Welcome back to your weekly roundup of the latest news emerging from the unified comms and collaboration space!
This week has been a busy one for M&A in the channel, with Daisy Communications, CloudCoCo, and Babble all making significant acquisitions. Salesforce also gave us a preview of what its integration with Slack will look like, and Zoom launched a forum to allow its users to chat and seek support.
What Will the Salesforce-Slack Integration Look Like?
A month after the gargantuan $27.7bn deal was completed, the world finally got a glimpse of what the much-anticipated Salesforce-Slack integration will look like.
At a virtual event, the duo showcased the Slack-First Customer 360 platform – bringing Slack’s collaboration capabilities together with Salesforce’s suite of CRM tools.
Brett Taylor, COO at Salesforce, said: “Customer 360 is about digital sales, digital customer services, digital marketing, digital commerce.
“Slack is just the perfect tool to engage with every stakeholder, whether you’re a sales team getting approval for a discount or a customer services team trying to find the right person to answer your customer’s question as quickly as possible”
The companies confirmed that Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield will remain in his position and that Slack would retain its brand.
Welcome to the Zoom-unity
Zoom this week launched Zoom Community, a hub that allows users to share ideas, learn about products, and pick up best practices.
Zoom Community will be made up of two forums: Product Forum and Industry Forum.
Alexis Brown, Senior Manager of Global Community at Zoom, stated:
“Being a member of a community can make us feel as though we are a part of something greater than ourselves”
“It can give us opportunities to connect with people, to share common goals, and make us feel a sense of belonging.”
Avaya and Microsoft Unite Their CPaaS Platforms
Avaya’s OneCloud communications platform as a service (CPaaS) is being pulled together with the voice, video, chat, and SMS capabilities of Microsoft Azure Communication Services.
Anthony Bartolo, Chief Product Officer at Avaya, stated: “Avaya and Microsoft are responding to our customers who have asked us to deliver more integrated experiences for Avaya OneCloud contact centre running in Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
“Together we are providing true integration, spanning not just the contact center application itself but also the underlying communication platforms. Additionally, we will be implementing Microsoft’s powerful AI capabilities via Azure Cognitive Services”
The enhanced partnership will also see a strengthened integration of Avaya’s OneCloud contact centre-as-a-service (CCaaS) platform with Azure.
Babble’s Buying Spree Continues
The acquisitive cloud comms provider this week made its fifth and sixth acquisitions so far this year. The company announced in January that it was planning on making five acquisitions by July 2021 and it has now surpassed that target with the purchases of 5 Rings Telecom and Concert Networks.
“Our goal has always been to transform the way our customers work through the deployment of the right technology,” stated Matt Parker, Chief Executive of Babble.
“Throughout 2021 we have completed a number of strategic acquisitions aimed to expand, deepen and strengthen our offering, allowing us to serve even more customers across the whole of the UK and beyond”
Mitel Spin-off Names New MSP
Clearspan, a Mitel spin-off, has entered a partnership with US MSP GreenPages to sell its UC&C services to enterprise and the public sector. Under the agreement, GreenPages will leverage Clearspan technology to deliver carrier-grade voice, video, and collaboration services at scale for its clients.
Ron Dupler, chief executive officer, GreenPages, stated:
“We partnered with Clearspan for their innovative vision and proven ability to execute within large-scale organisations.
“Helping enterprise clients digitally transform requires flexible, modern solutions. Clearspan not only helps us modernise the way people work, they are redefining the integration of communications, applications, machine learning, and the Internet of Things”
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