Microsoft vs RingCentral

ITS Academy Angelo Rizzoli and Microsoft Italia inaugurate the new Server Room to train datacenter and cloud infrastructure specialists

Microsoft Italia and ITS Academy Angelo Rizzoli have inaugurated a new Server Room to train datacenter and cloud infrastructure specialists.

Aker CEO dismisses Microsoft Nscale contract loss as minor

The CEO of Aker ASA, Øyvind Eriksen, the largest investor in UK AI infrastructure startup Nscale, downplayed Microsoft's withdrawal from a data centre deal as a "minor contract". Speaking during Aker's Q3 results presentation, Eriksen reassured investors ahead of Nscale's planned US IPO targeting a $35bn valuation. He noted that since Nscale's Series C funding round, the company's activity and contract portfolio more than doubled, and the termination was expected. Microsoft cancelled the deal to lease compute capacity from Nscale's Essex data centre due to anticipated power supply issues. Nscale is reportedly close to a new multibillion-dollar deal with Anthropic, which would increase its commitment in West Virginia. Aker owns approximately 23% of Nscale, valued at $3.31bn based on the Series C valuation.

• Aker ASA CEO Øyvind Eriksen called Microsoft's cancellation of a data centre deal with Nscale a 'minor contract'.
• Aker owns approximately 23% of Nscale, valued at $3.31bn based on Nscale's Series C valuation.
• Microsoft cancelled the lease agreement due to expected power supply issues at Nscale's Essex data centre.

Mediaocean Integrates Prisma Direct with Microsoft Advertising

Mediaocean announced the completion of a Prisma Direct integration with the Microsoft Advertising Platform. This integration enables brands and agencies to streamline workflows from planning through reconciliation, including sending orders directly, receiving campaign performance data, and managing invoices electronically. It reduces manual work and errors by eliminating duplicate data entry. The integration extends Prisma Direct, initially launched for premium media companies, to search, providing a connected workflow across campaign management, performance, and billing. This move aims to improve efficiency for agencies managing diverse media investments.

• Mediaocean completed a Prisma Direct integration with the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
• Orders can be sent directly to Microsoft Advertising, with performance data and invoices flowing back into Prisma.
• The integration reduces manual work and errors by eliminating duplicate data entry.

RingCentral Adds AI Workforce Management to RingCX

RingCentral, a leader in AI-powered customer engagement, has announced new AI capabilities for its RingCX platform. These features enable contact centers to manage AI and human agents as a single workforce, offering live supervision, quality scoring, journey analytics, and staffing forecasts from one dashboard. The update extends these management capabilities to AI agents, including RingCentral AI Receptionist (AIR) and AIR Pro. Additionally, RingCX is now available on mobile devices and within Microsoft Teams, and a new AI Onboarding feature uses natural language to automate contact center configuration. These enhancements aim to improve first contact resolution, reduce handle time, and lower service costs, positioning RingCentral to address the growing integration of AI agents in customer service operations.

• RingCentral launched new AI capabilities for RingCX, allowing unified management of AI and human agents in contact centers.
• New features include live supervision, quality scoring, journey analytics, and staffing forecasts for AI agents.
• RingCX is now available on mobile and within Microsoft Teams.