What was cool at Enterprise Connect 2018?
Not much. Microsoft launched TEAMS. ” @MicrosoftTeams now includes cloud recording, providing one-click meeting recordings with automatic transcription and time coding, enabling all team members the ability to read captions, search within the conversation, and playback all or part of the meeting,” according to reports. I don’t think that will take off like wild fire like others think. MS has been hot and cold in the PBX space. They have had famous mishaps. (Like IBM did in Oregon!) Any upgrades with MS have to be taken with caution. Win10 hasn’t exactly been an awesome upgrade for anyone. Lync to Skype to Teams in a matter of a couple of years is whiplash to users, especially when you went from SIMPLE Skype to a now over featured Teams.
1 million features – miles from the simplicity of Skype.
Plantronics and Microsoft have a nice mobile device cradle (see it here).
In that space, Atlassian launched Confluence and Stride to run alongside Hipchat. Slack’s CTO was a keynote; no women keynotes. None.
Counterpath is now a SaaS provider of Stretto™ Provisioning Platform – empowering enterprises and operators to deliver flexible UC capabilities for specific users and communications requirements. For providers that don’t want to play with CC-1 from BroadCiscoSoft, this is an alternative.
Metaswitch is hoping that MVNOs jump on the native dialer wagon with their new MAX. In a way this is a One Talk competitor or an avenue for mobile UC.
I think the most courageous booth was NEC. They didn’t bring UC. They brought all the fun stuff – like SSO (single sign on – NEC TouchPass) and Smart Hospitality.
8×8 and Vonage showcased their communications platforms. The Vonage Business Cloud gives businesses the opportunity to build its own platform for communications with widgets from Nexmo and other systems Vonage has. So the business could add SSO, IVR, click to call and other functionality it wants without having to pick a Gold, Silver or Bronze bundle.
Polycom showcased the positives of its merger with Obihai, including T.38 ATA’s and a handset made for key system emulation. (AireSpring should take a look.) The endpoint management technology that they got from Obihai is similar to Tampa-based Phonism’s technology.
T38 ATA
VoIP Innovations (with new leadership and fresh off the Apidaze acquisition) was showcasing their CPaaS capabilities. “VoIP Innovations and Telinta, Inc. have announced that they have tied up to offer a novel messaging solution for Mobile VoIP service providers,” according to another release. What’s next at VI? We’ll see soon. They look to be just getting started.
There’s the thing UCaaS, HPBX, CPaaS – none of it matters to the customer. The customer wants reliable dial-tone, SMS, voicemail to email and a few other features. Until you do Discovery, you won’t know why they are switching or what they are trying to accomplish.
If CX (Customer Experience) is the next thing (or at the least the significance of Service Delivery), then you better evolve a culture to deliver it. The CEO at the podium, a few press releases and a sign do NOT mean that your company actually demonstrates a care for CX or SD.
Not the first. Psst… Amazon.
No idea what this means. If you can explain it to me, I’ll buy you coffee!