When Messaging Apps Become Enterprise Infrastructure

Hey everyone. Really excited uh for this chat today. Uh the UCANS space, thanks to Carl Tower, is really getting interesting again. Uh with so much news coming up uh ahead.

Uh things like AI powered CX teams and WebEx mobility, WhatsApp integration, eSIM innovation, on and on and on. We're gonna dive in now with William. Uh how are you, William? Ivan, I'm doing pretty good.

Thank you very much for having me on. I'm looking forward to the uh conversation today. Doing pretty well. And it's been a minute, so I'm really excited uh for this update.

Uh before we get to the latest news announcements, how do you describe Call Tower these days with everything that's going on in the AI-powered collaboration space? Yeah, you know, I mean, we uh I think every every year it kind of changes, right? We're moving so quickly right now as far as as far as where we're going in the space. But really, I think for us, when you look at us, we are a really a managed service provider in cloud communications.

Uh so we've expanded. I think usually people would have identified us more in in the UC and in the contact center space uh in the cloud. And now I think what with the uh with the added services or platforms that we're looking at with CX uh on a global level, it's really just changed our perspective that we're not just adding licenses from a from a UC or from even a contact center side. We're uh adopting AI across the entire spectrum.

And it might be things that are focused a little bit more on the contact center, or it might just be on the business outcomes that we're looking at for customers that are really trying to drive growth and efficiencies within their organization. And even on the UC side, which uh it's kind of a little bit more unique and kind of a little bit harder to put your arms around. But I think when you look at that overall, managed service provider is probably the one that kind of comes uh to mind a little bit better.

So uh, you know what, it's just a great time to be in this type of industry overall, and we're looking forward to what we're gonna be doing here over the next five, 10 years. Indeed. And uh separately, you just announced a big strategic investment from Court Square Capital Partners. Tell us about this.

Is this growth mode, acquisition mode, expansion mode, all the above? Yes, yes, and yes, right. It's all it's all the above. So, you know, we we uh the first time we actually did a a private equity um uh arrangement or agreement was with uh B V, which is out of Boston, and uh just great guys overall there.

They still got a vested interest in us overall, and they just saw the the growth that we had, the uh how we were working well with our partners and the community and and the technology that we were adapting to actually deliver through our customers, um, to our customers through our partners. And we just saw that there was an availability there to actually continue to grow that, both organic and non-organic. Uh so CourtSquare was interested in looking for a type of organization that had that uh hyper growth that we've had.

And we were excited to meet with them uh and really just continue that down that journey. You know, we've expanded to uh pretty much every continent uh in the world. We're uh aggressively looking for uh some good MA strategy, and it could be both just from a product standpoint or also just expansion into certain markets that require more of that local representation uh that we're looking for uh overall, and then just the organic piece, right? I mean, just making sure that we're working with our go-to-market strategies and channels that we have, uh, that we can continue to grow the organization.

And you know, the MA piece is always a fascinating thing. It's kind of a part-time job that we do because you got to do your normal job. But uh, you know, at the heart of the matter uh or at the heart of the success is really that organic growth and working with our partners and driving the right solutions for our customers and making sure that we're doing right by them. Oh, great.

Well said. So we're finally moving to a world where your work follows you everywhere and automatically almost from your car to your laptop to the office to home, for good and for bad, but mostly mostly for good. And um the technology empowering it is is getting really interesting these days. I I saw your ESIM announcement for Teams and WebEx.

It seemed really practical, uh very utilitarian. I have three ESIMs in you know in my phone that uh that are just really useful for travel, international travel, especially. And um, I think the business world, especially SMEs, are kind of waking up. Uh why why is mobile identity now such a big deal for enterprise communications?

You know, uh speaking of being a road warrior myself, right? I mean, I'm always kind of on the road. And uh I I think it's just important and the flexibility that it brings uh to the device overall, I think is really important. And you know, some people might sit there and say, well, I have a Teams app or I have a WebEx or Zoom, you know, kind of the the leaders in the UC space.

And you say, yeah, but you still have to click on the app. You still gotta make sure that you're dialing through the app, right, when you wanna uh go out there and and and really just represent the organization. And then there's the compliance pieces of it. But when you're doing that once or twice a week, or doing that once or twice a day, might not be a big issue, but where you're constantly doing that when that's just part of your everyday routine, it can become a little tedious.

And that's I think one of the simplest or one of the major things I should say that the ESIM product really goes ahead and really solves, right? I don't want to think about those extra steps that I have to do. I just want to pick up the call, the phone and make a call and know that my call tower number is showing up, that I can communicate with my vendors, with my internal employees, with my customers, that they see that it is from call tower that the call is being made, that the call can be recorded, that the call uh can have the analytics around it that I need to overall, so that I can drive better data and better outcomes for my customers and my vendors overall.

And all those things, when you're looking at having the adopting that eSIM, uh just they just play a part. They just really just become kind of second nature. And even something as simple as if I need to get a subject matter expert uh on the call that might not be in my contact center, uh type of environment, and that call is going to be transferred to him or her, you want to make sure that you complete that call and that you understand, you know, what was the outcome so that you have that data.

And a lot of times those are things that get that get lost. And then I think from a from a security standpoint or an IT standpoint, the security team just likes the compliance piece, right? I mean, I think that that's very important to make sure that you're compliant, especially when you're traveling or even if you do work remote or you're in an airport in different countries, there's different compliance guidelines that you have to work with. I mean, even here in the States, we have different ones per state as well.

So you can imagine also going overseas, right? It kind of becomes a big quagmire and it's a big mess. So you want to make sure that you have that. So I'm a big fan of it.

Uh, you know, we just uh announced, like you mentioned, Evan, a really uh great promotion for all of our customers that we're giving them the the ESIM products for free for up to six months on basic and and then from there I think it's two dollars a month for the entry level one, but it's still a really good product, and we figure probably not it's it's not something for everybody. We understand that some employees don't don't need it or don't really uh want that type of solution overall.

Probably about 20 to 25 percent of the uh the end users really do use it and need it. And we're finding that some customers, like anything, some some customers might more might need it just depending on the type of business that they're in, and some uh a little bit less. But we got right now users that are using it across the globe and in places like uh China and uh and other places in Southeast Asia, which might be a little bit more challenging, obviously, uh in Eastern Europe and so forth, but just uh really get to actually see that really taking off.

Yeah, it's fascinating to watch. Uh I've seen you've been talking a lot about conversational AI and AI agents in the contact center. Um, what are people deploying now? What are they trialing and where are we uh with this really exciting tech?

Yeah, I I think we're we're kind of going through uh a second phase of an evolution right now because I think when you start to look at at AI, especially in first I'll address it on the CX side, you you started to have the likes of the top leaders in in the space, you know, 5.9, Genesis, NICE, and so forth, Talk Desk, you know, Cisco and Zoom, that they all kind of had a package AI when you're looking at uh conversational AI and agentic AI. And I think that they've done a really good job of for of a roadmap uh coverage as far as where they're at today and where they're going here in the next uh six to 12 months overall.

But now there's also been kind of a new entry, and not really new, it's been around for a little while, but you really got some niche type of platforms that are out there, and we partner with a couple of them, like Systech and Parloa, that uh depending on the volume that you have and depending on the needs of your business, one of those type of core platforms that you're using on your contact center just might not be enough. And that's when when you look at an organization like Call Tower, we're trying to drive those right solutions for customers by bringing those alternative options that you could layer on, whether it be to your UC or whether it be to your contact center, to really drive those right outcomes for your customers because it just might not be enough of what's out there.

So I think that now you're starting to see a lot of these organizations. I mean, everybody wants a dot AI at the end of their of their URL overall, but you're gonna start to see, I think, some fallout as far as who's really the main players and who's really delivering a really good product and who's a little bit more smoke and mirrors, I think, overall, and what they could do. And I think it will get a little bit more um industry specific. So I do I do think that you're gonna see some AI technology that's gonna be very specific for healthcare, some of that's gonna be very specific for the finance world, manufacturing, et cetera, et cetera.

I think that though you're gonna see a little bit of uh of more definitive type of AI structure and platforms for each one of those different industries. Interesting. Well, interesting to watch for sure. And speaking of integrations, you you've leaned into WhatsApp integration as well.

I I sort of live in WhatsApp. Two years, three years ago, I wasn't even using it. I guess I've been dragged in. And uh it sounds like what you're doing is smart because people need to communicate with people uh in an AI world.

You think enterprise communication is finally adopting more consumer-like open platforms? I yeah, I think so. I mean, I think when you look at what, and and we did this a little bit of history there, I promise we won't pour you too much, but what we did right now with WhatsApp and the integration with Microsoft Teams is exactly the same thing that we did back in the day with SMS and MMS, uh, with Microsoft Teams and with Cisco WebEx and Zoom. And that's what we're doing right now with WhatsApp.

It's really just another communication method that a lot of end users want to go ahead and look at or want the alternative to have. And uh obviously in North America, especially more in the United States, uh text messaging is is uh is very big, right? There's a heavy concentration of that. Uh, but for somebody like myself that travels all over the world, uh, WhatsApp is really the main the main communication, right?

Whether you're talking to an employee or you're talking to a vendor or supply or even a customer, everyone say, Oh, just connect with me on WhatsApp. It's a lot easier. So we looked at that and we said, hey, we have to really uh deliver that solution to our customers. Our customers and our partners were demanding it.

We've seen some really great traction, especially outside of the US with the WhatsApp integration, that you could be a WhatsApp user and you could uh basically just send an instant message to a Teams user within an organization. And that Teams user, they're working on their day-to-day uh type of routine, and they could just IM you back and it goes directly to your WhatsApp account, which I think is really cool, right? I think it's definitely something that's that's very unique.

We are going to be expanding that to the other uh core UC platforms here very soon as well. Uh, but with Microsoft Teams, we've seen some really good demand on it and some really good success uh on it overall. I mean, it's just why force people to communicate one way or another? Right?

The whole idea is to drive the right solutions that all of these core platforms across the board could communicate with each other. And it's like if I prefer to use Teams and you prefer to use WhatsApp and somebody else prefers to use Zoom, who cares? We should all be able to go ahead and communicate in our preferred type of platform, make sure that they're all integrated. Obviously, keeping security and keeping compliance and so forth uh you know top of mind, but making sure that we could at least communicate back and forth.

And that's what it's about, right? It's really communicating. Exactly. And so hybrid work is clearly uh well established.

In fact, I think we're going back to the office at scale now, even here in places like Boston, Fidelity 100% uh back to the office, to the consternation of quite a few of their employees and commuters. So in the big picture now, what communications headaches are companies still trying to fix in 2026, or if we fix everything? Yeah, I I I think it's still uh a uh a trial and error right now, right? You're right.

You have some organizations that are saying no, you're coming back to the office Monday through Friday. Uh you have some organizations that are saying two or three times a week, and and some other days you can work from home, depending on if you travel. Uh, some are putting restrictions on where you live. So if you live within a certain radius of an office, then you do have to report to the office.

And look, I I think it's a give and take, right? I mean, uh as somebody that that travels all the time, I don't have an office I have to go to when I am uh working from my home office, but I think it uh for a lot of people, they like that interaction, uh, that collaboration. And sure, you you collaborate on video, you collaborate on instant message, you collaborate all the time um on meetings. And I think it's good to have a good balance and a good uh and a good structure on both to go ahead and have and have both overall.

So I think that uh employees have been somewhat shocked because they have been used to for the last three or four years, you know, and probably started happening around 24 that everybody started to say it's not time to come back into the office. And I think a lot of employees were shocked uh that that was happening. But I think as they come back to the office and uh that that social outlet I think is very important. I think we kind of forget about that a little bit.

That sure we're on a screen and we do work and everything. And look, I'm a big component of of being all uh on on computers and video and everything. And I think that there's a a big place for that. But the I do look forward when I go and I have our board meetings or or I do our our executive off sites.

I do like actually going out and and sitting in a room for a couple days with some of the guys and just collaborating as well. So I do I do think you need a mix uh of both, and even with customers. I mean, there's some customers that uh I will fly into a certain city and I'll say, hey, I just want to meet with you, at least over coffee, and it's just great just to sit and bring bread with them for about 15, 20 minutes and keep going. But uh I think it does it does help.

I think you need a combination of both. Yeah, and I think I think the the new endpoints we have for the boardroom, as you mentioned, or meeting rooms are so good and so ubiquitous, and they've got face tracking and and uh super high resolution and spatial audio. It's it's not the uh the old polycom in the middle of the uh boardroom anymore those days. And the emotional part of it, right?

It tells you who's engaged in the meeting, who's not it's kind of a little scary. It's a little scary, but it it's really great for those remote participants. You mentioned security a minute ago, and I think it's worse than ever when it comes to voicing ID fake spam calls. I I just can't answer my phone anymore.

AI generated scams now, uh phishing. Um what are you worried about? What are you what are what are your customers worried about right now? And what are you trying to push for to help on the tech front?

You know, how how great would it be if they would actually go ahead and actually take the effort that they put into causing fraudulent type of work into actually trying to advance the technology? And I think they would make more money instead of trying to be fraudsters. But uh, you know, I guess you gotta have some bad characters out there overall. And, you know, from from our standpoint, uh, and we're a little bit of a in a challenge mode because since we do work across the globe, there's a lot of different compliance regulations that we have to have, even within somewhere like the EU, that you know, it's the EU.

But if you look at the Bendelux region compared to one of the other uh reads with the DAX region and so forth, they have different compliance regulations that we have to look at as well. So it is definitely a challenge. And with us, uh it's really about both ends of that communication stack, right? Meaning that, especially around calls, when you have the spam calls, you know, what's the inbound, what's the outbound, you want to make sure that your call is not being considered uh a spam overall.

So we do work with uh certain organizations like Mutari, that we do have uh spam filtering that's in there to try to make sure that you're it's kind of like your credit score that you have here in the US. It's kind of like your credit on on your calls to make sure that they're completing and also to make sure that you're credit worthy. Like, hey, this is not really a spam call. You're not calling the same number three times within a minute and getting hang ups uh overall.

So I think that that's really important. And I think right now the uh I'm actually very happy to see what a lot of the governments are starting to do. And in the US, we had Stir Shaken uh and some of the other ones that are going on in in Canada and going on over in the EU. I think it's important.

You know, I think it's uh definitely something that's important that we need. And and Evan, like you mentioned, I mean, I probably get 20 calls a day, and and probably 18 of them will probably scam uh spam, right? That it's just like what are they doing, what are they calling? And and that's already been somewhat eliminated uh overall.

So I think you're gonna see uh organizations and you're gonna see the regulatory agencies within countries continue to track down. I know the FCC, they just made a they just uh published a report last week on uh what is called know your provider, right? Everybody knows a KYC, know your customer, but now it's about no, I think it's know your underlying provider. I think it's called CUP is the new uh abbreviation.

And it's really about, hey, if you're working with a partner like a call tower or somebody else that's providing your service, what carriers are they using underneath to complete those calls across the globe, which we all work together, right? I mean, that's not unique to us. That's something that we have to do. And I think it's important that it's like, yeah, check under the hood, right?

See who it is that organizations like us are using. And uh that's gonna really drive some of the decision making from a security standpoint because the last thing you want is your IP or or your calling to be blacklisted uh overall, and then the completions are just not there. And we've seen that with some instances or some customers, that it could be very detrimental to the business. So I think it's very important.

I think it's something that we're gonna have to continue to do to help, especially with AI fraud now being a big thing, making sure that you could at least try to stay ahead of the bad imposters, right? It's really the big thing. Staying ahead of the bad guys, well said. Um, so you, Cass, you know, we're we're a mature industry.

Uh a lot of the players are well known, well understood. But what do you think the industry is underestimating? Uh what are some surprises that you you you see out there on the upside and opportunities that folks might not be aware of? Yeah, I think on the on the UC side, it's uh the the the move to the cloud, I think from the enterprise space, um I still think we haven't hit the top of that bell-shade curve.

I think we're I think we're done with the earlier adapters. I think some of the enterprise businesses have started to move, but you still have a lot of prem-based type of solutions out there that not that they're bad solutions, but the challenges of trying to integrate with an AI platform or trying to integrate with a contact center in the cloud or your CRM or your ERP, all those different things uh really make a big difference. And I think that slowly but surely these customers are saying, hey, at a certain point, we just have to make that move, right?

We've invested in this equipment that's sitting here on my desk. It's connected to my computer. I hardly ever use it. I use it as a glorified speakerphone.

Most times I make my calls through the computer. Why do I need that anymore? Or I just have the earbuds, right? Or I just have a headset on, uh, that type of stuff.

So I think I still think you are, you still have more of that transition uh that's gonna happen overall, especially with the advancements that we're seeing in cloud communications overall and how it's integrating. Uh I still think that you're gonna see over the next, I'd probably say 2027, 2028, uh, you're gonna see another increase of that UC overall. It's a mature market, but I still think there's a lot of growth there. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

So, what uh what are you looking forward to over the next weeks, quarter or two? Uh a little quieter over the summer, I imagine. But any events, any travel? You know, June, uh yeah, June seems to be uh always a pretty busy month uh overall.

So there definitely is is some travel. They're gonna be doing some travel over to uh uh to Europe uh overall, and then hopefully July will be uh a little bit quieter and spend some more time at home, and then August, it's back off to the races between August, September, October. Then it starts to die down a little bit uh you know, right before the Thanksgiving uh time frame. But uh, you know, we are right now uh in potential acquisition mode with uh we always call it kind of window shopping, right?

We're always kind of looking out there to see uh any good opportunities that we can uh really just drive impactful uh solutions for our customers. And that's really you know what it comes down to. We listen to them, we listen to our partner. We're very big in the indirect channel and and work with uh with a lot of our partners there to make sure that uh we can drive the right solutions for their customers.

So always looking and making sure that we're six months ahead of where we want to be. Especially from a technology roadmap. Well, you have your hands full. Congratulations on all the success and onwards and upwards.

Evan, thank you very much. I appreciate the questions and conversation. Look forward to the next one. And uh it's hopefully seeing you in person here soon.

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, William. Thanks everyone for listening, watching. Be sure to check out our TV show, techimpact.

tv, now in Bloomberg Television and Fox Business Monthly. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, William. Thank you.