Based on a combination of Microsoft Teams, Dynamics 365, Power, Azure, and Nuance AI capabilities, Microsoft’s digital contact center platform is all but set to dive into the CCaaS market.
Microsoft’s initiatives like launching a certification platform for Microsoft Teams contact center integrations, acquiring Nuance, and launching the digital contact center platform itself are indicative of their desire to deliver more comprehensive CCaaS capabilities.
Here are Microsoft’s contact center propositions:
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
This is Microsoft’s hallmark CCaaS offering, however, it seems to be lacking the rate of innovation of its market rival, AWS. While it was also ranked way behind multiple other market rivals by Contact Center Suites Buyers Guide 2023 by Ventana Research, Microsoft does have the potential to improve its operations with the new features they are rolling out consistently.
The Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform
While the platform was released in August 2022, we are yet to see any meaningful impact in the CX landscape as a result. The digital contact center platform acts as a framework to integrate other contact center suites with differing capabilities, which is a very different functionality to what many were anticipating it to be—a fully-fledged CCaaS platform.
Microsoft Teams Contact Center Integrations
This is Microsoft’s certification program that enables other CCaaS vendors to build contact center solutions for Microsoft Teams. Due to the popularity of Teams, especially after post-pandemic times, Microsoft has seen much more success here—with prominent CX players like Genesys and Five9 being participating vendors.
What does the future hold?
Microsoft has made many subtle moves indicating its interest in strengthening its presence in the contact center market—from releasing a report showcasing how agents can leverage Dynamics 365 Customer Service and assembling industry experts in time for the Nuance roll-up.
Microsoft also has plenty of opportunities and the capability for investments in the contact center landscape—which could mean more acquisitions down the line.
All this means that Microsoft might just become a major player in the contact center landscape in the coming years, with its offerings to engage customers and empower contact centers to deliver exceptional customer care experiences through modern digital tools.
This also means that other contact center vendors like Genesys, Five9, NICE, Verint, and Content Guru, among many others, will have to prepare and offer competitive options to ensure they maintain their advantage in the market.
2024 just might be the year Microsoft ups its game and delivers a truly comprehensive CCaaS offering, they certainly have the capability to do so. Contact center vendors and customers alike would do well to keep Microsoft in their sights and see what they have to offer.