The end of the year is just a few days away, and most of us are counting down the moments to a fresh start. Yet it seems that the action isn’t quite over for the UC&C landscape just yet. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a flurry of last-minute deals, as companies set themselves up for a more powerful launch into 2021, and there’s a buzz on the horizon.
It seems that no-one is willing to go into the new year lying down. After 2020 failed to meet our expectations, companies in the Unified Communications landscape have grown at a phenomenal pace, driven by the demand for better teamwork and interactions in the new landscape. Organisations are recognising that to prepare for the new challenges of an upcoming year, they need to invest in the right opportunities – and fast.
RingCentral recently acquired DeepAffects, and Cisco acquired Dashbase. Dubber purchased Speik, and recently, we saw the merger of Slack and Salesforce. So, what does all of this mean?
Consolidation is Common in UC
In the Unified Communication and Collaboration environment, consolidation is something we see pretty frequently. Throughout 2020, we saw a number of deals pushed by the arrival of changing workspaces and increased demand. However, the majority of the purchases that took place this year seemed to be focused on adding new technology and functionality to systems. Companies aren’t just interested in grabbing more land and earning more reach.
More than ever this year, vendors in the UC space have discovered that if they want to prepare for the future, then they need the right, flexible technology. For a lot of businesses, this means thinking ahead and making the acquisitions that will set them apart from the crowd as early as possible. My prediction is that we’ll continue to see a battle for new technology in 2021.
More vendors will be flicking through the startups on the market to see what kind of disruptive technology they can tap into for the workplace of tomorrow. Established software firms and innovators that can add extra value to the UC stack in new and impressive ways will be hot targets.
Even the larger companies know that they can no longer rely on heritage and history alone to maintain their space in the current market.
These organisations need to evolve, just like the rest of us, and they’re looking for differentiators. Indeed, many big players have lost track of their customers in a world where solutions like Microsoft Teams and Zoom are becoming the heart of the communication stack.
