Aragon Research Founder, CEO, and Lead Analyst, Jim Lundy, recently conducted an analysis into the new partnership between leading communication brands Avaya, and RingCentral. According to Lundy, the collaboration marks part of a new era of “alliances” in the UCC space. Currently, companies are beginning to realise that they can’t offer everything their clients need by “going it alone.”
Lundy notes that to protect a significant UC customer base, Avaya needed to find a new way to strengthen its cloud proposition. A partnership with RingCentral allows for that, and it could also mark the arrival of a new era in UCC.
A Beneficial Partnership for Avaya and RingCentral
According to Lundy and Aragon Research, companies everywhere are now taking part in the race to cloud communications, striving to bring their clients more flexibility and scalability. Digital enterprises need a global voice network, and while some companies use CPaaS solutions, integrated platforms can offer more advantages.
Avaya will now be receiving a host of advantages in the form of stock and cash from RingCentral going forward – but that’s not the biggest win of the merger. Instead, the best outcome for Avaya is an opportunity to protect its install base with migration to a cloud PBX.
On the other hand, RingCentral will get access to over 4,700 Avaya partners and a powerful playbook for migrating thousands of customers to the Avaya Cloud Office space. RingCentral will also become a minority shareholder with Avaya.
Inspiring an Age of Consolidation
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a great deal of consolidation and collaboration in the cloud market, as companies strive to bring their customers the widest selection of unique services and features. Vendors know that cloud communications are faster, easier, and more efficient than their counterparts, and the same is true for cloud contact centres too.
Avaya currently has a vast contact centre install base and recently announced the arrival of a CCaaS platform through Microsoft Azure. RingCentral also has a number of assets to bring to the Contact Centre environment, including Dimelo and Connect First.
Since there aren’t a lot of choices available in the cloud contact centre so far, Aragon believes that a new age of contact centre consolidation will accelerate the outcomes of Avaya and RingCentral’s partnership.
New Partnerships Lead to M&A
In Lundy’s opinion, it’s clear that there needs to be more collaborations in the UCC market for go-to-market purposes. While many companies have begun to turn to brands like Pexip to support endpoint connectivity, we’re entering a time when UCC providers are beginning to explore the benefits of M&A activity. Aragon believes that by the end of 2022, 50% of major collaboration and communications providers will either merge or be purchased by someone else.
Additionally, Aragon advises that Avaya customers should be looking carefully at the new offering and considering how it can assist with their migration to cloud environments. Enterprises need to start seeing that there will be more alliances in the marketplace as the race to cloud evolves. Aragon feels that enterprises should be asking both providers for an insight into their roadmap and contact centre plans, particularly in the cloud.
The market for UC&C is shifting rapidly to the cloud, and providers need to adapt accordingly. It’s likely that alliances in the market will continue and grow as a result.
