From CX Today, here are extracts from some of this week’s most popular news stories.
Microsoft Azure Outage After AWS Crash Exposes Weak Link in Customer Service
Just over a week after a massive outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) took down a range of websites and cloud-based services, Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform was hit by a service disruption that affected its services and customer applications, including the communications protocol that runs Dynamics 365 Contact Center.
Between 15:45 UTC on October 29 and 00:05 UTC on October 30, a configuration change caused node failures in Azure Front Door (AFD), Microsoft’s global, cloud-based service that handles content delivery and routing, according to Azure’s status page.
A whole host of Azure services experienced latencies, timeouts and errors, including Azure Communication Services (ACS). The voice and SMS messaging channels in Dynamics 365 Contact Center are built on top of ACS, which enables organizations to provision phone numbers, enable voice calls and manage SMS capabilities through ACS directly.
The outage disrupted customer services across multiple industries, including airlines, retail and gaming, all of which use Azure for their backend operations including point-of-sale systems, customer portals, and mobile apps.
The outage served as a reminder of the critical role cloud infrastructure plays in modern customer service delivery and the risks of centralized dependencies (Read on…).
ServiceNow Expands Vision For AI Transformation
ServiceNow continues its vision to transform AI for its enterprise customers after a strong earnings report.
On Wednesday, the enterprise giant released its quarterly earnings report, reaching a total revenue of $3.407BN, a 22% increase.
Away from the finances, the company also used the call to outline its commitment to expanding its AI-driven and CRM solutions.
As part of its plan to bolster AI across enterprises, ServiceNow has emphasized its goals to transform AI agents, customer relationship management, and return on investment results for customers.
During the call, ServiceNow execs discussed the company’s aim to transform AI for its customer enterprises through its real-time AI control tower, to monitor, track and govern its use.
By using its configuration management leadership to help with AI governance under one system, enterprises can simplify their AI management and integration process to deliver faster ROI.
Regarding its agents, ServiceNow has created its workflow ‘road map’ for them to function effectively across an enterprise and a tech stack, going from a simple chatbot to a complex AI tool.
You can find out more about what was discussed during the call by reading the full article here.
Forrester’s Customer Experience Predictions for 2026
It’s that time of year again: customer experience predictions season.
The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping, and CX analysts from across the globe are dusting off their crystal balls.
While you can expect an onslaught of predictions over the coming months, very few will have the prestige of Forrester, a leading global research and advisory firm with expertise in the CX space.
In a blog post discussing the current and future state of customer experience, Maxie Schmidt, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester, described 2025 as “another tough year for CX teams.”
She believes that “many CX teams are drifting dangerously close to the event horizon of metric obsession” and are “circling the black hole of measurement without meaning.”
While Schmidt’s remarks sound troubling at best, and downright alarming at worst, she also offers reasons to be optimistic, stating that “2026 marks a critical inflection point.
“Some [organizations] will break free — modernizing, upskilling, and repositioning CX as a catalyst for business value. Others will cling to legacy practices and risk being pulled beyond the point of no return, where CX loses relevance and credibility.”
The predictions not only outline the challenges and roadblocks that CX teams might face in 2026, but they also offer guidance and advice on how to combat them (Read on…).
Zoho Builds CRM-Based Dealership Platform for Mercedes-Benz India
Zoho has built SKYLine, a new CRM-based dealership management platform for Mercedes-Benz India, which is designed to modernize how the automaker engages with customers.
The bespoke Dealer Management System (DMS), which was built on Zoho’s CRM and implemented by the software provider’s Enterprise Business Solutions team, has been rolled out across Mercedes-Benz dealerships across India.
SKYLine aims to deliver a more connected and transparent experience to customers across the company’s dealership network using AI-driven analytics. The system is designed to make each stage of the customer journey, from booking a service appointment to post-service feedback, faster and more personalized.
Vehicle owners get a unified portal where they can track service updates in real-time, view invoices, and access a full service history through a unified customer portal.
SKYLine replaces legacy systems with a decentralized architecture in which each dealership operates on its own Zoho CRM solution. This gives individual dealers the flexibility to tailor their workflows to their operations, while aligning with brand standards and compliance.
The system integrates with the automaker’s global HQ infrastructure through a middleware layer powered by Zoho’s workflow orchestration tool, Qntrl. This allows real-time data exchange across multiple protocols without requiring the automaker to make changes to its legacy systems.
“Together, we have built a decentralized platform that empowers each dealership with autonomy, while maintaining central control and real-time HQ integration,” said Mani Vembu, Zoho’s CEO (Read on).
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