Ali vs. Frazier. Alien vs. Predator. Musk vs. Zuckerberg. No rivalry comes close to Microsoft vs. Google.
Sure, Google may lead the web browser and search engine space, yet - in the enterprise world - Microsoft typically has the upper edge.
However, when it comes to CCaaS solutions, Dave Michels, Lead Analyst at TalkingPointz.com, is not so sure.
In the following interview, he shares his perspectives on the CCaaS propositions served up by both of the technology juggernauts.
By doing so, Michaels highlights several pros and cons of each vendor’s offering before answering the question: which vendor is best-placed in the race to CCaaS contention?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service
Despite releasing its CCaaS Platform - Dynamics 365 Customer Service – in 2021, Microsoft is still in its first innings as a contact center provider, as per Michaels.
Perhaps the tell-tale sign is that the platform still doesn’t have a voice channel. That is a significant gap, which Michels suggests Microsoft should fix fast. He stated:
Until this happens, I think Microsoft will always be dismissed as an incomplete solution.
Microsoft doesn’t even qualify for many independent CCaaS analyst reports. Consider the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Unless 50 percent of a vendor’s contact center revenue is inbound voice, it’s not eligible.
Why? Because Gartner considers inbound voice a massive part of the CCaaS equation.
Of course, some may consider this old-school thinking – and Michels agrees to an extent.
"No one is talking about the ACD and skills-based routing," he said. "It’s becoming all about digital channels. That is hurting the industry incumbents to some degree because that was their moat. That was what they did that nobody else could do, and the trend will give Microsoft a leg-up."
"The new moat is around data and digital channels, and Microsoft is well-positioned there – at least to businesses in the Microsoft world."
Indeed, if a customer has their data in Dynamics and Azure, Microsoft does have an advantage – in a similar way AWS has with Connect.
Moreover, many existing capabilities across Dynamics, Office, Teams, Nuance, and Azure will complement their CCaaS efforts.
Yet, stitching these together takes time, and some believe that Microsoft has previously proven guilty of rushing, throwing a makeshift platform at the wall, and seeing what sticks.
Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research, previously suggested this when predicting that Microsoft’s CCaaS proposition will "flop" in 2023.
Nonetheless, he does not rule out later success as Microsoft finetunes its platform.
The Google Contact Center AI (CCAI) Platform
As the CCAI platform approaches its first birthday, Google has made little noise in the CCaaS space. Yet, Michels believes the vendor has a "fantastic" offering.
Central to this is its collaboration with UJET – a CCaaS vendor that leads the space in its end-user NPS score, according to G2.
Noting the power of this partnership, Michels said:
Each CCaaS company has a unique set of strengths. Google has one in AI, and UJET has mobility. That is a powerful combination to have in a solution.
Alongside this combination of native AI and mobile-first architecture, Google aims to excel in security, scale, and reliability – harnessing Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) as a foundation.