IDC MARKET NOTE: Mitel Focuses on Modernizing UC that Goes Beyond UCaaS
Synopsis
This IDC Market Note discusses key highlights of the Mitel analyst event held on March 9, 2022. The event, which marked the vendor's first after a long hiatus, showcased three key presentations followed by a question-and-answer session.
The key message of the event was that Mitel is very much in business and will focus on helping clients modernize UC solutions and provide life-cycle management services. It is developing a portfolio that can offer flexibility and choice in terms of preferred UC stack and consumption model.
Mitel's Mission, Vision, and Strategy
The key highlight of the event was that Mitel is now focusing on modernizing UC experience for its customers by offering flexibility and choice to meet current communication needs while helping businesses develop future-proof communication technologies that can support long-term business goals.
Communication needs for businesses are proliferating and becoming intricate as digital communication becomes an integral part of workflow/business processes. At the same time, technology is becoming complex due to a variety of cloud formats, more scopes for integration on account of open platforms and APIs, and various deployment formats including hybrid, which in itself can take many shapes and forms. Mitel sees ample opportunities within this multiplying market.
Tarun Loomba assured that Mitel is very much in business and intends to take advantage of the expanding market scopes, paraphrasing a Mark Twain quote, "the news of my death was exaggerated," indicating that not developing its in-house public cloud UCaaS does not spell its demise. In fact, according to Mitel, public cloud UCaaS is one of many components that make up modern business communication technology infrastructures and its standardized nature cannot meet the intricate needs of some businesses.
Mitel is now focusing on its core assets (i.e., call control platform) in the form of installed base and dedicated instances, UC applications, contact center, and devices including desktop IP devices, headsets, and desk phones. It continues to innovate to enhance the capabilities of its solutions while providing the option for public cloud UCaaS through its partnership with RingCentral for a full breadth of UC&C coverage.
Mitel admits that the complex and intricate communication needs of organizations require a wide variety of technologies that it may not have in-house and aims to fill such gaps through strategic partnerships with other providers.
Go-to-market strategy
Mitel's go-to-market strategy is rooted in its Global Partner Program (GPP), which now has incorporated customer life-cycle management as a key strategic initiative going forward. Mitel's strategy is to develop deeper relationships with partners by listening to them, proactively educating them about evolving business communication needs, and helping them to grow their business by monetizing these new opportunities and driving better customer experience.
Mitel relies on a data-driven approach to demonstrate the value of modernizing UC solutions as well as develop joint business plans with partners, which is novel in the space. The vendor believes that its unique selling proposition lies in the fact that it can offer its partners a wide range of options to suit their varying and unique communication needs, be it deployment, pricing, or consumption models. Moreover, Mitel can also guide customers about how they should update their UC stacks depending on their needs based on its long-standing experience working with clients and deep expertise of the industry.
It offers specific incentives for migration to RingCentral UCaaS and this includes price match, an arrangement that enables Mitel customers to carry on paying the same amount. Mitel certifies its 6900 IP series phones to ensure continuity even when its clients migrate to RingCentral UCaaS and this will be extended to the IP400 Series.
Mitel offers three months of free service to businesses that migrate to RingCentral for contracts stretching up to three years. The vendor ensures easy and seamless migration to cloud with modern migration tools. Mitel is confident that it will continue to add net-new clients as many clients do not see UCaaS as the ultimate destination, seeking either on-premises, hybrid, or private cloud, in which the vendor is a leader.