Verizon Enterprise Solutions is expanding its Unified Communications & Collaboration as a Service (UCCaaS) solution and introducing additional features, including Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms.
“Many of our clients have transformed their workplaces and expanded into new markets to accelerate growth and optimize performance,” said Anthony Recine, chief marketing officer for Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “In today’s digital and global economy, it’s essential that mobile and remote employees communicate and collaborate virtually with colleagues, clients and partners as if they were in the same room together. We’ve seen strong adoption of our existing UCaaS offering particularly from manufacturers, financial and professional services firms, retailers and the public sector, which is a trend we anticipate will continue as we expand our offering globally.”
The new capabilities, available via channel partners, include:
- Global expansion of UCCaaS to Europe and Asia Pacific including in-country support for major commercial hubs such as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Verizon provides in-region geographic redundancy of its UCCaaS services via its data centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong.
- Cisco Collaboration Meeting Rooms Cloud provides collaboration capabilities for intra-business, B2B and B2C applications from any standards-based video device. The new offering — which allows attendees to collaborate using voice, video, content share, white boarding and more — is expected to be commercially available in July and will integrate with Verizon UCCaaS or can be purchased as a stand-alone service.
- Integrated global contact centers, expected to be available in the second half of 2015, deliver cloud-based contact center capabilities.
- Mobile integration will allow customers to leverage Verizon UCCaaS over wireless networks with no VPN connections required.
- Self-service management portals allow customers to implement provisioning changes to their service, including service moves and adds.
“The market requirements for cloud-based unified communications have changed greatly in recent years,” said Amy Lind, research manager with IDC. “Cloud UC is no longer just for the small business; today, large enterprises and multinational corporations are embracing the strategic value of cloud UC, and they require global reach, a broad array of collaboration functionality and perhaps most of all, a strategic partner who can complement their own operational teams as they drive business transformation. Verizon’s expansion of its UC&C capabilities, paired with its worldwide support and professional services reach, makes them a compelling partner for enterprises to consider.”
