Playing Well and Winning Together

Every day for the past five and a half years at Five9, I’ve had the honor of waking up with the following charter singing in my ears: “Play well and differentiate with others.” The past month alone is proof of this, with our record fifth year in a row as a Leader with Gartner, our launch of a Salesforce Einstein Bot, showcases at Zoomtopia and MS Ignite, events with Oracle, ServiceNow, and more.

Well, friends, every day’s a new day. On Monday, we launched our Five9 App Marketplace, a growing showcase of 39+ enterprise software partners that offers a truly adaptable intelligent contact center to meet the dynamic needs of you and your customers.



I am personally and professionally proud of the CX marketplace, our partner ecosystem, and our collaborative cloud platform. And when I think about the teamwork required to unleash your business results, do you want to know what I think about? I think about another amazing family of mine – the Rugby family.

After a lively day at the Five9 office last week, I went to rugby practice with the Silicon Valley Rugby Football Club.



We are a diverse family, full of team members from all backgrounds, with all talents. We have Jonesy, the loud guy from Detroit. Tonu, the American Samoan firefighter. Nolan, the high school coach (and former French pro). Omar, fresh from college with a hot new job in the Valley, and Andy, the kid from Wisconsin who teaches chess. Tiggs, with the tattoos and broken fingers. And a load of other personalities who bring their own features and, just as important, their own faults to the team.

And you have me, a wily vet in his 28^th year in the sport, yelling, tackling, getting tackled by, buying rounds for, and otherwise contributing not just to the team, but to our larger goal – establishing a healthy, vibrant community that just so happens to have fun together and win while doing it.

So it’s Thursday night. We’re near the end of practice. We’re sweaty. We’re young. We’re old. We’re together, at 9 pm on a Thursday, running 100 meter shuttles lugging 5 gallon jugs of water. 5 times.

We loved it.  And you know what?

It reminded me of my award-winning Five9 family of friends and partners.

The next morning, I’m on a call with the scrum team. I couldn’t help but map my work to my rugby life. Now, that might be because my ribs were screaming. But I think it’s because of the nature of the game we’re playing at Five9.

As a player of any team sport, it’s easy to make one slick move – a tackle, a steal, a shot – regardless of how the team is performing. Similarly, as a product manager, it’s easy to have a great idea.

But how does that slick idea lead to wins for your team and your customers? How do you establish an environment for winning, repeatedly, with greater impact, against higher stakes and a changing landscape?

I want to win as a team, with the right teammates, with the right charter.

You want this as well. You expect that we have the talent and the teammates onboard to help you win today, while empowering your business to compete and win as your markets evolve in the future.

Well, my friends, I’m proud to say that I have the honor of waking up every morning ready to make good on our promise to improve the lives of your agents, your businesses, and your customers. Maybe you’re looking to help your service organization unleash their support superpowers in a highly competitive market. If that’s the case, we have incredibly differentiating solutions with our CRM friends. The great news is, you don’t need to hear it from me – take it from Oracle’s Steve Fioretti or ServiceNow’s Nitin Badjatia.

Or maybe your focus is optimizing productivity and performance while nurturing a healthier environment for agents and supervisors alike. In that case, your business deserves to check out some of the things you can start doing today with us and our diverse family of workforce optimization and gamification partners.

Or check out several other partner apps, ranging from AI to UC to Compliance and more.

What I’m trying to say, sore ribs and all, is that whatever your goal, whatever your sport, and whatever team you are playing against today, I’m proud to declare that the Five9 family is playing alongside you.

After all, our charter is to play well and differentiate with others. We win when you win – together.

If you’ve read this far, remember to visit the Five9 App Marketplace: https://www.five9.com/app-marketplace. Check it out, stay a while, and discover what more the Five9 family does to unleash your business, empower your agents, and enthuse your customers.