Cisco, Microsoft, Zoom Newcomers on Latest Omdia UCaaS Scorecard
Despite acquisitions, there are still a large number of UCaaS providers in North America.
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There is a broad mix of runner-up providers just outside the top 10. They’re growing and “doing great things” in regard to product innovation, channel strategy and customer service, Myers said. These include Vonage, Fuze, Nextiva, Intrado, Windstream, Lumen Technologies, NetFortris, Dialpad, CoreDial, Intermedia, Ooma, Fusion Connect, Masergy and Evolve IP.
“The UCaaS market in North America is marked by a large and dynamic provider landscape,” she said. “Mergers and acquisitions continue as providers look to gain scale, new capabilities and long-term survivability. Additionally, traditional PBX and UC vendors such as Cisco, Mitel, and Microsoft continue to push into the UCaaS market with their own platforms, while others such as Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Atos Unify, NEC and Avaya have opted to work with pure-play UCaaS providers as a path forward for their premises-based customers.”
LogMeIn had average year-over-year growth relative to the rest of the top 10 providers. In addition, it received the highest customer review scores of the group. Moreover, the company has worked hard to build GoToConnect out through the channel, with aggressive promotion programs to help grow its installed base, Myers said.
Mitel had the fifth-largest installed base of seats at the end of 2020. It has undergone significant organizational changes over the past two years. In 2018, Mitel was sold to private equity firm Searchlight Capital and then moved its UCaaS business to its own division, with a new general manager brought in to run and grow the business.
“In 2019, Mary McDowell was brought in as CEO to accelerate changes, which included putting the UCaaS and premises-based business back together to eliminate confusion in the sales channel and coordinate product-development cycles,” Myers said. “Mitel’s goal is to build on its on-premises business to be a leader in the midmarket UCaaS space, which can be done only with coordinated product and sales efforts.”
Comcast Business is the fourth-largest UCaaS provider in North America.
“The sheer breadth of its nationwide sales team and installed base of business customers gives it an advantage in converting companies to unified communications,” Myers said. “Comcast Business’ focused market strategy makes the provider a strong contender even if it is often in the shadow of the high-profile, pure-plays in the UCaaS market.”
Verizon is the UCaaS provider with the broadest set of enterprise data and voice capabilities, and is the sixth-largest provider in the market. The company markets its UCaaS services globally to multinationals and enterprises, and nationally to SMBs and enterprises in the United States, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and Central America and Latin America.
“Its depth of capabilities and network assets give it a competitive advantage with large businesses,” Myers said. “Verizon’s wireless network and its One Talk mobile-first service give it a unique position that no other provider in the U.S. has matched to date.”
Cisco made it into this report by way of the growing success of Webex Calling with the third-largest installed base of seats among North America-based providers.
Cisco has a big advantage with its installed base of premises-based Unified Communications Manager (UCM) customers that can migrate to the Webex cloud services. The company has above-average market momentum, product development and customer reviews.
Star2Star ended its joint ownership with Ireland-based Blueface in January 2020, only to find a new partner in Sangoma, which acquired Star2Star this March. Sangoma will maintain its SwitchVox Cloud UCaaS service, which it typically sells to smaller companies. The two services are complementary, with Star2Star positioned more upmarket and SwitchVox Cloud ideal for smaller businesses, Omdia said.
“Combined, the company is the ninth-largest UCaaS provider in North America,” Myers said. “The biggest benefit for Star2Star is joining a financially strong, publicly traded company that gives it a big boost in the scorecard with top financial scores, landing it fifth overall in the ranking.”
8×8 rounds out the top four UCaaS providers. That’s due to its position as the second-largest provider based on installed base and “robust” service development, Myers said.
“The company had strong momentum this year, putting it back in a leading market share position,” she said. “8×8 has its own stack of service capabilities from UC, meetings including video, and contact center, which provide it with a solid foundation.”
Microsoft lands in third position among UCaaS providers. That’s due to the overall strength of Teams and the number of seats for voice through either a Microsoft Teams Calling plan or Direct Routing solutions from third-party providers.
“The company is only eighth in market share, but gained in ratings from its strong financials and above-average customer reviews,” Myers said. “As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has resources that most companies in this space do not have to put behind marketing and product development.”
Zoom didn’t just enter the top 10 in this year’s report. It also landed in the second spot due to strong market momentum as it only launched Zoom Phone in 2019.
“The company landed seventh overall in terms of market share and had the highest score in financial stability, a high pace of product development and above-average customer reviews,” Myers said.
As the market share leader, no one comes close to RingCentral in terms of installed base and strategic partner development. That helped put the company in the top spot on this year’s scorecard.
“RingCentral’s continued product investment with new enhancements and capabilities continues to set the bar in the industry,” said Diane Myers, chief analyst, enterprise collaboration, Omdia. “The company has separated itself from the rest of the pack through channel development, particularly with key vendor and operator partnerships, international expansion, and focus across SMBs and large enterprises.”
As the market share leader, no one comes close to RingCentral in terms of installed base and strategic partner development. That helped put the company in the top spot on this year’s scorecard.
“RingCentral’s continued product investment with new enhancements and capabilities continues to set the bar in the industry,” said Diane Myers, chief analyst, enterprise collaboration, Omdia. “The company has separated itself from the rest of the pack through channel development, particularly with key vendor and operator partnerships, international expansion, and focus across SMBs and large enterprises.”
Cisco, Microsoft and Zoom for the first time made the top 10 in the latest Omdia UCaaS Scorecard of North America providers.
The 13th annual scorecard determines which service providers lead the market for UCaaS. In addition, Omdia, which shares a parent company – Informa – with Channel Futures, says these providers are in the best position to succeed long-term. That’s based on a set of criteria including financial stability, market-share momentum, service development and customer reviews.
Diane Myers, Omdia’s chief analyst of enterprise collaboration, compiled the Omdia UCaaS scorecard (registration required). She said over the past 11 years, UCaaS providers have been consolidating at a slow and steady pace.
Omdia’s Diane Myers
“However, despite the mergers and acquisitions, there are still a large number of providers in the region, including traditional premises-based private branch exchange (PBX) and unified communications (UC) vendors, pure plays, incumbent operators, cable multiple system operators (MSOs), competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), internet service providers (ISPs), and systems integrators,” she said.
At the end of 2020, the providers making the cut each had more than 875,000 UCaaS seats. That includes more than 3 million at the high end. Moreover, a number of providers that didn’t make the cut have an installed base of 300,000-850,000 seats.
“Consolidation continues with each passing year,” Myers said. “But the market still cannot sustain the large number of providers long term. So we will see further consolidation or providers closing down.”
Investigate our slideshow above to see who Omdia put in its top 10. Then be sure to go in-depth with the numbers and reasoning behind the rankings on the Omdia site.
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