Cisco Live EMEA returns to an in-person format for the first time since early 2019. At the Amsterdam event, Cisco announced some Webex innovations to help companies achieve their sustainability goals. While sustainability is a big issue across the globe, Europe provides an excellent location for the announcements as the European Union (EU) has led the world in this area.
Last week RingCentral announced a revamped channel program called RingCentral Reach. As markets mature, the way UCaaS and CCaaS are doing now, the channel plays a much bigger role in a vendor’s success. Early adopter customers tend to deal directly with the vendor, but as mass-market adoption occurs, customers prefer to leverage a trusted partner that can help with migration, integration, training and more.
This week the ISE event kicks off in Barcelona. This is the first major communications-centric show of the year where the vendor community gets to show off their latest and greatest technology. At the event, HP announced a complete Microsoft Teams Room solution that brings together HP compute as well as endpoints from Poly.
For years now, we analysts have been fed a steady diet of “UCaaS and CCaaS must come together.” Conceptually, it makes sense, as the communications channels are across both product areas are the same, thus enabling companies to create seamless workflows that span both customer and employee interactions.
Today, Mitel announced it has entered exclusive negotiations to acquire the Unify Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) and Communications and Collaboration Services (CCS) businesses from France-based system integrator Atos.
The wording (“entered exclusive negotiations”) may seem strange but that’s consistent with the terminology typically used in French business announcements. If Atos had been a US company, it would have been stated “entered a definitive agreement…”, which is what people in the US are more accustomed to. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2023 following the customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.