This is the time to start looking ahead, not just to a new year, but a new decade. We should also look back because with so much change during 2019, it’s important to pause and take stock of what has transpired. As an analyst, these things keep me very busy, and I’m going to share some high-level thoughts over the next two posts as 2019 comes to a close.
First, I will touch on collaboration, and follow with a second post about the customer care space. I don’t write that often about the contact center, but it’s relevant because its orbit became much more aligned with the collaboration space this year.
The Big Takeaway for 2019: Collaboration for All
New entries keep coming in the collaboration space, and two factors were behind that in 2019. First is how the cloud has reached critical mass for communications technologies, and is poised to become the de facto standard in the coming decade. Premise-based collaboration offerings still dominate, but the innovation is all for cloud, and most vendors are pushing UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solutions.
Complementing this trend – and compounding the challenges for IT decision makers – the definition of “collaboration†did not get any clearer in 2019. Since the cloud enables almost anyone to offer almost anything, this scenario opened up the market even more, providing seemingly endless choice for buyers to consider.
As such, IT decision makers have a wonderful range of options. With so many flavors of collaboration, there’s a solution for every situation. While not as ubiquitous as desk phones or PCs, collaboration offerings became mainstream in 2019. Of course, the main driver for having so many offerings is the view among vendors that this remains an early adopter opportunity with tremendous upside.
That view is largely correct, and it will take some time for UCaaS to saturate the market. For now, however, supply exceeds demand, and going into 2020 buyers will have too many options to choose from. Healthy choice is always better than no choice, but the onus falls on IT decision makers to scan the market for the best options and somehow make an informed investment for collaboration.
What to Watch For in 2020
While the current state of collaboration is promising, as we shift to a new decade, it’s important to realize that the underlying technologies didn’t suddenly emerge in 2019. It’s fair to say that collaboration technologies came of age in 2019, but it’s also the culmination of innovation across most of the last decade. First-generation Unified Communications offerings go back almost ten years, and it’s worth noting what came before UC: the phone system.
Business telephony remains a foundational theme for my posts here, and while the PBX has long been the gold standard for workplace communication, it took several decades to fully mature. The main point here is that core communications technologies evolve over long periods of time before becoming business-grade.
From that, here are two things to watch for in 2020:
Collaboration will become more of a commodity.
Building on my takeaway for 2019, collaboration offerings will take on a certain sameness as more vendors and providers enter the space. UC will remain the dominant solution, and with cloud becoming so pervasive, expect to see UCaaS as a lead offering from just about anyone selling communications services. For buyers, the good news is that this wide range of offerings will put downward pressure on pricing. In the short term, this will accelerate UCaaS adoption, especially among price-sensitive SMBs. In due time, however, this will drive weaker UC players out of the market, especially those that compete primarily on price.
Collaboration offerings will integrate UC with contact center.
This continues a strong trend from 2019, but is becoming more pronounced due to changes in the vendor landscape. There have been several important moves – both acquisitions and partnerships – that are driven by the belief that an integrated offering is a stronger value proposition than UC alone.
Before the cloud’s ascension in this space, these offerings were separate, and collaboration only applied to the office workplace environment. Because contact center technologies have been evolving for years, they are now at a point where cloud-based offerings are suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Going forward, many businesses have embraced the mantra of being customer-centric, making CX (customer experience) a strategic priority. In that context, collaboration applies to the entire organization, and this supports the business case for integrating UC and contact center into a singular solution.
For IT decision makers, if you’re not yet thinking this way about collaboration, expect to hear a lot of messaging from vendors along these lines in the new year.