2024 is undoubtedly a year of opportunity for the unified communications industry, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of challenges to overcome.
As part of our inaugural UC All-Stars series, we asked more than 50 UC Leaders to name the biggest challenge they’re facing this year.
Below is a snapshot of some of their answers. You can view their complete answers to these questions and more in UC All-Stars or click a leader’s name to view their full profile.
Senior execs from across the industry have picked out some of their challenges, ranging from the pace of innovation to economic uncertainty.
Growth and Expansion
Several All-Stars from the likes of Avaya and CallTower named expansion and transformation as their biggest challenge of the year
Alan Masarek, CEO at Avaya, alluded to Avaya’s ongoing transformation as his biggest challenge – particularly given the dispersed nature of the vendor’s operations.
“The biggest challenge is leading the organization through the remaining elements of our operational transformation,” he said.
“We have made great changes in a short period of time and, while change management is challenging in every organization, Avaya is large and globally distributed.
“In such large environments, it’s ever more difficult to implement sweeping changes.
William Rubio, Chief Revenue Officer at Calltower, pointed to the firm’s global ambitions as his biggest challenge.
“We have a tough goal as an organization to grow our presence in EMEA and APAC,” he said.
“We know that we want to expand in a strategic way and not in a haphazard way. Finding the right partners that can create mutual value is a challenge.
“It will result in growth in 2025 but the key is establishing those relationships in 2024.”
Peter Mahoney, Chief Marketing Officer at GoTo, said his biggest challenge is balancing growth with profitability.
“My biggest challenge is probably similar to the challenges that many others are facing: driving more profitable growth,” he said.
“It’s not too hard to increase profit, you just cut costs. And it isn’t too hard to drive growth, you just spend more money on the things that work. But driving increasingly profitable growth is a challenge that takes creativity and hard work.”
Here’s what other All-Stars head to say:
- Steve Osler, CEO at Wildix: “As we look ahead to the rest of 2024, one area, in particular, stands out as our greatest hurdle yet also our most exciting opportunity.“This challenge, central to our mission this year, is meeting the overwhelming demand for our AI-fueled product, x-hoppers, which has become unrivaled in the market. The essence of this challenge lies in accelerating our product fulfillment to cater to the extensive interest from retailers.”
- Steven Karachinsky, CEO at ZIRO, said: “My primary focus this year revolves around maintaining unwavering concentration and ensuring my team remains aligned with our objectives.“As our business expands and opportunities abound, the allure of shiny distractions poses a constant threat to our trajectory. Our overarching goal? To become the #1 Microsoft Teams Calling Company in North America.”
- Dominic McDonald, Chief Executive at ULAP Networks, said: “With our growth, we have opened offices in 6 economies. Having the time to invest in them equally is a challenge.”
Pace of Change
A number of All-Stars named keeping up with the rapid pace of innovation as their toughest challenge this year.
Tsahi Levent-Levi, Senior Director of Product Management at Cyara, named navigating the dynamic market landscape amidst numerous changes as a struggle.
“Figuring out the market,” he said. “There are so many changes taking place that it is hard to keep up and to understand where we are headed exactly.”
Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst at Metrigy, emphasised the challenge of balancing business as usual with exploring AI’s potential and associated risks.
“Keeping up with the rate of change, especially AI, and managing a balance between both conducting our normal business operations and in gaining an understanding of the opportunities that AI presents to us and our clients (and the risks).”
Melissa Swartz, Technology Consultant at Swartz Consulting, highlighted the necessity of keeping pace with technological advancements driven by AI.
“Keeping up with changes in the technology as AI accelerates the pace of innovation,” she said.
Development Architect Tom Morgan finds excitement and challenge in continuously learning about new technologies like large language models and semantic analysis.
“Keeping up with everything that’s changing!” he said.
“It’s been an exhilarating challenge skilling up in the fundamentals of how large language models and learning new terms like RAG and semantic analysis. Never stop learning!”
Patrick Watson, Head of Research at Cavell, addressed the difficulty in prioritising research areas amidst rapidly evolving technological demands.
“Rapidly changing technological demands,” he said.
“There are a vast range of technologies we would love to cover with specific research, so choosing which areas to prioritise for our customers is a challenge.”
Chasing Time
Frequent travel to industry events poses significant challenges for UC All-Stars, making it hard to balance work, family priorities, and core job responsibilities like writing and research.
While they value face-to-face interactions at these events, the travel demands often interfere with their ability to maintain productivity.
Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Chief Analyst at ZK Research, said he struggles with attending numerous events while maintaining a demanding publishing schedule, made challenging by constant travel.
“Trying to be in too many places at once,” he said.
“There are far too many events and I try and hit as many as I can but keeping up a pace of publishing 3-5 posts a week is hard with the constant travel.”
Prachi Nema, Principal Analyst at Omdia, said she finds balancing work and family priorities difficult due to frequent travel.
“Travel is my biggest challenge as I struggle to balance work and family priorities when travelling,” she said.
“I wish the UC&C industry could move to more virtual-only events.
“However, I value the face-to-face interactions with my colleagues, customers, and industry experts at various industry events, trade shows, and conferences, which always bring additional joy.”
Meanwhile, Blair Pleasant, President and Principal Analyst at COMMfusion, said she faces difficulty finding time for her core work due to frequent business trips, attending conferences at least twice a month, which impacts her writing, researching, and consulting duties.
“Finding time to do my actual work in between so many business trips!” she said.
“It seems like I’m traveling to conferences at least twice a month, and while they’re very valuable, the traveling takes time away from writing, researching, consulting, and other aspects of my job.”
Best of the Rest
Our UC All-Stars named a host of other challenges they’re facing in 2024. Here’s a handful more of what they said.
- Amanda Sterner, Technical Architect – Modern Work at Advania, said: As a productivity and Microsoft 365 consultant I’m waiting for the hype of Microsoft Copilot to cool down.
“Don’t get me wrong, generative AI and Copilot is a shift in how we work, and I’m thrilled I get to live this era as it happens BUT there’s a lot to successful collaboration and productivity that isn’t Copilot.“I’m waiting to see when gen AI is just a normal part of our everyday lives just as calling, chatting and meeting.”
- Craig Walker, Founder and CEO at Dialpad, said: “The largest obstacle I face in my role is breaking through to those prospective customers who are overwhelmed with AI options, to prove AI’s value in solving their pain points with an industry-specific solution.“Business leaders face increased pressure to generate revenue, employees strive to work faster and more collaboratively, and customer expectations are rising. It’s my priority to anticipate customer needs and provide them with unified business communication solutions that work best for their teams – all in one spot, with real-time insights, and support to set them up for success.”
- Aruna Ravichandran, SVP & Chief Marketing and Customer Officer at Cisco, said: “In October of 2023, we delivered the first-ever hybrid WebexOne customer conference.“We are an incredibly small but mighty team, and we delivered the event in just eight months, receiving tremendous accolades from customers, partners, analysts, and the press alike.“We overcame the challenges because our team culture is strong. This year, we are again delivering a hybrid WebexOne in the Miami area. I know that no matter the challenges or hurdles, we will overcome them because I am fortunate to lead a team full of incredibly creative, innovative, and strategic thinkers.”
- Anurag Agrawal, Founder & Chief Global Analyst at Techaisle, said: “The biggest challenge will be not to get sucked in pivoting from an analyst firm to paid-PR, which seems to be a growing trend, instead remaining true to what Techaisle is, an analyst firm, which was founded on the premise that Go-to-Market strategies require insightful research, flexible data, and deeper analysis.
- Patrick Kelley, Distinguished Architect at Zoom, said: “Showcasing the power of social media at a business level.
“Most companies don’t take advantage of what YouTube, Instagram, X, have to offer. Video platforms should surpass all forms of paper, email, chat, blogs as the medium for sales, enablement, and marketing.”
- Josh Blalock, Chief Video Evangelist at Jabra, said: “My role requires a lot of creativity in reaching a wide and growing social audience.
“However, the increasing noise on those social platforms, largely spurred on by the proliferation and ease of podcasting and content creation (not to mention how much AI is helping there now) makes it a continual struggle to cut through the noise with your message.”
- Nigel Dunn, Vice President EMEA North at Jabra, said: “I think 2023 was a tough year and the challenge for me is to make sure that we all focus on the opportunities ahead.“We have established video products which we now need to challenge the big competitors with our unique solutions and in the world of audio, the new wave of AI chips and the closing down of Windows 10 will create a new wave of PC sales.
“This is always a precursor to audio solution refresh. My challenge is to position ourselves ready, aligned with our partners, to take these opportunities as they arise. I think 2024 will be a great year!”
- Dhwani Soni, GVP of Product Management, Design & Operations at 8×8, said: “Building products is one-half of the problem. Taking products to success is the crucial second half.
“This year my focus is to make sure I take my stakeholders as partners outside of Product to walk that second half walk with me.
“We have many new products at 8×8 that close the CX gaps and bring cross-org cross-engagement to our customers and I would like to see them be well-adopted and loved by our customers!”
