Microsoft’s Growth as a UCaaS Player
Next week will see the return of Cloud Connections, the Cloud Communications Alliance conference in Florida, where service providers across the globe will gather to discuss recent industry developments and the future of telephony.
For many, the event will be an opportunity to discuss Microsoft’s growth as a unified communications player, and what it means for traditional service providers.
In a recent interview with SmartCom Summit’s Rob Kurver, SIPPIO’s Dawn-Marie Elder reflected on the impressive growth of Microsoft as a player in the UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) space.
“I don’t think anyone saw it coming back in the mid-2000s when Microsoft entered the cloud space,” says Elder. “But it doesn’t surprise me at all because it makes sense that if you’re doing file sharing, collaboration and instant messaging in one app, then naturally you would bring voice into the mix so that end-users can really modernize their work experience and have a one-stop shop for everything they need to be productive.”
While the pandemic has played a role in the exponential growth of Microsoft Teams, Elder believes the way people work and communicate online still would have evolved over time.
“I think Covid made people stop and reconsider some of their old habits to find new ways of working and to be more efficient,” says Elder. “If the pandemic hadn’t happened, it probably would have continued on a steadier course, but without the spikes, we are seeing today.”
Opportunities for Service Providers and Carriers
When asked about the opportunities presented to existing players and new entrants in the market, Elder emphasized the importance of customer experience and how service providers need to differentiate themselves by focusing on building frictionless customer journeys to seamlessly modernize the working experience.
“Service providers really need to think about how they are going to change the conversation from features and functionality to improving productivity and simplifying the process for customers to activate, scale and succeed” she stated.
In addition to existing players, the UCaaS market also provides a unique opportunity for carriers and mobile operators to provide next-generation telephony services to their customers.
However, Elder cautioned that to win, traditional providers will need to consider things they may not have in the past, such as experience and engagement to truly fulfil the needs of the customer rather than locking customers in large corporate contracts.
SIPPIO: An Operator Connect Acceleration Partner
The difficulty that many service partners will face is building a stable and scalable solution while keeping pace with the market’s evolving needs and demands.
SIPPIO supports service providers to accelerate their adoption of Microsoft Teams as a voice platform through the Operator Connect Accelerator program. Instead of building a complete solution in-house from the ground up, SIPPIO provides the infrastructure and expertise to integrate Teams so that carriers can focus on improving user experience, driving adoption, and ultimately expediting their journey to revenue.
Microsoft’s growth as a UCaaS player is a testament to the success of its collaboration platform, Microsoft Teams – and it being the right product at the right time. The opportunities for service providers to reap the benefits of collaboration are boundless, and by working with organizations like SIPPIO, they can ensure they go to market with an optimized and best-in-class solution.
Watch the full interview: