Accent-Neutralizing Contact Center Software Disrupting the Channel

Sanas technology is making its way into the hands of more channel partners, its recently hired channel leader, Jon Heaps, told Channel Futures.

The artificial intelligence (AI) tool designer most recently signed pacts with Five9 and Talkdesk.

"We are also working with Telarus, Avant and Bridgepointe, the largest technology service distributors (TSDs), and are closing in on signing with two other contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) providers," Heaps said.

Heaps has been the company's channel head and sales for the past four months, leaving his previous role at Ascent Business Partners as co-founder and managing partner to head up partner efforts at Sanas, which produces accent naturalization and noise-canceling software.

Heaps also has worked with Observe.AI, ShoreTel, Talkdesk and NICE during his channel career, which spans nearly 30 years.

Sanas Wants to Disrupt the Channel with Accent-Neutralizing Technology

Sanas, with what Heaps called "disruptive technology," appears to be working to solve a fundamental concern in the contact center, addressing the enterprises that either offshore their customer service or utilize business process outsourcing (BPO), of which "more than 70% resides in either the Philippines or India," Heaps shared.

Sanas' Jon Heaps

"While they speak English in these call centers, the greatest challenge has been overcoming the accent and getting understood for better CX (customer experience)," Heaps said.

Related:AI Will 'Dominate Customer Experience in 2024'

And the software helps, as he noted, to eliminate accent training courses.

On the noise cancelation front, Sanas is giving that for free to anyone, meaning no profit for the channel on this offer. Heaps said he felt it was the company's responsibility, something Sanas announced at Customer Contact Week 2024.

"It is free, like a browser or search engine," Heaps told us.

He believes that Sanas' accent neutralizer is where the channel opportunity lies, noting that the tool already yields itself to being a channel partner technology.

"Since this is a new and disruptive technology that, before now, has not been available to the channel, it opens up another opportunity for channel partners, particularly those focusing on CX and contact center," Heaps said.

Looking to Make Sanas Standard Channel Partner Technology

Using partners as a primary go-to-market (GTM) to sell to existing or new accounts, Heaps said the real opportunity for partners is in the upsell.

"To be clear, we are utilizing the channel as a main GTM motion. The challenge we face is as a new disruptive technology; more importantly, since it is a new category within the CX space," the channel leader expressed.

He believes disruptive technologies are, however, a fit for partners as they are always hunting for what is next — citing improving CX for customers and hoping to see an ROI in the process.

"They can do all this while at the same time selling more services and making more money," Heaps conveyed.

Regarding revenue, Heaps said when partners sell Sanas products, they get what he called "competitive commission that partners see throughout the entire life cycle of the customer."

"As you know, the channel − more specifically, top channel partners − are always looking for what's next and how they can better help their customers improve CX and ROI, while at the same time selling more services and making more money," Heaps said.

Others in the space are doing comparable work on the accent reduction front — Tomato.ai and InTone.io, to name a couple.

But Sanas believes its relationship with the channel and its quest to make its software ubiquitous channel partner technology sets it apart from its competition.