Leading cloud telecoms service provider 8×8 has announced the appointment of Dejan Deklich as Senior Vice President of Global R&D.
Deklich joins the Californian firm from Big Data software developer Splunk, where he spearheaded engineering of the company’s core Splunk Enterprise product, as well as developing the company’s next generation cloud platform.
Prior to that, Deklich was chief technology officer at Merced Systems, before its takeover by Israeli voice recording, data security and surveillance specialist NICE Systems Ltd. As CTO of Workforce Management at NICE, Deklich again led the evolution of the company’s cloud strategy and migration to cloud based systems.
Deklich’s credentials certainly fit well with 8×8’s position as a global leader in cloud based telecommunications systems and services. Positioning itself as a provider of ‘Enterprise Communications as a Service’ (ECaaS), a suite of cloud based solutions combining telephone, contact centre, conferencing, collaboration and analytics, 8×8 has almost 50,000 customers operating in over 100 countries across six continents.
“It’s an honour to join 8×8, a company that plays an essential role in helping organizations of all sizes communicate and collaborate to drive increased business productivity and customer experience,” said Deklich.
“With its differentiated suite of integrated unified communications and collaboration, contact centre, and analytics capabilities combined with its leading deployment expertise and reliable high-quality global network, 8×8 is well positioned to capture a greater share of the cloud communications market.”
Deklich’s appointment as 8×8’s strategic head of R&D opens up the fascinating possibility that the business is looking to strengthen the ‘Enterprise’ part of its preferred title, drawing not only on his expertise in developing cloud-based software solutions, but perhaps his experience with Big Data as well.
The blurring of traditional lines between UC and enterprise software is already a well established trend, most noticeable in the alignment of UC with collaboration platforms. Numerous telecoms companies now position themselves as ‘UC & C’ developers. The fashion for major enterprise software specialists like Microsoft and IBM to include UC functions in their collaboration products has led some to worry that traditional telecoms companies risk being pushed out of the market by their larger enterprise cousins.
Big Data is the next frontier, and it makes sense for agile UC vendors like 8×8 to be looking to strengthen expertise in this area, especially in R&D. Communications produce rich streams of data for businesses to harness, everything from customer preferences and buying trends to response metrics and internal productivity measures.
The difficulty is being able to process and analyse the huge volumes of data produced so they can be used effectively, which is where Big Data comes in. Announcing Deklich’s appointment, 8×8 CEO Vik Verma said: “Strategic product innovation is paramount to solving our customers’ toughest challenges, which is why I’m excited that Dejan has joined our team with his laser focus on customer needs.”
We wonder whether deploying data effectively is one of the ‘toughest challenges’ Verma has in mind?
Do you have any thoughts about 8×8’s appointment of a new R&D chief? What are your opinions on the future of UC and Big Data? Let us know in the comments below, and remember to share with friends and colleagues.
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