Introduce yourself and your business
NKUSI-IT is a dynamic South African IT consulting firm specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365, particularly in the customer service space. We are proud to be a BBBEE level 1 contributor, 80% Black woman-owned, and our focus is on providing tailored solutions for call centers and customer relationship management (CRM). Our services help businesses optimize their customer service processes and create meaningful, lasting relationships with their customers.
What is your business mission?
Our mission at NKUSI-IT is to empower businesses by leveraging Microsoft technologies to optimize customer engagement and streamline operations. We aim to enable organizations to deliver exceptional customer experiences while fostering sustainable growth, particularly in call center environments. We strive to provide technology that elevates service delivery and empowers users, particularly those from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
When did your partnership with Solgari begin?
Our partnership with Solgari began in July 2023 and it has been a pivotal moment for us in terms of enhancing our service offerings to call centers and customer service departments. This partnership allows us to integrate advanced communication solutions into our Dynamics 365 offering, making our service even more comprehensive.
Why did you partner with Solgari?
We partnered with Solgari because their cloud-based communication and customer engagement solutions complement our existing CRM services perfectly. Solgari’s all-channel solution enables us to provide seamless voice, video, messaging, and SMS integration, which is crucial for call centers. This allows us to offer a one-stop solution for businesses looking to unify their customer service channels within Dynamics 365, ensuring they can deliver a seamless and efficient customer experience.
What top 3 challenges do your customers face?
- Disconnected customer communication channels: Many of our customers struggle with managing multiple customer communication channels like voice, chat, and email, resulting in inefficiencies and poor customer experience.
- Limited scalability of customer service operations: As call centers grow, many businesses find it challenging to scale their customer service operations efficiently, especially when technology does not keep pace with demand.
- Lack of unified data across touchpoints: Fragmented customer data across different platforms hampers businesses’ ability to provide personalized, timely customer service.
How will your partnership with Solgari help customers overcome these challenges?
Through our partnership with Solgari, we help businesses unify all their customer communication channels into a single platform, ensuring that agents can easily manage voice, video, and messaging interactions. The integration with Dynamics 365 allows for seamless scalability, as businesses can add new channels or agents without significant overhauls to their infrastructure. Moreover, by centralizing customer data within Dynamics 365, businesses gain full visibility of all customer interactions, allowing them to deliver personalized experiences efficiently.
Can you tell us about some examples of overcoming these challenges that have given you real pride?
One recent example is with a large call center client who struggled with multiple, disconnected communication channels, leading to customer frustration and high churn. By integrating Solgari’s solution within their Dynamics 365 environment, we were able to unify all their communication streams. This led to a 30% improvement in first-contact resolution, significantly improving customer satisfaction and retention. It is projects like this that give us real pride, knowing that we’ve helped our clients deliver better service.
What are your short- and long-term goals for your partnership with Solgari?
In the short term, we aim to enhance the customer service capabilities of businesses by offering advanced communication solutions integrated with Dynamics 365. Long term, we see ourselves becoming a leading provider of AI-driven customer engagement solutions, powered by both Solgari and Microsoft, helping businesses create truly omnichannel, data-driven service environments.
Can you summarize your joint value proposition message into one sentence?
Together, NKUSI-IT and Solgari deliver a fully integrated, omnichannel communication solution within Dynamics 365, enabling businesses to transform their customer service operations and deliver superior customer experiences at scale.
Why is the Microsoft ecosystem such an exciting place to work?
The Microsoft ecosystem is incredibly exciting because of the constant innovation and the endless possibilities it offers for businesses to transform digitally. The tight integration between Microsoft’s suite of tools, including Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams, and Azure, creates a unified platform for businesses to operate efficiently and provide exceptional service. This ecosystem fosters collaboration, scalability, and cutting-edge technology that enables us to offer our clients the best solutions.
Why do you think great customer experience is so important for brands?
Great customer experience is key because it directly impacts customer loyalty, brand reputation, and business growth. In today’s competitive market, customers expect seamless, personalized interactions, and brands that fail to deliver will quickly lose out to competitors. A great customer experience not only drives repeat business but also turns customers into brand advocates, which is crucial in the age of social media and word-of-mouth marketing.
Why do you believe customers are looking to extend Microsoft Teams into the world’s best customer engagement platform?
Customers are extending Microsoft Teams into the world’s best customer engagement platform because it’s a tool that is already familiar to many businesses, offering scalability, collaboration, and integration with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem. By extending it with Solgari and Dynamics 365, businesses can transform Teams from a simple communication tool into a powerful platform for managing customer interactions across channels, ensuring that all interactions are tracked, analyzed, and optimized for better engagement.
What role do you think Artificial Intelligence will play in customer experience in the next 3-5 years?
AI will play a transformative role in customer experience over the next 3-5 years. It will enable businesses to offer hyper-personalized service by analyzing customer data in real-time, predicting customer needs, and automating routine tasks. AI-powered chatbots and virtual agents will become more sophisticated, handling more complex queries and freeing up human agents to focus on higher-value tasks. Predictive analytics will also allow businesses to anticipate customer issues before they arise, ensuring proactive service and higher satisfaction rates.
