It has been another busy week in the unified comms space, and we’re bringing this roundup to ahead of the long weekend so you can fully digest the latest happenings in the industry over your chocolate eggs.
The Zoom and RingCentral saga continues to trundle on with the former managing to get court approval to block new RingCentral Meetings customers being onboarded. Elsewhere banking giant Citigroup declared Fridays “Zoom-free” for employees and Microsoft introduced its new global partner boss.
Here are our must-read stories from the past week.
Zoom Blocks RingCentral Meetings for New Customers
Since Zoom announced a fortnight ago that it was suing RingCentral formoving its customers away from its Zoom-powered offering, known as RingCentral Meetings, towards its own platform RingCentral Video. Last week, RingCentral received a temporary injunction allowing it to continue selling its Meetings product.
In the latest twist in the tale, Zoom was this week granted permission by US courts to block RingCentral Meetings for customers onboarded since 1 February.
In a statement on the matter, Zoom said: “We believe RingCentral is inappropriately using Zoom to attract new customers, only to then switch them over to its own inferior meetings product. This is unfair to customers, who deserve better.”
Slack’s U-Turn On Personalised DM Invites
Messaging platform Slack has decided against a new feature that would allow users to send a personalised message when attempting to connect with any other user on its platform.
The feature was part of Slack Connect, which lets users communicate with users from outside their organisation. It allowed users to include a custom message attached to the invite, with no apparent way for the recipient to reject the message.
The feature had been criticised for potentially exposing users to abuse as they could not block the inflow of connection requests.
The move comes as a blow for Slack Connect, which the vendor has been touting as a replacement for external emails.
Fuze Improves Meeting Offering to Support Major Providers
Fuze has enhanced its meeting offering to include one-click join support for several providers, including Google Meet, Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams and GoToMeeting.
This interoperability will allow users to launch and join meetings easily – regardless of their provider – from inside of the Fuze platform. The feature is compatible with Fuze mobile, Fuze desktop and Fuze for web.
Microsoft Appoints New Global Channel Boss
The tech giant has named Rodney Clark as its new CVP of Global Channel Sales, succeeding longstanding incumbent Gavriella Schuster who is stepping down to pursue new opportunities.
Clark has been with the company for 23 years, most recently heading its IoT and mixed reality sales business.
“In his 20+ years at Microsoft, Rodney has been no stranger to the channel, maintaining proximity and spending a vast majority of time dedicated to growing partner value,” stated Nick Parker, CVP of Global Partner Solutions.
“His experience, passion and commitment to not only accelerate the industry but to push Microsoft, through a focus on building capability, through partners, positions him incredibly well to help our partners continue to drive growth.”
Citigroup Tells Staff to Keep Fridays Zoom-Free
In an effort to battle Zoom fatigue, Citigroup has banned Zoom meetings for its staff on Fridays. New CEO Jane Fraser told staff it is being implemented to reduce the stress on staff.
“I know, from your feedback and my own experience, the blurring of lines between home and work and the relentlessness of the pandemic workday have taken a toll on our wellbeing – it’s simply not sustainable,” she wrote in a memo to employees.
The banking giant has also declared 28 May a company-wide holiday and has encouraged employees to take holidays and not to schedule meetings outside of “traditional” working hours.
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