q: What does this period of change mean for contact centres?
CA: The contact centre space is in flux. I think it's currently at risk of not knowing where it wants to go next.
Voice is still king—for now—but the emergence and “glamour” around AI and automation is prompting everyone to give serious thought to their transformation strategy and whether they're doing the right thing.
It's similar to SMS or the cloud five years ago, where people were acutely aware of the new technology, but waiting for some early adopters to really make it work and provide some use cases that could then let them justify getting on board with it.
The one key demand I keep seeing is a huge desire for more integration, regardless of the number of servers and tools in use. Organisations want a single pane of glass that can give them a 360-degree view of a customer’s engagement and sentiment. That doesn’t mean they are looking for it to all come from one company—though that can be an easier option—but they just want streamlined services and operations. It’s about presenting a unified experience, regardless of how many suppliers are behind it.
Q: How are the needs of organisations changing?
CA: Ultimately, organisations want to run more efficient operations—and they want solutions, not problems. What this means is that they not only have access to rich data, but they also have tools to help them interpret that data. That’s one opportunity.
Another is that organisations want more from fewer suppliers. The phrase “one-stop shop” has grown over the last few years—and for a reason. Suppliers have a chance to get, for lack of a better phrase, “more sticky” with customers.
It’s no longer about providing just a phone service. Many organisations want their digital workspace environment covered by one provider because they want to make sure it captures everything from desktop to mobile, UC to CC, and also include important aspects like security. The challenge for suppliers is that they need to make sure they can offer that full suite of capabilities.
Q: What does this period of change mean for the channel?
CA: This digital move comes with an uncomfortable reality for the traditional resellers in the marketplace, though. In the past you had managed service providers (MSPs) remotely managing a customer's information technology (IT) infrastructure and end-user systems with services that included network and infrastructure management, security and monitoring.
Traditionally, it was telephony or telco providers; but now, due to the way services are going with UCaaS and CCaaS, we are seeing different types of companies wanting to get a piece of the pie. Microsoft, for example, is exploring how they can supply UCaaS and CCaaS alongside the other services they offer. There will continue to be an increase in other companies making a broader move into the telephony and telecommunications space.
For traditional types of suppliers, they’re not only having to shift from legacy to cloud, but they’re also having to reskill as they move into a managed service offering. However, they’re also up against different types of competitors, and those selling different types of models. For example, the traditional resellers are now up against consulting agencies, whereas before, that didn’t happen. It's a relatively new thing in terms of the UK market, so there will be lots of competition.
Q: How could resellers and MSPs evolve their offerings to ensure they are meeting business needs?
CA: There’s two ways of evolving: either you go niche in one area and be the absolute best at it, working with other resellers and MSPs, as well as the wider market, or you must be able to provide everything. Either way, it’s not just about changing the offering, but reskilling people, building new connections. It’s a lot to do in a competitive marketplace.
Ultimately, suppliers need to ensure that they are offering feature-rich products that deliver high value for money and high reliability, but require low maintenance. The days of organisations willing to put up with the need to swap between applications to be able to see or input customer interactions are on the wane.
Additionally, organisations are looking at how tools like video engagement can save costs and help with environmental factors. We’re seeing public utilities being able to save £200 per video call as they don’t have to send engineers on the road and, instead, can resolve many problems over a screen. There’s a time benefit, but also environmental benefit to this. These are the sort of things resellers and MSPs need to be taking into account.
The other thing that needs to be under consideration—and will be in the coming years—is more variable pricing. It’s not just the product offerings that need to change, it’s also how they are charged.
