The Cloud-based CX world becomes less cluttered almost every day as well-capitalized leaders follow an augmentation-by-acquisition strategy to flesh out their versions of the Conversational Cloud. The latest case-in-point involves the proposed acquisition of LiveVox by NICE, which has its sights set on the 20+ year-old company’s ability to support “proactive, personalized experiences”. Said another way, NICE will be in a better position to capture opportunities in the rapidly transforming world of outbound services.

Outbound was once synonymous with spam calls and collections. Today, with the help of predictive analytics and “triggers”, outbound calls should be seen as one of many moments in an ongoing, asynchronous, purpose-driven conversation that is the foundation of a good customer experience. NICE was well-aware of outbound’s potential when it acquired ContactEngine in 2021 and launched a service called SmartReach. ContactEngine’s founder and CEO at the time, Mark K Smith, discussed how the charter of his company had evolved from one that simply streamed telephone calls to the Web but, over time, saw that the real value comes from “using all channels to start conversations with customers to solve moments of inefficiency.”

LiveVox has followed a parallel path. When Opus Research looked at its product offerings ten years ago as we evaluated the state of “hosted contact centers” and Voice ASPs (both precursor to the Conversational Cloud), we saw a relatively small company building a reputation as an innovator, in spite of  the fact that its service repertoire consisted of the usual suspects: ACD, IVR, Skills Based Routing, Dialer and Call Recording. LiveVox’s offering evolved by delivering “adaptive customer engagement.” It used a data driven approach to figure out the identity of each caller, provide a message that is directed to that person, deliver a resource that is relevant or connect the individual to the most relevant resource.

While LiveVox is not profitable, its annual revenues are on track to reach $150 million this year. When the transaction closes, targeting the first half of 2024, the results are expected to be cash flow positive and accretive to NICE’s operating income, operating margin and non-GAAP EPS during 2024.

The Challenge Ahead: Helping Businesses Become Conversational

Both ContactEngine and LiveVox (now NICE) are tackling what Smith called “the hard part.” Contact Centers, by design, are largely reactive, handling high volumes of inbound traffic across all channels. NICE successfully assimilated ContactEngine and is poised to bring LiveVox into the CXOne Cloud and show enterprise customers that their own data can provide triggers for proactive contact. With permission, of course, they can reach out and converse with customers and provide messages that help them take the proper action to complete important tasks or transaction. Companies can let their customers know exactly what’s happening, or just show that they care.

Categories: Conversational Intelligence, Intelligent Assistants, Articles