The Gartner Magic Quadrant is the go-to report for many companies in search of advice for which solution to choose. As meeting services become more essential, driven by the demand for better human interactions in a remote environment, there are countless options to choose from.
Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions blends collaboration, communications, and content sharing to support virtual meeting scenarios in various environments.
According to Gartner, by 2024, remote work and new workforce demographics will mean that only 25% of meetings will take place in-person. 74% of companies will permanently shift to remote work as a result of the experiences they had during COVID-19. What’s more, by 2023, 50% of all video conferencing systems may be based on Windows or Android appliances.
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Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions 2020 - click to enlarge[/caption]
2020 Meeting Solutions Leaders
The leaders in the Magic Quadrant are the vendors that demonstrate the most completeness of vision, combined with the ability to execute. This year’s leaders are:
Microsoft:
Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud solution includes Microsoft Teams, the tool quickly emerging as the world’s favourite option for enterprise collaboration. Microsoft Teams also provides support for live event broadcasting, and there are opportunities for on-premises deployments with the Skype for Business Server. Microsoft’s immersive environment combined with its commitment to constant growth and new integrations make it a powerful choice for teams.
Cisco:
Cisco leads the Magic Quadrant for 2020 with its Webex solutions for Meetings, Events, and Training. Cisco Webex Teams supports better workstream collaboration too. Cisco’s solution comes with a variety of deployment options, including managed services, cloud-premises hybrid and premises-based software, alongside SaaS. Cisco also supports a selection of endpoints for personal and professional workspaces.
Zoom:
Zoom arrived at the top of the Magic Quadrant this year thanks to its fantastic Meeting and Webinar solutions. Gartner also praises Zoom’s Room services, and support for partner hardware. Zoom solutions satisfy a range of new and established meeting scenarios, and companies can choose from a host of useful deployment options. The company is investing constantly in new and robust vertical solutions, such as hardware as a service, hardened security capabilities, and new video experiences embedded into enterprise workflows.
2020 Meeting Room Challengers
Challengers in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant demonstrate excellent ability to execute but may need to show more completeness of vision before they reach “Leader” status. This year’s challengers include:
Google:
Google’s G Suite (now Workspace) solution bundles a host of useful tools into a single environment, including Google Meet. The Google Meet solution supports up to 250 participants and comes with associated devices for collaborative in-room experiences. Google’s deployment model focuses only on SaaS, with sales and service operations that span the globe. Google’s vision is on building stable, secure, and enterprise-grade meeting experiences.
LogMeIn:
LogMeIn serves the Meeting environment with GoToTraining, GoToMeeting, and GoToWebinar. There’s also the Join.Me option to ensure that companies have a wide selection of meeting scenarios to choose from. There are various hardware options available through partners, and LogMeIn operates entirely on the cloud, making it easy for businesses to get started. Over the next few years, LogMeIn will be focusing on strengthening its portfolio for remote and office workers.
Huawei:
Another challenger in this Magic Quadrant, the Huawei brand offers hardware video endpoints and solutions for on-premises deployments. The WeLink cloud-based meeting solution serves the SaaS environment. Huawei is working on expanding its cloud-based offering in all of the markets it serves, except North America. The company is also working on new AI solutions, virtual reality technology, the Internet of Things, and 5G.
2020 Meeting Room Visionaries
The Visionaries in the Gartner Magic Quadrant demonstrate excellent completeness of vision, but they have a way to go with their ability to execute. This year’s companies include:
StarLeaf:
The StarLeaf meeting offering complements its portfolio of powerful room systems that support all kinds of spaces. The StarLeaf meeting solution supports premises-based software, SaaS, solutions, cloud-premises hybrid options, and managed services deployments. Custom integrations are available with Microsoft Teams, and StarLeaf can interoperate with various SIP and H.323 endpoints. Room systems from the company provide one-touch entry to conversations.
Pexip:
Pexip provides the Infinity Meeting solution and infrastructure to support numerous enterprise use cases for conferencing and collaboration. The solution is available in a variety of deployment options, including premises-based software, hybrid options, and cloud-based SaaS. The virtualised video infrastructure software from Pexip is available to deploy on-premises or in the cloud. Sales and operations are growing on a global scale.
BlueJeans:
