When Cisco, one of the world's leading enterprise communication companies, announced their decision to purchase cloud specialists BroadSoft, the news sent shockwaves around the UC marketplace. In February of this year, the deal came to a successful close, bringing BroadSoft's exceptional cloud strategy and collaboration services into Cisco's leading meetings, messaging, calling, and customer care portfolio.
At UC EXPO last week, we had an opportunity to catch up with Craig Decker, the Managing Director for EMEA at BroadSoft (now part of Cisco). With more than 11 years working for BroadSoft, Craig has been in a fantastic position to witness the merger of the two companies. We sat down with a quick discussion with him about how the merger has affected the two businesses, and what the future looks like for Cisco and BroadSoft.
What's Been Happening Since the Deal?
It's been a few months since the ink dried on the acquisition agreement between Cisco and BroadSoft, making Cisco one of the biggest, and most compelling UC solutions in the current marketplace. I asked Craig what's been happening since the deal took place, and he told me that the transformation has been significant.
"Ever since the early stages of the acquisition, it was clear that Cisco wanted to hold onto the BroadSoft DNA and the way we approached managing service providers. Our integration into the Cisco Collaboration Group has been about delivering collaboration and cloud calling to customers and offering sales and marketing support to service providers using the Cisco portfolio."
As Decker told me, BroadSoft has always been 100% service provider focused. "We were never really a brand that enterprise companies knew about. I think one of the biggest things that have changed since the acquisition, is that we now have countless enterprise providers coming to work with us. Enterprise service providers are seeing a huge opportunity in the merger because even though Cisco has always been a market leader in terms of enterprise communications, they never really had that cloud calling aspect. With BroadSoft, they can really offer that to their customers."
Decker noted that the best thing about the acquisition for him is how welcoming Cisco have been. "As an integration company, Cisco is world class. My team has felt so welcome, and the process has been incredibly smooth. I think there's always a risk of people losing focus during change, but I've seen the reverse. Our people can see the opportunity, and they're so motivated."
Where Do You Think the Market Transformation in UC is Heading?
Now that Cisco and BroadSoft have combined their specialties into one fantastic portfolio, Craig believes that they're going to see a huge expansion in market reach, particularly when it comes to mid-market and enterprise customers.
"I think there's a lot of opportunity, but we'll need to educate all the different channels about what's possible first. It's all about creating the right transitional experience."
Of course, it's not just Cisco, BroadSoft, and their customers that are going through a transformation right now. The whole UC market is in a state of flux, with plenty of consolidation and growth throughout. I asked Craig where he thinks the market is heading.
"I think we're going to see continued service provider mergers and continued new developments by vendors like Cisco as everyone starts to deliver more complete portfolios. There's a lot of vendors out there today that are pure cloud - and while that might work for SMBs that can make the jump to cloud pretty quickly, there needs to be more hybrid opportunities for mid-market and large enterprises too."
Decker also commented that as the move to cloud accelerates, he thinks that we'll start to see more specialised and niche solutions come up across various verticals.
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