The UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) market is evolving at an incredible pace. According to Transparency Market Research, the industry will reach a value of $79.3 billion by the year 2024, driven by a variety of factors like new technologies, updated reseller models, and exciting opportunities in the cloud.
As 2020 draws closer, we're left to wonder which trends will be the most significant for the UCaaS environment in the months to come. Already, we've seen significant evidence that the marketplace is changing, focusing more heavily on consolidation, partnerships, and new go-to-market strategies. Avaya's partnership with RingCentral this year highlighted the potential for older legacy companies to step into the future through collaborations with innovative cloud-based brands.
All the while, resellers and service partners are exploring new ways of adding value to their offerings in a space where the competition is fiercer than ever. I spoke to Rami Houbby, Vice President for Cloud Sales (EMEA & APAC), at Mitel, one of the market leaders in the UCaaS environment, for his top predictions for 2020.
1. The Rapid Adoption of Cloud Communications
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Rami Houbby[/caption]
UCaaS and the scalability of the cloud strategy have garnered a lot of attention in the marketplace in recent years. Unified Communications as a Service gives companies the option to offer low-cost flexible solutions for calling, messaging, and other communication services. Not only does UCaaS give companies the power to bring their stacks of communication tools together into a unified platform, it also offers an opportunity to unlock the benefits of cloud too.
In the reseller, vendor, and end-user environment, the cloud has emerged as one of the most vital tools in digital transformation. Cloud technology enables organisations to shift the responsibility for technology management to a cloud provider while taking advantage of billing models that allow them to pay only for what they use. According to Nemertes research, 19.1% of companies are using UCaaS for their calling needs, while another 12.2% of companies operate on hybrid environments that combine UCaaS with on-premises and hosted options.
In 2020, we're sure to see the demand for cloud continue to grow, and with it, the rapid of adoption of UCaaS will increase.
2. The Transformation of the Partner Model
As strategies for communication continue to evolve, the partner and reseller strategies embraced by companies today are changing too. In the past, UC vendors have built their brand on top of the crucial partnerships that they held with members of their channel. However, some companies, like Cisco and Microsoft are beginning to re-evaluate their relationships with resellers going forward. Self-service eCommerce solutions are allowing some vendors to deliver cloud-based solutions to customers without any need for reseller input.
End users in the communication landscape are seeing an opportunity to purchase all the services that they need online. However, this means that resellers need to rethink the way that the bring value to the go-to-market strategy. Partners will need to start thinking about how they can present themselves as a value-added component in the sales experience. Rather than just giving customers the same selection of products and services that they can get anywhere else, resellers will need to look for new ways to enhance their offering through specialist services, unique customer packages, and exciting additions to the UCaaS solution.
Some resellers are beginning to explore the concept of the master agent model, where partners can focus more heavily on things like marketing and sales, while the vendor handles things like provisioning and closing deals. This could be a fantastic opportunity for resellers who want to explore opportunities for growth in a world where self-service and eCommerce options are becoming more available but who want to work with vendors who are committed to a channel-only model.
3. Completing the Portfolio
Just as customer expectations have evolved in recent years, the needs of users in the communication environment have transformed too. There's more to Unified Communications than bringing voice tools into a centralised environment. Resellers need a way to offer their customers a broad range of full-fat UC, offering everything from cloud calling, to collaboration service, customer engagement tools and even contact centre solutions.
