The 6 Biggest Takeaways from KazooCon 2016

We had a great time sharing news and ideas with others at KazooCon this year in San Francisco. It’s possible, however, that we may have thrown too much information at you, so we wanted to take an opportunity and break down some of the highlights of the event. For our beloved attendees and the friends who couldn’t make it, here’s the inside scoop:

Application Announcements

There are a number of applications soon to be available with the Kazoo 4.0 update that we expect will add significant opportunities for revenue generation as add-ons or as valuable features to reseller partners’ core products once they’ve been white labeled. Apps that are in Beta are available for testing to current 2600Hz partners and KazooCon attendees - please contact sales for more information.

Mobile - Released to US Hosted Resellers

At KazooCon, 2600Hz Mobile was released for US Hosted Resellers. With 2600Hz Mobile, hosted resellers can become an MVNO and resell white labeled SMS, data, and mobile voice to US based customers. Mobile works out of the box with fixed line PBX features; no side-app required. Administrators can set usage limits, see current usage metrics, activate and deactivate phones, and port in mobile numbers easily all through one app. Additionally, the Mobile App works with direct MVNO connections with upstream carrier. Some key features include:

US MVNO service
PBX to mobile support
Data, voice & SMS
Device activations
Mobile porting

Call Center Lite - Now in Beta!

Kazoo’s Call Center Lite, now in beta, brings call queues and real-time metrics to Kazoo. Call queues are a requirement of many enterprise environments, because sales managers rely on complete transparency into their team’s performance to maximize workflow profitability. The Call Center Lite app provides real-time information on call statistics for each agent logged into the system. Managers will be able to monitor performance and keep an eye on agent activity with a view of the call queue and agent statuses (e.g. on call, recovery time, away). Some key features include:

Queues
WebSockets live metrics
Agent/Manager view

Operator Console - Now in Beta!

Busy front desk personnel now have a powerful tool with Kazoo Operator Console. See and manage incoming calls effortlessly, keep track of user activity, and take calls from a deskphone or our newly integrated Webphone. Thanks to real-time UI updates through WebSockets, any time an activity occurs, the system shows the specific details of that activity, such as when a device is ringing, on an active call, and being connected.

Live Operator dashboard
Park, retrieve, & transfer right from the UI
Multiple inbound numbers
Supports deskphone & softphone

WebSockets Manager - Now in Beta!

With the release of WebSockets on 4.0, developers can simultaneously get Real-Time updates and respond with system actions to be sent simultaneously, thus allowing for near-instantaneous updates.we wanted to provide an easy way for developers to view the underlying call code in JSON (though engineers familiar with FreeSWITCH will find it similar), which is perfect for debugging or other troubleshooting operations. Some key features include:

Detect calls, pickups, hangups & other events
Real-time call control
Full-Duplex communication

Number Manager Updates

Number Manager has been live for some time, but never before could it handle systems with a total collection of 1,000,000 numbers, and accounts with up to 10,000 numbers. Now in 4.0, batch operations like importing or removing numbers from the system will be faster and easier than ever.

Great Minds Weigh In at the Reseller Panel

KazooCon 2016’s panelists offered up reactions to the latest Kazoo improvements and some predictions of what’s to come in the world of telecom. This year, VSR Network Technology, IP Telecom and getClarity all sent representatives to the stage. Among the comments heard from the stage, panelists cited some of the apps and features they’re most looking forward to working with: Google Drive and AWS S3 cloud storage, Operator Console, Call Center and the wealth of stability and capacity improvements that come from WebSockets integration.

That last bit is particularly important, since the panel was also in agreement that the future of telecom is going to rely a lot on softphone usage and system transparency. The rapid data transfer required to accomplish those real-time updates is provided through WebSockets.

So there you have it - some of our greatest announcements from KazooCon 2016. We’d like to thank all of our guests, our supportive sponsors for making the event extra special this year, and most of all, you. The industry is paved with the hard work put in by resellers that get their customers connected, and it’s our goal to give you the product you need to bring cloud-based communications to the world. For more information on Kazoo 4.0 and the benefits of becoming a reseller partner, click here.

Note: We expect to have videos from the learning sessions available soon - check back to get in on any action you may have missed from KazooCon 2016!