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No Jitter Roll: Enterprise 5G Acquisition, App Integrations

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In this week’s No Jitter Roll, we share recent news on 5G acquisition, automatic speech recognition (ASR) and transcription software, cloud platform integrations, business operations, CCaaS provider recognition, a video collaboration acquisition, and UC and video management.
 
Ericsson to Bring Cradlepoint Under Wing
Ericsson today announced its intended acquisition of Cradlepoint, bringing complementary wireless edge WAN LTE and 5G technologies into its existing 5G enterprise portfolio, which includes dedicated networks and a global Internet of Things platform.
 
In a prepared statement, Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm said the acquisition is strategically important for enabling enterprises to continuing reaping value from 5G investments. The deal, valued at $1.1 billion, is expected to close before the end of the fourth-quarter 2020, Ericsson said.
 
Cradlepoint, which offers a subscription model that combines cloud-delivered software with hardware endpoints, will retain its brand name and employees while operating as a fully owned subsidiary of Ericsson, the company said.
 
AWS Automates Language Identification
In a blog post this week, AWS revealed its ASR, Amazon Transcribe, can now identify the dominant language in a recording with a minimum of 30 seconds of audio. This automatic language identification feature, which is available in batch transcription mode for use in transcribing voicemails, meetings, customer calls, and other recorded conversations, can create transcripts in 31 different languages (six in real-time), AWS said. The aim is to make the transcription process more efficient by eliminating the need for time-consuming manual tagging, AWS said. Additionally, for single-language call centers, AWS offers an option to restrict the languages that Amazon Transcribe tries to identify, AWS said.
 
Automatic language identification is available in various regions across the globe, at no additional charge on top of existing ASR pricing, AWS said.
 
NEC Integration Platform Now GA
NEC this week announced general availability of its Univerge Blue Extend integration platform for its Univerge Blue Connect (UCaaS) and Univerge Blue Engage (CCaaS) platforms. Univerge Blue Extend supports productivity, CRM, helpdesk, and contact center integrations, allowing customers to incorporate voice, chat, and videoconferencing into business applications that include Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Office 365, Dynamic 365; Slack; Google G Suite; and Salesforce.
 
8x8 Names New CRO, Channel Partnerships
8x8 has expanded its global business development organization with the appointment of Steve Seger as its newest chief revenue officer, the company announced this week. Seger is an experienced enterprise software and technology executive who has a history of leading and motivating sales teams, mostly recently as SVP of Americas at Tibco Software, 8x8 said. Seger replaces acting CRO Ken Berryman, a strategic advisor who will now oversee strategic expansion efforts for 8x8.
 
The cloud communications provider this week also welcomed additional partners to its Open Channel Program. Spectrotel, a managed services provider, and TBI, a technology brokerage firm have added the 8x8 Open Communications Platform to their product portfolios, 8x8 said.
 
Talkdesk Ranks on 2020 Forbes Cloud 100 List
Forbes this week released its sixth-annual ranking of the 100 top private cloud companies, and CCaaS provider has once again made the list for the second consecutive year. Talkdesk sits at the number 53 spot in Forbes’ Cloud 100 2020 list, up from its position at number 66 in 2019. Although Forbes didn’t specify the reason for this leap, Talkdesk attributes its jump to company growth, significant customer migration, leading the industry for a culture of innovation, and reputation. Forbes bases its selections on four factors: market leadership, estimated valuation, operating metrics, and people and culture.
 
CoreDial Acquires eZuce
Cloud communications provider CoreDial this week announced the acquisition of eZuce, which offers Vibe for video collaboration, Uniteme for UC, and Reachme for contact center. CoreDial said it plans to integrate the eZuce technologies into its CoreNexa platform, allowing partners to sell and manage video, UC, and contact center from a single interface. The video collaboration software and services will also be available as standalone offers, CoreDial said.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
 
Vyopta Enhances UC Platform
UC monitor and analytics provider Vyopta this week revamped its Collaboration Performance Management (CPM) dashboard to improve usability for general IT helpdesk teams. Vyopta refreshed its user interface across CPM workspaces, to include left-to-right scrolling and re-ordered dataset columns. Additionally, Vyopta added more filtering options, giving admins the ability to click on panels to view KPIs, trends, and distributions. In Workspace Insights, meeting metrics now display in a panel layout, Vyopta said.
 
Ryan Daily, No Jitter associate editor, and Beth Schultz, No Jitter chief-editor, contributed to this article.