The latest executive briefing from Frost and Sullivan, Shifting Market Dynamics Require The Right Service Provider Partner, takes a timely look at the turbulent UC market. We spoke to the report’s author, analyst Michael Brandenburg, about the need for this updated overview.
“On the provider side there are so many mergers and acquisitions, and some - such as Cisco’s acquisition of Broadsoft - raised a lot of questions. On top of that, the UK market is growing rapidly, and a lot of people are starting to look around and reassess their choices.”
A perfect storm
The dynamic shifts which the research observed are being driven by a range of factors, combining to create pressure for change. As Brandenburg elaborated:
“Users are expecting more - more collaboration, more data, more tools”
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Michael Brandenburg[/caption]
Business communications are now about so much more than voice telephony, and effective UCaaS are being demanded by a diverse and growing range of customers. “It’s changing the relationship between the supplier and the vendor, who can now deploy new solutions very rapidly”.
The technology makes these bundled services more accessible. But from the point of view of both cost saving and simplicity, it’s changing the terms on which people do business - with more clients being forced into SaaS models.
“That’s where some of the tension is, it’s not business as usual any more. If you’re paying a subscription to a vendor, you have to sell subscriptions in turn to your customers. It can be challenging to see where the ROI is, compared to traditional deployments”.
Driving partnership decisions: what matters most?
So navigating customer expectations in the competitive UCaaS market will remain the challenge for providers keen to exceed expectations. The decision-making factors highlighted in the report will be helpful, and Brandenburg stressed that the real scope for differentiation lies in the user interface.
