Zoom Reports Q1 Growth Despite Staff Lay-Offs
Zoom reported three percent year-on-year growth at its Q1 2023 earnings call, despite laying off 15 percent of its staff.
Zoom achieved total revenues of $1.105 billion, roughly $20 million above the high end of guidance. In February, Zoom announced it would cut 1,300 employees, and its CEO, Eric Yuan, took a 98 percent pay reduction. These job losses were accredited to a waning demand for video conferencing services.
Eric S. Yuan, Zoom Founder and CEO, commented:
The solid start to the year has enabled us to raise our outlook for fiscal year 2024 while continuing to invest in innovations such as AI to help make interactions more meaningful and communications more effective.”
Other significant financial results included Zoom’s non-GAAP gross margin of 80.5 percent exceeding its long-term target, enterprise business up 13 percent, online revenue increasing, and Zoom Phone surpassing ten percent of quarterly revenue.
However, not all results reported were positive. While the Americas revenue grew eight percent, it declined in EMEA and APAC by eight percent and five percent, respectively. Kelly Steckelberg, CFO at Zoom Video Communications, suggested this loss was due to local regulations prolonging the redundancy process, a stronger dollar, and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Looking forward, for Q2, Zoom expects its revenue to grow to between $1.110 billion and $1.115 billion, with a non-GAAP income between $405 million and $410 million.
Teams Introduces Immersive Spaces for Meetings and Simplifies Group Chat Navigation with Message Links
Teams is introducing immersive spaces to empower users to make meetings more engaging by injecting “a sense of natural co-presence”.
The solution was announced as part of Microsoft’s Build update. Powered by Mesh, Microsoft’s holographic virtual collaboration platform, users can access the immersive spaces feature through either a PC or VR headset. Users can then connect with other participants whether they join a Teams meeting using video, as a virtual avatar or in the immersive space directly.
“New Microsoft Mesh-powered immersive spaces for Microsoft Teams, in private preview, will let users add an immersive experience to any Teams meeting, giving everyday meetings a sense of natural co-presence,” a blog accompanying the Build update wrote.
The feature will launch in private preview next week.
The Build update also announced that Avatars for Teams are now generally available for 365 Business and Enterprise licenses via the Teams desktop app on Windows and Mac. As the Build report describes, these virtual avatars offer an alternative to the current “binary” option of video or no video. The feature includes customisable avatars and reactions.
In other Teams news, a new feature will allow users to share links to specific messages in group chats so colleagues can find information more easily.
The feature intends to make locating important information more efficient by removing the obstacle of searching through blocks of text in the group chat for the exact message that users need to find.
The 365 Roadmap for the update reads: “Users will be able to share a link to a specific message in a group chat, enabling the group chat members to navigate to a message and find information quickly.”
The feature is currently in development and is scheduled to roll out with general availability in June. It will be available for all Teams users across Desktop, Mac, iOS and Android.
Mitel Executive Discusses the ‘Significant Opportunity’ In Mitel’s Unify Acquisition
Mitel’s Head of UKISA, Nick Riggott, spoke with UC Today about Mitel’s momentous acquisition of Unify and the opportunities created by the deal.
Riggott told UC Today:
The Unify deal is incredibly exciting and is ultimately an acceleration of our strategy. We have a significant opportunity with the acquisition. Together, we’ll be able to be the prominent UC leader globally with a collective customer base of more than 75 million users in over 100 countries and a channel community of more than 5,500 global partners.”
However, Riggott stressed that the move was not just about increasing global revenues and profitability but expanding Mitel’s organisational reach and operating leverage — the outcome of which will “cement the commitment that we’ve always had for the UC industry with this expanded portfolio,” as Riggott observed.
Riggott asserted that the Unify deal would shape Mitel‘s strategy for the next few years. “This is going to really accelerate our ability to serve all of the evolving communication needs of global businesses, with an even broader range of on-premises hybrid private cloud and the soon-to-be enterprise-managed service offers,” he said.
“We need to focus on the synergies and the complementary strengths of the organisations with mid-market expertise. Unify’s incredibly successful enterprise-managed service for business will make our new organisation incredibly competitive across the mid-market and the enterprise organisation markets.”
BT Launches 5G-Enabled Immersive Spaces To Improve Business Learning and Development
BT has launched Immersive Spaces, a 5G-enabled offering that simulates real-life situations to enable business learning and development.
The solution is a partnership with immersive learning spaces provider Immersive Interactive, with the spaces connected to the EE mobile network. The immersive environments are simulated within an internal or external room or mobile unit, and the rooms are set up using cameras and HD projectors to bring a fully 360-degree experience to life across the space’s walls and floor.
“This technology has the potential to be a game changer for training and development in any industry,” said Alex Foster, Director at Division X – BT’s Business Innovation team. “Putting the power of immersive content into the hands of customers allows people to experience learning in a completely new way that is targeted specifically to their needs – which can significantly improve information retention and problem-solving skills.”
Each Immersive Space has a content library of over 3,000 virtual scenarios, real-life environments, games and training experiences. The spaces are also compatible with VR, AR and XR technologies to enhance the user experience. Users can interact with real-life or imagined scenarios and even incorporate sensory interactivity, nuancing the virtual experience with lights, sounds, and smells.
