A great relationship with your software provider delivers both value and immediate results. These key tips will help you make the best of your partnership.

On November 17, 2020, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) released its Q3 report. While ALE saw increased revenue for its cloud solutions (especially for its UCaaS offering Rainbow), the overall picture was dampened by further global lockdowns and summer breaks.

On October 29, 2020, Verizon briefed on BlueJeans’ product vision and direction. This note outlines the new and upcoming features that users can expect from BlueJeans for the rest of 2020 and into 2021. However, with the table stakes margin for features rapidly increasing in the web conferencing marketspace, BlueJeans’ new features are less a way to stand out from the crowd and more as a necessity to keep up.

On November 5, 2020, Cisco briefed on its upcoming virtual legislative session tool Webex Legislate. With a range of features that governing bodies around the globe have desired throughout the extent of the pandemic, Webex Legislate surely becomes the must-have tool for conducting virtual and hybrid sessions – especially if an agency is already leveraging Cisco products.

On October 21, 2020, Avaya briefed its OneCloud CCaaS solution. OneCloud CCaaS provides an omnichannel experience with market-leading capabilities. If one’s organization is already embedded in the Avaya ecosystem, then OneCloud CCaaS ought to be leveraged if contact center functionality is sought.

On October 23, 2020, Verizon briefed its Contact Center Hub for SMBs. Launched October 1, Contact Center Hub is a hosted cloud service aimed at providing an easy-to-use multi-channel contact center solution for small- and mid-sized organizations. For SMBs that do not have a large customer base and only require the basics, consider shortlisting Verizon’s Contact Center Hub – especially if Verizon’s solutions are already being used in the organization.

On October 21, 2020, Talkdesk demoed On the Go, the latest addition to its cloud-based contact center solution CX Cloud. On the Go is built for convenience and remote work, using a device’s virtual assistant (such as Siri) for making calls and accessing data. However, this also means that part of On the Go’s success is tied up with how effective virtual assistants are.

On October 1, Twilio – a cloud-based communications platform – held its Investor Day for 2020. Twilio reported positive growth across all segments of the organization, especially for its CCaaS solution Flex.

On September 1, 2020, Info-Tech briefed with Cisco about current and upcoming features of its Unified Webex app for September. Significant changes include the introduction of Cisco Webex Classrooms and the Webex Control Hub, with notable updates also coming to Webex for Education, Webex Meetings, and Webex Teams.

On September 4, 2020, Info-Tech briefed with Zoho about current and upcoming features of Zoho Workplace, a global enterprise collaboration platform. Organizations, especially SMBs, that want to look outside of Microsoft’s and Google’s office productivity suite duopoly should consider shortlisting Zoho Workplace as a viable option.

Enterprise Connect’s virtual conference and expo for 2020 featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for the enterprise. In this fourteenth note of fourteen, I report on Recon Research’s latest study on how COVID-19 has cemented web conferencing as the future of the workplace.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on Genesys’ “experience as a service” for the contact center.

On August 25, 2020, Info-Tech briefed with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise on its Q2 performance. While the pandemic has decreased performance in on-premises system deployment, cloud-based services are seeing significant growth.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on Infobip’s latest Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on RingCentral’s current and upcoming Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) features.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on best practices for direct routing and Enhanced 911 (E911) for Microsoft Teams.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on upcoming trends and applications in speech technologies – including their dark side.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on ServiceNow’s “Now Platform” solution for the contact center.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. Thomas Randall reports on Omdia’s North American unified communications as a service (UCaaS) scorecard for 2020.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. One session showcased Amazon’s Contact Lens for the contact center.

Enterprise Connect 2020 Digital Conference & Expo featured a wide variety of sessions on communications and collaboration for enterprise. One session showcased Talkdesk’s reframing of the customer experience to plan for post-pandemic contact center solutions.