The end of the year is near, and that means it’s time to deck the halls, jingle some bells, and start counting down the days until the start of the new year. For those in communications tech, it’s time to think about the year ahead and look back at one of the most tumultuous years ever for the industry.

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Communications 2023: 4 Industry Trends to Keep an Eye On

It’s the week after Thanksgiving in the U.S., which means we now head to Las Vegas for the annual Amazon Web Services (AWS) Re:Invent show. This event is the company’s largest conference and is typically filled with news of product innovation from the largest player in cloud computing. While there were certainly lots of cloud computing announcements, the company did provide a significant update to its sustainability initiatives, stating that it will return more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations by 2030.

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AWS Ups Its Sustainability Efforts at Re:Invent 2022

This week, Investing.com reported that RingCentral is exploring a take-over of 8×8. I’ve heard this rumor before and with increasing frequency, as the valuation in 8×8 and its peers have fallen through the floor. Of all the publicly traded cloud communications providers, 8×8 is the most appealing from an acquisition standpoint, as it has a good product, a decent customer base, and an absurdly low valuation. At the time of writing, the market cap is only $474 million, which includes a 7% bump from the RingCentral rumors.

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Why RingCentral Should and Shouldn’t Buy 8×8

The shift from human to digital is well underway, as businesses are looking to create new ways to interact with customers that will create a differentiated customer experience (CX). Companies of all sizes and in all verticals are feeling the pressure to digitize as CX is now the top brand differentiator — outweighing price, product quality, and all other factors. For most organizations, the contact center is where CX starts, which is why there has been so much investment in modernizing this area over the past few years.

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Talkdesk Builder Enables Businesses to Create Bespoke Experiences

Zoomtopia 2022 is now in the books, and it was nice to see the event run in a hybrid format with an in-person component after two years of being virtual only. Beyond the return of an in-person event, it’s hard to overstate just how much has changed with Zoom since 2019, the date of the last in-person Zoomtopia. The company closed its fiscal 2019 with $540 million in revenue and was a video-only company. Today, its revenue is a shade over $4 billion, and it has expanded its products to include phone, contact center, events, webinars, and more services.

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Zoomtopia 2022 Final Thoughts: Zoom Sets Up Further Growth