Why UCaaS Vendors Are Betting Big on AI

“Email will no longer dominate as the central application that dictates how people manage work communications and tasks. Thanks to the imminent need to work at home, we’re now closer to that reality much sooner than anticipated.”

For risk-averse business leaders who were still unclear about the benefits of Unified Communications, COVID-19 made that decision for them. The global health crisis required firms to rapidly embrace remote work at scale and Unified Communications Opens a new window (UC) became the go-to tech to modernize data-driven and traditional industries such as retail, healthcare, legal, education mired in legacy tech. IT decision-makers came under immense pressure to ‘keep the lights on’ for business continuity, in turn, spurring Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) adoption. The COVID-19 crisis has also spurred the trend for BYOD and tighter integrations with enterprise apps.

UCC has always been an underserved market as evidenced by Markets and Markets Opens a new window research that forecasts a $24.8 billion market opportunity by 2024. As per Synergy research, Team Work apps were pegged as the highest growing vertical in the collaboration space, up by 60% in 2019. Things changed when the crisis hit home. 2020 proved to be a turning point for UCaaS vendors which deepened the product stack on the back of strong adoption numbers. And the video conferencing ecosystem grew (still growing) exponentially, bringing a new crop of competitors to the table, each rushing to out-rank the other.

Well, there are other market shifts too — SMBs and enterprises demand features that balance security and user-friendliness. As the collaboration space heats up, there will be greater market consolidation with big name entities adding smaller players to level the playing field. Toolbox speaks to Brian Jackson, Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group who tells us where the collaboration market is heading, and why UCaaS vendors will look to artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processingOpens a new window (NLP) to deliver differentiated offerings, especially in video conferencing apps. Jackson also predicts the rise of resellers who will specialize in providing vertical-specific solutions.

Key takeaways from this interview:

• Key mandatory features of unified communications (UC) platforms
• Top security considerations for UCaaS deployments
• Advantages of bundled solutions over point solutions in scaling digital workforce
• Impact of new compliance and regulations on web conferencing landscape

Here’s the edited transcript of the interview with Brian Jackson:

1. The future of work has become the key theme among collaboration vendors and UC solutions providers. In the changing market dynamics, it takes a combination of technologies to address work abstraction. What are the emerging technologies in UCC that tech buyers should be aware of?

The recent forced work-from-home situation for many companies has accelerated the adoption of UC solutionsOpens a new window by at least a couple of years. Firms that had only loosely made an app available to collaborate as needed are now finding that their entire company’s operations are being tied together by their solution of choice. The rapid adoption of this sort of software or service means that vendors are learning a lot very quickly as well. With user bases multiplying significantly in a very short period in some cases, many UC vendors are more in bug-squashing mode than they are in build mode.

With that said, traditional UC vendors are paying attention to the smart ways that their users are adapting their software into different contexts. Holding a video conferenceOpens a new window for a morning scrum demands a different solution set than hosting an external-facing webinar or hosting an entire virtual conference experience. Vendors are watching their users fit the technology into different scenarios and making notes on the pain points. Expect more features and even different products to come out in the near future that will specifically address different collaboration contexts and industry challenges.

UCC products are going to cause a seismic shift to our workdays.

Email will no longer dominate as the central application that dictates how people manage work communications and tasks. Thanks to the imminent need to work at home, we’re now closer to that reality much sooner than anticipated.

2. Keeping the evolving landscape in mind, what key features do you think are must-haves in UCC platforms.

In our SoftwareReviews.com Data Quadrant Report on Web ConferencingOpens a new window , we list these features as mandatory for the category — application sharing, audio conferencing call-in bridge, audio controls, facilitator functions, file transfer, instant messaging, remote PC operation, screen share, video conferencing, and a virtual whiteboard. From the pure UC platform perspective, we view the mandatory features as: analytics reporting, call management, mobility, secure access, and session border controller.

At a top-line level, users should keep integration with their other applications in mind when adopting solutions to facilitate remote work. The reason that Microsoft Teams has become popular very quickly is clearly its integration into Office 365. Since so many businesses are already using other Microsoft productivity applications, it’s easy to choose a solution that natively supports them.

Learn More: Top 10 Collaboration Software Tools for Teams in 2020Opens a new window

3. Given Zoom’s ongoing battle with security, will companies demand features that balance security and user friendliness?

Hopefully, the IT department is already fighting the good fight and ensuring that security is always top-of-mind when selecting a solution. It’s also important to keep in mind that if security requirements are too onerous and prevent users from getting work done, they’ll find other ways around those controls. Don’t create a shadow IT scenario that will further put your company at risk by demanding security over usability. Strive to achieve an implementation that is easy for the end-users and has security baked-in where it matters. As with all aspects of IT securityOpens a new window , people are going to be the weak link in this chain. The more your security approach requires them to take action or follow a set of guidelines, the more likely it is that gaping holes will open up.

4. There’s a flurry of activity in Video conferencing as a service (VaaS) market with new players added to the table. With so much consolidation happening, where do you think the VaaS market is heading?

We’re seeing the most success from traditional players in this market, as companies are turning to vendors that they already have relationships with for remote work solutions. The market is likely heading towards further consolidation as point solutions are gobbled up by larger software vendors that want to own many different aspects of conducting business. Since major vendors like Microsoft Opens a new window and GoogleOpens a new window are offering their products for free at this time, it will be difficult for smaller vendors to sell to this market and justify their price tags.

5. This is in line with the earlier question — will companies prefer point solutions or integrated solutions? Can you speak to the benefits of each?

Integrated solutions are much preferred. Point solutions suffer because they can’t offer a seamless workflow around the point of collaboration. When colleagues hold a purposeful meeting, they often want to speak to work that exists in another application.

Being able to exchange files, immediately collaborateOpens a new window in real-time on a document, and schedule a follow up meeting on it in the corporate calendar are what make these solutions so powerful. This solution set isn’t just about giving people a virtual way to hold a meeting, it’s meant to be the central hub where you organize your work life.

6. Can you share what are the key sore points IT business leaders should keep top of the mind before deploying collaboration solutions?

A couple of key points to keep in mind are competing against shadow ITOpens a new window and setting some ground rules for how the solution will be used.

If you’re rolling out an official collaboration solution for the first time, do it knowing that your employees have already adopted their own tools. You’ll have to make a plan to get buy-in from everyone to move to the new system or seek solutions that will integrate between different applications.

Also, the IT team should roll-out a collaboration solution with some governance baked-in. Typically, collaboration software allows users to create their own structure of teams, channels, rooms, or other sub-groups. That can become labyrinthine very quickly. Prevent users from getting lost by providing a basic structure that emulates your organization’s work groups. Consider limiting the ability to create new subsets for at least the first few weeks.

Learn More: Rethinking WFH Strategies to Ensure Business ContinuityOpens a new window

7. In the shift towards an always-on enterprise, how should IT decision makers go about building a successful remote work strategy plan? Can you share the best practice advice on defining the scope of solution, integration with existing business applications and its short-term, long-term business benefit?

In our Guide to Remote Work During Covid-19 for Managers and EmployeesOpens a new window , we explain the implications to consider for your organization’s shift to remote work.

There are advantages to remote work, including the ability to keep operations stable during a crisis like COVID-19Opens a new window that prevents employees from going to the office. Long-term, it could even be adopted to reduce real estate and utilities overhead required for business operations. Businesses will also have a broader talent poolOpens a new window available to hire from. On the other hand, setbacks include employees feeling socially isolated, and the inability to collaborate in person does have a real cost to teamwork. Some managers will find it harder to assess performance and employee potential.

Managers should be thinking about three pillars of remote work success:

• Managing performance – consider what your employees need to continue their work in a remote Opens a new window environmentOpens a new window . Think about the results you want out of your employees and strive for that, rather than proof employees are “at work.” Use metrics where possible, or even defined tasks and deliverables with clear deadlines and check in with your employees for regular updates. Set clear goals and provide feedback on what success looks like.
• Coordinating teamwork – focus on coordination that gets work done. Host a session that allows everyone on a team to brainstorm how they will get things done. Engage team members and make sure each individual’s needs are met.
• Enable communication – be proactive about enabling social interactions such as social get-togethers that are helpful to build trust. Encourage boundaries for work and personal life – for example maintaining a standard expectation for business hours. Adopt technology that will help enable interactions.

8. What are the biggest challenges customers face in deploying UCaaS & CCaaS solutions?

Most of these solutions are now delivered via the cloudOpens a new window , or “as a service,” which reduces many of the technical challenges around infrastructure deployment. IT departments will be asked to configure solutions to be secure, integrate with existing work applications, and also to set up governance structures that guide the organization and usage of the software.

9. What will be the biggest change in the UCaaS and CCaaS industry over the next five years?

I’d expect the biggest changes over the next five years to be about a much higher usage rate. Current work-from-home experiences will lead some companies to use a remote work strategy in the long term in order to reduce overhead expenses. We’ll likely see the market consolidate, as there are many different vendors offering solutions at the moment, and a rise of value-added resellers that are able to customize these solutions for specific industries.

10. What product developments will UCaaS vendors (especially big players like Microsoft, Cisco) make over the next five years? Will AI truly take off across cloud communications tech stack?

Products will branch off to differentiate for use cases. Solutions designed to facilitate team meetings, webinars, or virtual events will be offered as different flavors of the same software. We’re already seeing the usefulness of AI integrations with natural language processing to transcribe our meetings. Expect to see more AI plug-ins that can help automate the tasks associated with collaboration. I’d guess that finding shared availability in a calendar for a meeting time will be one low-hanging fruit to pick.

11. Can you share your predictions on how you see the market adapt and platforms evolve in the coming months as the traditional work model evolves?

Expect to see a lot of M&A activity from large UC vendors for the rest of 2020. Vendors will be sizing up the market and assessing their gaps compared to the competition, as well as looking to make acquisitions of startups that can help address those. Expect to see more security technologies acquired at first, then startups that allow for more immersive online experiences, and artificial intelligence solutions that help automate certain aspects of work around collaboration.

12. How do you rate Zoom, Hangouts Meet, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex or Zoho in terms of user-friendly features, ease of use, user controls, customizations, file transfer, and instant messaging capabilities?

In general, the web conferencing products you mention here are in the Leader portion of our Data QuadrantOpens a new window and user reviews on those features are quite close, with marks around 80% for satisfaction. Microsoft Teams is earlier in its product development and that’s reflected in reviews as it is in the challenger quadrant. The main areas of improvement for Teams include the “breadth of features” and “ease of customization.” But it’s still receiving grades above 70% satisfaction on these two aspects and users can expect improvements in these areas to come with future updates.

13. What security tips would you give to an organization that has recently adopted a web conferencing solution and is planning to use it across departments at scale?

Training, training, training. Make sure that all employees that will act as meeting hosts understand the administrator controls available to them in the software. Especially when meetings involve participants external to the company, there should be an agreed-upon set of default settings that limit meeting control and data sharing. In the early weeks of the pandemic, we saw organizations suffering the consequences of “Zoom bombing” when strangers were able to join the meeting and share their screens. Preventing such an occasion was only a couple of clicks away, but meeting hosts weren’t aware of what the default settings allowed.

Also review your data prevention and data loss prevention policies and make sure those are reflected in your settings for your solution of choice.

Learn More: 3 Questions To Drive Better Data GovernanceOpens a new window

14. In closing, an item about privacy. Consumer Reports found that almost all web conferencing solutions collect more data about users than they let on either to create detailed user profiles or to train facial recognition algorithms. Is there a need for a privacy legislation to specifically govern data collection, processing, and storage by web conferencing service providers?

Legislation specifically targeting web conferencing service providers would be too narrow. Instead, more general privacy regulations that apply to all data collection is the expected direction of most jurisdictions. Already, legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation would require these vendors collecting any personal information to collect consent from individuals before doing so. They’d also have to delete the personal information of users or hand it over to them upon request. Some vendors are making a point of limiting data sharing and putting privacy first. Zoho, for example, announced that it will not participate in any third-party data sharing, including the typical trackers seen from Google and Facebook.

About Brian JacksonOpens a new window : As a Research Director in the CIO practice, at Info-Tech Research Group, Brian focuses on emerging trends, executive leadership strategy, and digital strategy. After more than a decade as a technology and science journalist, Brian has his fingers on the pulse of leading-edge trends and best practices towards innovation. Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, Brian was the Editorial Director at IT World Canada, responsible for the B2B media publisher’s editorial strategy and execution across all of its publications. A leading digital thinker at the firm, Brian led IT World Canada to become the most award-winning publisher in the B2B category at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards. In addition to delivering insightful reporting across three industry-leading websites, Brian also developed, launched, and grew the firm’s YouTube channel and podcasting capabilities.

About Info-Tech Research GroupOpens a new window : Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals. We produce unbiased and highly relevant IT research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely and well informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

About Tech TalkOpens a new window : Tech Talk is a Toolbox Interview Series with notable CTOs and senior executives from around the world. Join us to share your insights and research on where technology and data are heading in the future. This interview series focuses on integrated solutions, research and best practices in the day-to-day work of the tech world.

Do you think team collaboration apps have killed email? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!