From the termination of CEOs to facing a potential European Union investigation, here are some extracts from popular news stories this week.
8×8 ‘Terminates’ CEO’s Employment
8×8 has confirmed that it has terminated the employment contract of Chief Executive Officer Dave Sipes with immediate effect.
In an announcement on November 30, 8×8 stated that Samuel Wilson, Chief Financial Officer, has been appointed as interim CEO by the Board.
As a result, Kevin Kraus, Senior VP of Finance, will move into the CFO role on an interim basis.
Jaswinder Pal Singh, Chairman of the Board, commented: “We appreciate Dave’s leadership and contributions to the company during his tenure.
“8×8 remains committed to delivering long-term value to our stockholders.
“We have confidence in Sam’s leadership and will work closely with him and the management team to ensure that this change is seamless for our customers, partners, employees, and stockholders.”
At the time of writing, it is not clear why 8×8 has moved to terminate Sipes’ employment, but the company’s Board has confirmed that the process to install a permanent CEO and CFO is underway.
Gartner UCaaS Magic Quadrant 2022: Teams is Top
Gartner has released its UCaaS Magic Quadrant 2022, which details the UCaaS market leaders.
Companies from all across the industry are after a place on the top right-hand corner of its ‘magic quadrant’.
As well as listing the biggest movers and shakers of UCaaS, it also lists notable challengers, visionaries, and niche players to look out for in the year ahead.
Changes from MQ 2021
Many of the UCaaS providers, and their positions, remain unchanged. The first two places have again been awarded to Microsoft and RingCentral, but Cisco has overtaken Zoom this year to steal third place.
Fuze has, of course, disappeared from the table following its acquisition by 8×8, who remain in fifth place, still within the leader’s quarter.
Replacing Fuze in the ‘visionaries’ section is Dialpad, which has shifted across from the bottom left ‘niche players’ quarter.
Mitel has disappeared from the quadrant after being listed as a ‘challenger’ last year, following its UCaaS partnership with RingCentral.
Microsoft ‘Likely’ to Face EU Probe into Teams
Microsoft is likely to face a European Union (EU) anti-trust investigation as regulators raise their scrutiny of the technology company, according to Reuters.
In October 2021, the EU’s anti-trust regulators sent out questionnaires to Microsoft’s rivals to deem whether Microsoft bundling Teams into office as a free product has given it an unfair advantage following a complaint by Slack.
At the time, Reuters said that the survey focused on the years between 2016 and 2021.
It is now understood that the EU Commission sent out another round of questionnaires last month as a follow-up to last year.
Reuters’ sources suggest this is a sign that the EU is preparing to go ahead with a formal investigation.
Slack first argued to the EU in July 2020, where the company accused Microsoft of “crushing competition” and “illegally abusing” its position within the software market.
Slack claims that Microsoft force installs its Teams platform on user devices and makes it difficult to remove due to the tying of the Teams collaboration product to the market-dominant Office productivity suite.
UK Faces Digital Skills Crisis Says Salesforce
A new survey published today by US-based cloud software giant Salesforce has found that the UK is heading for a digital skills workforce disaster.
Even though most questioned responded by ranking digital skills as the critical skill for current and future work, the survey of 2000+ comprised half of working adults and half of 13-18-year-olds still doubted their abilities.
The “Future of Work” survey, commissioned by Salesforce and undertaken by TRUE Global Intelligence and partnered with Opinium, proffered two sets of 10-questions: the fieldwork took place in the late summer, between the 25th – 31st of August 2022.
UK Science and Technology Hub Compromised
Working adults and schoolchildren were in two groups and given a set of ten questions each. More than a quarter of the total asked said they felt ill-equipped in their digital work capabilities. The younger participants surveyed even ranked them seventh in importance for the workplace of 2030.
Zahra Bahrololoumi, CEO of Salesforce UK/I, expressed her concern. She said: “The UK is facing a digital skills crisis, compromising its status as one of the world’s most important science and technology hubs.” Bahrololoumi added:
“It is especially worrying that today’s school children don’t yet recognise digital skills as a priority for their future career. We are failing the next generation and must urgently educate parents and children on the importance of digital skills across the board.”
Salesforce’s research found that many current workers’ low confidence in digital skills was due to upskilling and education opportunities.
ALE’s Rainbow Solutions Eligible for US Schools
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise can now offer Rainbow communications solutions to US schools by meeting FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) data protection requirements.
- Talking Security with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
- RingCentral, Vonage, and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise on UCaaS Security Strategies
- ALE Continuously Enhances Rainbow Office
FERPA is a federal law requiring schools and their service providers to ensure the privacy of students’ education records. To achieve this, relevant companies must establish and maintain physical, technical, and administrative safeguards that can provide confidentiality, availability, and integrity of educational records.
Becoming FERPA compliant allows ALE to provide its Rainbow communications solutions in US schools, including Rainbow Classroom, which offers a “virtual learning experience” with real-time collaboration and communication capabilities.
Mike Mullarkey, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Americas at ALE USA Inc, said: “Achieving this milestone allows us to extend the benefits of our Rainbow communications platform, through its licensing model, to educational institutions at all levels, which is a priority vertical for ALE.
“We are committed to our education customers and will continue to propose the solutions they need while ensuring all the necessary protection for them to offer services in optimal conditions.”
Rainbow Classroom by ALE utilises existing Learning Management systems or ALE’s online learning platform to provide an online virtual classroom via a web browser and internet connection to meet the needs of educators and students.
