Amazing Insights from the UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant

Last year, we queried why Slack was not included in the UCaaS Magic Quadrant published by Gartner or even the UC (Unified Comms) version.

Since 2018, Gartner has opted to scrap the UC version altogether.

The 2019 version of the UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant was released this month with some major changes. It does not, however, include Slack.

Why should you care what Mio has to say about the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS?

We have to know what’s going on with all the vendors included in the Magic Quadrant so we can be sure our universal channels tool supports the platforms in demand.

We currently support Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, and Slack. So, if you chat with users on different platforms, you can install a universal channel in your preferred chat app and chat with them in theirs.

Who’s in the UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant?

There will be no surprise to followers of the UCaaS industry that the top right-hand corner (leaders) includes some household names.

Leaders

• Microsoft is named a leader in the quadrant as we see Microsoft Teams figures rise and rise – no doubt partially due to the announced Skype for Business Online end-of-life date.
• RingCentral appears furthest to the top right of the Magic Quadrant, having heavily bolted modern innovations into their UCaaS suite through acquisition.
• Cisco also remains in the top right-hand corner of the quadrant – a testament to their continued innovation with both Jabber and Webex.
• 8×8 takes the final position in the top right-hand corner as they continue to grow by acquisition and the popularity of their X series is highly communicated.

Challengers

• Google is slated as a challenger once again despite rumors around the end of Google Chat and uncertainty as to the future of Hangouts Meet – however, both are still widely used and it is right to label Google a challenger in almost any market they enter.
• Mitel receives recognition in the UCaaS category as they strive to turn their legacy UC estate into a native cloud play.
• LogMeIn may not be an all too familiar name to you but they host the GoToMeeting & GoToWebinar products under their umbrella and look rightfully named as challengers.

Visionaries

• Dialpad has been beefing up its offerings over the last few years and its external comms shouts modern – which is crucial in the world of UCaaS, cloud communications, and digital transformation.
• Fuze could be described incredibly similarly – no coincidence that the companies with the most attractive marketing campaigns are named both named as visionaries by Gartner.

Niche Players

• StarBlue is ranked highest for the ability to execute among the niche players – the combination of Blueface and Star2Star since merging last year has continued to plot its success selling to large telcos.
• Windstream is recognized as a niche player for the first time – their OfficeSuite UC package is highly targeted at enterprises rolling out SD-WAN solutions.
• ALE (Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise) is the final brand included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS – their CPaaS offering to niche industries like healthcare and government has no doubt proved helpful to industries that typically struggle with digital transformation.

Notable vendors that didn’t make the UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant

This list covers the brands that Gartner highlighted as notable UCaaS brands not making the Magic Quadrant for 2019:

• Atos (Unify/Siemens)
• Avaya
• Nextiva
• NFON
• StarLeaf
• Telavox
• Vonage
• Zoom
• AT&T
• Bell Canada
• BT
• CBTS
• CenturyLink
• Masergy
• NTT Group
• Orange
• Telefónica
• Tata
• Telstra
• Verizon
• Vodafone
• Intrado (formerly West)

Who’s out of the UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant?

The following brands do not appear in this year’s UCaaS Gartner Magic Quadrant, but were present in 2018:

• Vonage
• NTT
• Orange Business Services
• Masergy

Gartner’s criteria for UCaaS in 2019 includes team collaboration playing a more crucial part than years before. Here is how Gartner defines UCaaS:

All the brands included for 2019 include more than a Unified Comms client, with the team collaboration and messaging wars continuing to rage on.

But still no Slack

Despite the apparent emphasis on team collaboration, Slack didn’t make the quadrant again.

We know that Gartner defines Unified Communications as services that boost user productivity and enhance business communication processes.

Judging by the most recently defined criteria (above), Slack is potentially excluded due to a lack of meeting solutions – Slack has opted to rely on integrations and partnerships like we see with Zoom.

Voicemail is not operational on Slack – but you’d hope a team collaboration didn’t require voicemail to make a list of top collaboration tools.

We know from independent research, and customer feedback, that 91% of businesses use at least 2 messaging apps.

From the same research, we learned that Slack is the most used workplace messaging app.

So it begs the question…

Does this call for more research and analysis?

As UC buyers look to analysis from the likes of Gartner, no Slack for two years in a row is potentially misleading.

Some organizations do not need the core (and potentially legacy) components that Gartner recognizes as a critical success factor in their analysis.

However, there are other options available. If you are a UC buyer, here are a few sources to look into when sourcing a communications or collaboration solution:

• Aragon Research regularly publishes a hot vendor report across many workstreams – this year’s team collaboration report does include Slack and many other platforms that didn’t make the Gartner Magic Quadrant.
• Each year at Enterprise Connect, awards are presented across different categories – no recognition for Slack here but a good steer on who is innovating.
• Frost & Sullivan regularly publishes research across industries interlinked with UCaaS.

Read Next: In an attempt to boost awareness of Unified Comms and Collaboration tech, options, and influencers, we’ve put together the who’s who of Unified Comms for 2019.

Read through and hit follow on anybody that isn’t currently filling your Twitter feed with Unified Comms and Collaboration news.