Through headlines about improvements to calling in Microsoft Teams, a new immersive view within Zoom calls and Google’s storage solution boosting overall Workspace usage, platforms are shooting for one thing; exclusive usage.
The idea that businesses can run all of their processes through one solution is not a new one. But as the pandemic continues to impact businesses around the globe, and long-term plans for returning to the office continue to evolve, a key question is: ‘Which platform are we going to use?’
Jonathan Sass, Vyopta’s Vice President of Product, says the majority of businesses are not choosing to be wedded to one provider, instead adopting a multi-vendor communication and collaboration strategy.
“The evolution of the UC estate is becoming increasingly multi-vendor,” said Sass.
“We see evidence of this amongst our customer base, and also generally in the market, with 64 percent of businesses saying they are using multiple platforms to power their company collaboration experience”
Sass said there’s a number of reasons for this. One is that quite often organisations want to pursue perceived ‘Best In Breed’ solutions and products, and so they pick the platform that makes the most sense for their video communication, voice communication and collaboration as an organisation.
Other times Vyopta sees different departments with different needs driving this multi-platform approach. If there is a department within the organisation that interfaces with a set of external parties, they may adopt a certain technology or platform to better communicate with specific clients or suppliers, while the rest of the organisation is using a solution prescribed by the IT Team.
Growth Factors
Mergers and acquisitions can also lead to a multi-vendor approach, with businesses seeking to maximise ROI after signing up and paying for solutions before being acquired by another company that uses a different platform.
Sass pointed out that growth for different vendors can also be attributed to the consumerisation of IT, with employees often leading the way for wider adoption.
“We don’t talk about it as much as we have in the past but the consumerisation of IT can have a huge impact on the solutions organisations adopt” said Sass. “IT solutions such as Zoom and Google Meet, are increasingly targeting the end user to be a first adopter.”
Clarity
With so many solutions carrying out different services and even more employees advocating for their own preferences, choosing the platforms that are best for the organisation can pose a challenge.
Sass recounted the struggle within a recent Vyopta client that had a lead executive and department heads all lobbying for the platforms they felt would serve them best. It was a situation where comprehensive data provided the insight to make the best decision about which platforms ultimately served the organisation best without overwhelming IT with too many solutions to manage.
“For people in the role of deciding which platforms to use, it’s important to have the analytics on a number of different fronts. Vyopta provides those analytics, first and foremost helping make the decision on which platforms organisations should be using. Whether they’re looking to migrate, or if an executive decision maker is advocating for a specific platform, data must be at the heart of these choices.”
Sass stressed that decision makers need to look at factors, such as the quality of the solution across the different platforms in test groups, and the adoption across each platform. “Having those key metrics for any UC engineer today it’s critical,” he said. “They need to have those metrics at their fingertips. As organisations continue to re-evaluate what technologies they want to use, UC engineers can do that from a data-driven standpoint, not an opinion-driven standpoint.”
The multi-vendor capabilities of Vyopta make it possible to adopt multiple platforms while continuing to ensure quality, and the data analytics presented easily on one pane of glass show how different tools are being used to confirm that the ongoing licensing costs continue to make good business sense.
Sass concluded, “We provide one portal that shows analysis from multiple solutions where decision makers can troubleshoot each platform, meaning that, instead of having to learn the tools for Microsoft, Cisco and Zoom, users can see the different ecosystems and find actionable data within one tool independent of what platform they’re using.”
from UC Today https://ift.tt/3jmnu2e
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