We thought we'd take another look at the world's biggest vendors in unified communications. This is an updated article from last year, here's the results.
Note: Our list is based on total organisation revenue (income) not profit.
| Vendor | Country of Origin | Revenue 2017 | Revenue 2016 | Variance | |
| 1 | Amazon | USA | $ 177,900,000,000 | $ 136,000,000,000 | 24% |
| 2 | USA | $ 110,800,000,000 | $ 90,000,000,000 | 19% | |
| 3 | Microsoft | USA | $ 90,000,000,000 | $ 85,000,000,000 | 6% |
| 4 | Cisco | USA | $ 48,000,000,000 | $ 48,700,000,000 | -2% |
| 5 | USA | $ 39,942,000,000 | $ 26,885,000,000 | 33% | |
| 6 | NEC | Japan | $ 24,500,000,000 | $ 25,000,000,000 | -2% |
| 7 | Unify | Germany | $ 12,700,000,000 | $ 11,700,000,000 | 8% |
| 8 | Avaya | USA | $ 3,270,000,000 | $ 3,700,000,000 | -12% |
| 9 | Mitel | Canada | $ 1,059,000,000 | $ 987,000,000 | 7% |
| 10 | Vonage | USA | $ 1,000,000,000 | $ 956,000,000 | 5% |
| 11 | RingCentral | USA | $ 501,000,000 | $ 379,000,000 | 25% |
| 12 | 8x8 | USA | $ 253,000,000 | $ 209,000,000 | 18% |
| 13 | BroadSoft (Est, Acquired by Cisco in Feb 2018) | USA | $ 382,000,000 | $ 341,000,000 | 11% |
| 14 | Ribbon Communications | USA | $ 329,000,000 | $ 252,500,000 | 24% |
The Ones to Watch...
Amazon is number one on our watch list. We've picked up on a rumour recently that they might buy Slack for an astonishing $9 billion! If they do, then their Amazon Chime UC platform will probably merge and take an enormous piece of the UC cake. I think we shouldn't underestimate Amazon's power to overtake many (or any) of the leading unified Comms vendors.
Google doesn't play too well in the traditional PBX / corporate telephony market, however, it does claim a big chunk of the UC market with Hangouts and has recently taken big steps into the UCaaS space. PBX vendors need to interconnect more with Hangouts, Meet and G-Suite, however I can't see Google wanting to replace the PBX anytime soon, a pure cloud play seems logical.
Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business adoption keeps on growing. Thanks to the online (Office365) edition it's much more accessible for small businesses. However the online edition is still limited in terms of PBX features, so I don't think it's going to completely replace the small office telephone system in all cases, however it does appear Microsoft are developing new features into Teams at a rate of knots so watch this space. The Skype for Business ecosystem of vendors and complimentary applications keeps on growing - if I was a PBX vendor I'd be integrating with SfB the best I can and plugging the capability gaps of Skype for Business.
Cisco is a pioneer for enterprise communications at the moment with Cisco Spark. Cisco is one of the most innovative players in UC at present with technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, IoT, and cloud. This brand is one of my personal favourites due to their VR meeting room solution... mind blowing! In February 2018 they acquired BroadSoft which was gives Cisco teh lion's share of the UC market. Let's see what they can do with BroadSoft now they are one.
NEC continues to offer a feature-rich on-premises UC platform for small to medium size business. They also have their software based Univerge 3C platform which takes them into the larger markets. The Japanese are a bit late to the UCaaS market but starting to make some traction now with UNIVERGE BLUE in North America however, nothing yet available in the UK and Europe.
