UC Today News Round Up

It’s not just the weather that’s heating up lately – but the UC&C world too.

Despite a confusing start to the year, we’ve encountered some incredible innovation over the last few weeks. In all sectors of the communication space, vendors are introducing significant new tools to support their customers. There are even a few strategic acquisitions and partnerships on the horizon.

Over the last seven days, there’s been plenty of stories for us to share here at UC Today, from Microsoft’s acquisition of Metaswitch, to Zoom’s purchase of Keybase.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out all the stories we’ve shared yet, here are some of our favourites.

3×3 Microsoft Teams Grids Now Available

Grid-based video conferencing is a popular tool in the new era of remote work. Today’s teams like having the opportunity to see all of the team members that they’re talking to at once. For a while, the only option for real grid communication was Zoom. That’s no longer the case.

Microsoft Teams users can now have face-to-face conversations with up to 9 participants at once. The recent update to the leading collaboration app has taken customer demands into account. According to Microsoft, the remaining “audio-only” meeting participants will also be listed underneath the meeting stage so that you can keep track of all attendees. To learn more about the new grid feature from Microsoft, check out the story.

Zoom Snaps Up Keybase

Zoom, the world’s favourite video conferencing tool, has faced a lot of issues in the last couple of months. After the world suddenly switched to remote work, Zoom struggled to keep up with demand, and security issues crept in, leading to problems like Zoombombing. Fortunately, CEO Eric Yuan, jumped into action and announced that the company would begin a 90-day action plan to improve security.

The most recent step that Zoom has taken to boost protections for customers, is purchasing a security brand called Keybase. Acquiring Keybase will give Zoom access to more technology that it can use to prevent further issues with data breaching. Check out the full report on Zoom 5.0’s security strategy.

Broadvoice Brings Enterprise Voice to Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is rapidly emerging as the central heart of the collaboration hub for many remote teams. As businesses continue to search for ways to stay connected wherever team members might be, Microsoft Teams is paving the way to better group experiences. The only missing element, up until now, has been enterprise-level voice.

Broadvoice, one of the market leaders for communication solutions supporting small and mid-sized businesses, recently announced Broadvoice for Microsoft Teams. Available in the AppSource marketplace, this solution will give business leaders access to some of the enterprise-class functionality they need for true business voice.

The 2020 Analytics Round Table

Data has always been a valuable part of building a successful business. Today, that fact is more relevant than ever. With companies keen to improve customer experience, maintain compliance, and boost security, analytics is at the heart of the communication conversation. That’s why the team at UC Today reached out to some of the market leaders in analytics for their insights.

Join us for our latest Round Table discussion with analytics companies like Akixi, Call Cabinet, Oak Innovation, Tollring, Spearline, Xarios, Theta Lake, and Nice-Nexidia. We asked each of these companies about their opinions on the latest analytics trends, and what the future might bring. See the responses here.

Microsoft Buys Metaswitch

Microsoft has been taking a lot of steps to improve it’s competitiveness lately. That includes adding new features to Microsoft Teams and exploring the world of 5G. Recently, Microsoft purchased Metaswitch to help strengthen its UCaaS proposition. According to Founder and Principal Analyst of Balkaya Consulting, Fazil Balkaya, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Fazil told UC Today about his forecasts for the future of Microsoft. According to Balkaya, this is a service provider acquisition, and Microsoft is planning on using the purchase to increase the value of its mobile functionalities. Microsoft is on the path to creating an incredible remote and mobile experience for the workplace of tomorrow. Check out Fazil’s insights here.

What were your favourite stories from the last week? Have we covered everything above? Let us know in the comments below or join the conversation on social media.

 



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