UC Expo 2019 - Roundup of Key Collaboration Events

UC Expo kicked off in London on 15th May.

The event showcased the biggest brands in Unified Communications and the latest innovations in the world of business communications.

A key theme through the course of the day was interoperability between key vendors Microsoft and Cisco.

Below, we share some insights and highlights from various panels and seminars at UC Expo.

Wednesday at UC Expo

Cisco

Amy Chang of Cisco opened the event with a keynote on Cognitive Collaboration.

Amy shared Cisco's vision for the future of collaboration, the foundations they have in place and the work they're driving to win customers' hearts and minds.

You can watch Amy's session back in the video below.

Microsoft

Tom Arbuthnot, Modality Systems, ran a seminar on what Microsoft Teams is like in the real world.

Stripping back the marketing jargon, Tom presented an overview of what Microsoft Teams provides, as well as the options available for Skype for Business customers who are considering migrating from Skype to Teams 429.

Unified Comms

Rob Scott, UC Today, then hosted a panel of analysts discussing the state of Unified Comms in 2019.

Consisting of Blair Pleasant, Dave Michels, Dominic Black, Bill Haskins and Zeus Kerravala, the panel discussed innovation in the space and the future of Unified Comms.

Dave Michels suggested that a lot of innovation is coming from startups, and that most innovation stems from the cloud.

Bill Haskins stated that the market is in danger of over innovating, with Dominic Black reeling everybody back in to solve today's problems like conducting a voice call over 3G and 4G.

Zeus Kerravala said that the likes of Zoom and Slack are leading the innovation cycle. However, interoperability really needs to be the focus.

Rob then asked whether the UC bubble was about to burst, prompting a variety of responses.

Zeus pointed to the amount of consolidation we've witnessed, like Polycom and Plantronics coming together to form Poly.

Dave suggested that not all innovation comes from consolidation. Here, he cited Google Voice, Zoom Phone and Amazon Chime Voice as examples.

Microsoft vs Cisco

The queue for the Microsoft vs Cisco seminar was ever so long.

However, Rob Scott and Patrick Watson, from UC Today, provided an overview on the two of the big three players in the collaboration space. They then ran through comparison chart across various categories:

• Calling
• Meeting
• Collaboration
• Endpoints
• Management

There was no definitive winner in the Microsoft vs Cisco debate. Here's our take on what enterprises should do when comparing Microsoft Teams and Webex Teams.

Thursday

Lan Ye, General Manager of Microsoft Teams opened day 2 in the Keynote Theatre.

Her theme of intelligent workspaces and resonated with the entire audience.

Attendees then experienced some of the new features in the Microsoft Teams pipeline, including this giant demo of customizable backgrounds.

Jason Wyatt, Technical Marketing Manager at Audiocodes ran a session called "How to Successfully give Microsoft Teams a Voice" in the Microsoft Technologies Theatre.

Microsoft admins and users considering implementing Microsoft Teams as their core voice platform received insights into different deployment models of voice within Teams.

Tom Arbuthnot of Modality Systems replayed his sessions from Wednesday for those that couldn't get into the full capacity seminar.

Stripping back the marketing jargon, Tom presented an overview of what Microsoft Teams provides, as well as the options available for Skype for Business customers who are considering migrating from Skype to Teams.  

Sarah McGovern, Business Change Manager at Arkadin wrapped up the collaboration with a session on "The 6 steps towards a successful deployment for MS Teams" in the Microsoft Technologies Theatre.

Here, she ran through the key pillars when rolling out Microsoft Teams.

Which vendors were at UC Expo 2019?

Vendors showcasing their solutions included:

• 2600 Hz
• 3CX
• 8x8
• Anywhere 365
• Audiocodes
• BlueJeans
• Cisco
• Centile
• ConnectWise
• Creston Europe
• Dialpad
• Dubber
• Gamma
• Genesys
• Freshworks
• Fuze
• IR
• Konftel
• LG
• LogMeIn
• Microsoft
• Logitech
• Natterbox
• NEC
• Mitel
• NFON
• NTT Group
• PeterConnects
• PGi
• Pexip
• Panasonic
• Poly
• Sennheiser
• Serenova
• Samsung
• RingCentral
• Snom
• Sharp
• Telstra
• Talkdesk
• Unify
• Unify Square
• Voxbone
• Vonage
• VOSS Solutions
• Zoom
• Zoho
• Yealink

Follow UC Expo

The event may be over but the conversation continues. Mio's Twitter and LinkedIn pages are always a stream of information and news about Unified Communications and collaboration.

For further events related to Unified Comms and Collaboration, don't forget to check our collaboration calendar.