We are now past the half way mark of 2015 (July)... A lot in our industry has changed rapidly since January. It is really making for some eye opening times from my perspective. I thought the Dylan classic tune "The times are a changing" would be a fitting tune to describe how fast things are moving.
This year, in only 6 months, we've seen a lot of M&A activity in our base (more than the previous 5 years combined). We've also witnessed a rapid adoption of outsourced IT/help desk and applications/software migrations to the "cloud" across our growing base. Combining those trends this quickly alone is a lot in itself, however, we are now witnessing an overall consolidation and significant change to the Unified Communication industry.
Much like your old dial-up connection to the world-wide-web the former industry giants leading the UC industry are now in the rear view mirror of relevancy (Cisco, Avaya, Nortel).
I'm sure you've seen the social media phrase:
“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening."
With the coined term "cloud" becoming an everyday acronym in IT, it does not speak to how nimble our industry is evolving to solve business challenges in this short period. Now every relevant UC manufacture is doubling down to be opportunistic for that new big piece of the pie in Gartner Magic Quadrant. It's no longer a race to provide features/functions. It's very much a time of disruption and for new leaders to emerge including Microsoft, ShoreTel, 8x8 amongst others. Some will make it others will fail and many will be acquired.
Should you be considering a change in your UC strategy it's very important you do your homework on two key elements:
1. The Manufacture's forward strategy and leadership.
2. The Technology Partner/Integrator experience and ability to adapt.
We see a lot of our peers and competitive manufactures doing business as usual and not fully embracing this "cloud" evolution. They better start swimming or they will sink like a stone. Do your homework and choose wisely so you don't sink your career with them.
The times are definitely changing...
