Intermedia Launches 'Holy Grail' Combined UCaaS, CCaaS: Exclusive

On the heels of its Telax acquisition, Intermedia is now offering Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) in addition to its portfolio of UCaaS (unified communications as a service) solutions.

Intermedia has launched three new cloud based contact center solutions in a breakout move that for the first time ever provides MSPs with an integrated unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) offering.

The company acquired cloud contact center provider Telax in August and has been busy building out a contact center as a Service portfolio to complement its UCaaS offerings.

Newly combined, Intermedia and its partners can now provide an integrated communications offering that includes UCaaS and collaboration via the Intermedia Unite platform, as well as CCaaS,said Mark Sher, vice president of unified communications for Intermedia.

Two of the three Intermedia Contact Center services are also available as a standalone service, according to the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider.

"We think this is a tremendous opportunity for our MSP partners to make more money, offer even more services to their customers, and move further up market with our suite of services," he said.

[Related: Intermedia Launches UCaaS Analytics Platform Envision At Xchange 2019]

Intermedia had originally planned to launch its contact center portfolio closer to the end of the year, but the UCaaS provider has had so much demand and response from partners following its Telax acquisition that Intermedia decided to move quicker, Sher said.

"We knew we were missing out on opportunities because we didn't have a contact center solution," he said. "We saw a lot of our partners selling [Intermedia Unite] and then layering on a third-party contact center solution, so having an integrated solution is really the holy grail."

Intermedia Contact Center Express has been designed for small businesses that need a voice-only contact center solution that offers call handling and routing features at a low price point. "These smaller businesses are often forced to buy a very complex contact center solution with features they really don't need. Our Express package lets businesses get into contact center at a fraction of what most solutions cost," Sher said. Contact Center Express comes bundled with Intermedia Unite.

The next offering Intermedia Contact Center Pro, an "entry-level, full blown contact center service," according to Sher. Pro includes call handing and routing like Express, as well as advanced functionality such as the ability to add omni-channel capabilities along to skills-based routing, historical reporting, and real-time insights. Contact Center Pro can be sold as a standalone offering or packaged with Unite, and businesses and partners can scale Pro by adding new features and functionality as needed.

Intermedia Contact Center Elite was built for multi-site enterprises with complex contact center requirements, Sher said. The Elite offering can also be custom-tailored to match the businesses' needs, he added. Elite includes omni-channel communications with custom CRM integrations, self-service IVRs, outbound notification campaigns, and advanced QA features. Like Contact Center Pro, Elite can also be sold as a standalone offering.

Intermedia in May revealed a co-branded selling model for MSP partners. The co-branded selling model lets solution providers use the Intermedia brand name to sell its UCaaS, set their own margins, and handling billing and support. However, partners will be able sell Intermedia's CCaaS solutions via its historic private label selling motion.

The private label selling model is a great fit for MSPs that want to resell contact center services under their own brand and generate up to five times more revenue, Sher said.

Intermedia will support partners selling Intermedia Contact Center through its Intermedia University training, marketing, onboarding, and billing and taxation support, the company said.