NewsUC&C13 May 2022 · 6 min read

Big UC News from Google, Zoom, RingCentral, Avaya, Poly, and NEC

Why it matters: RingCentral, Avaya, NEC, Poly and Zoom are reshaping UCaaS, CCaaS and hybrid work. Published on UC Today.

James Stephen

From a CX acquisition and a virtual event service to business rocketing 500%, here are extracts from popular stories this week.

RingCentral’s Teams Business Rockets 500%

RingCentral has seen its Microsoft Teams business rocket 500 percent, according to CEO Vlad Schmunis.

The vendor’s senior team spoke on an earnings call with investors after announcing quarterly sales growth of 33 percent year on year in Q1, up to $468m.

RingCentral did not report actual revenue figures for its Teams business, but Schmunis said the vendor could reveal the size at a later date.

“We will eventually be disclosing the number, but for competitive reasons, let’s just say this is one of our stronger growth drivers at this point,” he said.

“And what we set out to do was simply provide the world’s best Teams integration, which, at this point, we already have between direct routing and embedded dialer.

“We really are the only sizable vendor to support both. That opens up a tremendous amount of opportunities for us.”

RingCentral COO Mo Katibeh said that the vendor sees opportunities with enterprises on Microsoft’s E1 and E3 licences, which do not include telephony services.

Two Factors Hindering Avaya’s Growth

Avaya is being restricted by two key factors after seeing growth stall for a second consecutive quarter, its CEO has said.

Sales for the vendor’s Q1 were $716m, down three percent from the same quarter last year.

Chief Exec Jim Chirico said the vendor’s top line has been hampered by “two temporary dynamics”.

The first is a delay in several deals, including a huge $400m CCaaS deal with a financial Institution that Avaya revealed in February.

“It is significant, not just because of the size of the deal, one of the largest in the history of the company, but also because it leverages a significant number of our latest innovations, including AI, biometric security and advanced analytics and represents a displacement of several incumbent competitors,” Chirico said.

“Because of the nature of the CCaaS deal, we were unable to recognize revenue we had assumed would be realized in Q1, which will now materialize beginning in the second half of FY ’22.”

Chirico said the second factor was continuing lockdowns, particularly in the US and western Europe. He added that deal approvals and contract activities stalled with many customers.

NEC Releases ‘MEET WEBINAR’ Virtual Event Service

NEC Enterprise Solutions has released its UNIVERGE BLUE MEET WEBINAR virtual event service in the UK, Netherlands, and Italy.

NEC’s UNIVERGE BLUE UCaaS solution began rolling out packages in the UK last year. This software marks the latest addition to NEC’s open cloud platform.

‘MEET WEBINAR’ provides businesses with webinar tools and the ability to connect and engage with their audiences.

Ronald Schapendonk, Global Marketing Director at NEC Enterprise Solutions, said: “We’re excited to announce MEET WEBINAR, which adds rich webinar capabilities directly into the UNIVERGE BLUE CONNECT app.

“In today’s hybrid work environment businesses are looking for better ways to reach and engage with customers, prospects, and business partners from wherever they may be.

“For attendees, we made it easy to join from the device of their choice. UNIVERGE BLUE MEET WEBINAR is a simple, easy-to-use solution that provides businesses with everything they need to drive smarter, faster, engaging, and actionable virtual event and meeting experiences.”

NEC believes the virtual event service fosters better collaboration, productivity, and communication. Beyond reaching and communicating with audiences, it can record audience insights.

Poly Launches R30 for Huddle Room at ISE

Poly has announced the release of its R30 video bar for small meeting rooms at Barcelona ISE (Integrated Systems Europe).

The video endpoint company also unveiled the Poly Sync 10 speakerphone, upgrades to the Poly Lens platform, and enhancements to Poly DirectorAI smart camera technology.

The driving force behind these solutions is to improve audio and video quality and help office and remote workers collaborate more effectively.

Beau Wilder, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Video Collaboration at Poly, said: “The ability to deliver a seamless and equitable experience for today’s modern workforce is not only critical for driving business success, but also happier and more productive employees.

“Although organisations have started to announce return-to-office plans, relying on solutions that were successful pre-pandemic will no longer cut it.

“At Poly, we’re dedicated to investing in pro-grade tools that make sure all employees have equal opportunity and experience – whether in the office, at home or on-the-go.”

The Poly Studio R30 video bar includes a 4k camera with a 120-degree field of view, Poly DirectorAI smart camera technology, and advanced audio with NoiseBlock AI and Acoustic Fence to remove background noise.

Zoom Makes CX Acquisition

Zoom has acquired conversation AI platform Solvvy as it continues to expand its contact centre credentials.

Solvvy’s technology will add scalable self-service capabilities to Zoom Contact Center platform, Zoom said.

Velchamy Sankarlingam, President of Product and Engineering at Zoom, added: “The nature of customer experience is transforming fundamentally, as enterprises increasingly need to deliver exceptional, personalized, and effortless customer experiences.

“Solvvy understands this shift and is the ideal platform to enhance our Zoom Contact Center offering.

“Solvvy’s differentiated AI and machine learning technology, deeply talented team, and an easy-to-deploy solution will help accelerate our roadmap to creating a concierge-level experience for customers worldwide.

“Together, we are excited to help businesses of all sizes improve their customer retention, increase operating efficiency, and set new standards for customer service and satisfaction.”

Zoom launched its contact centre offering in February, building on an announcement it made last year revealing plans for its Video Engagement Center.

Google Workspace Releases AI-Based Updates

Google has released new updates to its Google Workspace platform based on insights from machine learning.

The company says it has been using AI for some years to improve user experience, and these latest changes are designed to improve hybrid working tools.

Updates include built-in summaries to Spaces, automated meeting transcription and summarisation, portrait restore, portrait light, and others.

Johanna Voolich Wright, Vice President, Product Management, Google Workspace, said: “We hear from customers—and observe in many of our own teams—that staying on top of the vast amount of information flowing across desks and devices can be a challenge.

“Information overload isn’t a new phenomenon, but many of our customers say that hybrid work has increased the sheer volume of emails, chats, and meetings for their organisations.

“Our latest AI innovations are designed to help employees bring focus to what matters, collaborate securely, and strengthen human connections across the ways and places work happens.”

Built-in summaries to Spaces: Built-in summaries will soon be added to Spaces to provide an easy-to-read snippet of conversations which may have been missed.

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