Discussing Call Analytics 2.0 with Xarios

Call analytics has always been an essential feature of the communication environment. An analytics strategy ensures that businesses can make educated decisions for their customers, teams, and products. As various other technologies in the UC space have moved into the cloud, many vendors have struggled to provide the same functionality for call analytics in a hosted environment.

Xarios Technologies, an independent software vendor, specialising in communication applications, is taking steps to rectify this problem. Established in 2007, the company develops, designs, and supplies a host of advanced telephony applications for small and mid-sized enterprises. Recently, the company announced that they had big plans for this year when it comes to delivering cloud-based infrastructure solutions.

I caught up with Robin Russell, the CEO of Xarios, to find out more about the rising demand for cloud call analytics, and how Xarios can support actionable insights from real-time and historical data for customers.

Why Are You Shifting Focus into the Cloud with Xarios Dimensions?

Russell had told me about the impending delivery of “Xarios Dimensions,” a new cloud solution for call analytics and insights just before KAZOOCon. He noted that Xarios’ extensive background in reporting and call analytics made moving to the cloud a natural step forward for the business. Xarios is launching Xarios Dimensions on the 2600Hz Kazoo Framework, which will help the brand to deliver the enhanced and reliable CX solutions that their customers expect going forward.

Robin Russell

Dimensions is the first venture that Xarios has made into the cloud analytics market, and the decision comes at a time when CX and cloud technology are both critical considerations for businesses. Russell told me that as of right now, Xarios is straddling both the old and new worlds of communication when it comes to serving their users. “Call analytics in itself is a historical technology. It’s something that companies have always needed, as metrics reporting, and analytics are a table-stakes consideration in any business.”

However, with its cloud strategy, Xarios hopes to offer something different to today’s users, by providing them with the same quality of reporting and analytics technology that they’d find on-premise. “Up until now, many vendors simply haven’t considered what their customers need in this area. They’ve seen analytics as just a tick in the box, rather than a business essential. Companies have been so lost in the fog of cloud UC, that they’ve lost track of one of the most valuable features that their end-users need.”

What Kind of Trends are You Seeing Today?

According to Robin Russell, there’s been a general and overarching shift in the communication industry from both resellers and service providers. Everyone seems to want to put their customers in a cloud environment to help them grow more rapidly and save money. However, in a rush to move people into the cloud, features and functionality are often being overlooked. “You don’t always get the same feature-rich functionality you’d need from a desktop client on the cloud. People aren’t getting access to the CRM integrations, reports, and analytics they need, which means that they end up reverting to on-premise in some cases.”

Russell told me that Xarios is attempting to overcome this problem of replacing on-premise technology with less feature-rich cloud solutions by taking a new approach. The Xarios brand, its “Dimensions” technology aims to put the functionality that most providers are missing back into the cloud environment.

“We’re taking this step with 2600Hz because we wanted an opportunity to show that we’re delivering something different. Everyone’s already with BroadSoft, and we think that by working with 2600Hz, we can instantly differentiate ourselves from our competitors.”

“2600Hz offers a telephony feature set closer to an on-premises product which aligns with Xarios’s aims for CX”

Russell noted that the Dimensions solution starts with a slightly lower level of features than the Xarios application suite – which comes with a full range of end-to-end products for communications. “What we’re focusing on, to begin with is analytics. We’ve reconfigured the reporting and analytics solution to suit a cloud environment.”

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Xarios Dimensions is how simple and accessible it is. The functionality is available through a FireTV stick that anyone can plug into the back of a monitor or wallboard. “Even the standard person coming into a workplace environment will know how to use this tech because the same as using their FireTV Stick at home.”

What Kind of Big Wins Can Xarios Dimensions Offer?

Through the flexibility and functionality of Kazoo APIs, the Dimensions offering will enable contact centre employees and business leaders to view and analyse real-time data and analytics. The most important thing about these reporting and analytics features is that they’re just as immersive and intuitive as those you would get from an on-premise solution.

“We’ve taken a very clean and fresh approach to give people the same level of in-depth functionality and insights that they need, with simplicity built-in too”

Russell said that Xarios had taken the full reporting experience that companies need into Dimensions while keeping the user interface as simple and straightforward as possible. The microservices architecture that Xarios uses also means that it’s easy for the company to continuously add new features and functionality into their offering going forward. “We’re not necessarily going to end up with a huge host of APIs, because the platforms that we work with already have APIs. However, you’ll be able to pull in communications information and data from other environments.”

Robin also noted that Xarios is dedicated to remaining as agile and flexible as possible going forward. This means that whatever roadmap the company has in mind, whenever they see an opportunity with a vendor, they’re agile enough to jump into it. They’re also willing to adapt their offerings to suit the changing demands and expectations of their customers.

The Xarios Dimensions offering will be available for resellers to white label and sell; however, they want, giving partners in the UC space an excellent opportunity for value development and differentiation. It will be exciting to see where Xarios goes with their new initiative in the cloud.