Upstream Works – Leveraging State-of-the-Art Omnichannel Contact Center Solutions to Enhance Customer Engagement and Agent Success

“We’re passionate about creating solutions that help organizations exceed their customer experience goals.”

Upstream Works provides best-in-class Omnichannel Contact Center software with an enhanced Agent Desktop that seamlessly integrates channels, interactions, applications, and AI for increased customer engagement and agent success. Their solutions provide an intuitive workspace for agents and supervisors to provide personalized and informed customer experiences while collecting critical conversational data. For over 20 years, organizations worldwide and across industries have benefited from Upstream Works’ experience and expertise, gaining operational efficiencies and transforming the customer experience.

Rob McDougall, CEO of Upstream Works, spoke to The Silicon Review on how his company is helping organizations transform their customer service and gain operational efficiency.

Interview Highlights

Q. Walk us through the journey of Upstream Works right from the beginning to the point where it stands today?

Upstream Works came about as a result of a management buyout in 2000. We were a boutique contact center integration platform for probably the first five years of our life. In 2006, we added different channels to our client application called Upstart which allowed the agent to handle phone, email and chat from one application. We provided integration capabilities into various business systems that our customers were using, and we also offered world class first contact resolution (FCR) metrics. In 2012, we started working with the Cisco Finesse platform, creating what is now Upstream Works on Finesse. Today, we go to market as one of Cisco’s most trusted partners. Organizations like TTEC, Telus International, Presidio, and Vodafone, which all resell Cisco products, also resell Upstream Works products as part of an overall solution. Upstream Works products are also available from Cisco on the Cisco SolutionsPlus program.

Q. How do you maintain exclusivity in the current marketplace?

This is about staying ahead of the curve. We have spent a lot of time making sure that the product we provide is usable across a wide variety of contact centers and is exceptionally flexible.

Q. How does your extensive partnership with Cisco help your clients simplify customer engagement and achieve digital transformation?

Cisco has an excellent premise-based platform, and now they’re moving into their cloud platforms. Today, Upstream Works adds value to the on-premise Cisco Finesse platform with advanced features, additional channels, integrations to AI and business applications and more. Our team is committed to innovation and fast time to market, so we often are looked upon as a source of innovation in the Cisco environment. We provide solutions that are easy to navigate and offer an omnichannel workspace to handle every type of communication, including voice, email, chat, SMS, messaging, video, co-browse, social, bots, and many types of AI applications. Customers will have a consistent brand experience regardless of the channel they use to engage with the business. It enables contact center agents and back-office and digital-only customer support advisors to meet CX expectations for continuous engagements with quick resolutions. Also, the transition to the cloud becomes a lot simpler for anybody using our products, as there will be less disruption because the agent desktop experience will remain consistent across platforms. We’re passionate about creating solutions that help organizations exceed their customer experience goals.

Q. How do you optimize and update your services regularly? How do you gather insight?

By engaging with our customers. 50 to 60 percent of our product features come from feedback and suggestions from our customers. We’re always working to ensure our solutions provide the value our customers are looking for. Our product team evaluates features and product performance and engages with our customers to determine whether or not the features, products and services will be added to our product list.

Q. Do you have any new services that are ready to be launched?

As every customer is expecting their own personalized digital experience, contact centers cannot manage this on an ad hoc basis. AI applications are already prevalent in shaping customer expectations, and their role will only grow as AI becomes woven into everyday life. Currently, we are building products and services based on connecting agents and customers with artificial intelligence. Businesses use conversational AI for marketing, sales, and support to engage along the entire customer journey. One of the most popular and successful implementations of AI in a contact center is conversational AI for customer service. We allow the use of most conversational AI applications, which can be implemented into a variety of customer service channels, including email, voice, chat, social, and messaging, and which all help businesses scale support for new and emerging channels, and meet customers where they are.

Q. What would be your final message to The Silicon Review readers and your current and future customers?

In the early part of the century, customer satisfaction, which had been improving through the nineties, started to drop. This was due to multichannel complexity that was brought on as people began to use digital channels like email and chat. The increased complexity and the addition of ‘multichannel silos’ in customer service overwhelmed agents and businesses. Today, AI applications are thriving because of contact center complexity. But, as a result, you’ve got agents, who need to deal with different applications, multiple channels, and are supported by multiple AI applications, which increase silos and desktop complexity. Using multiple AI applications reignites the problem that omnichannel tried to solve.

At Upstream Works, we remain focused on eliminating those silos and providing one consistent workspace for agents. We’ve been successful in doing that. Our goal is to make agents’ jobs easy by simplifying their access to the latest and best artificial intelligence capabilities, without adding additional complexity.

Contact Center Innovation Leader

Rob McDougall is the Chief Executive Officer of Upstream Works. He is an accomplished contact center leader and catalyst for change with a track record of raising industry awareness of first contact resolution for enhanced agent and customer experience. Rob leads the strategic vision and operations of the company with a continued focus on omnichannel innovation and a passion for exceeding partner and customer expectations.

“We provide solutions that are easy to navigate and offer an omnichannel workspace to handle every type of communication, including voice, email, chat, SMS, messaging, video, co-browse, social, bots, conversational AI, and more.”