Welcome back to our weekly roundup of the news that made the headlines this week in the unified comms space.

This week UC Today’s Rob Scott spoke with analyst Zeus Kerravala to delve into the recently announced partnership between Mitel and RingCentral. Elsewhere, Slack Frontiers saw the vendor unveil a host of new features to help partners accelerate customer growth, and Sinch CEO Oscar Werner spoke with UC Today about its series of blockbuster acquisitions.

Slack’s Latest Features Help Partners with Customer Growth

The collaboration specialist recently revealed a host of updates to its platform to assist partners with customer retention and growth.

Among the new features prompts users to sign into their existing account or register a new one for the partner’s product whenever a link gets shared or clicked in Slack. The rationale behind this update is that “tens of millions” of links get shared on the platform on a daily basis, providing multiple opportunities to introduce a product to new users.

Subscribe in Slack is another new feature that is billed as the vendor’s next generation of notifications. It allows users to opt into third-party tools and configure notifications by clicking a button on the platform. Notifications then occur in channels without having to install an app or invite it into the channel.

This new feature offers partners a quick and easy way to set up notifications and granular controls that allow users to only receive alerts that interest them, as well as exposing apps to more users by sharing notifications in public channels.

Steve Wood, VP of Product, Developer Platform at Slack told UC Today:

“Our apps are being embedded to help partners be more productive in Slack and the apps can all talk to each other, so we’re all part of helping you get to your business outcome”

Why Did Mitel Partner with RingCentral?

UC Today’s Rob Scott and analyst Zeus Kerravala delve into the recent announcement that Mitel has selected RingCentral to become its “exclusive UCaaS partner”.

The duo discusses why legacy UC vendors are attracted to selling RingCentral’s UCaaS, just why exactly Mitel wants to sell RingCentral when it has its own UCaaS services, and speculate over the possibility of Mitel offering RingCentral CCaaS over its own current cloud contact centre offerings.

Deep Dive into the Metaverse

Facebook’s recent rebrand to ‘Meta’ is in anticipation of the inevitability of its metaverse (or so Mark Zuckerberg claimed).

The metaverse is defined as a three-dimensional internet powered by virtual reality and augmented reality. The metaverse put forward by Facebook is geared for work-related cases, such as collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.

UC Today’s Anwesha Roy investigates just what the metaverse is, the benefits of it, and how Facebook and Microsoft have spent the past few years building products such as Horizon Workrooms and Mesh for Teams, respectively.

Sinch Boss Opens up on M&A

Oscar Werner spoke with UC Today’s Marian McHugh about the company’s recent series of billion-dollar acquisitions and where they now place Sinch in the market.

He also spoke about the trend for omnichannel solutions and where the future might take it, as well as further M&A.

“The consolidation of this market and adding new services will continue for the coming years as well,” he stated.

“It’s a huge market with a lot of exciting things happening in it and I think that will continue. Obviously, we need to pace that so we can consume and take care of what we’ve done, but I think in general the trend in this market will continue for a couple of years”

Poly Revamps Teams Rooms Solutions

Poly has refreshed its Microsoft Teams Rooms Solutions with four options aimed at a range of different meeting spaces.

The room kits are compatible with dedicated meeting PCs manufactured by Dell and Lenovo.

Laura Marx, Vice President of Global Alliance and Product Marketing at Poly, stated:

“Meetings are happening everywhere – from conference rooms to personal workspaces and everything in between.  People crave equitable and consistent video meeting experiences no matter where they are”

“Poly DirectorAI technology intelligently frames in-conference room meeting participants so anyone not in the room can easily track the conversation.”

 

 



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