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Upstream Works Executive Interview

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Sheri Greenhaus, Managing Partner at CrmXchange, sits down with Rob McDougall, CEO of Upstream Works, to discuss how the company has been helping businesses streamline customer interactions and enhance the agent experience for over 25 years. Rob shares insights into how Upstream Works is eliminating desktop silos, integrating technology seamlessly into contact centers, and revolutionizing customer support with solutions like AgentNow.

From optimizing omnichannel engagement to improving operational efficiency, this discussion explores the evolving needs of modern contact centers and how Upstream Works continues to adapt, innovate, and empower businesses to deliver exceptional CX.

Sheri Greenhaus: Let’s start with an overview of Upstream Works.

Rob McDougall: Upstream Works has been around for 25 years. We started as a boutique CTI (computer telephony integration) provider, initially focusing on Nortel and Meridian Link. Over time, we expanded to Avaya’s ASAI Link and later to Cisco’s JTAPI.

In 2006, we launched Upstart, a desktop application for contact centers that integrated voice, email, and chat streams into a single platform. It provided unified reporting and enabled first-contact resolution tracking across all channels. At the time, we called it "business interaction management"—essentially an early step toward what later became known as omnichannel communication.

Sheri Greenhaus: Were you one of the first to unify multiple channels like that?

Rob McDougall: Yes. Around 2012, Nancy Jamison, a principal analyst at Frost & Sullivan, started writing heavily about "omnichannel," and we immediately recognized that it described exactly what we had been doing. Around that time, we shifted focus from traditional CTI to emerging technologies, particularly Cisco Finesse. We took our expertise in blending communication channels and built a thin-client solution specifically for the Cisco Finesse environment.

By 2021, we expanded into the Amazon ecosystem, adapting our platform to provide the same unified desktop experience there. Throughout our journey, we’ve maintained two core philosophies:

1. Flexibility & Integration: Our platform is designed to fit any environment—on-premise or cloud, behind strict firewalls, or within unique security constraints. We adapt to the customer’s needs, not the other way around.
2. Simplifying the Agent Experience: Our focus has always been on making the agent’s job easier. One of our previous manager’s wives worked in a contact center, and she described it as a nightmare—juggling multiple applications, scattered tools, and inconsistent processes. That inspired us to create a streamlined, unified interface that brings everything agents need into one place, making their work smoother and more efficient.

With the rise of AI, we took a practical approach. Instead of just adding AI for the sake of it, we focused on operationalizing AI—making it work seamlessly for agents without adding more silos or complexity. When large language models like ChatGPT became mainstream, it became clear that AI applications are easy to spin up. The real challenge is integrating AI in a way that enhances agent productivity rather than complicating their workflow. That’s where we’ve been focused—using AI to support agents rather than overwhelm them.

Sheri Greenhaus: What exactly does your AI do?

Rob McDougall: Upstream Works AI handles transcription, intent and sentiment analysis, conversation summaries and intelligent knowledge base lookups. But we know that not everyone wants to use our AI, which is why we created the Omni AI Hub with a flexible plug-in architecture. It doesn’t matter which AI you use—Upstream Works AI and/or third-party AI like Google, Amazon, Cognigy, OpenAI—our system ensures consistency.

With the Omni AI Hub, transcriptions always appear in a standardized format, intent/call reason follow the same structure, and sentiment analysis results are uniform—regardless of the AI running in the background.

Our core focus remains simplifying the agent experience. AI is just one piece of that. We don’t build chatbots, but we integrate with them and can escalate conversations from bots to live agents. We also offer on-premise AI deployment, though companies need to provide their own hardware. However, we don’t charge separately for our AI.

Honestly, the real challenge wasn’t developing AI itself—it was building the APIs and integrations to seamlessly bring AI capabilities into the agent desktop. That’s where most of the effort went. If a company wants to swap out Upstream Works AI for Google AI tomorrow, it’s no problem. Our job is to make AI interchangeable while ensuring a seamless experience for agents.

Sheri Greenhaus: So, at its core, you’re still focused on the agent desktop—bringing everything together so agents have instant access to the information they need. Whether or not they use your AI tools, the goal is to make their job easier. Is that right?

Rob McDougall: Absolutely. In the past, desktop silos were created by different applications—CRM systems, legacy business apps, AS/400, etc. Now, AI is introducing even more silos. Our goal is to eliminate those.

In our demo, you’d see multiple AIs working at once—without the agent ever realizing it. And for businesses, if they decide to swap OpenAI for another AI provider, the transition is seamless. Agents come in the next day, log in, and everything looks and works the same.

At its core, AI is just advanced pattern matching. And what do agents spend most of their time doing? Finding information. If an agent needs a document, they might grab the first one they see—even if it’s outdated. Our AI, however, can instantly sort through multiple versions and surface the most recent, relevant one. It’s all about speed, accuracy, and reducing complexity.

Sheri Greenhaus: Tell me about AgentNow. Is this a new product, or has it been around for a while?

Rob McDougall: AgentNow has been in use for about a year and a half. It originally came from a project we did with United Airlines. They needed a way to provide real-time video assistance for travelers at the airport.

Instead of reinventing video technology, we leveraged Webex (and later added Microsoft Azure Communication Services) as the backbone, while we built the frontend and integrated it into United’s contact center system.

Here’s how it works: If you’re at the airport and have a day-of-travel issue—say, a delayed flight or baggage problem—you scan a QR code posted in the terminal. You enter your flight details, and AgentNow routes you to a United gate agent via video chat.

What makes it really powerful is how it optimizes staffing. At any given moment, some gate agents are busy at their gates, while others—who aren’t actively boarding flights—have downtime. With AgentNow, those available agents can step in to assist remotely, reducing long lines at the gate and improving customer service. It turns the entire airport into a more dynamic support network.

It gets even better. Imagine you're in Chicago in the middle of winter. A storm rolls in, and every gate is dealing with delays and cancellations. Instead of waiting in a massive line, you scan a QR code and connect with a gate agent in Miami or Los Angeles—someone who has the same access and capabilities as the overwhelmed agents at your gate.

For passengers, this means less stress and more convenience. Instead of standing in line, they can head to the United Club, grab a drink, and sort out their travel issues from a comfortable seat. For United, it’s a game-changer—not just from a customer service perspective, but also in terms of workforce efficiency. They're leveraging gate agents across their entire network to manage passenger issues dynamically, reducing congestion at any single airport.

Sheri Greenhaus: Are other airlines showing interest in using this technology?

Rob McDougall: Yes, several are in advanced negotiations. But it’s not just the airline industry adopting this.

Vitas Healthcare is implementing AgentNow to provide a more personal, compassionate experience for families dealing with end-of-life care. If you have a loved one in palliative care, you can use AgentNow to connect with a nurse in real time, discussing critical concerns with a real person instead of waiting for a callback.

Houston Community College is another example. They’re using it for admissions, allowing students to have face-to-face conversations with staff, apply and register for the upcoming semester, and get real-time assistance.

One of AgentNow’s biggest strengths is its flexibility. It supports video, voice, and chat, allowing users to switch between them as needed. If someone prefers a simple phone call over video, they can do that seamlessly from their mobile device or computer. And since we built this on Webex, here’s a little Cisco plug—the noise cancellation is outstanding. In a noisy airport, that makes a huge difference.

Sheri Greenhaus: We’re almost out of time. Is there anything else you’d like our audience to know?

Rob McDougall: There are two key areas we’re focusing on right now.

First, we’ve always had strong data, but we’re now doing a much better job of helping businesses operationalize it. Our customer success team is actively working with clients to analyze performance data, uncover trends, and provide actionable insights. Out of the box, our platform delivers cross-channel analytics, helping businesses understand why customers call repeatedly and what issues need attention.

Second, email is the second-largest channel in contact centers, yet many businesses don’t manage it with the same rigor as voice or chat. In some cases, email isn’t even handled by the contact center—it’s scattered across different teams using basic Outlook inboxes.

Our platform changes that. We bring structure to email interactions: routing, tracking, measuring, and analyzing them just like any other contact channel. We provide first-contact resolution tracking, contact reason analysis, and performance insights—giving organizations full visibility into what’s working and what needs improvement.

And just to put it in perspective, email accounts for about 20% of contact center volume, while voice is still dominant at 70%, and chat/messaging lags behind at just 3-5%. Managing email effectively is a huge, often overlooked opportunity.

Ultimately, what sets Upstream Works apart is our flexibility. When businesses hit roadblocks, we’re the ones who say, “Okay, we’ll fix it,” because solving those challenges is what keeps customers moving forward.