Gartner just released its 2021 Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions. It’ll come as no surprise that Microsoft, Cisco and Zoom remain standout leaders in the field of meeting solutions, with Avaya named a visionary.
IR is pleased to partner with and support all of these leading vendors and would like to congratulate them on this significant accomplishment!
These providers need no introduction as dominant players in the collaboration space, as they continue to roll out new and innovative additions, upgrades and improvements to their communication technology.
The rise of the virtual communication space
Accelerated by the pandemic, meeting services have become the cornerstone of most businesses, particularly over the last 18 months. In fact, according to Gartner, by 2024 the virtual visual communication space will account for 30% of meeting experiences. By 2025, this prediction will jump to 50% of all enterprise meetings and events occurring via virtual meeting platforms.
The migration to UCaaS
The rapid shift to remote work has seen an increasing trend of moving from on-premises to a UCaaS delivery model.
Organizations typically use a hybrid architecture during their migration. This can include a combination of on-premises-based functionality and UCaaS-based services. For example, messaging and meeting functionality may be initially migrated to a UCaaS service offering, while the calling workload continues to be addressed by an on-premises telephony solution until the next phase of the migration to UCaaS.
Single or multiple vendors?
Based on an organization’s requirements, workloads may be sourced from either a single vendor or a combination of UCaaS solution providers. For example, the chat and meetings workloads could be sourced from one UCaaS provider and the calling workload may utilize a different UCaaS solution.
Managing the complexity of the new hybrid workplace
The complexity and ever-changing nature of the hybrid workplace, with multiple endpoints and devices, various communication platforms and different networks makes degraded or poor user experience almost inevitable.
To users, the origin of the problem is irrelevant. All they know is that the service isn’t working, or that voice and video quality are unacceptable. Without monitoring, detecting and troubleshooting the root cause of issues is almost impossible.
Most top UCaaS solutions do include some level of service analytics metrics and performance insights as a component of their suite of services. But they come with their challenges problem, for example they’re not always as comprehensive as they need to be (some vendors are retiring their monitoring tools altogether, like Cisco's Prime Collaboration Assurance) and they’re almost always confined to that specific platform (Microsoft tools only monitor applications within the Microsoft environment).
Gartner recommends implementing third-party, specialist monitoring tools for implementing and managing UCaaS solutions for complex telephony and video conferencing deployments, and includes IR Collaborate as an appropriate solution for performance management, monitoring and troubleshooting.
IR Collaborate: One tool to manage all Magic Quadrant Leaders
IR Collaborate suite of solutions, powered by the Prognosis platform, supports all the Magic Quadrant leaders. So, whether you’re using Zoom, Microsoft, Cisco, Avaya, or a combination of them, IR is expertly positioned to help you effectively manage your technology and set your organization up for collaboration success.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions, Mike Fasciani, Tom Eagle, Brian Doherty, Christopher Trueman, 7 October 2021 – For Magic Quadrant Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Meeting Solutions, Tom Eagle, Mike Fasciani, Brian Doherty, Christopher Trueman, 7 October 2021 – For Critical Capabilities report.
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