Welcome back to another exciting week in the Unified Communications and Collaboration industry.
In a world wracked by worries around global epidemics, countless companies have been forced to re-think the way they operated. We’ve seen a massive boom in video conferencing and remote working over the last couple of months, and various leading industry events have been placed on hold as entire countries ward off infection.
Yet, despite the panic, there’s still growth happening in the UC space. Companies are continuing to evolve, and some are even introducing new features. Here are some of the biggest stories from the last week.
Cisco Loses 2 Top Executives
Worldwide infections are just one of the things that leading collaboration and communication company Cisco has to worry about this week. Recently, the storage powerhouse, Western Digital snatched up CEO, David Goeckeler, to replace the company’s Steve Milligan, who announced his impending retirement in November 2019.
At the same time, General Manager and EVP of Cisco Collaboration tools, Amy Chang, has also stepped away from her role at Cisco for a while. According to Chang, she’s taking a “leave of absence,” but no information has been provided on how long she’s going to be away for, or whether she’s even coming back. Check out the full news story here.
Coronavirus Causes Tech Event Cancellations
Coronavirus is having an enormous impact on the world that we live in. Beyond panic buying and a general atmosphere of concern, we’ve also seen more people working from home than ever before, an influx in video conferencing, and the cancellation of various leading technology events. Cisco Live! one of the biggest communication conferences of the year was supposed to take place in Melbourne Australia at the beginning of March. However, the event organisers were forced to cancel the conference due to worries about attendee safety.
Elsewhere, Facebook has cancelled it’s developer conference due to rising COVID-19 concerns, and other notable tech companies, including LG, Amazon, and Intel all pulled out of the Mobile World Congress Event before it was cancelled not long ago. Find out which events you should be crossing off your calendar here.
Lifesize and Serenova Partner Up
It’s not all bad news in the UC sector right now. Lifesize, one of the biggest communications companies in the world today, recently announced an upcoming partnership with Serenova. With Lifesize’s video conferencing technology technology, and Serenova’s state-of-the-art offerings in Contact Centre as a Service solutions, the two businesses will soon be delivering a centre communications and work management solution, serving 10,000 customers.
According to both Serenova and Lifesize, the partnership makes a lot of sense. Not only do both of the businesses have a strong commitment to improving customer and employee experience, but they both share very similar values too. Going forward, the two brands can’t wait to produce something revolutionary for the communication space.
The Video Conferencing Market is Booming
If there was a silver lining to be found among all the COVID-19 panic, it would be in the fact that more companies than ever before are now embracing video conferencing technology. While many businesses have talked about remote working and video for a while now, the rise of coronavirus has forced more organisations than ever before to put their collaborative tools to the test.
Experts in the industry agree that VCaaS technology is finally getting in its moment in the spotlight, during a time when travel bans are preventing people from flying across the globe to meet with crucial stakeholders and colleagues. You can read all about the uptick in video conferencing companies in our latest news story here.
Zoom Launches New Waiting Room Feature
Aside from reporting a significant increase in sales over the last few weeks, Zoom has also had other news to share about its evolving video collaboration platform. The company recently revealed that it would be taking a more proactive approach to overcoming security and privacy issues in modern meetings with an in-built waiting room feature for it’s users.
The new Waiting Rooms solution by Zoom will give users a virtual space where they can wait to be approved by the host of the meeting. Available through Zoom Meetings, hosts will have the option to customise the messages that appear in their meeting rooms, as well as the title, logo, and more.
Of course, our virtual learning event UC Summit is unaffected by the latest round of postponements and cancellations, so please take a look today if you haven’t already.
What’s your favourite story from the last week?
How is your company dealing with the stress of the coronavirus outbreak? Let us know in the comments section or get in touch on social media!
