Lumen Technologies‘ new partnership with Zoom should help close a gap with key rivals Verizon, 8×8, Vonage and RingCentral. That’s according to Raul Castanon, senior research analyst with 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Lumen will offer Zoom as part of its unified communications and collaboration (UCC) suite. Lumen will deliver enhanced services around Zoom’s video-first UC platform to its base of customers globally.

Additionally, the Lumen network will allow it to deliver an enhanced quality experience. Lumen will combine its embedded network security with Zoom’s built-in security features. That will proactively protect customers using the combined services.

Earlier this month, CenturyLink rebranded its enterprise business to Lumen.

Lumen Partner Opportunities

Jeremy Dupont is senior product manager at Lumen.

Lumen Technologies’ Jeremy Dupont

“Lumen’s indirect channel will benefit … by having the option to add Zoom’s collaboration portfolio to their available services portfolio from Lumen,” he said. “This will provide these channel partners the opportunity to diversify their UCC portfolio offerings with the highly coveted Zoom service with minimal uplift to the existing go-to-market motion already in place with Lumen.”

Customers look to marry Lumen’s tier one network, security, customer success practice, account management and support with Zoom’s cloud offer, Dupont said.

“Lumen will be adding additional Zoom services in the future and continue to develop deeper integrations, which partners will be able to offer to customers,” he said.

This is definitely a strategic alliance for Lumen, Dupont said.

“With the current environment, there is a new normal that has been established for enterprise communications applications,” he said. “Zoom is a core technology fueling the transition of an enterprise environment more dependent on distributed edge technology for a consistent, secure and reliable customer experience. Mass exposure to Zoom’s ability to support virtual collaboration has established a new way to work.”

Zoom delivered by Lumen will help define the way organizations and their stakeholders communicate during the fourth industrial revolution, Dupont said.

Helping Both Companies

451 Research’s Raul Castanon

“The partnership between newly rebranded Lumen and Zoom brings together their strengths,” Castanon said. “Conversely, it could help both overcome key challenges.”

It allows Zoom to gain access to Lumen’s enterprise customer base, he said. And Lumen will be able to revamp its UCC offering with a leading video conferencing platform.

This should help Lumen better compete with Verizon, which recently acquired BlueJeans. And it will help it compete with and 8×8, Vonage and RingCentral, which recently launched new video offerings.

“This is an important move for Lumen given the surge in demand that video collaboration platforms have experienced with the COVID-19 quarantine and the shift to remote work,” Castanon said. “Furthermore, the partnership should help Lumen’s relaunch and efforts to focus on the enterprise segment.”

“We’re excited to partner with Lumen to ensure wider availability of our platform,” said Ryan Azus, Zoom’s chief revenue officer. “Customers expect that Zoom will be ready and working when they need it.”