It's been an incredible year in unified communications, with disruption, transformation, and innovation appearing from almost every angle. We've seen the need for collaboration tools skyrocket over the last 12 months, while AI-infused solutions like virtual assistants change the way we work and play.
Various vendors have continued to consolidate their offerings in an attempt to deliver more comprehensive experiences to the end-user, while experience remains the most important consideration for businesses of any size.
With 2019 just around the corner, I thought now would be the best time to look back over some of our biggest news stories this year, and discuss what they've told us about the UC landscape…
1. GDPR Strikes: The Fireworks Fizzle Faster Than Expected
For the first portion of the year, it seemed like everyone was always talking about GDPR. Organisations from every background were rapidly re-thinking their approach to security and privacy in a world where the meaning of "consent" was about to drastically change.
However, when the 25th of May rolled around, and GDPR was officially introduced, we the impact was nowhere near as dramatic as we had expected. After a single day of bulk emails sent to customers around the globe, the whole conversation around GDPR seemed to die down into nothing but a whisper. Perhaps it's a sign that we're more prepared to deal with legislation changes than we think.
2. Gartner UC Magic Quadrant Reveals a Still Landscape
The Gartner UC Magic Quadrant is one of the most significant talking points of the year - essentially, it's like the Grammys or the Baftas for communication. However, this year, we didn't see much of an impact to the top spots in the Gartner list. Cisco, Mitel, and Microsoft continued to lead the way as the biggest ‘legacy’ UC vendors in the market.
The only significant point worth noting was the fact that Avaya managed to hold their position on the VIP list, despite a rocky year in 2017. Gartner loves its legacy vendors, and Avaya's appearance in the top spot is a sure sign that the company is coming out of bankruptcy bigger and better than ever.
3. The New Consumer Skype Sucked
Probably the biggest outrage of 2018 in the UC sector came when Microsoft had the nerve to introduce a brand-new consumer Skype that felt nothing like the original application. The updated tool worked more like a social media app than the calling system we'd come to know and love, causing countless customers to complain that they had lost their favourite VoIP service.
We can only hope that Microsoft has paid attention to the (somewhat aggressive) feedback given by their customers this year and that they think carefully before introducing any similar updates in the future. With Microsoft Teams poised to do big things in the collaboration market, Microsoft really can't afford any mistakes that might lose them more loyal customers.
4. Cisco Scraps Spark and Introduces Webex Teams
Speaking of the collaboration sector, Cisco binned their previous "Spark" system, only a couple of years after it was introduced in 2015. Fortunately, the communication leaders quickly replaced Spark with something new - Webex Teams - a collaboration solution built on the well-established Webex brand. Essentially the same platform, just a re-badged edition.
The response to Webex Teams has been quite good, particularly among people who are already familiar and comfortable with the Cisco portfolio. However, it remains to be seen whether Webex Teams will hold its own against contenders like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
5. Mitel Acquired by Searchlight Capital Partners
After a while of rumours this year, Mitel finally revealed that they had agreed to be purchased by an investor group led by Searchlight Capital partners. The acquisition cost around 2 billion to complete and left us wondering whether Rackspace's owner will finally have what they need to piece together the puzzle for their cloud proposition once and for all.
We're yet to see significant evidence that it's a brand-new world for Mitel's buyer, but there's still time for changes to take place as we go into 2019.
