By Doug Green

“We are our partners. We’ve seen what they see, and we built the platform around those real-world problems.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Bill McClain and Jody Gonzalez of UponAI explain how the company is approaching voice AI from a telecommunications-first perspective, giving MSPs a way to add AI agents without forcing customers onto a specific phone platform.

UponAI connects to existing PBXs through SIP extensions, allowing AI agents to work inside the customer’s existing telephony environment.

That is important for MSPs serving customers with mixed, legacy or evolving communications systems.

Gonzalez says many AI voice platforms were built without a deep understanding of telephony. UponAI was designed around the opposite assumption: the AI needs to understand the phone system, its extensions, queues, transfers and call flows.

The company describes its platform as a toolbox that MSPs can use to build their own agents.

That includes support for integrations with CRM, billing, accounting and other business systems through APIs, MCP, webhooks and low-code or no-code integrations.

The platform is also white-label, allowing partners to offer the service under their own brand and determine how they bill their end customers.

One difference that has attracted attention is per-second billing.

Instead of rounding short calls up to the next minute, UponAI charges partners for the actual seconds used. At larger call volumes, McClain says that can materially affect cost.

The company also puts considerable emphasis on call handling.

AI agents can see whether someone is already on the phone, perform more sophisticated transfers and return to the caller if the intended recipient is unavailable rather than simply dropping the call into voicemail.

“It’s about outcomes,” McClain says. “If the customer’s problem isn’t solved, what good is it?”

The company is already applying the technology across different industries.

One upcoming deployment involves a medical office where patients will be able to authenticate and address outstanding balances using an AI agent.

Another use case supports an operation at JFK Airport handling international calls related to pets. UponAI’s multilingual agents can automatically switch among 10 languages, with additional languages available through separate agents.

Gonzalez says the platform also includes pronunciation controls, which can be important for names, cities and industry-specific terminology.

For MSPs entering voice AI, UponAI also provides a four-week onboarding process designed to help partners build their first agents and understand the platform well enough to manage future deployments themselves.

Visit UponAI.com to learn more or book a demo.

“We built this as telecom people first — because AI voice has to understand the phone system.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast, Bill McClain and Jody Gonzales of UponAI explain why they believe voice AI needs to be built around real-world telephony, not bolted onto it afterward. The result is a platform designed for MSPs, service providers and enterprises that need AI agents to work across existing PBXs, call queues, extensions, CRMs and other business systems.

McClain and Gonzales say one of the biggest differences is control of the call.

Rather than sending a call out to a separate ten-digit number and losing visibility into what happens next, UponAI can connect through SIP extensions or SIP trunks and remain integrated with the customer’s communications environment.

That makes functions such as transfers far more sophisticated.

An UponAI agent can perform cold transfers, warm transfers and what the company calls agentic warm transfers. The AI can contact an employee, explain who is calling and why, listen to the employee’s response, and then decide whether to complete the transfer, send the caller to voicemail or route the call somewhere else.

McClain says that mirrors the way people traditionally handled calls inside an office.

The platform is also designed to work across multiple phone systems rather than tying the customer to a single vendor.

For MSPs serving organizations with mixed or legacy environments, that can be significant.

UponAI also emphasizes integrations.

Agents can connect with CRM, EHR, billing, scheduling and accounting systems, allowing them to check balances, schedule appointments, send payment links, collect information and trigger workflows without requiring a human for every step.

The company says its platform supports hundreds of voices and dozens of languages, along with voice and chat agents, web widgets, SMS, calendar integration, knowledge bases and live call monitoring.

Its Agent IQ capability can review an AI agent’s configuration, identify potential problems and run simulations before deployment.

Reliability is another focus.

McClain says UponAI can fail over between LLMs, voice providers and speech services if a primary provider becomes unavailable.

The company also uses per-second billing rather than rounding calls up to the next minute — a difference that can become meaningful at higher call volumes.

For MSPs, Gonzales says the platform includes white-label options, partner administration and a structured onboarding program designed to teach partners how to build, integrate and manage their own agents.

“We are our partners,” McClain says. “We live this every day.”

Visit UponAI.com to learn more.

“You no longer need to rip and replace those devices. Bring them with you to Webex.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, James Lee of Inlayer explains how Phonism by Inlayer helps Cisco partners migrate customers from legacy phone systems to Webex while preserving existing handsets, reducing disruption and lowering the cost of the move.

Phonism is Inlayer’s flagship unified device management and compliance automation platform.

Lee says the platform is designed to help service providers manage devices from multiple manufacturers through a single interface and API, while also automating configuration, provisioning and compliance.

For Cisco partners, the opportunity is especially significant in accounts still running legacy Avaya, Mitel and other on-premises systems.

Lee says many customers are not staying on older platforms because they prefer them. They are staying because replacing thousands of phones can be expensive, disruptive and time-consuming.

Phonism removes much of that barrier.

As a Cisco SolutionsPlus partner, Phonism can be included with Webex quotes and renewals, allowing existing SIP devices to be brought onto Webex rather than immediately replaced.

Lee describes the strategy as “land, expand and flip.”

Partners can land the customer on Webex while keeping existing handsets, expand the relationship by selling other Cisco services, and later replace those devices with Cisco endpoints as they age, break or reach the end of their depreciation cycle.

That can also pull revenue forward.

Instead of waiting months for a full hardware migration, partners can move the backend platform first and preserve a familiar experience for users.

Inlayer is also expanding into presence-based provisioning.

Using a small NFC-enabled sticker, an end user can tap the device with a smartphone, authenticate, share location with consent and automatically activate a preconfigured compliant device.

That process can also capture identity and E911 location information, while creating cryptographic proof that a person was physically present during deployment.

Lee says the approach can simplify self-installation, hoteling and shared workspace environments.

The potential savings can be substantial.

Lee points to a recent deployment involving a retailer with 700 locations and 7,000 endpoints. He says the migration was completed across four weekends and saved approximately $2 million compared with a traditional replacement approach.

For Cisco partners, Lee’s message is simple: legacy hardware no longer has to block a cloud migration.

Visit Phonism.com or Inlayer.com to learn more.

“The AI agents are handling the repetitive questions, and our employees can spend more time on the complex issues.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne, George Hantzandreou of New Castle County Government in Delaware discusses how the county is using Webex AI Agents to improve constituent services, reduce wait times and give employees more time for higher-value work.

New Castle County serves more than 500,000 residents through approximately 2,000 employees and dozens of locations, including libraries, public safety, community services and other county operations.

The county has used Cisco collaboration technology for more than a decade and moved its contact center operations to Webex Contact Center more than two years ago.

Its AI journey began with the IT help desk.

Facing retirements and a hiring freeze, Hantzandreou says the county deployed Webex AI Agents to handle common troubleshooting questions, voicemail PIN resets and password reset requests while escalating more complex issues to employees.

The success of that deployment quickly led to other use cases.

In the county’s inclusionary housing program, employees were receiving so many calls that applications from residents in need could take more than three weeks to process.

Hantzandreou built an AI-enabled contact center that could answer questions about eligibility, provide information from an approved knowledge base and send application links by SMS.

The result has been significant.

The AI agent now contains roughly 65% of calls in that program, while application processing time has fallen from more than three weeks to less than one week.

Hantzandreou says the county is careful about AI governance, particularly in areas such as housing and benefits.

The AI is grounded in approved county websites and documents using retrieval-augmented generation rather than making independent eligibility decisions. Staff also review performance and update the knowledge base when needed.

Constituents can always request a human.

That is particularly important for seniors, people who may be uncomfortable with AI or anyone dealing with a more complex situation.

The technology is also changing the employee experience.

Hantzandreou says agents are spending less time answering repetitive FAQ-style questions and more time on complex cases, projects and professional development.

In some departments, average handle time has actually increased — something the county views positively because employees are now spending more time on issues that truly require human attention.

The county has also extended access beyond normal business hours.

AI agents can answer questions 24/7, including evenings, weekends and holidays, while routing unresolved issues to live agents or voicemail when necessary.

Looking ahead, Hantzandreou says his focus is increasingly on observability, reporting and post-deployment management as AI handles a growing share of the county’s constituent interactions.

Visit Webex.com to learn more about Webex AI Agents and Webex Contact Center.

“We’re seeing a very different Cisco emerge in this new AI era.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Dave Michels and David Danto of TalkingPointz break down the biggest announcements from the event and what they mean for enterprise customers, partners and the future of workplace technology.

Michels and Danto say the broader story is not any one product announcement. It is the way Cisco is connecting networking, collaboration, contact center, AI and workplace intelligence into a more unified ecosystem.

One example is Dialog, Cisco’s new agentic CX capability.

Michels points to Dialog as a sign of how Cisco is extending AI beyond simple assistants and into longer-running customer interactions where agents can continue working on a problem after the initial contact ends.

Danto also highlights Cisco’s growing workplace portfolio, including new AV-over-IP capabilities, intelligent speakers and tighter integration across room technology.

The key, he says, is that Cisco is taking technologies that already exist in some form and combining them into a more complete enterprise platform.

That matters for large organizations trying to reduce complexity.

Instead of stitching together separate vendors for networking, meeting rooms, workplace systems and collaboration, enterprises may increasingly be able to consolidate more of that environment under Cisco.

The two analysts also point to Cisco’s growing support for multiple meeting platforms, including Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet.

For enterprise customers, Michels says one of the biggest questions ahead is how offices themselves will change.

Cisco is investing heavily in tools such as Workplace Designer and Cisco Spaces to help organizations understand how physical environments are being used and how they should be redesigned.

That could mean using AI to recommend where rooms should be repurposed, where wireless performance needs improvement and how workplaces can better support the way employees actually meet and collaborate.

Trust is another major theme.

As AI agents gain access to sensitive information and begin taking actions on behalf of users, both Michels and Danto say enterprises will increasingly favor platforms they already trust.

That could become a significant advantage for Cisco.

Their takeaway from WebexOne is that Cisco is no longer approaching collaboration, networking and AI as separate categories.

It is building toward a connected intelligent workplace where those systems increasingly operate together.

Visit TalkingPointz.com to read more analysis from Dave Michels and David Danto.

By Doug Green

“If you notice the camera move, that’s our bad.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Gavin Ivester, Vice President of Design at Cisco, discusses the thinking behind Cisco’s collaboration hardware, the new Cisco Ceiling Speaker Pro and why great meeting-room technology should feel almost invisible to the user.

Cisco announced the Ceiling Speaker Pro at WebexOne as another piece of its AV-over-IP strategy for intelligent meeting rooms.

Ivester says the real value comes from how Cisco’s room components work together.

The Ceiling Speaker Pro complements the Ceiling Microphone Pro, which uses 64 microphone elements to listen selectively across a room. Combined with cameras, codecs and other devices, the system can better understand who is speaking, where they are and how audio and video should respond.

“The more you add these peripherals, the smarter the room becomes,” Ivester says.

That can also improve meeting equity.

Cisco can use precise knowledge of microphone, speaker and room locations to reinforce sound for people who may have difficulty hearing while managing timing and phasing so the amplified audio still sounds natural.

For Ivester, performance and aesthetics should not be competing goals.

Before joining Cisco, he led design at Bang & Olufsen and held senior footwear design roles at Nike and Puma. He says those experiences reinforced a philosophy of starting with function, then finding the design that expresses it.

At Cisco, that means devices that can fit naturally into spaces ranging from conference rooms to high-end professional offices without drawing unnecessary attention to themselves.

The same thinking applies to the meeting experience.

Ivester says cameras should move and frame participants without making users conscious of the mechanics taking place behind the scenes.

“The best antidote for distraction is that you don’t notice what’s happening,” he says. “You just feel like you’re part of the conversation.”

Cisco is also emphasizing platform flexibility. Its collaboration devices can support Webex as well as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet, allowing organizations to use the meeting platform they need without changing the underlying room experience.

Ivester says AI is also changing the design profession itself.

Designers are increasingly thinking less about placing every pixel and more about defining how intelligent systems should behave as interfaces dynamically respond to users, data and context.

For Cisco partners, that means the hardware they deploy is becoming part of a larger intelligent environment designed around one goal: better conversations.

Visit Cisco.com to learn more about Cisco collaboration devices and the Ceiling Speaker Pro.

By Doug Green

“The workplace is becoming an active participant in work — sensing, reasoning and acting.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne, Bob Cicero, Global Director of Intelligent Workplace Experience for Cisco Webex, discusses how AI, networking, collaboration devices and workplace data are coming together to create a new generation of intelligent offices.

Cicero says the intelligent workplace sits at the intersection of people, technology and physical space.

The idea goes beyond hybrid work. Instead of simply adding collaboration technology to an office, organizations can design environments where the network, meeting devices, sensors and workplace systems work together as one platform.

That can allow the workplace to respond dynamically to what employees need.

Cicero gives the example of a meeting room experiencing a Wi-Fi problem. An intelligent system could identify that the issue is local wireless interference, determine that it cannot be fixed before the next meeting and automatically direct participants to another available room.

That experience requires networking, collaboration devices, observability, assurance and location services to work together.

Office design is also changing.

Cicero says IT traditionally entered the process late, after architects had drawn walls and workplace teams had selected furniture.

Cisco is helping turn that model around.

“Start with the end-user experience, then the technology, then the furniture, then draw the walls,” Cicero says.

The same technology can also provide organizations with a much better understanding of how offices are actually being used.

Cisco collaboration devices and networking infrastructure can provide information about occupancy, meeting sizes, temperature, humidity and other characteristics of the workplace.

That can help IT and real estate teams determine whether spaces are designed appropriately and where changes should be made.

Cicero says the best technology should ultimately disappear into the experience.

With RoomOS 27 and increasingly intelligent meeting spaces, employees should be able to walk into a room and simply have the environment work around them.

Cisco is also extending its multi-platform strategy. Webex devices can support Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet while continuing to provide workplace intelligence regardless of the meeting platform being used.

Looking several years ahead, Cicero expects agentic AI to make workplaces capable of sensing conditions, reasoning about what employees need and taking action automatically.

As digital workers take on more routine tasks, he believes the physical workplace may actually become more important for human-to-human interaction.

Visit Cisco.com and search for Intelligent Workplace Experience to learn more.

By Doug Green

“The AI agent can keep working on your behalf even after the conversation is over.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Chang Chang, Senior Director and Head of Product for Webex CX Cloud Solutions, discusses Dialog and how Cisco sees agentic AI changing the customer experience.

Dialog is designed to move customer service beyond isolated interactions and toward an ongoing relationship between a brand and a customer.

Chang says the platform is built around four core ideas: long-range actions, persistent context, self-learning and easier deployment of AI agents.

The long-range element is especially important.

Instead of ending when the call or chat ends, the AI agent can continue working toward the customer’s desired outcome.

Chang gives the example of an insurance claim after a car accident. Rather than forcing the customer to coordinate separately with claims, towing, liability and rental-car teams, an AI agent could continue working across those functions after the initial interaction.

That reduces what Chang calls the “coordination tax” placed on the customer.

Persistent context adds another layer.

Dialog can retain information from previous interactions, preferences and customer journeys so the customer does not have to repeatedly explain who they are, what happened and how they prefer to communicate.

That context can include preferred channels, timing and prior conversations, helping create a more personalized experience.

Chang says Dialog can also learn from customer journeys and other enterprise information, including systems of record and live conversations.

But greater autonomy also requires stronger controls.

Chang says accountability, security, observability and manageability are essential if enterprises are going to trust AI agents with more responsibility.

The agent also needs to operate within the policies, rules and procedures established by the organization.

For Cisco partners, MSPs and CX providers, Chang recommends starting with specific use cases where the customer experience is clearly broken.

Understand the desired outcome first, then determine how an agentic system such as Dialog can help deliver it.

Visit Webex.com to learn more about Webex AI Agent and Dialog.

“We’re not just giving them a home. We’re giving them an office and a connection to the next world.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at WebexOne in Austin, Saleema Sayed of Cisco Webex and Anthony Flynn of Covenant House Texas discuss how technology, financial support and mentorship are helping young people experiencing homelessness move toward education, employment and economic independence.

Covenant House Texas serves young adults ages 18 to 24 and is part of a broader Covenant House federation with 33 sites across five countries.

Flynn stresses that Covenant House is much more than a shelter. Young people receive housing, healthcare, mental health services, meals, career support and other wraparound services designed to help them build sustainable, independent lives.

Cisco has become a major technology and financial partner in that mission.

Through Cisco Meraki networking and Webex collaboration devices, Covenant House can provide secure connectivity, interview rooms and access to the tools young people need for education, job searches, mentorship and remote work.

For a young adult without reliable connectivity elsewhere, that can be transformative.

“They can walk into Covenant House, get on a Webex device, connect through secure Meraki networking and actually do their jobs,” Sayed says.

Cisco’s support also extends well beyond donating hardware.

Sayed says Cisco teams help maintain, update and support the technology, treating Covenant House much like a customer rather than dropping off equipment and walking away.

Flynn says Cisco has invested more than $20 million across the Covenant House federation over the years through technology, financial resources and human capital.

He shared the story of one young woman who came to Covenant House after losing her mother, becoming homeless and later being robbed while making deliveries. Within nine months, Flynn says she had moved into independent living and secured a job at a major law firm earning nearly $70,000 a year.

“That’s what an investment in Covenant House can do,” Flynn says.

Cisco employees and partners can also participate through Covenant House Sleep Out events, where executives and other supporters spend a night outside while raising funds and awareness around youth homelessness.

For the broader technology community, Flynn says there are opportunities to contribute money, technology, skills, mentorship and time.

Visit CovenantHouseTX.org to learn more about Covenant House Texas and ways to support its work.

“A buyer isn’t paying for the deal you did yesterday. They’re paying for the certainty of tomorrow.”

In this Technology Reseller News podcast recorded at MSP Summit, Patrick O’Dell of Ingram Micro discusses the shift from traditional managed service provider to what he calls the strategic service provider — and how distribution can help partners make that transition faster and with less risk.

Ingram Micro has evolved far beyond its traditional role as a hardware distributor. Today, O’Dell says the company supports partners across the broader IT lifecycle, including cloud services, hyperscalers, software, professional services and AI-enabled tools through platforms such as Xvantage.

That evolution mirrors what is happening to MSPs.

O’Dell says managed services remain a strong foundation, but many partners are being pushed toward a more strategic role with customers.

The challenge is getting there without dramatically increasing operating expenses.

MSPs can try to build every competency internally, hire specialized staff and maintain certifications themselves, but that can be expensive, slow and risky.

O’Dell says Ingram Micro can serve as a scale engine.

Partners can draw on Ingram’s technical resources, certifications, project management, sales enablement and expertise rather than adding every capability to their own payroll.

That can be particularly valuable for smaller MSPs.

“The qualification question isn’t how big you are,” O’Dell says. “It’s what you’re trying to accomplish.”

Ingram can work with partners from initial consultation through project delivery and ongoing governance, allowing smaller providers to tap into resources that might otherwise be difficult to build internally.

The transition is also about more than technology.

O’Dell says becoming a strategic service provider can require changes in mindset, sales processes, training and corporate culture.

The economic goal is to create more recurring, higher-quality revenue.

For MSP owners thinking about future valuation or M&A, that matters.

One-time transactions and hardware refresh cycles can produce revenue, but recurring services can create greater predictability — and predictability can translate into stronger enterprise value.

O’Dell’s message to MSPs is that they do not have to make the transition alone.

Visit IngramMicro.com or connect through Xvantage to learn more.