UC EXPO 2017 is a celebration of unified communication, and the next steps in the communication industry. During my time at the conference, I had the opportunity to check out a lot of different and exciting things, as well as chatting with some of the biggest names in the UC sector. The head of marketing for Gamma, Justin Coombes, agreed to have a quick conversation with me about the development of the growing business, and where they might be heading in the next three to five years.
What's Happening in Gamma Right Now
The first thing I wanted to know, was what was going on for Gamma right now. After all, this is a business that's seen a significant amount of growth over the recent years. Coombes outlined that Gamma are now fully in the voice and cloud space, with various aspects of the business continuing to perform well. Gamma’s partners are seeing the benefit from the SIP trunking swap-out, as movements have begun to accelerate at a rapid pace.
"Gamma Horizon is building momentum very quickly too. I think the growth of both areas goes to show that the market is maturing in its understanding of these IP-based services, particularly against ISDN, and the swap-out is really gaining momentum. We've passed the tipping point, as far as I can see."
It seems that the world of SIP trunking is finally evolving, and Gamma can see that they've hit a crucial point in their development. For them, the present is all about helping their partners to differentiate their services, and add something else to the mix besides "just" SIP trunking - which is quickly becoming a commoditised market.
"One thing we've introduced to SIP trunking in particular is a call manager application that sits on the top and simplifies things for the user."
Developing Gamma Horizon
Since he'd already mentioned Gamma Horizon, I asked Justin to explain the product to me a little more.
"Horizon is a hosted PBX, but we're taking it beyond that." Coombes noted that Gamma have recently purchased their own mobile network, in the last eighteen months or so, and since then, they've been working on that network, developing it for use in their current marketplace.
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Head of Marketing at Gamma, Justin Coombes[/caption]
"What I mean by mobile network is - If you look at mobile operators, they have two components, the core network, which drives the service and functionality, and the masts. We don't have the masts - we have a partnership with 3 for that, but we do have our own network that we've bought and developed."
The purchase of that network means that Horizon can really begin to evolve. Though there's a lot of different products out there in the communication space that claim to be converged, the truth is that there are only a few players out there capable of integrating a mobile voice and data network and the capabilities that come with each. There's BT, who recently acquired EE for example, Vodafone who acquired Cable and Wireless in the UK, and Gamma, who have been developing for a while now.
"Having acquired this mobile network, we're now looking into what we can do to bring things together - particularly the fixed voice and mobile network for Horizon."
