There are some new entrants in the research firm's famous "Magic Quadrant."

Edward Gately, Senior News Editor

November 18, 2020

2 Min Read
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Cisco, 8×8, Microsoft, RingCentral and Zoom are all listed as leaders on Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for UCaaS.

The research firm added both Vonage and Zoom to its 2020 Magic Quadrant. It didn’t remove anyone from last year.

Google, LogMeIn and Mitel are challengers, and Gartner lists Fuze as a visionary. Vonage, Star2Star, DialPad, Windstream and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise are niche players.

According to Gartner, in 2022, 74% of organizations will move at least 5% of their normally full-time, onsite workers who switched to working from home temporarily, into permanent remote-working positions. In addition, by 2023, more than 50% of large organizations will connect to cloud providers using direct cloud connectivity from their WANs. That’s up from 10% in 2019.

We recently compiled a list of 20 top UCaaS providers offering products and services via channel partners.

Furthermore, by 2024, 74% of new UC licenses purchased by organizations will be cloud-based. That’s up from 48% in 2019.

Pros and Cons

Among Magic Quadrant leaders:

  • Cisco has a strong brand and deep CIO relationships across the globe. Its UCaaS portfolio is complemented by Wi-Fi, LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, security and data center assets. On the downside, Cisco is losing UCaaS mind share to Microsoft, RingCentral and Zoom. These competing vendors each focus on a single cloud UC platform.

  • 8×8’s growing focus on channel enablement boosts its ability to grow its business. On the downside, its brand is less well-recognized than those of some of its UCaaS competitors. Also, it hasn’t developed strategic partnerships with legacy telephony providers. That reduces its chances of consideration by organizations transitioning from premises-based UC.

  • Microsoft’s enterprise license agreement, which entitles users to Microsoft Teams, is a strong influence on organizations considering UCaaS. On the downside, Microsoft is not a suitable option for organizations that require contact center capabilities delivered from the same platform as UCaaS services.

  • RingCentral has continued to improve in several key areas. Those include product development and capabilities, sales and distribution, global coverage, and customer service and support. On the downside, RingCentral’s focus on strategic partnerships, and especially on developing compatibility with partners’ phones, gateways and legacy UC infrastructure, may prevent it from devoting all its R&D resources to innovation.

  • Zoom has significantly raised its profile during the COVID-19 pandemic by bridging the gap between consumers and enterprises. It’s done this with “freemium” packages and by offering incentives to organizations signing up to Zoom for the first time. On the downside, Zoom does not offer contact center functionality, so it is unsuitable for organizations that want UCaaS and CCaaS delivered from a single platform. It does, however, partner with leading contact center providers, and its offering can be integrated with Five9, Genesys, NICE inContact, Talkdesk and Twilio.

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About the Author(s)

Edward Gately

Senior News Editor, Channel Futures

As news editor, Edward Gately covers cybersecurity, new channel programs and program changes, M&A and other IT channel trends. Prior to Informa, he spent 26 years as a newspaper journalist in Texas, Louisiana and Arizona.

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