Welcome to our round-up of the news making the headlines this week in the UC&C space.
This week saw Microsoft announce that Teams usage has “never been higher” during an earnings call, Slack UK boss Stuart Templeton reveal how the Salesforce merger has affected demand for its platform, and Cisco unveil its augmented reality (AR) platform Webex Hologram.
Microsoft Teams Usage at Record High
CEO Satya Nadella told analysts on a Q1 earnings call this week that Microsoft Teams usage has “never been higher”, although he stopped short of releasing updated figures.
He also revealed that 138 organisations now have over 100,000 users, as well as 3,000 businesses with more than 10,000 users, and spoke candidly about voice functionality in Teams.
“We’re taking share across PSTN, and VoIP,” he said.
“Calls originating from Teams chats increased 50 percent this quarter compared to a year ago. Operator Connect enables organisations to bring their existing service directly into Teams.
“Moving forward, organisations will need a digital fabric that spans organisational boundaries to address key challenges like customer service swarming and supply chain resilience”
Cisco Reveals Webex Hologram
The vendor unveiled its AR platform at its virtual WebexOne event this week. The new product creates real-time, photorealistic holograms of meeting participants. It is hardware agnostic and will be compatible withMagic Leap and Microsoft HoloLens.
Cisco hailed it as an industry first that combines Webex meeting functionality with AR hardware to create immersive 3D holograms.
Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Security and Collaboration, stated:
“Our mission at Cisco is to empower the three billion digital workers on the planet to participate equally from anywhere in the world.
“Webex Hologram represents a large step toward our mission of delivering a delivering a work experience so seamless that there is no gap between virtual and in-person collaboration”
The vendor also highlighted its efforts in helping define what the future of work looks like, its partnership with Bang & Olufsen, and the reveal of Webex Go.
