This Month in Telecom: January 2019
This Month in Telecom is a monthly news round-up on VoipReview.org that aims to give our readers a fast and easy way to catch up on the latest news and top stories that are trending in the voice and telecommunications space. Check in every month to find out more about stories you may have missed in regards to new companies, mergers, trends, and other telecom advancements.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories in telecom for the month of January.
Vonage Study Reveals Video Calls are as Popular as Voice Calls
Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform (NYSE:VG), has recently unveiled the results of their study of Americans’ attitudes toward video communication, its pervasiveness across different industry segments, and its evolution from social to commercial applications. According to the study entitled “Video Chatterbox Nation”, live video calls are quickly becoming an equal channel to voice calls. Live video is gradually reaching almost universal adoption for social use among family and friends as it is more accessible and easy to use.
For the last three years, there has been a significant increase in regular live video usage, with millennials representing the largest group of live video users. Almost half of the people aged 35 to 54, and 25 percent of those 55 and older, reported they were video chatting more than they were one year ago.
The same study revealed that video is on track to become a mainstream form of consumer-to-business (C2B) communication. And as video calling with brands becomes more mainstream, industries such as banking and finance, retail, human resource and recruiting, healthcare, and more are adopting it at different rates. The Video Chatterbox Nation 2018 study was created by TokBox, purchased by Vonage in August 2018, and administered by Toluna via the Toluna platform.
Avaya Rolls Out Enhanced Edge Channel Program to Fuel Partner Growth
Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE: AVYA), the global leader in enterprise communications solutions and services, today announced a series of enhancements to its award-winning Edge Channel Partner Program. Designed to help Avaya’s global channel partners, this comprehensive program aims to increase sales of cloud solutions by leveraging a more tailored benefits and a simplified incentive structure with an improved enablement model.
“Avaya has constructed a comprehensive program that simplifies, integrates, and aligns with channel partner needs to help drive growth and introduce additional business opportunities,” said Tim Banting, Principal Analyst at GlobalData. With the Edge Program, Avaya now provides equal growth opportunities to partners of any size.
Dino Di Palma, Avaya President, Americas Sales and Global Accounts, has this to say about their latest channel partner program enhancement: “Much of the coming year’s focus will empower channel partners to easily deploy cloud-based products as cloud adoption continues to skyrocket, for example, Avaya has grown its public cloud seats 300% in the past year. With offerings for small-medium businesses (SMB), mid-market and enterprise, Avaya’s range of cloud-based services continues to expand and is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for all channel partners in 2019.”
VOSS Solutions Integrates with ServiceNow
To improve user experience, reduce service response times, and drive efficiency for businesses managing large scale UC deployments, VOSS, a global supplier of unified communication management platform, has recently announced its newest integration with ServiceNow.
With this new integration, users can enjoy a positive experience through a familiar and easy-to-se interface for all their service requests, including those for unified communication and collaboration (UC&C). The key features of the VOSS ServiceNow Integration include inbox, catalog, notification, provisioning, RESTful API, audit, billing, diagnostic and reporting, and access control.
Dan Payne, CTO at VOSS Solutions, has this to say about their newest integration with ServiceNow: “The VOSS-4-UC integration with ServiceNow dovetails with a customer’s existing business processes and approvals which means that the transition to a much more holistic view of your business performance is achieved quickly and with minimal impact.”
Nitel Completes Network Integration with Nextiva
Leading nationwide next-generation technology services provider, Nitel recently completed a multi-site integration with Nextiva, a premier Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) company. This strategic partnership will provide agents with a comprehensive network and unified communication solution as well as offer customers with the best voice experience across the Nitel network.
Lawrence Edmond, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Nitel, has this to say about their partnership with Nextiva: “In building on our partnership with Nextiva, we will deliver better voice quality and simplified customer experience. Partners have already showed great interest in our combined best-of-breed solution. Having completed our network integration, they can have a new level of confidence that they are recommending the absolute best for their customers.” Additionally, the integration also provides greater visibility for Nitel’s technical support team so they can facilitate seamless troubleshooting.
Genesys Strengthens Customer Roster with Cloud Win
Global leader in omnichannel customer experience and contact center solutions, Genesys recently revealed that their cloud sales have increased 32% year after year. The cloud business growth covers all market segments with 70% gains in the mid-market, 50% in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and 30% in large enterprises. The press release also outlines Genesys’ growth in cloud sales with customers including Westpac New Zealand, Coca-Cola Business Services North America, Heineken Mexico, and more.
According to Genesys, the PureCloud® platform stands out for its hypergrowth with sales, which has tripled since 2016. The platform also has a projected annual revenue growth rate of nearly 130% since 2017. With Genesys PureCloud, customers can benefit from over 300 new enhancements released in the last two years. Key benefits of using Genesys PureCloud includes faster deployments and migrations, enhanced speed-to-market, and investment in innovation.