Dialpad

Dialpad is a developer of a cloud-based business phone system intended to increase conversions and help global teams be more informed. The company's products include video meetings, cloud call centers, sales coaching, dialers, enterprise phone systems, SMS, MMS, group messaging, conferencing, and document sharing services to help teams collaborate on any device and in a single platform. The Dialpad's communication system uses artificial intelligence to offer real-time transcription, automated note-taking, live sentiment scoring, and voice analytics.

Customers of Dialpad include WeWork, Uber, Motorola Solutions, Domo, and Xero. Investors of the company have included Amasia, Andreessen Horowitz, Felicis Ventures, GV, ICONIQ Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Section 32, Softbank, and Work-Bench.

Dialpad has had a winding route, with the company initially founded in 2001 by Craig Walker as an internet telephony company, at the time called Dialpad Communications. This initial company was later sold to Yahoo for the building blocks of Yahoo's VoIP service, called Yahoo Voice. Following this, Craig Walker went on to found GrandCentral Communications, another web-based service that allowed users to merge existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into a single account; the company was bought in 2007 to be the foundation of Google Voice. Craig Walker worked for Google in developing Google Voice until 2010.

Following his departure from Google Voice, Craig Walker founded UberConference, which built on internet telephony services for the conference call industry. Yahoo Voice was ended in 2013, three years after founding UberConference, and UberConference bought the brand and domain back from Yahoo and renamed it Dialpad.

The company developed many of its telephony and video messaging services until 2018, when Dialpad's interest in artificial intelligence and its possible uses in TalkIQ's platform led to its acquisition. TalkIQ had developed an AI platform capable of transcribing conference calls, and this technology became the underpinning of what Dialpad calls Voice Intelligence. Voice Intelligence enables Dialpad's platform to automatically create notes from calls, with natural language processing tools that flag actionable items and sentiment analysis from meetings and calls, all developed to improve productivity and develop insights.

Dialpad's cloud-based business communications platform is built on the Google Cloud platform and as a business phone system as a voiceover IP (VoIP) product. The Dialpad platform is capable of integrating in other cloud applications, such as G Suite, Salesforce, and Zendesk. The platform is also considered a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) software designed for companies with a mobile or remote workforce. This delivers voice, video, messages, and meetings on multiple devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Voice Intelligence (VI) is Dialpad's name for the company's artificial intelligence technology. The VI underpins the rest of the communication platform and uses speech recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning to develop transcripts of calls, analyze sentiment from a call, and highlight actionable items developed in a call.

The technology is designed to learn along with calls so it can provide insights into what went well and what did not go as well during a call. The Voice Intelligence engine has also been developed further to provide in-call coaching and scripts based on a company's or call agent's needs and to help respond to customer concerns in real time. This also includes identifying objections made by a customer to further develop responses for sales and contact center staff.

The Dialpad platform is developed for business communications and offers a cloud-based portal and workspace that offers calling, messaging, and video meeting capabilities. Because it is cloud based, the company highlights the platform's ability to be accessed from multiple devices and from any browser. This includes the Voice Intelligence engine.

Some features of the platform include allowing users to move between conversations, share files, and start meetings from a message threat. Furthermore, new users, teams, and departments are designed to be easy to add and change from the web portal. The platform offers integrations with applications—such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and Google Workspace—and offers analytics into usage and adoption across offices. The call coaching offered by the Voice Intelligence engine is developed to help sales teams increase conversions.

As part of the larger platform, Dialpad's phone system is capable to work on any device, including smartphones, laptops, and tablets, through the company's application. The system is built on a cloud platform and able to work anywhere and grow with the company or the user.

The system, as part of the business communications platform, allows users to route incoming calls to either a smartphone or a specific member of the team, to ensure customers can reach who they need. As well, through the phone system, users are able to define after-hours calls to go straight to voicemail. The voicemail can be set to transcribe those messages and email them to the user. The tools available with the phone system are also capable of transcribing calls and tracking action items, keywords, and the sentiment scoring of a call.

As part of the larger business communications platform, the system includes messaging and file-sharing tools, video meetings, and connections to other applications. Other features of the platform emphasized by Dialpad include the following:

• high definition call quality
• call summaries
• custom call routing
• on-premise gateway
• department lines
• device switching
• call transferring
• a company directory
• toll-free numbers or local numbers
• a do-not-disturb feature

Dialpad's platform also offers a messaging system. This allows for simple team messaging and offers built-in texting sidebars for video messages or during calls. The messaging system allows for the organization of channels for users to create dedicated channels based on projects, teams, or topics. It offers one-to-one messaging, team threads, and single-click calling and video meetings through the messaging interface.

The messaging application is also a space for users to share files and photos in a drag-and-drop manner and is capable of connecting to tools like Google Drive to keep things in a single place. A search feature in the messaging interface allows users to search for specific messages and keep track of important files. Users are also able to customize notifications in order to filter out unwanted communications. Other features of the messaging service highlighted by Dialpad include the following:

• SMS and MMS messaging
• channels
• sidebar
• status updates
• company directory
• voicemails
• virtual fax
• service switching

Another piece of the Dialpad's business communications platform are video meetings, which are capable of being launched through the platform's messaging and phone calling services. The meetings are designed to be easy and frictionless for users, not requiring pins or downloads for the videos to work and allowing users to work through a single application and reduce switching. The video meeting offers users the ability to share screens, whiteboard ideas, and collaborate on files.

Other features of the meetings include high definition video with clear audio and using the company's artificial intelligence to reduce background noise to make call participants easier to hear. Users are able to choose a layout, background, on-hold music, and a meeting room URL. With the meeting built into the larger platform, users are able to share relevant files and links to prepare people for meetings. There are also time-management controls to keep the meetings to desired lengths, call summary transcripts at the end of meetings, recordings, and action items for possible next steps. It allows those items to be shared with the members of a meeting or a team using the built-in Voice Intelligence engine.

Dialpad also suggests the platform is developed for customer contact centers and customer engagement or sales, while offering a mobile and cloud-based contact center through the platform. The platform is offered through the same cloud-based portal, which allows for contact centers to use tools to guide agents when they need it. Further, it works to help scale sales and revenue with the Voice Intelligence engine built-in for proactive service, automated messaging, and real-time coaching during conversations.

The VI also works to help create better customer experiences, with analyzing sentiment, transcribing calls, and providing live coaching, which all help the assistants in real time. The platform also offers the same collaboration services for customer support teams, allowing these members to talk, message, and meet in a single application. Being cloud-based, the platform allows these users to connect from devices they are comfortable using. The platform offers integrations with applications such as Salesforce, Zendesk, and Google Workspace.

The cloud-based contact center uses the company's VI to offer sentiment analysis, real-time transcriptions, and battle cards for helping call agents respond to customer concerns. The cloud-based system also allows users to deploy contact centers and contact agents around the world, while emphasizing the ease of use of Dialpad's platform and the ability for those users to plug into the contact center from wherever they are and on whatever device they use.

Through the contact center, the VI engine works to surface the right script for difficult-to-answer questions, helping call agents assist customers and offering a higher degree of accuracy. Through the workspace, users are able to message customers, enter calls, or meet an entire team, without the friction of changing applications and services. This also allows managers to support their agents, offering workspace management tools through the platform. The platform includes customizable, interactive voice responses in minutes, with customer selection by key or voice. It also gives managers live customer sentiment, CSat survey results, and pre-defined summaries at a glance. Other features Dialpad emphasizes include the following:

• flexible call routing
• callbacks and voicemails
• interactive voice response
• real-time speech analysis
• real-time coaching
• agent activity heatmaps

Similar to the contact center features, Dialpad offers AI-assisted tools for outbound sales and support teams. In this case, the AI works to help sellers with objection handling, real-time recommendations, and sentiment analysis. This is done through the use of real-time assist cards that can give answers to customer questions and are intended to help agents build emotional IQ. The platform offers transcripts of calls to highlight action items, keywords, and sentiments. And the workspace allows users to switch between customer conversations, team calls, video meetings, and messaging, through a single application.

The platform, being cloud-based, is accessible from multiple devices and works to offer high-definition audio and video on those devices. The platform also offers integrations into CRM software to remove the need for sales agents to log calls, transcripts, or notes in the software, with the Dialpad platform automatically entering these into the CRM.

For managers, the platform offers workforce management tools, such as coaching and support tools for managers to help sales agents; intelligent metrics and analytics for managers to track call volume, top moments, and sentiment for understanding agent performance; and setting teams up with sales playlists, smart responses, and objection handling tools. Other features of the platform include the following:

• coaching groups
• post-call analytics
• phones and headsets
• live sentiment analysis

Dialpad emphasizes the platform's ability to integrate into various other software platforms to help teams and companies integrate Dialpad's offering into existing workflows. These include integrations into software for productivity, customer relationship management, collaboration, customer service software, sales engagement, ticketing tools, a customer communication platform, cloud computing, identity management, workflow automation, legal software, data visualization, workforce engagement, and dynamic location services. Dialpad highlights integrations with the following popular software tools:

• Playvox QM
• Slack
• Salesforce
• Microsoft 365
• Google Workspace
• Prodoscore
• Kustomer
• Hubspot
• Kizen
• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom
• Miro
• Zendesk
• Intercom
• HappyFox
• Helpwise
• Outreach
• Wingman
• Mixmax
• Jiminny
• ServiceNow
• Front
• Azure
• Okta
• OneLogin
• Rippling
• Zapier
• Integromat
• Tray.io
• Clio
• DataGrail
• LawGro
• Domo
• RedSky

Dialpad markets the company's platform as a solution for various different companies, including small businesses, startups, and enterprises across industries including education, healthcare, real estate, technology, professional services, legal, and retail.

For small businesses, Dialpad highlights solutions in their platform, including local phone numbers, live call coaching, business phone applications, call routing, a deployment intended to be easy for those without IT departments to use, and the ability to port existing numbers into the Dialpad platform. Dialpad also highlights the company's flexible pricing as a benefit for small businesses, with features not available otherwise.

For start-ups, Dialpad offers specific features, including ten free, lifelong seats with Dialpad Talk (business phone lines) and Dialpad Meetings (video conference) for qualified start-ups and with discounts on phone lines continuing as the start-up continues to scale. Dialpad emphasizes that their offering is consistent with a phone system for basic business needs, such as a main company number, customer support lines, sales lines, and conferencing capability. The Dialpad for start-ups solution also offers specific features for venture capital firms, incubators, accelerators, and advisors.

For enterprises, Dialpad emphasizes the platform's capability of scaling as a cloud-based infrastructure and also highlights the company's eleven data centers across six continents, providing a consistent cloud-based experience. The company also notes that it owns the call path and provides in-transit encryption for calls, along with SOC II Type-2 compliance and ISO certified data centers complete with onsite security.

Dialpad also notes the company's intended ease of integration with other popular software platforms, aiming to ease an enterprise's adoption of the Dialpad platform. For enterprise communications, Dialpad highlights the platform's SD-WAN and MPLS connection and integration flexibility, while also offering enterprises the capability of maintaining an existing pBX for an on-premise gateway, which can allow for a controlled deployment of Dialpad across a workforce. Dialpad also offers partnerships for the inclusion of various models of phone handsets for customers to ease transitions from other systems.

Dialpad breaks the company's plans based on business communications, meetings, contact center, and sales dialer. Each plan has multiple tiers and offers up to fourteen-days free trials. For example, for business communications, the standard plan is $15 per user per month, which includes unlimited calling and SMS and MMS, call controls (including call forwarding, transfer, hold, and mute), a custom voicemail greeting and voicemail transcription, G Suite and Office 365 integrations, fax, and custom off-hours routing. And for the Pro tier of this plan, the cost is $25 per user per month, and on top of the Standard tier features, includes local number support, CRM integrations, 24/7 phone support, unlimited meetings, five-hour meeting duration, API and webhooks, hold queues, international SMS, more integrations and deskphone support. And for the final tier in business communication, Enterprise, the pricing is based on the specific feature set and extension of the plan.

Meanwhile, for video meetings, Dialpad offers two tiers—the first being a Free tier which includes meetings up to 45 minutes, screen sharing, unlimited call recordings, and ten participant occupancy. While the Business tier of the video meetings includes up to five-hour meetings, with one hundred participants max, recording transcripts, unlimited video recordings, customer hold music, and auto-dial out to participants. While for the contact center software, Dialpad offers two tiers, a Pro and an Enterprise tier, both of which have custom pricing based on the deployment, and with the Enterprise tier including more options, such as custom dashboards and reporting.

And for the sales dialer outbound calling service Dialpad offers, the company has two tiers, with the Pro tier costing $95 per month per user, which includes a phone system for sales and outbound calling automation, real-time calling, CRM integrations, and voicemail drop. The Enterprise tier of this service is based on customized pricing and includes custom reporting, APIs and webhooks, and Enterprise Service Level Agreements (SLA) on top of the features of the Pro tier.