Thoroughly understanding the importance and the intricacies of data privacy and security,  we have been steadily working towards improving our information security systems to meet the constantly improving standards. 

By our continual refining of processes, upgrading systems, and devising better security frameworks, we have withstood scrutiny from the British Assessment Bureau (BAB) and have now been awarded ISO 27001 accreditation!

While Blackchair has always had a robust security infrastructure and had followed tried and tested data protection measures prior to the BAB audit, we now have the accreditation that proves our commitment to information security.

What could the certification badge mean for you as our client?

With this certification, Blackchair now joins an elite group of organizations that adhere to the highest information security standards and practices to keep client information safe.

This means you will now benefit from our new accredited security framework as there will be minimal risk of third-party attacks that could compromise your data and IT infrastructure.

This will give you the confidence to work more freely and efficiently, especially when handling sensitive and high-value data. 

Furthermore, it will help boost your own credibility as a reliable business among your vendors and partners when they learn that you are working with an ISO27001 accredited firm. 

Moving forward with Blackchair 

The accreditation emphasizes we have the appropriate security mechanisms in place to handle sensitive data. And it proves that we are a trustworthy and reliable CX solutions provider who could not only help streamline your CX operations but also protect your data while offering our services.
If you wish to know more about our certification, you can verify the validity of our ISO certificate by entering our certificate number 232568 in the following link.

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On 31st August 2021, Avaya announced plans to invest in Journey. Ai Inc, the developer behind a digital identity platform that boosts data security and privacy. 

The solution from Journey.Ai Inc will be integrated with Avaya OneCloud Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS). The new technology would provide Avaya users with a secure environment when conducting transactions with their customers. 

The security platform from Journey.AI uses multiple biometric technologies to confirm customer identity with 99.99% accuracy. 

The latest investment by Avaya indicates that data security is going to be critical for continued operations; if contact centers are to meet compliance regulations and remain competitive, they will need to make significant improvements to data security.

Why is data security important?

Data security has always been an integral part of CX operations, but its importance has grown in recent years. 

Customers are calling contact centers to get important work done, prompting them to share sensitive data with CX agents. 

For example, over 72 percent of CX agents collected vital payment data over the phone by asking customers to read aloud. With more customers sharing sensitive data, contact centers need to upgrade data security for safer transactions.

There is also the question of data breaches on CX systems, where CX agents have witnessed several breach attempts from both within and outside the company, yet 42 percent do not report the situation. Unreported breaches indicate that security needs improving to ensure hackers don’t access data. 

Between more customers sharing sensitive data and rising breach attempts, investing in more robust security systems is crucial.

Augment data security with Blackchair

Using our automated management platform, you can optimize the CX troubleshooting processes so your engineers can identify issues faster, leading to better data security within your CX infrastructure and allowing your agents to serve clients in a safe, secure environment.

Contact Blackchair for more details.

The post Data Security Is Vital For The Future Of CX appeared first on Theblackchair.com.

Salesforce’s Customer 360 platform will give Aramex a comprehensive 360-degree view of its customers on all portals, apps, and social media, giving the company helpful insight when providing optimized customer-centric solutions. 

The company decided to invest in omnichannel customer service due to the high demand for logistics and transport from e-commerce (online shopping is expected to grow from $24 billion in 2020 to $50 billion by 2050). 

Infobip, a global cloud communications company, announced that it will expand the global outreach of its omnichannel communications platforms by partnering with Adobe. The collaboration will expand Infobip’s CX capabilities.

What does the shift to omnichannel CX mean for businesses?

Several companies inside and outside the CX industry are looking to expand the omnichannel capabilities of their CX platform. If businesses are to succeed and capitalize on the growth of e-commerce, they must be where their customers are. 

Omnichannel CX platforms allow businesses to interact with their customers on several mediums. 

Furthermore, they can draw data from the omnichannel platform and use it as feedback to refine customer service.   

However, to properly manage your omnichannel platform, you require vendor-agnostic tools that optimize its technical performance.

Optimize omnichannel CX solutions with Blackchair 

Blackchair is a vendor-agnostic, automated CX management platform that synchronizes multiple CX environments to help you manage your omnichannel CX software and maximize ROI on customer service.

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Cloud is the future

Cloud communication and workstream collaboration provider Avaya announced the acquisition of contact center software development and system integration firm CTIntegrations.

Under the new deal (which was closed in August 2021), the CTIntegrations Suite will support the customer and agent experience within the Avaya ecosystem.

Verint announced the expansion of the digital-first capabilities of its cloud solution by acquiring Conversocial at $50 million. The acquisition allows Verint to expand its robust support for digital customer engagement with connections on common messaging channels. 

Acquisitions valued at millions of dollars are a clear sign that some of the leading CX solution providers see CX as a cloud-based solution and are looking to build the necessary infrastructure that will allow them to provide this option to their customers.

Contact centers that want to remain competitive should also invest in and expand their cloud offerings.

Why are cloud-based solutions crucial to CX offerings?

When first launched, cloud-based solutions were a “nice-to-have” option for many contact centers but were not considered an integral part of operations.

With the adoption of the work-from-home model, contact centers invested more heavily in cloud infrastructure, leading to mass adoption of cloud-based CX solutions.

CX solutions are an attractive option for many businesses because it is more cost-effective than conventional CX solutions.

Automated CX Management with Blackchair

Blackchair is a cloud-based automated CX management platform that allows you to create an efficient work process by bringing cost-efficiency and DevOps methodology to your platform.  

Use the Blackchair platform to bring efficiency and quality to your CX services.

The post Major CX providers are doubling down on cloud-based solutions appeared first on Theblackchair.com.

When I speak to executives who represent contact centres or UC solutions, they tell me about some of the challenges they face with their UC/CX solution. While the words and specifics vary, it all boils down to one core issue: A lack of oversight. It presents problems when engineers need to troubleshoot issues, monitor resource use and optimise their operations to provide a better customer experience. 

Given the challenges most of these contact centres have, we decided to host this webinar to provide useful information on how to optimise operations and troubleshoot issues better using automation and auditing.

What is this webinar about?

On 23rd September 2020, Blackchair will be hosting ‘Is your UC/CX infrastructure achieving the height of innovation? Here is how you can boost outcomes with auditing and automation.’ The focus of the webinar is optimising UC and CX infrastructure using auditing and automation.

Our keynote speaker, Gene Reynolds will explain how your users can improve oversight into their infrastructure using automation and auditing services.  

He will dive into how better oversight and automation paves the way for several benefits that allow users to reap certain advantages, like troubleshooting issues faster, reducing cost of ownership and improving innovation by an order of magnitude. 

What do you gain from this webinar?

With this webinar, you will learn how using solutions like Blackchair, to provide the “oversight” your business can become more efficient and profitable, at a lower cost and resource base. Automation and auditing are instrumental in realising these benefits and sophisticated audits improve operational oversight by improving transparency across the board. 

We will be exploring how other companies have leveraged these sorts of features, and the benefits they have realised, helping you to build your own business case. We will talk about how industry advisors like Gartner and others are advocating these features be present in all UC and CX platforms. And if you’re considering a migration to another solution or even migrating to cloud CCaaS systems, it becomes absolutely essential.

While technology helps significantly, what also needs to be considered is how the technology is incorporated into business processes. Our webinar can demonstrate ways to meaningfully integrate auditing and automation solutions into your UC infrastructure. 

Auditing and automation technology need to be well-integrated into the infrastructure, otherwise, getting the intended outcomes would be next to impossible. 

Learn more about this webinar 

If you wish to learn more about the benefits of auditing and automation and how to incorporate them meaningfully into your infrastructure, then we ask you to please join us. If you are interested, please visit our webinar page to sign up.

The post Here’s a sneak peek into our CX/UC excellence webinar appeared first on Theblackchair.com.

About the G-Summit

Hosted by the pioneers of customer service software, Genesys, the G-Summit Europe 2019 is one of the largest and most prestigious CX events in Europe. Over 1,200 professionals from across the world are expected to converge in Amsterdam to discuss the technology that is transforming CX.

The G-Summit will take place at the Amsterdam Conference Centre, Beurs van Berlage, which is conveniently located around the corner of Dam Square and opposite Central Station. The Amsterdam Conference Centre was the former stock exchange building, making it an indelible part of Netherland’s commercial history. It is fitting that the event is hosted in such a significant monument.

What to expect?

Over 30 breakout sessions discussing the latest trends and technological developments will take place at the event, while more than 27 sponsors (including Blackchair) are expected to demonstrate their newest, most innovative technologies. Executives, senior managers and entrepreneurs will share their ideas on AI developments, change management, real-world analytics, cloud migration, asynchronous messaging and security. Matt Jones, Product Manager of Google and Huib Van Bockel, Founder of TENZING and Former CMO of Red Bull Europe are just some of the speakers who will be present at the event.

The G-Summit was organised by Genesys with the intention of gathering the brightest minds in the industry to discuss ways to improve CX in meaningful ways, network with other professionals and learn from industry analysts so that they will add value to business operations.

Blackchair is thrilled to be part of the G-Summit Europe 2019! You can find us at silver booth 3 where we will be demonstrating our dashboard and hosting a very special product giveaway.

About Blackchair

A long-time partner of Genesys, Blackchair specialises in CX analysis, technology configuration management and DevOps automation for the telecommunications and CX industry. Since its inception in 2005, Blackchair has sought the most sophisticated technology to discover new, innovative ways to project deployments, migrations, operational analysis, CX project management and platform translation. With a brand new customisable UI, Blackchair aims to improve the CX experience by providing contact centres with the means to improve their performance, throughput and profitability without any interruptions.

On behalf of the entire Blackchair team, we look forward to seeing you there!

The post Blackchair to demonstrate its CX analysis platform at the G-Summit Europe 2019 appeared first on Theblackchair.com.

I have been around contact centers and UC solutions for many years and I am surprised how many people still see them as a simple commodity; something that is a means to an end rather than something that can create tangible value to the business. For example. Many companies see their contact centre solution as way to simply take orders, or satisfy client needs etc. They haven’t yet understood that it could be a force for creating great value.

Others, once purchasing a new solution, will spend a lot of time at the start of a purchase designing how they want to handle different services and requirements, etc… and then never look at it again. I kid you not. I have seen call routing designs that have remained static for some ten years or more. This isn’t an achievement of good design (although it might have been good at the time it was written), but an indication of neglect and a lack of awareness of how much more value you can gain from your configuration assets.

Yes, that is correct. Your actual configuration of your unified communications solution as well as your multi-channel contact centre is an asset, and it’s more valuable than you realize. The method by which you configure your UC and CC technology has been a pain-staking expression, in code, of how you want to create your customer experience. It is unique. it is special. It is the way you want to be seen in the world. It is, at a macro level, how you talk, how you respond, how you care, and how you service. It needs to be protected, nurtured, evolved and, like any asset, valued. It is never been more important to recognize this than now.

The industry we are in is undergoing a huge amount of flux. Stalwarts in our space are under threat from the quick moving cloud-based services, who can offer features and capabilities that once were USPs to the major players. The rapid acceleration of computing power and reliable network bandwidth is transforming, and emptying, data centers. It is fundamentally changing the definition of resiliency and disaster recovery. AI systems are becoming more intuitive and self-learning. The means by which businesses can differentiate themselves through voice, web, apps and interactions is expanding, to the point a brand’s “look and feel” occur the instant the phone is answered, or customer opens a web-chat. All of this “look and feel” boils down to the configuration and design that your solutions support. Why wouldn’t you want to make sure this is secure, captured, tracked and, eventually, even transportable?

The market my company is in sits squarely in the middle of the UC and CC revolution (make no mistake about it, a revolution is happening all around you right now). When a colleague walked through a recent UC/CC event in Florida, he couldn’t believe the number of smaller players vying to take chunks out of the big three solutions. And they’re succeeding; stripping more and more market share every month. Your responsibility is to recognize the value of your configuration and design. Then seek out solutions, like ours, that can encapsulate that configuration for you; giving you an independent record of what your configuration is, at any point in time. And then, when you’re business is ready, the process by which you want to move to the “cloud” or to another service altogether, is that more protected, that more simpler, that more safe, and that little more faster, than if you had no solution to help.

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As discussed frequently on our blog, DevOps refers to the time-saving combination of software development and IT operations. With the power of this kind of automation, many companies (and our clients!) improve their workflow by as much as 17x, in addition to cutting down on expenditure.

Continue reading today’s post for a look at top DevOps tools for seamless software development!

Kamatera

Many software developers, nowadays, prefer cloud computing. Here, application development is done over a public network, through data centres available to multiples users on the internet. It also refers to the availability of computer system resources, like data storage and computing power, over the internet.

In this process, being able to deploy cloud applications with ease and without any complications is of the utmost importance. Kamatera is frequently listed among top DevOps tools, especially for software developers looking for easier cloud application deployment.

With this platform, you’re able to deploy applications across multiple locations, worldwide. This makes working remotely easier, especially given that you’re provided with a wide range of applications to execute. Some of these include leading software such as Jenkins, Drupal, RocketChat, and Redmine.

Kiuwan

When it comes to software development, application security is understatedly important.

In this arena, Kiuwan is often the one to beat. Specialising in an end-to-end software security platform – compliant with all major security standards – this tool provides you with a range of insights on security, productivity, cost, and efficiency of the applications you’re developing.

Kiuwan also supports multiple application technologies, spanning over 20 programming languages, and is highly useful when companies industrialise the life cycle of software development. The tool secures your applications from cyber threats, eliminating one of the biggest nightmares for software developers!

Gradle Build Tool

Gradle Build Tool is another one of 2019’s top DevOps tools.

Allowing developers to write code in a number of programming languages, including classics like Java, Python, and C++, this tool is a heavyweight in terms of DevOps relating to software building.

Chosen by Google as the official build tool for Android Studio, Gradle Build Tool has proven to be 100X faster compared to other top DevOps tools like Maven. While it isn’t 100% intuitive just yet, it’s still a fierce competitor among the sea of DevOps automation software.

Among the many features users are most fond of, the tool’s incremental build option, task output caching, and incremental subtasks are spoken about often. These allow developers to make changes to their applications easily and execute tasks from multiple workstations.

Blackchair

Apart from DevOps consultation – where we dive into your operations and identify automation opportunities – here at Blackchair, we also specialise in tools that cut down the time spent on the software development lifecycle.

Platform translation, in fact, is one of our most important areas of service. We deliver real optimisation to any configuration translation, transfer, or synchronisation required for a roll-out, merge, upgrade, and even for routine business operations.

Through the use of our Symphony platform and multi-vendor connectors, we help companies develop a change management model for translation, transfer, or synchronization across various cloud, premise, and hybrid platforms.

Jenkins

An open source CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) server, Jenkins allows software developers and IT professionals to automate certain stages in the delivery pipeline.

The platform also boasts considerable plugin configurations, offering more than 1000 plugin options. This makes it easier for teams to integrate it with numerous DevOps tools, leveraging a wide range of software building functionality and improving efficiency exponentially.

Jenkins also allows you to customise your CI/CD pipeline – which bridges the gap between development and IT operations teams through software development automation – according to your own needs.

Top DevOps tools…which is the best for you?

As you may be able to tell, DevOps is a force taking over the software development industry. As we slowly pivot towards automation to make life, work, and everything in-between much easier, DevOps tools have the potential to revolutionise every aspect of service delivery.

Before you decide on the platform(s) that work best for your business, stop and think about everything you need. By doing so, it becomes easier for you to identify the solutions that meet your needs and analyse their offerings more strategically.

If you’re struggling to decide what parts of your operations would benefit from the power and potential of DevOps, consult Blackchair specialists today for automation guidance and support!

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