This week has been the biggest of the year so far in the UC and collaboration arena, with big news and announcements coming from some of the most prominent players in the space.
Microsoft announced yet more game-changing features for Teams; Zoom rounded off a stunning year with yet another quadrupling of sales; Slack hit a $1bn revenue run rate; and Cisco announced real-time translation from English into 100 languages for Webex.
The Ignite show was stolen by Microsoft’s new mixed reality platform, Mesh, which showcased how people can collaborate via 3D holograms.
Microsoft has had similar technology in its arsenal for a few years in the form of HoloLens but many have been priced out of the market (the headset costs over £3,000).
Mesh is set to make the technology far more accessible, providing a platform for third-party developers and offering compatibility with cheaper headsets such as Oculus’ Quest 2.
Microsoft has also quietly revealed that some form of integration between Teams and Mesh is in the pipeline, which makes sense given the emphasis both place on collaboration. Not much was said about this so it will be interesting to see how it develops over time.
Away from the Star Wars-like holograms, a far less glamorous announcement will likely have a far greater impact on the comms market – at least in the short term.
Operator Connect allows an organisation to plug their existing PSTN calling set-up directly into Teams.
Microsoft said it activated from the Teams Admin Center with a few clicks of the mouse – no PowerShell coding required. It claims that service can be implemented from start to finish in a matter of minutes or hours.
The service is managed fully by the carrier – with a handful already selected by Microsoft for the private preview, which will take place next quarter.
It will be interesting to see what impact this has on channel partners that provide both direct routing and professional services around the provision of calling.
Earlier this week I spoke to a senior employee from one of the certified carriers who was stunned at how simple and quick the process is.
He added that the need for professional services will be greatly reduced, which could be a concern for some partners, but said that there will always be added complexities that require well-skilled service providers.
I am looking forward to finding out how demand for Operator Connect stacks up against Teams Calling Plan and Direct Routing when it’s publicly available.
Zoom
Zoom reported another three months of phenomenal growth on Monday, completing a year that saw it more than quadruple its revenue.
There are still doubts over Zoom’s long-term growth potential in some quarters, particularly parts of Wall Street, despite its relentless sales surge – with many tying its success to the pandemic and expecting its performance to drop off when social distancing rules are eased around the world.
To illustrate this point – Zoom’s valuation has tumbled by over one-third since its peak in October and regularly dips when positive news about vaccines is released.
Maybe some of the people doubting Zoom are not aware of its credentials in areas outside of video conferencing. Zoom Phone, for example, featured prominently on Monday’s earnings call and has seen tremendous growth since launching just two years ago and will surely continue to deliver value post-pandemic.
And then there is Zoom Rooms, which is only going to become more important as distancing rules are eased and offices reopen.
Zoom’s share price rose in the region of 10 per cent after the results were released (although it has since dipped again), so it’s possible the vendor is starting to convince people that it won’t drop off when we’re past the pandemic.
A more spectacular route to future growth could be an expansion into the contact centre space, as we reported on Monday.
Senior Zoom execs, including CEO Eric Yuan, have reportedly discussed such a move, which would seem a natural step now that Zoom is such an established global name. It’s more likely given that Zoom is already in contact centres, albeit via partnerships with established CX providers.
The possibility of an acquisition, particularly on a large scale, feels unlikely – particularly given Zoom’s reluctance to acquire over the years – but the acquisition of a small, next-gen start-up to kickstart the process isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. Watch this space!
Slack
Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack has been thrown back into the spotlight as the pair report their quarterly numbers.
The deal is edging ever closer, despite the US government’s anti-competition department asking for more information before it lets the deal go through.
The irony of the US government checking the merger for anticompetitive qualities will surely not be lost on Slack, which has accused Microsoft of the same thing.
Slack announced that it has hit the $1bn revenue run rate milestone, while championing the engagement it sees from its users.
It claims that users are connected to its platform for an average of over 10 hours a day (which seems a little unhealthy to me), with average active usage heading towards two hours a day.
Despite Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff regularly boasting of the integration potential between the pair, it’s still quite difficult to envisage how exactly the combination will look and feel.
What is clear though is that more UC vendors are going to be looking to integrate with Salesforce. I was speaking to an analyst a couple of weeks ago who said that one of the biggest use cases for CPaaS (in the UC space, rather than CC) has been to allow calling and messaging from within Salesforce.
This was backed up when RingCentral announced its integration with the Salesforce platform.
Cisco
Last week Cisco briefed the media on a slick new feature coming to Webex that provides real-time translation from English into 100 languages – up from the 10 that Cisco originally planned to launch the service with.
I’d love to be able to say it works well but given that I can only speak English I’ve no idea how accurate it is. It looked good, though!
It’s also surely not a coincidence that Cisco briefed the press last week but embargoed the story until Tuesday afternoon – which happened to be the start of Ignite. Well played, Cisco.
Channel
Elsewhere, consolidation in the channel is continuing at an unprecedented pace. Air IT announced its third pair of acquisitions on Wednesday, while Onecom announced the blockbuster takeover of 9 Group – less than a month after acquiring Olive.
Channel M&A is showing no signs of slowing down as partners that have traditionally played in the comms space look to grow their IT offering, particularly around cybersecurity.
On the subject of the channel, you can sign up for our new channel newsletter here
