October 2018 Was a big month for news, here’s my review of the top stories trending on UCToday.com over the past 30 days.
Here are 2018’s UC Awards winners!
In October, the UC Today team received an overwhelming number of applications for our inaugural awards event. Our 7 award categories covered the entire spectrum of business communications technology, from Most Innovative Product to Most Collaborative Solution and from Best CX Solution to Best Endpoint Product. Choosing the worthy winners was particularly tough due to the sheer amount of innovation our industry is experiencing right now. A big thanks to our judges; Tim Banting from GlobalData, Dave Michels from TalkingPointz, Matthew Townend from Cavell Group, and Blair Pleasant from COMMfusion . See who won here
What does the Gartner UCaaS Magic Quadrant 2018 say
As companies keep looking for greater flexibility in communication, ‘as-a-service’ for UC is fast gaining ground. The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a report that assesses vendors in the UCaaS space, evaluating ‘completeness of vision’ and ‘the ability to execute’. We share the top UCaaS leaders, challenges, and niche players for 2018. The list is pretty exhaustive and gets you up-to-speed on how companies are changing the game by utilising the Cloud, offering exceptional scalability. It also talks about new entrants, fast-rising contenders and discusses how industry giants are pushing to make UCaaS more accessible. For more, click here.
What’s BIG in contact centre 2018
The contact centre landscape is fast-evolving, moving from a space full of telephones to a
multi-channel ecosystem, focused on customer experience, analytics, reporting, and workplace optimisation. We spoke with Chris Marron, the contact centre analysis leader at MZA, discussing his thoughts on the vendors spearheading the pace of change. Chris works on intensive reports, detailing the shifts in the environment and analysing the issues impacting the segment. He also opines on how legacy vendors are competing with emerging experts and how the market will transform — or stay the same — in the near future. He also gives his take on the newest disruptors eager to take on industry giants. For the full interview, click here.
What’s cooking at Zoomtopia 2018
The annual user conference event, ‘Zoomtopia’, was abuzz with the announcement of several new updates, including the upcoming ‘Zoom Voice’ feature. In the recent past, Zoom has witnessed exceptional growth, with a regular year-on-year triple-digit revenue uptick, and is looking at further accelerating its market leadership. I spoke to Natasha Walia, Senior Product Manager at Zoom, and discussed the key feature enhancements, such as usability improvements, new hardware partnerships, Zoom Voice, as well as the app marketplace. She also outlined why Zoom Voice could make a major difference, helping customers integrate their collaboration and communication services into Zoom. To read the full conversation, click here.
Here’s why Vonage is acquiring NewVoiceMedia
Business communications major, Vonage, is clearly looking to offer an integrated Cloud communications platform, and the acquisition will combine its growing UCaaS and CPaaS solutions with NewVoiceMedia’s pure-play cloud contact centre offerings. We also share the full details on how NewVoiceMedia will offer greater scalability in this high-growth environment, discussing Vonage’s own ability to address a space that is scheduled to reach new heights over the next 4 years — to around $80 billion. Additionally, we outline the full transaction which is pegged at $350 million. For full information on the deal and why it’s so relevant right now, click here.
Is Twilio’s acquisition of SendGrid a good idea?
Cloud communications major, Twilio, is further expanding its large portfolio of developed APIs with the SendGrid move. We discuss why the acquisition could fill a critical gap in Twilio’s basket of offerings, having both companies’ strengthen their wide customer base. Remember, Twilio and SendGrid power over 600 billion customer interactions every year, and the takeover can fundamentally transform engagement and business growth. Jeff Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder at Twilio and Sameer Dholakia, CEO, SendGrid, also voice their thoughts. To understand why the coming together of these two leaders is an interesting movement, click here.
This is why Avaya is reaching out to Europe
At GITEX 2018, the global unified communications major, Avaya, announced that their public Cloud solution would now be available in Europe. We spoke to Ronald Reubens, VP Europe at Avaya, during the event to get all the details about the launch and why Germany was chosen as the first entry point in Europe. We also discussed the solution and its many facets, even as Reubens unravelled future expansion plans. Interestingly, Avaya already operates a data centre in Germany and the move could help the company make inroads into the country’s ever-growing Cloud space. For all the details on the launch, click here.
RingCentral is upping the ante on customer engagement by acquiring Dimelo
Cloud communications leader RingCentral’s acquisition of Dimelo, a cutting-edge Cloud-based customer engagement platform, could have far-reaching consequences. We discuss why this is the boost RingCentral needed all this while to transform its next-generation customer experience capabilities. We also tell you why Dimelo was selected, and the kind of impact the takeover could have. What are the features RingCentral can now leverage with the acquisition? Will RingCentral now also be able to offer extended digital channels, chatbots and CRM solutions with this acquisition? For everything you need to know about the deal, click here.
Why Talkdesk’s $100 million fund for a next-gen contact centre is a game-changing move
This has been a great year for Talkdesk. The company found mention in a number of Review & Recognition lists, and was pegged as the fastest-growing company in the Cloud contact centre landscape. The $100 million Series B funding could help Talkdesk create tomorrow’s contact centre, with state-of-the-art features, empowering its customer interaction representatives. Talkdesk’s CEO, Tiago Piava, shared his thoughts on the funding and its ability to improve contact centre products, which are now close to 2o-years-old. It could also support product upgrades, business expansion, and marketing strategies. We give you the details you need about the implications of this funding and why it could change the contact centre industry for good, right here.
Atlassian’s Gitsi is now owned by 8x8
Voice-video collaboration and contact centre service provider 8x8 has announced that it has acquired the Gitsi open source video communications technology. The move could improve 8x8’s video integration and WebRTC capabilities, with an eye on harnessing the wider open source community Gitsi’s leveraged to create new and meaningful products. 8x8 has had a fantastic year and the move could create a market-leading video communications solution that’s intuitive, offering a competitive edge for its users. We explore 8x8’s future plans with the Gitsi purchase and explain why this will only push 8x8 further ahead of the curve. For all you need to know, click here.
That’s my review of our top stories for October, there’s loads more on our web site uctoday.com or you can follow our LinkedIn page here.
Rob Scott
UC TODAY