Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for UCaaS 2016 Review

Gartner’s take on Unified Communications as a Service vendors in 2016

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Gartners Magic Quadrant for UCaaS 2016 review
UCaaS ReviewsUnified CommunicationsUnified Communications Reviews

Published: March 24, 2017

Rebekah Carter - Writer

Rebekah Carter

Today, the UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) market is making the transformation into a must-have solution for enterprise delivery according to the research published by world leader “Gartner”. Now, many UCaaS providers are supporting global solutions for the market.

UCaaS largely supports the same functions as its premise-based counterpart for unified communications, but instead it follows a model of cloud service delivery. As the UCaaS market continues to grow faster than the typical market, vendors are now investing in cloud-based solutions for conferencing, telephony, messaging, voice, and communications platforms. Though 16 vendors made it into Gartner’s 2016 Magic Quadrant, including “IT giants like Microsoft and Google.” today we’re going to look a little closer at the four segments, and their leaders.

How Entrants Approached the Quadrants

Gartner evaluated vendors that have been utilising the global UCaaS platforms, and have developed their own UCaaS stack of applications. Vendors need build, design, upgrade, and support, and must operate the UCaaS platform perfectly. Other vendors needed to offer a global service, or systems integration selling UCaaS through a third-party platform.

Each vendor that made the quadrant was required to be able to offer services in the three regions of Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Northern America. Support for other regions such as the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa were deemed favourable but not mandatory.

The Magic Quadrant rates vendors based on their ability to execute new solutions and offer complete visions for the future of UCaaS. As such, each vendor is split into four categories:

  • Niche Players (Limited vision and execution)
  • Visionaries (Excellent vision but limited execution)
  • Challengers (Excellent execution but low vision)
  • Leaders (Ideal for execution and vision)
Gartner's Magic Quadrant for UCaaS 2016 Review
Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for UCaaS 2016

The “Leader” Quadrant

Application expert RingCentral is one of the top UCaaS providers in the industry in terms of supported endpoints, revenue, and UCaaS employees, per Gartner’s report. The California-based company uses a multi-tenant solution known as RingCentral Office, with a comprehensive UC suite. RingCentral also recently added a work stream collaboration opportunity to its suite through its acquisition of a cloud messaging company “Glip” in 2015.

RingCentral is now making its largest change in the enterprise market by forming a new partnership with Google and Avant Communications. It’s no wonder that this company is the “number one leader” for the Magic Quadrant in terms of vision.

The “Challenger” Quadrant

The name to watch in the “challenger” quadrant, is Microsoft, with its Skype for Business Online offering. Part of the Microsoft cloud IT Office 365 service, which is now available in over 140 countries, supporting 100 different languages, the UCaaS offering includes presence, messaging, peer-to-peer video and voice, and support for audio, videoconferencing, and web communication.

Recently, Microsoft acquired “Event Zero” to improve the provisioning and managing capabilities of Skype for Business, making them the leader for execution in the Magic Quadrant.

The “Visionary” Quadrant

One of the biggest brands to watch in the “Visionary” sector is “Orange Business Services”. This UCaaS offering can be delivered through Microsoft’s private cloud Skype for Business, or Cisco’s HCS infrastructure. Orange deploys reference architecture for its UCaaS solutions with various routers, gateways, headsets, switches, and endpoints. “Business Together as a Service”, their main solution is sold through direct sales.

The “Niche” Quadrant

Finally, the “Niche” quadrant includes players like “Interoute”, a London-based provider that has expanded its central business of data and voice into the UCaaS space. The newest UC offering is based through “Interoute One”, which is a set of services that provides conferencing, collaboration, and voice, alongside various Microsoft configurations for Skype, and contact centre capabilities. Interoute has data centres all across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America.

Extra: Notable Mentions

Additionally, strong UCaaS providers weren’t included in the quadrant “because of insufficient global coverage”. These players were great at UCaaS solutions, but unable to compete in the quadrant because of their restricted global portfolio. They included: Alcatel-Lucent, Telstra, Telefonica, CenturyLink, Vodafone, and others.

See the official report here

Magic QuadrantMergers and AcquisitionsService ProviderUCaaS
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