Webex has a CCaaS platform that often receives glowing reviews in analyst reports – like the recent Aragon Research Globe Intelligent Contact Center 2024.
Those reviews have translated into steadily rising CCaaS revenues.
Yet, that growth is not surging as many would expect, considering Cisco’s large contact center infrastructure (CCI) base.
Of course, Cisco hasn’t taken the steps of its conventional market competitors to nudge these on-premise customers towards Webex.
Nevertheless, its CCaaS market share should be higher than it is – especially in the enterprise. So, what’s missing?
A Slow, Meandering Start
Some may blame a slow start on Cisco’s underwhelming enterprise CCaaS business, as it initially focused on private cloud services via HCS or BroadSoft.
Meanwhile, NICE, Five9, Talkdesk, and various others came along, banging the public cloud drum, and – in doing so – snuck up behind Cisco, seizing market share.
Since then, Cisco has built out the Webex Contact Center. However, by the time it had laid all the bricks in the public cloud wall, the CCaaS space had suddenly become crowded.
Traditional CRM, UCaaS, and other enterprise tech stalwarts decided to throw their hat into the ring. That includes everyone from Microsoft to Google, Zoom to – most recently – Verint.
The obvious step to get ahead of these new rivals is flipping its on-prem base. Yet, the new Cisco – which emphasizes the importance of preserving long-term relationships – doesn’t want to pressure customers. It remains mindful that switching loyalties is much easier in the new SaaS world.
However, even if Cisco wanted to flip those legacy customers, it’d likely be trickier for them than its conventional CCI rivals, like Genesys.
After all, the Webex feature set is completely different from what’s on-premise, which can confuse customers who expect a less disruptive cloud migration.
Getting Fresh Eyes on Webex: A Tricky Task
The early meanders meant the Webex Contact Center never gained significant momentum in the enterprise – with many still viewing it as principally a collaboration platform.
Those perceptions spread doubts in the minds of enterprise contact center leaders. They’ll ask: can Webex really handle the complexity of my service operation?
Webex recently released different CCaaS packages to counteract these doubts, underlining its widescale product innovation and enterprise support.
Yet, Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, wants Webex to go further.
"If they’re going to step above the noise, above everyone else, I think this is where customer case studies – and sharing stories – becomes important," he told SiliconANGLE.
While they got a good base of customers, I’d like to see those become actualized in a public-facing way… That will help determine whether they become a market leader or remain this niche vendor.
Webex’s AI Differentiators Get Lost In the Noise
Alongside sharing customer success stories, Webex could double down on AI.
After all, AI is the next big transition for contact centers after the cloud. But, trying to prove its AI is better than its many market rivals is incredibly tricky.
Consider an area in which Webex already offers superior AI: background noise removal. Here, its tools are optimized to a single person’s voice, distinguishing between an agent and others talking around them for next-level noise blocking.
That’s an excellent use of AI. But, because its competitors market noise reduction, this capability gets overlooked, no matter if it's better than most alternatives.
Then, there's its innovative Real-Time Media Models (RMMs). These extract data from audio and visual cues, combining that with an LLM to drive enhanced sentiment analysis.