C4B launches XPhone Connect 6

Munich, 20 October 2016. Communications specialist C4B is launching the first major release of its UC solution XPhone Connect: XPhone Connect 6. The new release features the Team Panel, which expands the classic UC client and allows even more targeted call management. The Team Panel can be used to map the presence and telephony status of whole departments or, depending on the size, the entire company.

The panel is docked at the top of the screen and can be extended with a mouseover at any time. Calls can be forwarded with a double click. In particular, employees with assistance functions or on the switchboard can connect calls more easily and quickly. The telephony and switchboard functions are available across locations and without linking the telephone systems in a network. Likewise, calls can be picked up via the Team Panel and conference calls or chats can be launched. The integrated search function means that even in large companies the desired contact person is found in seconds.

"The Team Panel stands for what UC's core is: to simplify communication," explains Michael Schreier, CEO of C4B Com For Business AG. This principle also applies to setting up the groups displayed in the Team Panel via various tabs. The groups can be freely defined and also reflect project team, department or location. The groups can be set up both locally by the user and centrally by the administrator: "Especially in large companies, there is always a certain degree of staff turnover: centrally managed groups guarantee that all data are always up-to-date," says Schreier.

Scalability to 5,000 users

In order to be able to address companies of that size, with the new release C4B has significantly increased the scalability of its solution: with XPhone Connect 6, up to 5,000 users can be run on one server. "Our target market has changed over the last few years: as our solution has grown, so has the size of our customers," reports Michael Schreier. While in the company’s early years small to medium-sized businesses had formed the core of the customer base, today installations with 250-1,000 users were the rule. "Increasing scalability was a concern that our partners have repeatedly brought back to us in recent years," says Schreier. "With XPhone Connect 6 it is now possible to develop completely new customer segments."

Dashboard for caller popup

For this target group, another Connect feature was significantly expanded: the AppLink Dashboard. The dashboard is the central link between communication and business applications. For example, key data e.g. from the ERP or CRM system can be displayed directly in the client. At the same time, actions can be launched in the applications. "For companies with complex processes and intensive customer contact, the potential offered by a cleanly coordinated interaction of communication e.g. with the CRM system is practically unlimited," Schreier is convinced.

To make this potential even easier to exploit, C4B has expanded its Dashboard Designer: with the help of the design tool, the desired data fields and actions from the connected applications can be dragged and dropped using the WYSIWIG principle ("What you see is what you get"). With the new release, the conditions for the display of a dashboard can be combined almost at will: "With minimum effort the dashboards can be tailored to the target group and are thus, for example, only available to a particular department," Schreier explains the concept. "Thus every employee gets the information he needs – exactly tailored to his function and requirements." With the new release this information is available to him much faster than before. With XPhone Connect 6, a custom dashboard can be defined for the caller popup. This means the desired data is displayed as soon as the phone rings.

Further innovations are the integration into IBM Notes as well as an export function for the Business Intelligence module Analytics. The telephone data can now be exported to Excel in the form of pivot tables and can thus be analysed at an even more granular level.

Software Assurance with a 5 year term

Simultaneously with the new release the terms of the software update service XPhone Up2Date were adjusted:  this can now be purchased for up to 5 years. "For large companies in particular, the investment certainty offered by our Software Assurance plays an important role," explains Michael Schreier. "To meet this demand, we have extended the term of originally 3 years, which we defined when Up2Date was launched, to 5 years." 

Fresh on the market, XPhone Connect 6 has already passed its first "acid test": on the "XPhone in Motion" tour, C4B presented the new release to resellers and customers. "As a manufacturer with pure channel distribution, talking directly to customers is of course extremely interesting," emphasises Schreier. "Our conclusion: there is no way around the subject of application integration any more. Businesses have now clearly recognized for themselves the potential a function like the AppLink Dashboard offers them."