Release C 3.4.1: the new features that improve Mida’s contact center efficiency
To be competitive in the marketplace, a company must adopt technologies that are always up-to-date in terms of security and performance standards.
The latest version of Mida Contact Center C 3.4.1 enables an evolution of the platform, making it a solution that can meet the demands of customers who want to invest in Unified Communications.
Focusing on the needs of our customers, and through constant dialogue with leading suppliers worldwide, we have worked on an evolution of the platform that can bring tangible advantages to the companies that choose us as a technological partner.
What to expect from this release?
- Compliance Recorder: the new release includes support for Teams video files in the collectors and playback station.
The update adds multi-tenant support to the recorder, making it the right solution in both SaaS and on-prem deployments for enterprises that have multiple business units or locations. With the introduction of new parameters, the backup process has been optimized. - Attendant Console: Improvements have been introduced in the console at the user experience level for visually impaired operators, such as entering low vision-specific color settings and new commands to change the page in the directory.
DTMF tones have been introduced, through which each key in the keyboard corresponds to a sound: this feature helps the visually impaired operator navigate through an IVR system. - Fax Server: with the new release, the graphic interface was improved and the product is now much more stable and efficient, especially for companies that have many active tenants.
- Control Panel: the ability to add SAN (Subject Alternative Names) options in the generation of HTTPS certificates has been added.
- Constant updates for maximum security: operating system patches are available every month, for system updating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqEqby3oTYM
Find out all the technical details of the release on our website.
Do you want to know more about the C 3.4.1 release from Mida, a NUSO company?
We are glad to explain to you the main benefits of the new features, contact us to set up a call with our experts!
Mida has been acquired by NUSO
University City, MO. – December 13, 2023 – NUSO, a leading multinational service provider of proprietary cloud communications, customer experience and CPaaS enablement solutions announced the acquisition of Italian-based Mida Solutions S.r.l (Mida), a software-as-a-service provider of contact center, compliance recorder and call analytics with customers in 39 countries.
This combination enriches NUSO’s core customer experience (CX) offer to its cloud communications applications. Mida’s applications, including Contact Center and Compliance Recorder solutions, integrate to enable services and applications for environments such as Microsoft Teams™.
“We are excited to add Mida’s core capabilities around Contact Center and Compliance Recorder solutions to the NUSO portfolio,” said Matt Siemens, NUSO CEO. “Mida’s products further our reach into Microsoft Teams and other collaboration marketplaces. In addition, this move anchors NUSO directly in the global service provider and critical infrastructure markets serving transportation and emergency services. Incredibly, this acquisition also nearly doubles our software development resources.”
“We are thrilled to be a part of the NUSO family of services,” said Attilio Licciardello, Mida General Manager and Owner. “Our current partners and customers will have access to new services through the NUSO portfolio in cloud communications, network, and enablement technologies. Additionally, customers and partners can expect the same level of top-quality service.”
Mida’s contact center and compliance recorders meet the most stringent security and regulatory requirements, including GDPR, MIFID 2, and HIPAA. These solutions can be seamlessly integrated with traditional UCaaS and PBX implementations as well as Microsoft Teams and other cloud communication systems.
“NUSO’s acquisition of Mida Solutions broadens the portfolio of solutions our partners can offer their customers,” said Ryan Henley, NUSO CRO. “The integration with and extension of NUSO’s full-stack capabilities address market needs at the network, service, and application layers, driving value creation as customers move to the cloud. We are excited to add these CX capabilities to our expanding partner network and geographic reach.”
This announcement marks NUSO’s second acquisition over the past 45 days. NUSO was advised by Q Advisors, a global TMT investment banking boutique.
ABOUT NUSO
NUSO delivers SaaS cloud communication services via a proprietary CPaaS enablement platform supported by a fully redundant network in North America and Europe. The Company offers a diversified portfolio of business-focused Cloud Communications solutions. The Company addresses multiple expanding markets selling enterprise–grade, as–a–service offerings via a robust network of channel partners and direct customers. For more information, visit us at www.NUSO.cloud.
8 things you may not know about...Mida's Attendant Console!
Choosing the right operator console solution is a strategic business decision.
Customer service is an important business card for a company that wants to put the customer's needs at the center of its attention.
Furthermore, having a product that allows you to have all call options just a click away brings a huge operational advantage for agents, especially if you choose Attendant Console for Teams which integrates perfectly into the Microsoft Teams UC platform, both as a web interface application or Teams embedded app.
However, some concerns may arise when evaluating the product. As we've done before for our Compliance Recorder, we're ready to share some not-so-obvious features of our Attendant Console.
Here are 8 things you might not know about our operator console!
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Do I need to install software on a PC?
No, it’s completely web-based. The first time a plugin is loaded on the PC.
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Can it be used by visually impaired or blind operators?
Yes: it was developed taking into account the usability by the visually impaired/ blind, and optimized for the tools used by these users (enlargers, vocalizers, and braille console).
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Does it have a customizable interface?
Yes, you can configure the layout at the individual user level, in terms of colors, fonts, and visibility of the console’s theme areas. You can also configure all the function keys for each task.
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Is the solution multi-language?
Yes. Already available in 5 languages. Any other language can be implemented by uploading a file with translation.
What methodologies are there to log in/log out of a queue?
In the attendant console solution, the agent can do this independently or the supervisor can do it for the agents whose agents he or she is supervising. It also has the functionality for “After call work” (no calls routed to the attendant after call completion for a configurable time or until manual resume).
The two features are not applicable if there are no queues as in the Attendant Console Receptionist. -
Are there high-availability features?
Yes, it’s available with these features: Fault-tolerance based on active-active component redundancy, geo-redundancy, and hypervisor-supported high availability (Vmware, Azure…).
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Are call reports available? And can it be customizable?
Yes directly from the client via Power BI or by using the partner's or Mida's specialized services. Not applicable if there are no queues as in the Attendant Console Receptionist.
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Is status monitoring (BLF) with presence available?
Yes, for most of the technology.
Do you want to know more about our Attendant Console?
We will be happy to explain to you in detail the advantages you can have from these new implementations, contact us here to book your free slot with one of our experts!
Microsoft Teams: the latest update - Fall 2023
Microsoft Ignite is approaching (November 14-17 - official site) and many of the updates on new Microsoft Teams features will be shared during the event, but some new features on Teams have already been revealed, and here are the point-by-point highlights for more and more high-performance team collaboration.
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New Microsoft Teams app for Windows and Mac
The new Teams 2.1 started to be operational on early users in March 2023 and available to all from September 2023 for 300 million active users (here are more details). The new app is designed to be faster and less impactful on system resources.
New features included in the new version of Teams include custom line-of-business apps, third-party apps, meeting rooms, 7x7 video, call queues, PSTN calling, and contextual search in chats and channels.
Net of the internal policies managed by the IT manager, the user will be able to switch from the old Teams to the new one. The changes will be both in terms of experience and action, the goal for Microsoft is that by the beginning of 2024, the majority of users have definitively chosen the new version.
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Teams Town Halls
Live event and webinar management from Teams will be much more professional. Microsoft Teams Live Events, which will remain active until September 2024, will be retired and replaced by Teams Town Halls. For Teams Premium License participants up to 10k or 20k (Premium License), 15 simultaneous events, and up to 30h duration per event.
From 2024, the ability to stream out to third-party platforms such as YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Meta Workplace, etc.
Other new features available in the new platform: Green Room, Q&A, and On-demand recording.
In addition, the management of event invitations has been optimized, with the ability to add speaker bios, have custom templates, and manage registration data via specific forms.
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Live translated transcript
With this feature, available only to Teams Premium users, you can record and transcription in 30 different languages of a meeting.
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Collaborative notes in Teams mobile
This new function allows the ability for participants to create notes, and collaborate on an agenda, which automatically syncs with Microsoft Planner and Microsoft To Do.
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New Channels experience
The latest updates include a new conversation view, an improved search experience, and a simplified information panel.
It’s possible to create up to 1,000 channels within a team, in order to manage the space and team related to a specific workgroup without running out of space.
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Portrait blur
You can now blur the background in two modes, with the existing standard blur and portrait blurring, record the screen, and record audio-only clips when sending a video message in a chat.
Stay tuned to read through our article the future Microsoft Teams updates. Meanwhile, discover how our UC solutions can help you improve your communications within Microsoft Teams.
8 things you may not know... about Mida's Compliance Recorder!
We have spoken several times about our Compliance Recorder, delving into its security and reliability features, not to mention its extreme flexibility both in the development environment and in its adaptability to hybrid environments.
When choosing a specific product like this, a company's IT manager may have a few more doubts to clarify, to understand if the product's features can help him with his business needs.
Let's look together at the topics that may be of most interest to explore further.
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Does your company have a need to collect conversations from multiple sources?
Mida Compliance Recorder is a modular and multi-source recording system that can collect conversations from different sources/technologies like Teams, Zoom, Legacy PBX, Cisco, Radio, Tetra, Analog phones, and WhatsApp (via CC) and stores them in the same repository, setting retention policies and respecting all local and global law/privacy requirements.
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Is it possible to keep the recordings encrypted?
Yes, there is a special advanced license that allows you to manage encryption with an algorithm with a double AES 256bit key.
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What media are supported for recordings?
The supported media types are: call recording, SMS recording, internal and external communications, and WhatsApp recording. Video/screen sharing/meeting/chat recordings are planned in the roadmap.
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To record calls in Microsoft Teams, is the company required to use Session Border Control (SBC)?
The answer is no, Microsoft Teams voice and video conversations are recorded without an SBC being required.
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Is it possible to transcribe the recordings?
Yes, Mida uses external modules available on the market (APIs such as Microsoft Cognitive or speech-to-text products)
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Is sentiment analysis possible?
Yes, Mida is compatible with tools and modules available on the market. A native Mida module is in the roadmap.
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What kind of high-availability models are supported?
Fault tolerance based on active-active component redundancy, geo-redundancy (server distributed in multiple locations), hypervisor-supported high availability (VMware, Azure, ...)
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Is the reporting compatible with Power BI?
Yes, with one of the following solutions: Microsoft Power BI integration segregated per tenant and Analytics platform integration via ODBC segregated per tenant
Do you want to know more about our video and audio compliance recorder?
We will be happy to explain to you in detail the advantages you can have from these new implementations, contact us here to book your free slot with one of our experts!
Why UC solutions are the right investment for finance companies
The financial sector is facing an important challenge: being able to reconcile the need for advanced technologies with the privacy and compliance regulations required of its services due to the sensitivity of the data processed.
Unified Communications systems are certainly among the IT solutions involved because they are the basis of customer relationships and are necessary for the secure archiving of conversations.
But let's see in detail what the needs of these companies are and how the right technological choices can make a difference, making them competitive in the market.
- Increase in operational efficiency
In environments such as banks and financial institutions, where branches are diverse and on-site and remote teams alternate, it is essential that communication between employees, customers, and partners is fluid.
This means adopting technological solutions that encourage internal and external collaboration and choosing systems that help manage customer data effectively, possibly aggregating them with business intelligence tools.
It is essential for a bank to manage every activity with the highest professionalism, regardless of the location of the team and the company infrastructure.
- Improving the customer experience
Banks and finance companies have an increasingly demanding customer base: personalization in communication is necessary. Customers, in fact, want to live an experience in which they feel at the center of attention and their needs are followed in every detail.
Furthermore, communications in the financial sector must be rapid: often the customer may need to manage an urgency in the financial sector.
In Mida's Cloud Contact Center, thanks to integration with the CRM, customer data and history are available to offer an excellent customer experience. Furthermore, integration with instant messaging such as WhatsApp allows for increasingly rapid service management.
- Ensure the security of recordings and voice communications
The financial sector handles a lot of sensitive information that needs to be protected, the services offered must be impeccable, without compromising privacy in any way.
There is also the need to securely archive conversations, which according to MiFID II regulations must be kept for a minimum period of 5 years on a secure, tamper-proof medium.
Once again, an investment in UC makes a difference. The Mida Compliance Recorder is the perfect Unified Communications product for this need: it guarantees compliance with the GDPR and MiFID II and also adapts to internal security protocols, the anti-tamper and file encryption features make it completely reliable and tamper-proof.
Do you want to know how our Unified Communications solutions could make a difference for your company?
Contact us and we will be happy to give you more information about it.
The benefits of UC solutions for small businesses
Small and medium-sized enterprises are key players in the economies of many Countries.
In recent decades they have been exceptionally determined to undertake the road to digital innovation, long since taken by enterprises. This has also been possible thanks to processes and tools designed in a gradually simpler and more accessible way even for less structured businesses.
In Unified Communications, the application of Software as a Service logic, which has long been known in the field of IT, has also enabled SMBs to adopt tools for managing and monitoring communications with their customers.
The growth trend for these products is increasingly positive, with an estimated market value in 2022 of $113.48 billion, and the forecast is for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4 percent from 2023 to 2030. It is not only large enterprises that will drive this trend but also smaller companies that, with less complex internal structures and streamlined approval processes, can speed up the adoption phase of UC solutions. In addition, even many SMBs today operate in a scenario where part of their employees works remotely or in hybrid mode, thus sometimes making it necessary to remodel the previous UC tools in use.
Why, then, should a small business invest in Unified Communications?
Here are 4 of the main benefits that could drive change:
- To improve collaboration and internal communication
Even in a small business, there can be silos and difficulties in the shared management of information and documents. UC solutions can simplify collaboration sharing among employees, regardless of where they work.
- To intelligently integrate business data
Small businesses need to manage inbound communications and link them to the CRM/database that actually contains all their customer information. At the same time, the limited number of available resources does not always allow for systematic updating of the inbound information flow. Unified Communications solutions such as those from Mida for the Teams environment make this more agile because they allow systematic synchronization between the information employees receive from customers and the CRM.
- To innovate at an affordable cost
With a UC as a service product suite, there are no licensing costs to purchase. In addition, the system is flexible and the number of users can grow with the business, thanks to the pay-as-you-grow principle. In addition, software upgrades and maintenance are handled by the solution provider, which is a great advantage for the company.
- To improve the customer experience
Thanks to the integration with CRM, keeping track of the history and the changed or new needs of each customer who contacts the corporate contact center is very easy. In real-time during the call with the customer, the operator can add notes or comments, as well as involve other colleagues in follow-up or upsell activities.
In addition, conversation/communication recording and advanced reporting systems can indicate how and where services can be improved, going so far as to indicate, for example, areas for improvement in agent training or cost of services.
Microsoft Teams: the latest updates
Microsoft's Teams platform is constantly evolving: several updates in the last months that include the use of avatars during meetings, facilitated use of Power Point within the platform, and new chat and channel search experience. Let us now go into detail to see what the enhancements and new features are:
User Experience: what's new?
- New chat and channel search experience: the search part for chats and channels improve, with a new panel opening next to the chat/channel so it can be kept visible while searching
- Zoom in/out options: it will be possible to zoom in on a shared screen sharing during a call or chat
- Show/hide previews in your Microsoft Teams chat list now available
- New features for Microsoft Premium users: users will have the ability to have a recap of the meeting through "recap tabs" in teams made through AI, which will provide meeting highlights.
New functionalities
- Present a local File From the PowerPoint app to PowerPoint Live in Teams: sharing a live PowerPoint presentation (saved only locally) is now improved, thanks to the new access point to the button "Present in Teams" button in the PowerPoint for Windows app
- Avatars for Microsoft Teams: for those who prefer not to be framed during calls, but want a more realistic representation of an old photograph, Teams gives the option of creating an avatar that represents them in a non-static way. Microsoft has expanded availability of avatars to more M365 license types.
- Cloud IntelliFrame: a new way of experiencing online meetings, seeing in an improved way the people present in Teams meetings, to improve collaboration in hybrid meetings
- Whiteboard App in Teams: a new way to manage notes and information, sharing them or working on them independently, all directly within Teams.
Do you want to continue to keep up to date with news from the Teams world and the Unified Communications industry? Sign up for our newsletter so you don't miss the latest news!
Welcome Microsoft 1°Cloud Region in Italy
That's all anyone has been talking about here in recent weeks, particularly since late May, when Microsoft made public the opening of a new Microsoft Data Center Region in Italy.
Let's get a better understanding of what it is and the implications for Italian companies (and others).
What is the new Microsoft Cloud Region in Italy?
The new cloud region, which will consist of three data centers and will be based in Milan.
The new Lombardy region will join Microsoft's existing network of over 60 regions worldwide and is expected to be one of the largest in Europe, where the company already has 17 others.
Microsoft is actually the latest among the large public cloud service providers to add a region in Italy. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Oracle, in fact, already have their cloud regions in Milan.
The initiative is part of the "Ambizione Italia" program that Microsoft launched in 2018. "Ambizione Italia Cloud Region Partner Alliance" is the project launched in March 2022 that currently brings together a roster of 17 partners committed to the digital development of Italy and at the forefront of Microsoft's new Italian Cloud Region.
4wardPRO, Agic Group, Computer Gross, CoreView, Deda Next, Dylog Italia, Esprinet, Expert.AI, Insight, NTT Data, Porini, Proge Software, SoftJam, SoftwareOne, Studio Informatica, TD Synnex, and ToolsGroup are the companies aiming to start digital transformation processes in a capillary way on companies present throughout the Country. These 17 partners join the founding partners, bringing the total to 31 partners within the project.
Back in 2020, Microsoft said it would invest about 1.5 billion euros over the five-year period 2020-2025 in activities aimed at improving cloud infrastructure, and training on digital skills.
In fact, according to what a joint study by Microsoft and IDC reported, in the next four years, the Microsoft ecosystem in Italy and its customers could produce, in the Italian economy a turnover of about 126 billion euros (more than 20 coming from Lombardy alone) and 237,000 new jobs.
"The Microsoft Partner ecosystem in Italy counts more than 14,000 realities and 400,000 professionals, a real chain of innovation rooted in the territory and with vertical competencies to accompany companies of any size and from any Industry towards transformation scenarios capable of supporting their growth. With this additional Alliance, we intend to give new impetus to the country's digital transition by focusing on Cloud Computing. Accenture, Avanade, Cluster Reply, Engineering, Kyndryl, TeamSystem, and Var Group are the founding partners, but in the coming months the initiative will welcome the contribution of many other players," commented Fabio Santini, Director of Global Partner Solutions Division.
What are the benefits for businesses?
With the new region, Microsoft partners will be able to add locally hosted, low-latency cloud services to their offerings, enabling fast and secure access to data and facilitating sharing scenarios that meet the needs of any industry.
As new businesses are added, they will be the first to take advantage of the Microsoft Cloud, offering their customers certified and reliable solutions to support them in their digital transformation. Access to local cloud services introduces maximum guarantees of data sovereignty, cybersecurity and compliance.
Companies, SMEs and public administrations will be able to access their data and Cloud services on a local basis. This effectively enables the cloud to all those realities that until now have been unable or unwilling to access the cloud for security reasons and/or because it was expressly forbidden by current privacy regulations.
Enterprises will be able to start leveraging the new region using Microsoft Azure or Microsoft 365 already in the coming weeks. Later on, Microsoft will also add other services such as Dynamics 365 and Power Platform.
Accenture, Avanade, Cluster Reply, Engineering, Kyndryl, TeamSystem and Var Group will work together with Microsoft to define a common strategy and market initiatives and programs to reach Italian organizations of all sizes and sectors, helping them to reap the benefits of digital.
The start-up phase of the project also includes a very concrete aspect: a shared plan of training and dedicated resources for companies, aimed at promoting the spread of a digital culture functional to the growth of the country. In this scenario, the consultancy contribution of ICT professionals plays a fundamental role. For this reason, the employees of the alliance partners will be involved in an extensive training and certification program with the aim of fostering their upskilling and professional certification in order to transform them into recognized consultants, capable of guiding the innovation choices of Italian companies and accompanying them on their path towards the Cloud, also contributing to projects in line with the six missions of the PNRR.
"Our goal is to help Italian organizations reap the benefits of digital to grow. We work to provide the technology platforms and secure cloud services to support their innovation, including our upcoming first Cloud Region in Italy. In this mission, we are supported by an extensive network of partners in the territory who closely follow public and private enterprises. We are proud to extend our initiative 'Ambizione Italia Cloud Region Partner Alliance' to 17 new partners who join the 14 founding partners: together we provide technologies, resources and skills to support businesses and Public Administration, to accelerate the path of digital transformation, creating innovation in the country," commented Vincenzo Esposito, CEO of Microsoft Italia.
How can we help you?
Mida has been supporting companies, SMEs and public administrations from all over the world for years in the process of migrating their UC to the cloud.
Especially in the field of recording, compliance is a crucial aspect, and we know that sometimes the lack of a national Microsoft Cloud Region has acted as a deterrent for realities that were looking for a secure and compliant system to record business conversations.
As an ISV vertically focused on the world of Unified Communications for almost 20 years, we also have active partnerships and collaborations with several of the Microsoft partners involved in the "Ambizione Italia Cloud Region Partner Alliance" project.
Contact us to find out how we can facilitate the migration of your UC system to the cloud!
Which UC challenges are our partners facing at the moment?
What are the main challenges our partners in the UC ecosystem are facing?
In this article, we are going to analyze the feedback we have from our partners and the actions we plan to take over the next 12 months to adapt our products accordingly.
Recently, our IT Sales and Business Development Manager, Dimitri Pagnin, was interviewed by UC Today to have his say on this topic and our roadmap for 2023.
As per the biggest challenges partners are facing right now, we can summarize them in the following points:
- Move UC from legacy system to the Cloud
To cope with the great UC transition from legacy systems to the cloud, companies are considering moving to cloud-based technologies such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. But are they really ready to face the pitfalls of such a substantial transition with zero impact?
As an ISV that has been involved in UC software for almost 20 years, Mida is aware of the difficulties associated with this challenge and offers its partners a training program to make this journey smoother and, if necessary, gradual.
Thanks to its long experience and collaboration with system integrators and service providers, Mida is able to provide proactive collaboration to its partners, foreseeing any criticalities in the customer's cloud migration process, being able to support them also in a gradual transition. Some of our major partners are system integrators vertically focused on other types of software. It is in this scenario that Mida's experience in telecommunications and UC plays a key role in the migration from traditional telephony to the cloud.
- Adopt UC solutions as-a-service
The purchase of software as a service is now a common trend in many companies. The world's leading software can be purchased in this modality, just think of Microsoft world, Google, Zoom.
Over the years, system integrators and service providers have also appreciated the advantages of the aaS model, which guarantees easier and faster go-to-market. In the transition from legacy systems to cloud UC, it is therefore normal that both look for as-a-service solutions to facilitate the move to the cloud. Mida's business choice in this regard was to maintain the on-premise deployment approach and to complement it with the as-a-service one. This dual choice makes the difference because it allows our partners to have different solutions in their portfolios that meet specific business needs.
What’s Mida’s product roadmap for the next 12 months?
The purpose of the product roadmap in 2023 will be to enhance some existing features in our products and to add new ones.
Part of the roadmap will be devoted to enhancing Mida Compliance Recorder for Microsoft Teams. As of now, it is already a modular recorder that is flexible enough to capture conversations from different sources and collect them into a single system with a single playback station. Just recently, we also integrated video recording for Teams into the product, and recording of Teams chats is also in the roadmap.
Moreover, we will enhance Mida products also for other environments, in order to provide both audio, video and chat recording.
But there are updates regarding also Mida C3 Cloud Contact Center, which has been recently enhanced with WhatsApp integration: it will have also an advanced CRM integration, and barge-in and listen-in functionalities.
Speech-to-text will be integrated both in the recorder and contact center, to satisfy the increasing demand for sentiment analysis and Artificial Intelligence features.
Lastly, Mida's entire portfolio will be available in SaaS mode, which, as we also noted above, is so popular among companies around the world.
Listen to Dimitri Pagnin full interview watching UC Today Video.
Do not hesitate to contact us at marketing@midasolutions.com if you have any questions. We will be glad to talk with you.