UNIFIED COMMS / MOBILITY
Unified Comms & Mobility
The Unified Communications market has been a long-time growth opportunity for the Channel to get stuck
into. As the market moves towards the cloud we have seen some mega entrants come to the fore which are
starting to impact the Channel. Here we take a look at some of the biggest trends impacting the Channel in
2020 and beyond
Hosted VoIP
e hosted VoIP market in the UK
is currently sitting at around 20 per
cent penetration which leaves a lot of
on-premise PBX still out there for the
Channel to go after. Why is the PBX still
dominating the installed base in the UK?
For some companies the on-premise PBX
is simply so robust they are no hurry to
risk a change. After a number of years of
economic and political uncertainty many
businesses are still in ‘sweat mode’ where
they don’t want to invest in something new
when the technology they have is still t
for purpose.
e great paradox is many of these
businesses are not taking into account
what a hosted VoIP or Unied Comms/
mobility strategy can bring to their
business in terms of eciency savings
and cost benet. For the Channel, this
is a common barrier that they are slowly
beginning to navigate around.
At a partner level what is holding people
back from really jumping into UC in any
meaningful way?
• Moving away from Capex models –
is has been spoken about at length
over the years but is still very relevant as
partners struggle with transitioning their
business model. Some have taken the
pain and managed it, others haven’t even
begun to transition.
• e expertise gap – In a developed PBX
market the Channel that delivered these
systems are true experts in their eld.
ey made the investments in training,
accreditations and time to become so.
Although they may be delivering UC in
today’s environment, their knowledge of
the cloud might be holding them back
from the
Unified Communications Trends
As businesses wake up to the opportunity
UC can deliver what are we likely to see
from 2020 and beyond?
• e rise of the Huddle Room –
Companies value smaller exible huddle
rooms which can be used to communicate
on the y. Not only is this a transition
from the large conference rooms of old it
ties into how people want to do video in
2020. Quick, easy, functional and cost
eective. is type of meeting space is
normally multifunctional and users will
bring their own laptop to connect to the
meeting.
• Web-based communications systems
(WebRTC) – As workplaces become
more dynamic and mobile users expect
to conduct business from any location.
is means cloud-based applications and
programs will be even more important,
not just to consumers, but customers’
employees as well. Browser-based
communications are driving new levels
of ease as there is no need for people to
download a dierent meeting app every
time a customer wants a conference call.
• Interoperability – Rather than selling
their own technology islands vendors are
realising the benets of interoperability.
Microsoft and Cisco have announced a
partnership which will see Webex video
devices being used with Microsoft Teams
meetings. is mix and match approach
could become more prevalent in 2020 as
the big vendors try and squeeze out some
of the more agile players in the market.
• Mobile communications – is is
an obvious one. As people embrace
exible working practises being
connected by mobile is as important
as ever. Consumer grade products
which support video, i.e. FaceTime and
WhatsApp, have driven a thirst for the
same type of communications in the
work environment. Why? Take a look
at the current generation coming into
the workforce now and how they hold
their smartphones. eir expectation of a
conversation is visual and a smartphone
is to be looked at not held to an ear in a
traditional manner.
74 | Channel Profiles 2019 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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