(Pictured above: Vonage’s Jim Regan, Webscale’s Sonal Puri and Fuze’s J.P. Dundas with moderator Howard M. Cohen of HMC Write Now on the keynote stage at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, April 11.)

CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO — Curious about what’s next in terms of cloud innovation? What better source than the winners of the Channel Futures 2019 Talkin’ Cloud 100 Research Edition?

A keynote panel at Channel Partners Conference and Expo, titled “Talkin’ Cloud ‘Til You’re Walkin’ Cloud,” featured this year’s winners:

J.P. Dundas, Fuze‘s director of North American sales, said having a product that is “very seamless and very user friendly” is important to his company. Moving from on premises to the cloud can be a “scary” process, and it can involve multiple generations with different communications preferences, he said.

lt’s important to have a product that’s easy for all generations to adopt, and that allows you to work anywhere and accomplish all of the things you would normally do at your desk anywhere, he said.

Sonal Puri, Webscale‘s CEO, said her company’s approach has been to put the customer in the middle of the conversation, which results in a more complete solution. The company is focused on people who transact using a web application.

Jim Regan, Vonage’s vice president of channel, said customers are interacting in increasingly different ways, and increasingly we’re seeing a blurring of the lines between between UC and CC. The OneVonage platform is able to provide that unified solution, he said.

When asked what’s next in terms of cloud communications, Dundas said his company is focused on collecting a “ton” of data to figure out how to best position it for customers. Also, enabling companies to adapt to a mobile workforce is important to keep them productive as statistics show workers are more efficient when they are where they need to work, rather than a traditional office setting, he said.

Puri said there likely will be a lot of startups like her company, which she describes as a technology-enabled MSP. Also, there likely will be more emphasis on customers coming forth in conversations regarding solutions, she said.

Regan said customer experience will remain paramount, and the challenge for Vonage will be “seeing what else we can do” with the OneVonage platform.