It seems that today, Mitel are focusing their vision for growth on something new. By snagging as many smaller UC vendors as possible, the big-name brand is hoping to scale up their presence enough to make Cisco and Microsoft shake.
Although there are plenty of UC companies out there, the dominant shares that those two competitive companies hold creates something of a duopoly. However, with various smaller vendors, Mitel could have the power to eventually create something strong enough to battle with Microsoft and Cisco and a global scale.
Since Rich McBee took over as CEO, Mitel has purchased prairieFyre, Aastra, and a range of other technology tuck-ins. Additionally, Mitel have also tried their hand at grabbing both Polycom, and ShoreTel too. However, recently, Mitel announced that they had a “Memorandum of Understanding” to transfer the UC assets to their holding, from the Toshiba Corporation.
A Good Deal for Mitel
Towards the beginning of 2017, Toshiba shocked its fans by announcing that it would be officially leaving the UC market.
Though Toshiba had been losing some of its pull in the industry, it was still a shocking decision considering that the company has about a 3% market share in the U.S., as well as a 4% share in Canada.
Though purchase prices have not yet been revealed, the chances are that Mitel got a pretty good deal out of the mix. However, that doesn’t mean that Toshiba was left high and dry. In fact, for Toshiba, this change could mean that the company manages a far more graceful exit from the UC marketplace. After all, Toshiba are still a well-known brand, and probably wanted to avoid leaving angry customers behind.
Besides transferring their existing inventory, Mitel will also be transferring all of their service and maintenance contracts to Mitel, so that Toshiba customers continue to have support as they move forward.
What does the Future Hold?
Most of Toshiba’s business is retail-based, which is a familiar area for Mitel. This means that the brand should be able to take its experience selling UC into its own customer base to drive a greater range of products into Toshiba’s customer base.
Mitel are also likely to pick up a few hundred channel partners too. Although Toshiba doesn’t have a wide range of channel partners, the ones it did have were loyal to the company, which paves the way for Mitel. Even if the path that the company is following isn’t particularly simple, it does have potential.
Up until now, the choices McBee has made for the growth of Mitel have been successful, and Toshiba could represent yet another step forward in the transformation of the business.
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