Why one collaboration vendor won’t win the race

One of the recurring comments we have heard over the past 2 months is “I’ve used every video conferencing solution on the planet in the last month” and it’s no lie. The platform used for the video call is dependent on the person who books the meeting, which means people are constantly switching between different apps. Everything from telehealth services viaFaceTime and WhatsApp to large Enterprise adopting Webex, Microsoft Teams or Zoom as their preference. As companies come to the realisation that this is the new norm and a return to the office will transform to suit a distributed workforce, more thought is being put into platform choice and the shift to the cloud for all things voice, video, file management and collaboration.

In the last three months, we’ve found that everyone has become a world renowned critique of VC software and if you ask them, they’ll be sure to list a set of bug bears for each product and tell you how they could all improve if they were the product manager in charge. Despite this, each platform has it’s pros and cons, and no one vendor will win the race. Subscribers of Office 365 will likely embrace MS Teams and utilise the benefits of AD/Exchange integration and SharePoint to collaborate both internally and externally with the help of Direct Routing. Slack users are reaching for Zoom to suit their requirement for robust voice and video. Organisations with an affiliation to room-based solutions via Cisco s will have Webex rolled out throughout their organisation. And other businesses are embracing a mix of solutions depending on their role requirements within the business.

At Access4, we embraced Microsoft Teams for our internal collaboration application but continue to utilise Cisco Webex Training for our partner webinars due to its enhanced reporting features, crowd control and group facilitation.

As an organisation that sees the value of platform flexibility we recognise that each vendor has a place in today’s business communications based on the legacy solutions in place and the future goals of the organisation.. We also understand moving all your business communications to a software based collaboration solution might not be the answer for everyone, so blended solutions that allow a mix of technologies is sometimes the best way forward and presents an appealing low risk transformation project.

Therefore, businesses should engage with a trusted Managed Service Provider to ensure the proposed solution meets their business outcomes and can supply and configure the correct hardware to ensure a first-rate user experience.

If you are a business customer looking for a trusted partner to deliver flexible and reliable solutions including Cisco and Microsoft, reach out and we can connect you with one of our 100+ partners in the ANZ region.