One day (please be soon) we’ll be able to all go back to restaurants, live events, and yes, offices and workplaces. It’s no secret that the massive move to working from anywhere during the COVID crisis has fundamentally changed the way we work, most likely forever.
Business continuity was priority number one in the early months of 2020. Simply enabling remote communications and connections to people and to systems. This was surviving. But for companies to thrive, they need collaboration. Remote collaboration soon became priority number two during the pandemic.
Organisations of all sizes started to adopt scalable, flexible, cloud-based collaboration solutions – unified communications and collaboration solutions (UCaaS) – to enable their employees to meet, share, present, collaborate, and ideate with remote, and sometimes globally dispersed, workforces. Not just with colleagues, but with customers and partners as well. UCaaS overnight became a must-have business tool. This is one of the reasons why worldwide UCaaS service provider revenue will reach an estimated $16.1 billion in 2024 according to IDC1.
RingCentral has been a big part of this story. The IDC MarketScape recently recognised the company as a Leader in two UCaaS reports: one for Enterprise2 and one for SMB3 market segments. Among the 19 different vendors in the Enterprise report and the 15 different vendors in the SMB report, RingCentral was named a Leader in both. An incredible accomplishment considering the industry innovation that continues apace even in these trying times.
According to lead report analyst Denise Lund, research director of Worldwide Telecom and Unified Communications at IDC:
Enterprises should consider RingCentral when they need a UCaaS platform that has an emphasis on security and reliability and has been integrated across a broad portfolio of unified communications and collaboration solution elements with access to a platform that comes with numerous integrations to enterprise software and services. RingCentral offers SMBs a good value with its RingCentral Office solution, but the company has also made a significant investment in its free video conferencing and team messaging solution with RingCentral Glip, to address the entry point barrier for any business to easily start their journey to a full cloud communications solution.
The report gives advice to technology buyers who are considering UCaaS solutions, to consider the unique needs of their organisation and must keep in mind how a vendor’s solution can grow with them as their communications and collaboration needs change.
For enterprises, the IDC MarketScape strongly suggests considering vendors who have:
- A broad set of pre-integrations available to popular enterprise software and other UC&C solution elements
- A portfolio strategy that shows a commitment to UCaaS tying into broader UC&C solutions
- The ability to deliver scalable, cost-effective voice services worldwide
For SMB buyers, the IDC MarketScape recommends buyers consider vendors whose solution provides:
- Base-level solution functionality
- A straightforward, easy-to-use user experience
- Standardised customer support programs for SMBs
The 2021 IDC MarketScape Reports for Enterprise and SMB highlight a number of areas why RingCentral earned its position as a Leader:
Mobility: RingCentral has built its UCaaS solution with mobile as a major use case, an approach that allows it to be considered by organisations that have communications and collaboration needs for employees that have broad roles and may work outside of a set office environment.
Reliability and Security: RingCentral has a UCaaS platform that places an emphasis on reliability and security, with compliance on major standards (e.g. HIPPAA and FINRA) that are important to its customers.
Integration capabilities: RingCentral offers a broad portfolio of unified communications and collaboration solution elements with access to a platform that comes with various integrations to enterprise software and services.
For more information on the Enterprise report, please view this complimentary excerpt.
For more information on the SMB report, please view this complimentary excerpt.
1 Worldwide UCaaS Service Provider Forecast, 2020–2024, Doc # US46763020, Aug 2020
2 IDC MarketScape: Worldwide UCaaS Service Providers for Enterprise 2021 Vendor Assessment, Doc #US47452521, Feb 2021
3 IDC MarketScape: Worldwide UCaaS Service Providers for SMB 2021 Vendor Assessment, Doc #US47452421, Feb 2021
Originally published Mar 05, 2021, updated Apr 10, 2023
