Uc Today - Out Loud

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Oblong Industries about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Collaboration is becoming more and more important as working habits change and there are greater requirements for remote workers being able to perform together. Oblong with their solutions like the Mezzanine series enable fully content-rich collaboration within a local or sporadic environment. On Out Loud today they tell us about their plans for Mezzanine in the collaboration space.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee SilexPro about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. The meeting, or huddle, room is one of the most important areas for communication and collaboration. Traditionally the setup of the hardware to facilitate interaction has possibly been incorrect. SilexPro are aiming to change this with their innovative solutions and products which make the technology a central part of the experiencing. On Out Loud, in this episode they tell us how.

GITEX is one of the world's largest technology shows with tens of thousands of attendees flocking to the Dubai World Trade Centre to examine all the latest technologies from the world's biggest companies. Avaya are one of the most recognisable brands at the event with their stand showcasing their most cutting edge unified communication and contact centre solutions. In this episode we catch up with them, during the show, to discuss their attendance along with one of their partners Formation Tech. Formation specialise in cloud solutions so it was interesting to get both a vendor's and partner's perspective on the event.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee 8x8 about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. There has been a dramatic shift in the general attitude towards communications. The rise in popularity of cloud and hosted platforms is becoming more and more widespread. Even with market penetration only estimated at around 10-20% there is a still a huge opportunity for providers globally. 8x8 are one of the global leaders who have capitalised on the markets shifting demands and their suite of mobile and flexible solutions have garnered much recognition within the industry. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Logitech about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. One of the most recognisable brands within the industry Logitech specialise in solutions that enhance communication and collaboration. Whilst they are attending Microsoft Ignite in September we caught up with them to review 2018 and examine their plans for next 12 months. 

The modern contact centre is an integral part of any business providing the crucial contact point between customers and a brand. Twilio have been developing their cloud-based contact centre platform, Twilio Flex, and today we take a look at how flexible it really is. AMC Technology specialise in CRM integration within the contact centre and their new cloud platform, DaVinci, and Twilio Flex could be a perfect match. In this episode we look at the benefits of a new approach to contact centre platforms focusing on customisation, enabling customers to create their perfect mixture of communication channels.  

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee 2600Hz about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Cloud telephony has often been criticised for being overly complex to initiate and too expensive to operate. 2600Hz was founded to be the antithesis to these issues. It offers a cloud-based telephony platform that simplifies how business sell, deliver and manage communication services all developed as an open-source platform to maximise innovation and availability. Today we hear about their 2018 and what their plans are for the next 12 months.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Diabolocom about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Customer experiences and contact journeys are becoming ever more important in the business world as companies try to use them to differentiate their products and services in competitive markets. The customer contact centre is the key constituent of this so providing an innovative platform to best enable customer success is critical. That is exactly what Diabaolocom are aiming to achieve with their cloud contact centre platform and today we hear from them about how they want to help their partners to maximise customer experiences. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Kakapo about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. BroadSoft is one of the world's leaders in the unified communications, team collaboration and contact centre industries. Kakapo systems specialise in software development in user applications for the BroadSoft platforms. Kakapo's work is critical for BroadSoft Service providers so we hear about how 2018 has gone for them and what their main targets are for 2019. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Gamma about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Cloud communications is an industry that is developing quickly within the UK but the it relies on organisations who can provide the infrastructure to enable this growth. Gamma are one of the UK's leading suppliers of voice, data and mobile products and services. Their portfolio caters for a large segment of the market from SMB through to the enterprise. In this episode we hear from them to examine their strategy and plans. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Brightlink about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. The cloud communications market is becoming more and more competitive so differentiating yourself in the market is crucial. In today's episode we hear from Brightlink about how they are doing just that with their CPaaS platforms. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Yeastar about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Yeastar have had a particularly busy year during 2018 they have launched their first cloud product. This marks a dramatic shift in their strategy and opens a huge section of the market for them to attack with their new solutions. We hear about the product itself and their plans for it and the business as whole in the future.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee StarLeaf about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. The video conferencing industry has been developing rapidly. The rise in importance of video communication methods in the consumer world have transferred into the professional landscape. StarLeaf specialise in both messaging and video conferencing solutions and manufacture a wide range of video endpoints for meeting rooms, desktops and within the mobile space. In this episode we hear from them about the industry and their plans for the future. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee GCI about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. GCI are a leading converged IT and communications supplier who have been well established within the UK for over 20 years. They are also one of the fastest growing managed service providers within the UK with a suite of possible support and maintenance options for all manner of businesses. In this episode their CEO, Adrian Thirkill, was available to give us all the information on their position within the industry and plans for the future. 

The accelerating of growth in the use of unified communications and collaboration platforms increases the ability for enterprise organisations to connect internally, and with one and other. But to enable this sort of functionality the connectivity provided is even more vital. What do you do if the connectivity just isn't suitable? Kollective has the answers. Their cloud-based, smart peering distribution platform leverages existing network infrastructure to deliver content faster, more reliably and with less bandwidth. The Kollective platform scales existing IT infrastructure to accelerate content delivery to the edge of the enterprise while minimising network congestion and we hear how in this episode of Out Loud. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Natterbox about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Natterbox provide cloud communications solutions that embed in the Salesforce platform. During 2018 they have experienced some remarkable growth and their Sales Director Ian Moyse is on hand to take us through all of the news. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Crestron about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. It has been an incredibly busy time for Crestron and not without its challenges. Robin explains that the European market has transformed dramatically so the away Crestron work has also changed. Industry demands from customers are shifting hugely with the greater onset of cloud technologies and the rise in popularity of collaboration platforms. 

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee ZaiLab about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Asonele Kotu, Head of PR and Events for ZaiLab, is Patrick's guest on the podcast to discuss an incredibly busy year in one of the world's most innovative and disruptive companies. ZaiLab launched their 100% cloud-cased, pay-as-you-go contact centre platform earlier this year so expanding their footprint and raising brand awareness has been their main focus. ZaiLab have ambitious plans for the future so we hear what they have instore for 2019 and beyond.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Red Box about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Their CEO Richard Stevenson joins Patrick on the podcast. Richard gives us a brief history of Red Box and explains how they have transformed into one of the world's leading voice capture and analytics specialists. The use of voice data is changing and Red Box are at the forefront of the new frontier in terms of analytics and insights.

As part of the submissions for the inaugural UC Awards we spoke to award nominee Tollring about their year so far, the main industry trends impacting them, and their plans for 2019. Tony Martino who is the CEO of Tollring joins Patrick on the podcast to take us through all of the latest Tollring news as well as discussing the increasing importance of security and compliance across industry. Shifting work patterns are also impacting the requirements for organisations to be able to monitor and analyse data.