Cisco has an array of portfolio offerings in the contact center space. Today, the company announced plans to beef up its on-premises, hosted, and Cloud-based contact center solution. In a statement, Cisco said ‘it intends to acquire’ privately-held Salt Lake City, UT-based CloudCherry.’ The duo has big plans to assist call/contact center agents. They want to enable real-time customer journey changes that include up and cross-selling, discounts, and other service modifications to improve CX a reality for Cisco customers.
The merger solves a real difficulty for Cisco’s 30,000 plus contact center customers and over three million agents, helping them take the guesswork out of customer support. Harnessing the power of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, Cisco’s new cognitive and collaborative contact center gives agents the tools to create more personalized predictive support. This way, agents can resolve customer issues before they happen.
Vasili Triant, Vice President and General Manager at Cisco Contact Center Solutions told UC Today:
“I’m excited to welcome CloudCherry to the Cisco family. They will bring an enhanced experience to our Webex Contact Center customers providing them with advanced analytics, rich customer journey mapping, and sophisticated survey capabilities. No matter if customers are in the Cloud, hosted, or on-premises, CloudCherry solutions will bring positive results to CX”
In September 2018, CloudCherry raised $9 million in a Series A round of funding, proving Cisco was wise to snatch CloudCherry off the market after making prior smaller investments through Cisco Investments. Cisco’s investment wing awards between $200 and $300 million each year to companies looking to expand.
Cisco Emerges On Top
Although Pelion Venture Partners led last year’s round and previous investors including Vertex Ventures and IDG Ventures India participated, giving the CloudCherry the leverage of raising $16 million in funding since launching in 2014 – Cisco won and took a tighter grasp on its spot in the contact center market.
“By applying predictive analytics, our customers can improve their customers’ journey, boost agent productivity, and improve CX that create tangible business outcomes to help drive true ROI”
It is crucial to note that Gartner also took note of CloudCherry as early as 2017, and included the company in its VoC market guide. This speaks volumes about the amount of value CloudCherry brings to any Cloud contact center solution.
So, is the Deal Official?
Not yet, according to Cisco, the acquisition should complete during the first quarter of the Fiscal year of 2020, as the deal still has some scrutiny tests to pass.
When things do become official, CloudCherry’s team plans to join Cisco’s Contact Center Solutions business, led by Triant, to support Cisco’s collaboration customers who are mostly comprised of Fortune 500 companies.
