The communications industry is filled with vendors that once dominated one aspect of the “stack” but have been focused on building a unified platform that includes voice, video, meetings, contact center and much more. But the most interesting vendor in the market is Zoom Communications Inc.
Zoom Communications Inc. is a fascinating company in that it’s one of the few corporate technology brands that resonates with end users as well as information technology pros. I’m aware of many instances where the IT organization was considering an alternate communications product but the demand from the user community was so strong that Zoom was purchased. Zoom’s ease of use made it the product of choice during the stay-at-home period of the pandemic and user loyalty grew from there.
Contact-center-as-a-service leader NiCE Ltd. is holding its analyst event in Vienna, Austria, this week, and it’s the first one with Scott Russell as captain of the Starship NiCE. The chief executive isn’t the only new leader, as Michelle Cooper is now running marketing and Jeff Comstock takes over as the president of products and technology. Russell, Cooper and Comstock all succeeded some of the longest-tenured and successful executives in communications as Barak Eilam, Einat Weiss and Barry Cooper respectively, all stepped down within the last year.
Cloud communications provider RingCentral Inc. announced today announced it’s acquiring CommunityWFM, a workforce management provider. CommunityWFM will be integrated into RingCentral’s homegrown contact center solution, RingCX. No purchase price was given and CommunityWFM took in no funding, but its revenue is believed to be somewhere in the $5 million to $10 million range.
Recently Zoom Video Communications Inc. held its annual industry analyst event, Perspectives, at its headquarters in San Jose, and it revealed much about the ongoing evolution of the videoconferencing company. The company’s first act was built on video and given a massive steroid shot during the COVID era, which turned a company few had heard of into a household name. Since then, the company has added a boatload of new features, added enterprise clients, reduced the churn in its online business, and moved into adjacent markets, most notably contact center.