Bulletins

After losing Five9, Zoom launches its own contact center service

Zoom finally entered the contact center space on Wednesday after last year's failed Five9 acquisition.

Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom
Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom
Photo: Michael Short/Bloomberg via Getty Images

After a few setbacks, Zoom has officially entered the contact center space. The company announced the release of its contact center service on Wednesday, which adds a modern flavor to the traditional call center by infusing video.

Zoom wants potential contact center customers to think of the new service as a natural extension of the company's leadership in remote work, collaboration and communications. The company hopes to engage current Zoom clients who may be looking to add contact center capabilities, but don't want another vendor in their tech stack.

While the initial release of Zoom contact center won't have all the features of the traditional players, the company plans to add new features and capabilities over time. Even still, Zoom's video prowess could prove to be a differentiator in the market, especially when it comes to servicing high-touch customer interactions like those in wealth management or specialty retail.

This isn't Zoom's first foray into the contact center market. Last year Zoom made an attempt to acquire call center software company Five9, but shareholders rejected the $14.7 billion deal. Still, the company maintains partnerships with many of the major cloud players, including NICE InContact, Genesys and — of course — Five9.

Aisha Counts

Aisha Counts (@aishacounts) is a reporter at Protocol covering enterprise software. Formerly, she was a management consultant for EY. She's based in Los Angeles and can be reached at acounts@protocol.com.

zoomcontact centerfive9
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