New Offerings for Partners: 8x8, AT&T, ServiceNow Get Real with ChatGPT, AI
Single-location SD-WAN from Comcast and compliance-as-a-service for MSPs are just two of the latest offerings.
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8×8 announced an integration with ChatGPT parent OpenAI.
The cloud communications provider is leveraging OpenAI Whisperer as a way to improve its transcription, translation and summarization services. The integration is coming to both 8×8’s unified cloud communications platform and its standalone contact center offering.
Check out Claudia Adrien’s story.
Comcast Business tipped its cap to SMBs in the latest update to its SD-WAN portfolio.
Two new SD-WAN solutions from Comcast fit with business that don’t require site-to-site networking. These may be single-location or simply much smaller customers.
The announcement drew interest owing to the fact that Comcast Business’ SD-WAN offering has played a big role in giving the company more traction in the midmarket space.
Read more about market adoption of Comcast SD-WAN.
America’s largest telecommunications carrier also got in on the AI action.
AT&T announced a partnership with Nvidia to improve its sustainability. The Nvidia AI Enterprise software suite will process and optimize data in order to make service-fleet routing more efficient. Carriers face challenges optimizing their energy consumption while still providing fast data speeds.
Claudia Adrien wrote about AT&T in her article about AI projects.
Two of GoTo‘s tools now integrate with ChatGPT.
IT management and support solution GoTo Resolve is getting a beta access version with ChatGPT. The latter will automate administrative and repetitive tasks, GoTo executives said.
In addition, GoTo’s Customer Engagement offering now includes a beta version of a message assistant.
Read about GoTo in the same AI article.
VMware overhauled the underlying infrastructure of its end-user computing service.
Workspace One will function on a cloud-native microservices architecture, starting later this year. That change, executives said, will significantly improve application and profile delivery and move on from a monolithic structure.
Learn more about the Workspace One update.
Dell Technologies added a managed detection and response (MDR) offering.
Specifically, the offering entails both MDR and cyber recovery vault. Dell has teamed up with CrowdStrike to offer endpoint threat management services.
Moreover, customers can bundle together managed security services from Dell with Crowdstrike’s SaaS threat protection offering.
Get details on the offerings.
Lumen added a CCaaS offering through a partnership.
Talkdesk CX Cloud and other Talkdesk offerings now exist in the Lumen portfolio. Lumen executives said customers can benefit from a single service provider managing their UCaaS, CCaaS and network platforms.
Lumen was already partnering with Genesys for CCaaS.
Claudia Adrien wrote about the team-up.
ServiceNow updated its robotic process automation (RPA) offer to “bring AI to the forefront.”
The latest version of Now Platform Utah goes beyond IT service management and customer service to new workflows, one analyst said. That expansion particularly includes human resources.
The update offering includes an AI-based search capability, in which AI extracts needed information from documents.
Learn more about the platform.
Cisco Systems unveiled artificial intelligence capabilities for Webex.
The updates include using voice and facial recognition to follow and switch views of different users on video conferences. It also has launched Topic Analysis in Webex Contact Center to offer actionable insights.
Read about the news on Cisco’s website.
SAP added a SaaS-based business fabric to its data warehouse.
The SAP Business Technology Platform now includes Datasphere. The latter makes it so that data consumers can understand both their SAP and non-SAP data, an executive told the press.
Jeffrey Schwartz wrote all about it.
Genesys offered a customized version of its contact center as a service (CCaaS) offering geared toward smaller customers.
The vendor is offering its free GCXNow automated trial, which SMBs can use to scale up a contact center environment that fits their needs. They’ll be able to personalize the features of the Genesys Cloud CX platform to their needs the company said.
Read more about Genesys.
Vonage launched a conferencing solution.
Vonage Meetings API provides no-code video conferencing that can directly embed into a website or platform. A Vonage executive said the company built the offering with a non-coding citizen in mind.
In addition, a new omnichannel marketing automation platform lets business deliver bulk messages and engage in two-way conversation with potential customers.
Read more about the updated Vonage portfolio.
Aryaka Networks targeted small to medium-sized enterprises with its latest launch of managed SD-WAN and SASE offerings.
The new offers from Aryaka start pricing of under $150/site. That’s key for Aryaka, which historically dubbed its enterprise-focused offering as a ferrari-like service.
Read about it in Aryaka’s press release.
Industry association MSPAlliance announced a compliance-as-a-service offering.
Cyber Verify reportedly simplifies the compliance audit process to give MSPs a chance to enter that area of business. The new platform can help MSPs review policies and documents and help them generate new ones for customers.
Claudia wrote about it as part of her MSP News Roundup.
Poly announced multiple certifications for its platforms.
First, the vendor certified its Android-based video bars for Google Meet. Then it noted that one of its video bars has become the first and only large room solution certified for Microsoft Teams.
Claudia Adrien wrote about Poly.
Huntress offered free Managed EDR Services in the wake of a supply chain attack.
The cybersecurity vendor is offering the free service for 30 days to small and mid-sized businesses as they try to evaluate how a recent nation state attack impacte them. The attack threatened the 3CX VoIP Desktop Application.
Edward Gately recently interviewed Huntress’ vice president of sales.
Huntress offered free Managed EDR Services in the wake of a supply chain attack.
The cybersecurity vendor is offering the free service for 30 days to small and mid-sized businesses as they try to evaluate how a recent nation state attack impacte them. The attack threatened the 3CX VoIP Desktop Application.
Edward Gately recently interviewed Huntress’ vice president of sales.
ChatGPT and other next-generation artificial intelligence offerings now help power the cloud communications and IT management services partners deliver
AI has dominated conversations in the last half-year both among consumers and channel partners, and Microsoft’s investment in ChatGPT parent OpenAI only poured fuel on that fire.
Adaptiv Advisors‘ Ryan Rowland hit the nail on the head in the prediction he made in December.
“The AI-powered interaction, writing, imaging and video tools that are widely available today for free, are the stuff of sci-fi,” Rowland told Channel Futures. “I believe we are in the midst of the next industrial revolution, and we’re all going to have to do some learning, unlearning and relearning over the next couple of decades to stay relevant.”
Adaptiv Advisors’ Ryan Rowland
Multiple suppliers unveiled new products or integration that leverage the services of OpenAI or other artificial intelligence providers. Cloud communication providers like 8×8 are putting out announcements about how they’ve partnered with AI providers to make their platforms smarter and more automated. In the case of 8×8, the vendor has brought integrations to both its contact center and all-in-one communications platform.
CCaaS providers stayed busy last month on the AI front, but other vendors are diving into machine learning. For example, AT&T turned to Nvidia to make its networking more sustainable.
Catering to All
We also saw the trend of vendors rolling out SMB-focused offerings. CCaaS provider Genesys gave SMBs a free trial of a self-service platform that lets them customize its platform. And Comcast Business launched an SD-WAN offering that caters to single-location customers.
In other news, Enterprise Connect happened last month, and that means product announcements galore. Our intrepid reporter Claudia Adrien was on the scene in Orlando, covering all a seemingly endless list of AI-driven offerings.
Read about the latest products and services available to the channel in the slideshow above.
Or check out the previous new services roundup.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email James Anderson or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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