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Contact centers’ cloud migration continues apace, but for the larger CX picture, it seems likely that enterprises will be wrestling with heterogeneous environments requiring considerable integration among call handling, data, AI, and mobility elements. Companies must bring all of these to bear if they want to provide the level of CX that customers increasingly demand. A recent Twilio survey, flagged by CX Dive, highlights the extent of the need. “The vast majority of businesses — 96% — plan to build custom CX solutions instead of buying them off-the-shelf, leveraging application programming interfaces to integrate new tools [and] technologies,” CX Dive reports. “However, while best-of-breed solutions offer businesses the opportunity to tailor their tech stack to meet their specific needs, they can pose greater integration and onboarding challenges than less specialized all-in-one suites, which are designed to work together harmoniously,” the article notes. In other words, it’s the eternal tradeoff, which may be leaning toward best-of-breed.

If you’re an IT leader whose responsibilities include AV technology, this is a challenging time. As you try to plan for upgrading your meeting spaces, the most obvious issue is the uncertainty brought on by the current international trade environment. I’ve talked with IT pros who say their planning has been seriously affected by the potential cost implications for hardware manufactured partially or entirely outside the U.S. – though others have told me they can’t afford to put planning on hold while the tariff issue is resolved. And it looks like the uncertainty will continue. A federal court last week put Trump’s sweeping tariffs on hold, but the matter is likely to end up at the Supreme Court, leaving the issue up in the air at least for now. So where does that leave enterprises?