7 ms·

It's interesting that Amazon continues to move up the stack. This can't be great for folks like Five9, inContact, Genesys, etc. And it's probably incrementally

by kjw 10y ago

It's interesting that Amazon continues to move up the stack. This can't be great for folks like Five9, inContact, Genesys, etc. And it's probably incrementally negative for Zendesk, RingCentral, and Twilio - where some percentage of customer use cases is tied to contact centers.

djhworld 10y ago
Twilio were on the stage during the AWS Re:Invent keynote last year.
sailfast 10y ago
Twilio entered into an agreement with Amazon to power their telephony services. I wouldn't be surprised if this was built in collaboration as they'd benefit from the volume. http://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-amazon-web-services-partnership-news-2016-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-amazon-web-services-pa...
- jaboutboul 10y ago
  Twilio has been using many AWS services since inception. Many of Twilio's early team members, including Jeff Lawson came from Amazon/AWS. It was while at Amazon watching AWS's explosive growth that Jeff had the lightbulb to offer cloud telephony services.
- jaboutboul 10y ago
  It is in fact built on twilio: https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-details/2017/Twilio-Extends-Relationship-with-AWS-through-Support-of-Amazon-Connect/default.aspx https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-det...
- nodesocket 10y ago
  I've been watching $TWLO as I think their stock is undervalued. They do have some risk in terms of a few customers that make up the majority of their revenue (see $FB). Anybody know how big of a deal/partnership this is? Terms?
cobookman 10y ago
twilio isn't going anywhere. Its not worth amazon's time. You're talking lots of integrations with legacy ISPs which takes time, and not profitable / revenue heavy enough for Amazon's time.
PKop 10y ago
Twilio seems to be promoting this on their blog[0], so can we assume it's powered by Twilio services? [0] https://www.twilio.com/blog/2017/03/supercharge-your-amazon-connect-flows-using-aws-lambda-node-js-and-twilio.html https://www.twilio.com/blog/2017/03/supercharge-your-amazon-... Edit: yep https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-details/2017/Twilio-Extends-Relationship-with-AWS-through-Support-of-Amazon-Connect/default.aspx https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-det...
- tedmiston 10y ago
  I wonder if AWS will turn to Twilio to replace the SMS capabilities of SNS which are aging and limited with respect to modern features such as emojis and long messages.
  - zwily 10y ago
    Twilio did a presentation at re:Invent last year talking about how they power AWS SMS messages.
    - tedmiston 10y ago
      I had they're one of the providers but I've also heard, from a smaller Twilio competitor at a conference, that AWS utilizes several SMS providers, which might make sense regarding the extra limitations.
- jaboutboul 10y ago
  It is
- scottallison 10y ago
  While Twilio and Amazon Connect have some integrations it does not appear that Connect is built on top of Twilio. The Amazon FAQs says that all telephony services are charged separately by "AMCS LLC" which I'm guessing is a telco they've set up to do this at the lowest possible margins. If they went through someone else their pricing would be higher.
softawre 10y ago
Genesys just bought Interactive Intelligence, whose cloud-only PureCloud contact center offering competes directly with this.
KevinEldon 10y ago
If you are a business then Amazon wants to be your IT department.
kimi 10y ago
Also, their market share is being eroded from the bottom, as nowadays Asterisk-based call-centers are ubiquitous. You just need an Asterisk ISO (or appliance) and some additional software for statistics and agent interactions - like https://www.queuemetrics-live.com/ https://www.queuemetrics-live.com/ - and you can run a 50-agent inbound/outbound system in minutes. So much of what used to be a captive market for big PBX makers is now gone. And the numbers we see are very significant.
kimi 10y ago
Also, their market share is being eroded from the bottom, as nowadays Asterisk-based call-centers are ubiquitous. You just need an Asterisk ISO (or appliance) and some additional software for statistics and agent interactions - like https://www.queuemetrics-live.com/ https://www.queuemetrics-live.com/ - and you can run a 50-agent inbound/outbound system in minutes. So much of what used to be a captive market for big PBX makers is now gone. And the numbers we see are very significant.
mjw305 10y ago
As I commented above, Amazon Connect is waaaay too rudimentary for any real contact center environment to consider as part of their core operations. The feature disparity is obvious to anyone that has extensive knowledge and experience in this space. Check out analysis here: http://blog.fenero.com/amazon-connect-is-not-only-over-priced-but-it-lacks-critical-features-and-is-a-lackluster-foray-into-the-contact-center-software-space http://blog.fenero.com/amazon-connect-is-not-only-over-price...

by kjw 10y ago

djhworld 10y ago

Twilio were on the stage during the AWS Re:Invent keynote last year.

sailfast 10y ago

Twilio entered into an agreement with Amazon to power their telephony services. I wouldn't be surprised if this was built in collaboration as they'd benefit from the volume. http://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-amazon-web-services-partnership-news-2016-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/twilio-amazon-web-services-pa...

jaboutboul 10y ago
Twilio has been using many AWS services since inception. Many of Twilio's early team members, including Jeff Lawson came from Amazon/AWS. It was while at Amazon watching AWS's explosive growth that Jeff had the lightbulb to offer cloud telephony services.
jaboutboul 10y ago
It is in fact built on twilio: https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-details/2017/Twilio-Extends-Relationship-with-AWS-through-Support-of-Amazon-Connect/default.aspx https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-det...
nodesocket 10y ago
I've been watching $TWLO as I think their stock is undervalued. They do have some risk in terms of a few customers that make up the majority of their revenue (see $FB). Anybody know how big of a deal/partnership this is? Terms?

cobookman 10y ago

twilio isn't going anywhere. Its not worth amazon's time. You're talking lots of integrations with legacy ISPs which takes time, and not profitable / revenue heavy enough for Amazon's time.

PKop 10y ago

Twilio seems to be promoting this on their blog[0], so can we assume it's powered by Twilio services? [0] https://www.twilio.com/blog/2017/03/supercharge-your-amazon-connect-flows-using-aws-lambda-node-js-and-twilio.html https://www.twilio.com/blog/2017/03/supercharge-your-amazon-... Edit: yep https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-details/2017/Twilio-Extends-Relationship-with-AWS-through-Support-of-Amazon-Connect/default.aspx https://investors.twilio.com/news/all-news/press-release-det...

tedmiston 10y ago
I wonder if AWS will turn to Twilio to replace the SMS capabilities of SNS which are aging and limited with respect to modern features such as emojis and long messages.
- zwily 10y ago
  Twilio did a presentation at re:Invent last year talking about how they power AWS SMS messages.
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    I had they're one of the providers but I've also heard, from a smaller Twilio competitor at a conference, that AWS utilizes several SMS providers, which might make sense regarding the extra limitations.
jaboutboul 10y ago
It is
scottallison 10y ago
While Twilio and Amazon Connect have some integrations it does not appear that Connect is built on top of Twilio. The Amazon FAQs says that all telephony services are charged separately by "AMCS LLC" which I'm guessing is a telco they've set up to do this at the lowest possible margins. If they went through someone else their pricing would be higher.

softawre 10y ago

Genesys just bought Interactive Intelligence, whose cloud-only PureCloud contact center offering competes directly with this.

KevinEldon 10y ago

If you are a business then Amazon wants to be your IT department.

kimi 10y ago

Also, their market share is being eroded from the bottom, as nowadays Asterisk-based call-centers are ubiquitous. You just need an Asterisk ISO (or appliance) and some additional software for statistics and agent interactions - like https://www.queuemetrics-live.com/ https://www.queuemetrics-live.com/ - and you can run a 50-agent inbound/outbound system in minutes. So much of what used to be a captive market for big PBX makers is now gone. And the numbers we see are very significant.

kimi 10y ago

mjw305 10y ago

As I commented above, Amazon Connect is waaaay too rudimentary for any real contact center environment to consider as part of their core operations. The feature disparity is obvious to anyone that has extensive knowledge and experience in this space. Check out analysis here: http://blog.fenero.com/amazon-connect-is-not-only-over-priced-but-it-lacks-critical-features-and-is-a-lackluster-foray-into-the-contact-center-software-space http://blog.fenero.com/amazon-connect-is-not-only-over-price...