23 Aug 2018 · 6 min read

Introducing Kakapo Systems: The Apps that Make the Most of BroadSoft

We spoke to Steve Tutt, the Marketing Director for Kakapo Systems, to learn more about the company and what it offers to the contact centre environment.

Rob Scott

[caption id="attachment_30057" align="alignright" width="151"] Steve Tutt Kakapo Steve Tutt, Marketing Director, Kakapo Systems[/caption]

As the world of communications becomes increasingly competitive, organisations are consistently searching for new ways to differentiate themselves through exceptional customer experiences. Kakapo Systems is a software development company that focuses on creating high-quality user applications for people using the BroadSoft framework.

Kakapo has been creating call centre and UC apps for the BroadSoft service provider community for several years now - since they launched in 2006. We caught up with Steve Tutt, the Marketing Director for Kakapo, to find out more about how this company works to deliver more effective UC environments to service provider customers.

What Does Kakapo Systems Do?

Essentially, Kakapo Systems is a company committed to creating applications and service offerings that improve the way people communicate in a business environment. The system gives users more options about how and where they work in this ever-more omnichannel environment. Steve told me: "We're enhancing the BroadSoft solution by making it easier for customers to access the underlying features and capabilities that would otherwise be difficult to access. Kakapo addresses the whole spectrum of user requirements, with apps for both Hosted PBX and the Call and Contact Centre environment."

Regardless of which route a service provider takes, Kakapo Systems gives them the opportunity to use the BroadSoft solution in the way that best suits them. What's more, alongside the standard services, Kakapo can layer additional things on top of the call centre experiences. "It's about diving deep into the BroadSoft feature set and delivering more value for users."

How Do You Improve Contact Centre Capabilities for Service Providers?

Kakapo Systems offers call centre solutions through the BroadSoft platform for various shapes and sizes of business. Steve noted that when they talk about the hosted PBX environment, they're often talking about the SMB because they're the ones moving faster into the cloud. "In the past, this segment didn't have a huge need for contact centre abilities, but now these requirements are moving down market. Customers want to be able to use web chat with small companies just the same as they would a larger company."

With the call centre solution, Kakapo Systems can offer a range of solutions for omnichannel engagement to their customers through experiences they call "media streams." These streams include options for web chat, social media, and web callbacks all delivered within the same contact centre call interface.

"You can also pivot between different types of media. For instance, if a customer opens a web chat and then they want to escalate that conversation with the same agent through a voice call, they can do that seamlessly. We're bringing the whole collaborative contact centre into play."

How Do You Add Value with CRM Integration?

As the market continues to mature and people look for opportunities to increase the stickiness of their offering and bridge declining revenues, Kakapo Systems offers service providers a chance to get ahead. As Tutt told me, "If you can only differentiate in price at this point then you're going to be in trouble."

One of the ways that Kakapo Systems differentiates is by offering CRM integration too. "This goes far beyond the standard screen pop and click to dial offering too. For instance, with Salesforce, we can show a supervisor if there are potential leads in the queue, and they can decide whether they want to send those leads to a VIP team, prioritise them, or whatever else."

According to Kakapo, the CRM is an essential part of the buyer journey today, and it's important for companies to be able to profile the incoming traffic in their system against the CRM so that they can access real revenue opportunities.

Why Are Customers Using Kakapo Systems?

Kakapo Systems is a valuable partner to their customers not just because they're a way to differentiate in the marketplace. They're also heavily focused on helping people to live with their existing BroadSoft investment in the best way possible. "It's about helping service providers to access all the features of the BroadSoft system that they need. We're removing the complexities and delivering a common experience across any device."

As more entrants come into the service provider market, and the BroadSoft community sees disruption after the Cisco purchase, Kakapo Systems has seen a great deal of adoption in the current marketplace. "I think we're just starting to see growth really accelerate."

Notably, Steve suggested that we're beginning to move away from a marketplace that's dominated by vendors, into one that's dominated by service providers.

"Thanks to the move to the cloud, there's no single-measure solutions anymore. There's a huge ecosystem out there, and people want to knit together a more customised solution for their business."

How Does Kakapo Systems Deliver that Custom Solution?

Kakapo Systems is all about delivering a more unique solution for customers, where they can knit together the applications and services that suit their team. Kakapo is white-labelled, but for them, customisation goes beyond what the logo on the product is. "It's about creating a totally integrated solution. Our service providers can layer our media streams for web chat and social media on top of their existing BroadSoft solution while giving customers a totally unified experience."

With Kakapo, whether a service provider is using web chat, emails, or anything else, the avenues all look and feel the same. This is something that's increasingly important in a world that's focused more heavily on omnichannel communications.

Are There Any Features You Think Will Be Particularly Disruptive?

Kakapo Systems is delivering a cloud-based strategy for building up a better BroadSoft experience. Their offering to service providers helps them to access the system they need with no one-size-fits-all constraints. I asked Steve if he considered any specific aspect of the solution to be particularly disruptive, and he told me that one thing he's quite excited about is the web callback function.

"With web callback, your customers can simply enter their details into your contact page and see how long it will take on average to get a call back to your team. The customer details are then dropped into the media queue, and the next available agent can pick them up and place an outbound call. This improves the customer experience (CX) because people today don't want to sit in a phone queue."

Steve noted that Kakapo's ability to help companies access a range of communication solutions will be particularly important in this new environment, where millennials and younger customers expect more from the businesses they engage with.

"The important thing is giving people access to the communication tools that work best for them and deliver the most value at the end of the day."

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