Microsoft unveils Digital Contact Center platform

One of the bigger announcements at this year's Microsoft Inspire event was the launch announcement of its Digital Contact Center Platform. Intended to be a cross-channel contact platform, it brings together a mix of existing applications and services as well as the recently acquired Nuance voice recognition tools. Microsoft has had many of the features needed to build a contact center in its portfolio for some time, with Dynamics 365 offering a fully featured CRM platform, Power Platform providing no-code and low-code workflow tools, and Teams providing a multi-channel desktop with voice, text and video all built in to one application for internal and external communications. It's a timely response to competitors like Twilio and Salesforce who have deep experience in features essential for contact centers, but who lack the breadth of Microsoft's product portfolio. Putting all these tools together and adding features from Azure's Cognitive Services suite of pre-built machine learning models makes a lot of sense. Users expect companies to meet them where they are, not chase down phone trees to sit on hold for hours, and if contact can be automated where possible while still maintaining a natural flow, organizations can use smart tooling to triage and manage calls, only handing over to humans where necessary.