CHANNEL PARTNERS EVOLUTION — Unified communications is better when it’s paired with collaboration.

That was the message of Tuesday’s “Step Up to UC&C” panel at Channel Partners Evolution in Austin, Texas.

RingCentral’s Eric Bohren

Amy Bailey, vice president of marketing for Telarus, moderated a panel that included Christopher Alghini, president and CIO of Coolhead Tech, Eric Bohren, associate vice president of Strategic Alliances for RingCentral, and Dennis DeMeyere, office of the CTO for Google Cloud.

Much of the discussion centered around the convergence of historically separate telecommunications and IT.

“When we talk about going in to sell to the line of business for marketing, we have to remember to include IT, which is a fundamental shift for IT as well as business,” Alghini told the audience.

The panelists used the retail industry as an example of businesses integrating UC with collaboration. RingCentral and Google Cloud, which offer services in those respective areas, have worked together to help retail brands, including Fossil Watches.

“The retail segment is reinventing itself,” RingCentral’s Bohren said. “It’s always with a number of companies in bankruptcy. But they’re really competing against online folks.”

Fossil attended a Google conference and asked for help reimagining its technology, and RingCentral and Google Cloud stepped in.

Bohren said their integration now allows Fossil to quickly transfer calls to its contact center and “digitize” Fossil’s employees regardless of where they are in the store.

“Now on their phone, their BYOD, they have their Fossil number abstracted on it, and so they don’t miss a beat with any customer communications, and it doesn’t interfere with their personal device,” Bohren said.

The panelists said many partners should consider learning coding, which can be a way to integrate new capabilities through APIs. Partners can start with the most basic types of coding and move up as they feel comfortable.

“It really does not take a high level of skill,” Bohren said. “It’s a fresh mode of thinking more importantly.”