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West Corp Snaps Up Cloud Collaboration Practice of Vocus Group

U.S. communication services provider West Corp has acquired the cloud collaboration practice of Australia’s Vocus Group. Financial details of the deal are not yet clear.

West will integrate the acquired assets into its Unified Communications Services, and market Vocus’ Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS)-based offering under its brand ‘VoiceMaxx’.

“With this local infrastructure, West will be one of the few global providers of Cisco’s hosted Unified Communications stack,” said Scott Etzler, President of West’s Unified Communications Services segment.

Vocus’ employees in Perth and Melbourne will join West Corp and continue to serve the same customers, West stated.

Founded in 1986 to to handle telemarketing calls, West Corp has operations across the Americas, including Canada and Latin America.

The company has grown slowly but steadily as it won more customer service contracts. In November 2014, its school alerts business grew significantly with the acquisition of St. Louis-based GroupCast.

In 2015, West Corp decided to spin off its large-scale but labor-intensive call center business to Alorica for $275 million.

Some reports suggest the company is now struggling to increase its revenue ever since the spin-off.

According to Omaha World Herald, West’s telephone conference call business, the company’s key vertical, is suffering from long-term rate depression.

The new acquisition, however, widens its footprint in the Asia Pacific region and adds new technology platforms to its portfolio.

“This acquisition is expected to generate new opportunities for West in Asia Pacific region, improve our competitive positioning and enhance global support & cost structure in our UCaaS business,” West stated in a press release.

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Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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