Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

Telecom Reseller
  • 4.9 (11)
  • Tech News
  • Updated Daily

Communication AI, vCons, CPaaS, CCaaS, UCaaS, Mobility, Security. Reporting on how the world communicates.

  1. 8h ago ·  Video

    Tango Networks Helps MSPs Extend UCaaS Revenue to the Mobile Workforce, Podcast

    By Doug Green “The mobile workforce is part of the communications opportunity — and partners should be capturing that revenue.” In this special Cloud Communications Alliance and Technology Reseller News podcast, Brian Cassano, Vice President of Channel Success Americas at Tango Networks, discusses how MSPs and communications providers can extend UCaaS capabilities to mobile workers while creating a new recurring revenue opportunity. Tango Networks integrates unified communications services directly with mobile networks, allowing an employee’s smartphone to operate as part of the business communications environment without requiring an over-the-top mobile application. Cassano says that matters as organizations increasingly depend on hybrid, remote and field-based workers. Employees may spend much of their day away from a desk, but businesses still need their calls, messaging, compliance tools, analytics and other communications capabilities connected to the corporate environment. Tango brings those two worlds together. A worker can use the native dialer on a smartphone while maintaining a business identity connected to the company’s UCaaS platform. In a bring-your-own-device environment, personal and business communications can remain separated while the employee continues carrying a single phone. For partners, Cassano sees a significant opportunity. Instead of selling communications services primarily to fixed workers, MSPs can extend their offering across the customer’s entire workforce. That includes highly regulated industries. Healthcare organizations, for example, may not want nurses or other employees distributing personal mobile numbers to patients and coworkers. Tango allows workers to use a business identity while extending capabilities such as call recording, analytics and other compliance-related tools already used within the UCaaS environment. The same model can apply to financial services, legal organizations and other businesses where mobile communications may need to be captured and managed. Tango is also expanding its relationship with Crexendo and the NetSapiens partner ecosystem. Through the Crexendo marketplace, partners can access NetSapiens Extend, powered by Tango Networks, providing a simpler path to bundle mobile communications into existing UCaaS offerings. Cassano says that can help partners differentiate themselves, increase customer satisfaction and create cross-sell and upsell opportunities. AI adds another dimension. As service providers introduce AI-powered analytics, customer experience tools and communications intelligence, those capabilities can also be extended to mobile workers rather than remaining limited to traditional contact center or desk-based environments. Cassano’s message to MSPs is straightforward: mobile should increasingly be considered part of the UCaaS sale rather than a separate communications silo. Tango Networks will be a Platinum sponsor at the upcoming Crexendo User Group Meeting in Austin, where the company plans to work directly with partners on mobile UCaaS use cases and revenue opportunities. Visit TangoNetworks.com to learn more.

  2. 9h ago ·  Video

    Dexatel: Microsoft’s SMS Authentication Shift Makes Multi-Channel Verification More Important, Podcast

    By Doug Green “Don’t treat this as stop using SMS. Treat it as stop relying on only one channel.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Gegham Azatyam of Dexatel discusses Microsoft’s move away from directly providing SMS and voice authentication and why businesses should be preparing for a more diversified approach to user verification. Dexatel is a communications platform that helps businesses reach customers through SMS, voice and messaging applications including WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram through a unified API. Azatyam says Microsoft is shifting toward passkeys as the default authentication method and plans to complete the transition away from directly providing SMS and voice authentication by February 2027. That does not mean SMS disappears. Businesses will still be able to use SMS and voice authentication through external telecom providers, but Azatyam says the larger lesson is that companies should not depend on a single authentication channel. Security is one of the main drivers. Azatyam says AI is changing the economics of fraud by making phishing, social engineering and other attacks easier and cheaper to operate at scale. That creates greater pressure on enterprises, particularly financial institutions and other high-risk organizations, to use stronger authentication methods. At the same time, SMS remains important. Azatyam says startups, e-commerce companies, gaming providers and other digital businesses continue to use SMS-based verification because it is simple, fast to deploy and broadly available. Dexatel’s answer is a multi-channel model. Through Dexatel Verify, businesses can combine SMS with WhatsApp, voice, RCS and other channels while using intelligent fallback when the primary method is unavailable or inappropriate. The company is also developing AI-based fraud prevention that analyzes communications traffic and looks for suspicious behavior before messages are sent. “Our approach is not to say SMS is bad,” Azatyam says. “Use the right channel for the right situation, don’t depend on one channel, and detect fraud as early as possible.” That same strategy reflects Dexatel’s broader direction. Azatyam says the company is building communications infrastructure for the AI era, including fraud prevention, AI voice infrastructure and tools that allow AI agents to communicate with people across messaging, voice and verification channels. AI agents may make more decisions, he says, but they will still need reliable infrastructure to send a message, make a call, verify a user or begin a conversation. Visit Dexatel.com to learn more.

  3. 3d ago ·  Video

    UponAI Gives MSPs a Telecom-Native Path into Voice AI, Podcast

    By Doug Green “We are our partners. We’ve seen what they see, and we built the platform around those real-world problems.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Bill McClain and Jody Gonzalez of UponAI explain how the company is approaching voice AI from a telecommunications-first perspective, giving MSPs a way to add AI agents without forcing customers onto a specific phone platform. UponAI connects to existing PBXs through SIP extensions, allowing AI agents to work inside the customer’s existing telephony environment. That is important for MSPs serving customers with mixed, legacy or evolving communications systems. Gonzalez says many AI voice platforms were built without a deep understanding of telephony. UponAI was designed around the opposite assumption: the AI needs to understand the phone system, its extensions, queues, transfers and call flows. The company describes its platform as a toolbox that MSPs can use to build their own agents. That includes support for integrations with CRM, billing, accounting and other business systems through APIs, MCP, webhooks and low-code or no-code integrations. The platform is also white-label, allowing partners to offer the service under their own brand and determine how they bill their end customers. One difference that has attracted attention is per-second billing. Instead of rounding short calls up to the next minute, UponAI charges partners for the actual seconds used. At larger call volumes, McClain says that can materially affect cost. The company also puts considerable emphasis on call handling. AI agents can see whether someone is already on the phone, perform more sophisticated transfers and return to the caller if the intended recipient is unavailable rather than simply dropping the call into voicemail. “It’s about outcomes,” McClain says. “If the customer’s problem isn’t solved, what good is it?” The company is already applying the technology across different industries. One upcoming deployment involves a medical office where patients will be able to authenticate and address outstanding balances using an AI agent. Another use case supports an operation at JFK Airport handling international calls related to pets. UponAI’s multilingual agents can automatically switch among 10 languages, with additional languages available through separate agents. Gonzalez says the platform also includes pronunciation controls, which can be important for names, cities and industry-specific terminology. For MSPs entering voice AI, UponAI also provides a four-week onboarding process designed to help partners build their first agents and understand the platform well enough to manage future deployments themselves. Visit UponAI.com to learn more or book a demo.

  4. 3d ago ·  Video

    UponAI Brings Telecom-Native Voice AI to MSPs, Podcast

    By Doug Green “We built this as telecom people first — because AI voice has to understand the phone system.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Bill McClain and Jody Gonzales of UponAI explain why they believe voice AI needs to be built around real-world telephony, not bolted onto it afterward. The result is a platform designed for MSPs, service providers and enterprises that need AI agents to work across existing PBXs, call queues, extensions, CRMs and other business systems. McClain and Gonzales say one of the biggest differences is control of the call. Rather than sending a call out to a separate ten-digit number and losing visibility into what happens next, UponAI can connect through SIP extensions or SIP trunks and remain integrated with the customer’s communications environment. That makes functions such as transfers far more sophisticated. An UponAI agent can perform cold transfers, warm transfers and what the company calls agentic warm transfers. The AI can contact an employee, explain who is calling and why, listen to the employee’s response, and then decide whether to complete the transfer, send the caller to voicemail or route the call somewhere else. McClain says that mirrors the way people traditionally handled calls inside an office. The platform is also designed to work across multiple phone systems rather than tying the customer to a single vendor. For MSPs serving organizations with mixed or legacy environments, that can be significant. UponAI also emphasizes integrations. Agents can connect with CRM, EHR, billing, scheduling and accounting systems, allowing them to check balances, schedule appointments, send payment links, collect information and trigger workflows without requiring a human for every step. The company says its platform supports hundreds of voices and dozens of languages, along with voice and chat agents, web widgets, SMS, calendar integration, knowledge bases and live call monitoring. Its Agent IQ capability can review an AI agent’s configuration, identify potential problems and run simulations before deployment. Reliability is another focus. McClain says UponAI can fail over between LLMs, voice providers and speech services if a primary provider becomes unavailable. The company also uses per-second billing rather than rounding calls up to the next minute — a difference that can become meaningful at higher call volumes. For MSPs, Gonzales says the platform includes white-label options, partner administration and a structured onboarding program designed to teach partners how to build, integrate and manage their own agents. “We are our partners,” McClain says. “We live this every day.” Visit UponAI.com to learn more.

  5. 4d ago ·  Video

    Inlayer Helps Cisco Partners Move Legacy Phone Customers to Webex Without Rip and Replace, Podcast

    By Doug Green “You no longer need to rip and replace those devices. Bring them with you to Webex.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, James Lee of Inlayer explains how Phonism by Inlayer helps Cisco partners migrate customers from legacy phone systems to Webex while preserving existing handsets, reducing disruption and lowering the cost of the move. Phonism is Inlayer’s flagship unified device management and compliance automation platform. Lee says the platform is designed to help service providers manage devices from multiple manufacturers through a single interface and API, while also automating configuration, provisioning and compliance. For Cisco partners, the opportunity is especially significant in accounts still running legacy Avaya, Mitel and other on-premises systems. Lee says many customers are not staying on older platforms because they prefer them. They are staying because replacing thousands of phones can be expensive, disruptive and time-consuming. Phonism removes much of that barrier. As a Cisco SolutionsPlus partner, Phonism can be included with Webex quotes and renewals, allowing existing SIP devices to be brought onto Webex rather than immediately replaced. Lee describes the strategy as “land, expand and flip.” Partners can land the customer on Webex while keeping existing handsets, expand the relationship by selling other Cisco services, and later replace those devices with Cisco endpoints as they age, break or reach the end of their depreciation cycle. That can also pull revenue forward. Instead of waiting months for a full hardware migration, partners can move the backend platform first and preserve a familiar experience for users. Inlayer is also expanding into presence-based provisioning. Using a small NFC-enabled sticker, an end user can tap the device with a smartphone, authenticate, share location with consent and automatically activate a preconfigured compliant device. That process can also capture identity and E911 location information, while creating cryptographic proof that a person was physically present during deployment. Lee says the approach can simplify self-installation, hoteling and shared workspace environments. The potential savings can be substantial. Lee points to a recent deployment involving a retailer with 700 locations and 7,000 endpoints. He says the migration was completed across four weekends and saved approximately $2 million compared with a traditional replacement approach. For Cisco partners, Lee’s message is simple: legacy hardware no longer has to block a cloud migration. Visit Phonism.com or Inlayer.com to learn more.

  6. 4d ago ·  Video

    New Castle County Uses Webex AI Agents to Expand Access and Reduce Wait Times, Podcast

    By Doug Green “The AI agents are handling the repetitive questions, and our employees can spend more time on the complex issues.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne, George Hantzandreou of New Castle County Government in Delaware discusses how the county is using Webex AI Agents to improve constituent services, reduce wait times and give employees more time for higher-value work. New Castle County serves more than 500,000 residents through approximately 2,000 employees and dozens of locations, including libraries, public safety, community services and other county operations. The county has used Cisco collaboration technology for more than a decade and moved its contact center operations to Webex Contact Center more than two years ago. Its AI journey began with the IT help desk. Facing retirements and a hiring freeze, Hantzandreou says the county deployed Webex AI Agents to handle common troubleshooting questions, voicemail PIN resets and password reset requests while escalating more complex issues to employees. The success of that deployment quickly led to other use cases. In the county’s inclusionary housing program, employees were receiving so many calls that applications from residents in need could take more than three weeks to process. Hantzandreou built an AI-enabled contact center that could answer questions about eligibility, provide information from an approved knowledge base and send application links by SMS. The result has been significant. The AI agent now contains roughly 65% of calls in that program, while application processing time has fallen from more than three weeks to less than one week. Hantzandreou says the county is careful about AI governance, particularly in areas such as housing and benefits. The AI is grounded in approved county websites and documents using retrieval-augmented generation rather than making independent eligibility decisions. Staff also review performance and update the knowledge base when needed. Constituents can always request a human. That is particularly important for seniors, people who may be uncomfortable with AI or anyone dealing with a more complex situation. The technology is also changing the employee experience. Hantzandreou says agents are spending less time answering repetitive FAQ-style questions and more time on complex cases, projects and professional development. In some departments, average handle time has actually increased — something the county views positively because employees are now spending more time on issues that truly require human attention. The county has also extended access beyond normal business hours. AI agents can answer questions 24/7, including evenings, weekends and holidays, while routing unresolved issues to live agents or voicemail when necessary. Looking ahead, Hantzandreou says his focus is increasingly on observability, reporting and post-deployment management as AI handles a growing share of the county’s constituent interactions. Visit Webex.com to learn more about Webex AI Agents and Webex Contact Center.

  7. 4d ago ·  Video

    TalkingPointz: Cisco Is Pulling Networking, Collaboration and AI into One Intelligent Workplace Story, Podcast

    By Doug Green “We’re seeing a very different Cisco emerge in this new AI era.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Dave Michels and David Danto of TalkingPointz break down the biggest announcements from the event and what they mean for enterprise customers, partners and the future of workplace technology. Michels and Danto say the broader story is not any one product announcement. It is the way Cisco is connecting networking, collaboration, contact center, AI and workplace intelligence into a more unified ecosystem. One example is Dialog, Cisco’s new agentic CX capability. Michels points to Dialog as a sign of how Cisco is extending AI beyond simple assistants and into longer-running customer interactions where agents can continue working on a problem after the initial contact ends. Danto also highlights Cisco’s growing workplace portfolio, including new AV-over-IP capabilities, intelligent speakers and tighter integration across room technology. The key, he says, is that Cisco is taking technologies that already exist in some form and combining them into a more complete enterprise platform. That matters for large organizations trying to reduce complexity. Instead of stitching together separate vendors for networking, meeting rooms, workplace systems and collaboration, enterprises may increasingly be able to consolidate more of that environment under Cisco. The two analysts also point to Cisco’s growing support for multiple meeting platforms, including Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet. For enterprise customers, Michels says one of the biggest questions ahead is how offices themselves will change. Cisco is investing heavily in tools such as Workplace Designer and Cisco Spaces to help organizations understand how physical environments are being used and how they should be redesigned. That could mean using AI to recommend where rooms should be repurposed, where wireless performance needs improvement and how workplaces can better support the way employees actually meet and collaborate. Trust is another major theme. As AI agents gain access to sensitive information and begin taking actions on behalf of users, both Michels and Danto say enterprises will increasingly favor platforms they already trust. That could become a significant advantage for Cisco. Their takeaway from WebexOne is that Cisco is no longer approaching collaboration, networking and AI as separate categories. It is building toward a connected intelligent workplace where those systems increasingly operate together. Visit TalkingPointz.com to read more analysis from Dave Michels and David Danto.

  8. 4d ago ·  Video

    Cisco Design Chief: Great Collaboration Technology Should Disappear into the Experience, Podcast

    By Doug Green “If you notice the camera move, that’s our bad.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Gavin Ivester, Vice President of Design at Cisco, discusses the thinking behind Cisco’s collaboration hardware, the new Cisco Ceiling Speaker Pro and why great meeting-room technology should feel almost invisible to the user. Cisco announced the Ceiling Speaker Pro at WebexOne as another piece of its AV-over-IP strategy for intelligent meeting rooms. Ivester says the real value comes from how Cisco’s room components work together. The Ceiling Speaker Pro complements the Ceiling Microphone Pro, which uses 64 microphone elements to listen selectively across a room. Combined with cameras, codecs and other devices, the system can better understand who is speaking, where they are and how audio and video should respond. “The more you add these peripherals, the smarter the room becomes,” Ivester says. That can also improve meeting equity. Cisco can use precise knowledge of microphone, speaker and room locations to reinforce sound for people who may have difficulty hearing while managing timing and phasing so the amplified audio still sounds natural. For Ivester, performance and aesthetics should not be competing goals. Before joining Cisco, he led design at Bang & Olufsen and held senior footwear design roles at Nike and Puma. He says those experiences reinforced a philosophy of starting with function, then finding the design that expresses it. At Cisco, that means devices that can fit naturally into spaces ranging from conference rooms to high-end professional offices without drawing unnecessary attention to themselves. The same thinking applies to the meeting experience. Ivester says cameras should move and frame participants without making users conscious of the mechanics taking place behind the scenes. “The best antidote for distraction is that you don’t notice what’s happening,” he says. “You just feel like you’re part of the conversation.” Cisco is also emphasizing platform flexibility. Its collaboration devices can support Webex as well as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet, allowing organizations to use the meeting platform they need without changing the underlying room experience. Ivester says AI is also changing the design profession itself. Designers are increasingly thinking less about placing every pixel and more about defining how intelligent systems should behave as interfaces dynamically respond to users, data and context. For Cisco partners, that means the hardware they deploy is becoming part of a larger intelligent environment designed around one goal: better conversations. Visit Cisco.com to learn more about Cisco collaboration devices and the Ceiling Speaker Pro.

See All (50)

Ratings & Reviews

4.9
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Communication AI, vCons, CPaaS, CCaaS, UCaaS, Mobility, Security. Reporting on how the world communicates.

Information

You Might Also Like