Uc Today - Out Loud

As 2018 draws to a close we are starting to review what has been an incredibly busy year within the worlds of unified communications and collaboration. One company have been particularly busy. Yamaha might not be a brand typically associated within the industry but since their acquisition and re-branding of Revolabs, Yamaha Unified Communications now aim to a become a force within this technology sector. Utilising their decades of experience within the professional audio markets Yamaha are hoping to enhance modern day UC provision. In today's episode of Out Loud we hear from them to get an update on their year so far and look ahead to some of their future plans and targets. 

The rise of technological consumption models throughout the industry has been revolutionary for businesses. Being able to utilise services on a more flexible basis has been hugely popular. Microsoft have seen huge success in this area with their Office 365 platform including communication tools such as Skype for Business. Often, however, customers were looking for more from Skype for Business and now one of the UK's leading distributors have teamed up with global cloud communications provider NFON to offer an enhanced service. The new Skype for Business as a Service offering will allow customers to leverage the full power of Skype alongside the communication enhancements offered by NFON's integration. In this episode of Out Loud we hear from both Westcoast and NFON to understand more about the new service and how it can benefit customers.  

The whole industry is abuzz with talk around artificial intelligence. Now that our understanding of its capabilities are improving, more and more organisations are looking to try and leverage its power to enhance their own performance. So many technology companies claim to be utilising AI tech within their platforms but few are really adding genuine use cases. One company that are founded using some of the fundamental principles of AI are Zoom.ai. Their chat-based tool helps employees become more productive by securely automating some of those mundane daily tasks like searching for files, scheduling meetings, and generating documents all enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning enhancements.

Digital transformation is one of the biggest trends globally, with organisations looking to leverage the power of technology to stand out across different market verticals. How do you define digital transformation (DX) and how can specific technology platforms, like CPaaS and iPaaS help businesses make the changes they need to? Today we examine those issues with world leading UC, security and SD-WAN provider Masergy. Examining exactly how digital transformation can be used by different organisations to their advantage is crucial to their potential success and Masergy assist their customers with the process on a daily basis, so are well placed to provide some insight.

November in the 2018 Cisco calendar has been a pretty big one. Two of the company's biggest events took place with BroadSoft Connections taking place in Miami and the Cisco Partner Summit taking place simultaneously in Las Vegas. It would seem unusual to have two of your biggest annual events taking place at the same time but the Connections event was planned prior to the announcement of Cisco's intent to acquire the UCaaS market leader in 2017. Collaboration played a huge role in both Connections and the Partner Summit. Cisco took the opportunity to announce various new integration features which will link their various platforms together more seamlessly and also took the opportunity to release various new collaboration enhancing products. In this episode the pod review all the news and speculate about how it might affect the Cisco partner world.

Facebook are undoubtedly one of the biggest brands when it comes to modern technology platforms. With huge recognition across the globe their Workplace by Facebook platform offers business users the chance to leverage the same technology that Facebook used during their astronomic rise to world social network domination. Workplace was developed internally and was such a success that the Facebook team realised other businesses could benefit from using the platform. Since its official launch at the end of 2016, Workplace now has over 30000 organisations using the platform and promises to become one of the world's most disruptive collaboration tools. In this episode we speak to some of the executive team from Workplace to bring you the inside track on their plans.

Ericsson-LG Enterprise are one of the world's largest providers of communication solutions, with over 15 million global users. Their Global Partner Conference 2018, GPC 2018, was the perfect platform to gather their partner community together to discuss all of the biggest trends impacting their organisations. The general industry move towards cloud and service based platforms is going to be critical to their development. UC Today were in attendance at GPC 2018 to bring you all of the latest news on their platforms and information on their plans within the industry. Patrick was joined by some of the senior management team from Ericsson-LG Enterprise to discuss the event and take a wider look at the market in general.

Everyone understands how important customers are to any organisation. The importance of great customer service is only increasing as industries become more and more competitive. Distinguishing yourself by providing great customer experiences is critical and could be the difference between success and failure. In this episode of Out Loud we hear from one expert who travels the globe speaking about the nuances of customer service and customer journeys to understand more about how to provide the best customer experiences possible. 

The adoption of cloud based services have transformed the way in which businesses can consume technology. The XaaS, or as a service, model has various business benefits and organisations globally are realising these through the uptake of subscription services. One of the most transformational service platforms to develop over recent years is that of CPaaS. The communications platform as a service model offers businesses and developers the chance to leverage cloud services and integrate communications tools such as voice, video and messaging into their existing software platforms, without the requirement for their own infrastructure. So why is CPaaS so popular? Today we examine CPaaS with Cavell, thought-leading analysts in the communications space, and, communications and networking specialists, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominees Plantronics and Polycom about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. The news that Plantronics had acquired Polycom was one of the biggest stories in the unified communications world this year. The move was widely lauded as shrewd one with little portfolio overlap and huge potential for complimentary services. How has everything gone since the acquisition was confirmed? In this episode of Out Loud we find out.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Audio Productions about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Branding is huge within any market sector, so making sure you come across in the best way possible is crucial. Audio Productions are enhancing brand image for their customers by improving the professionalism and effectiveness of their communication systems. On hold systems have often failed to maximise valuable exposure to a customer, but Audio Productions can change that with their professional audio solutions. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Formation Tech about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. We all know how critical communication is within any business, and Formation Tech are focused on ensuring that organisations can use their systems to maximise their own potential. As one of Avaya's most valued partners, Formation, have worked alongside the communications giant to refine their cloud offerings, becoming one of their most successful partners. In this episode of Out Loud we look back at their year so far, and ahead to the next.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Highfive about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Video communication and collaboration is becoming more and more important in the enterprise world. Being able to see your colleagues, regardless of their location, and collaborate with them is a critical facet of any modern business. Highfive take video collaboration very seriously and their WebRTC based solutions aim to make meetings as simple and effective as possible. In this episode we find out how they do this and why it's so important.

It has certainly been a busy couple of months in the world of unified communications and collaboration. In this episode Rob and Patrick roundup and review all of the biggest stories for you. The guys cover all of the major acquisitions that have taken place recently including Vonage acquiring NewVoiceMedia and RingCentral adding Dimelo to their portfolio. As well as covering the acquisitions the team also review all of the major new stories that have emerged. Lastly the guys look head to the remaining weeks of 2019, previewing all of the events and some major upcoming changes at UC Today.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Fuze about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Fuze are one of the cloud-based unified communications companies that are growing most rapidly. Their holistic portfolio which includes voice, video and collaboration solutions has gained real traction with customers and has increased speculation about a potential IPO. Today we have a look back at 2018 from their perspective and also look ahead to the future.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee RingCentral about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. RingCentral are one of the world's leading providers of cloud-based communication and collaboration solutions. Their portfolio includes solutions across the UC landscape from the contact centre to the small office. Today they join me on the podcast to discuss their main highlights and news from the last year and then to look ahead to their main plans for 2019.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Dialpad about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. The cloud communications market is full of innovative businesses trying to maximise their proposition and enable customers to leverage the power of great communications. One of the most innovative and disruptive companies how share this aim, are Dialpad. Their pure-cloud communication platforms leverage the power of emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, so they can add as much value as possible to their customers. Today on Out Loud we hear from them.

September has been a challenging month in the Cisco collaboration division. There has been a major outage on the Webex Teams platform which has caused serious issues for customers and partners. In this episode we discuss the causes and ramifications for Cisco. There has also been more reshuffling within the management of collaboration division so we review the lasts movers and shakers. Cisco have, despite the apparent issues and changes, been busy releasing a host of new products and features for the various collaboration platforms and we cover off all the latest news on those.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Spearline about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Ensuring great quality when it comes to communications systems is one of the most paramount concerns for all organisations. Spearline enable just that assurance, their testing services for toll and toll-free numbers enable their customers to provide the best possible quality of service. We hear from them to look back at very successful 2018 and take peek into their plans for the future.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Spearline about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Ribbon Communications are now one of the most recognisable brands within the industry after the merger of Sonus and Genband. Their extensive portfolio assists their service provider partners and enterprise customers with all aspects of their networks in terms of communication, security and collaboration. In today's episode they look back at their highlights from the last 12 months, since the merger and divulge some of their plans for 2019.