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ArticleNew vendors, trends crash Enterprise Connect 2018 party
Slack and Facebook are making their first appearances at the unified communications conference. Plus, contact center technologies could take center stage at the show. Read Now
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ArticleAWS attacks rivals with Amazon Chime pricing
Amazon Web Services is switching Amazon Chime pricing to a usage model to lure businesses away from rivals Slack, Microsoft Teams and Cisco Spark. The new pricing starts in April. Read Now
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ArticleSlack still seen as leader in team communication apps market
Facing growing pressure from Microsoft and Cisco, Slack is expected to remain competitive in the team communication apps market because of its loyal customers and strong reputation. Read Now
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ArticleUsers share team collaboration software strategies
Many companies are pursuing a team collaboration software strategy to consolidate messaging on one platform to streamline IT and end user communications. Read Now
Editor's note
Enterprise Connect 2018 has a decidedly different look and feel compared to past conferences.
For starters, the disruptive messaging platform Slack is making its debut at the conference. Facebook, too, debuts and could potentially look for partnerships and integrations for its collaboration platform, Workplace by Facebook. After debuting last year, Amazon returns to Enterprise Connect after rolling out Alexa for Business and promoting its contact center offering, Amazon Connect.
Slack, Facebook and Amazon all have keynote speeches at Enterprise Connect 2018, which runs from March 12 to 15 in Orlando, Fla.
As for emerging trends, contact center technologies are figuring prominently at Enterprise Connect 2018, particularly the convergence of unified communications and contact center offerings. Additionally, speech technologies, a new conference track this year, include Alexa-type voice assistants and text-to-speech and speech-to-text workflows. Also, perennial topics resurface at Enterprise Connect 2018, including team collaboration, cloud communications and the great Cisco versus Microsoft debate.
Follow our comprehensive coverage of Enterprise Connect 2018 as we track these important developments, including news, trends and analysis.
1Enterprise Connect 2018 News
New big-name players are entering the unified communications game. Meanwhile, entrenched vendors adjust to changing technologies. In our news coverage, track product updates and gather keen insights from industry insiders.
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Article
Avaya Mobile Experience could lower contact center costs
The new Avaya Mobile Experience helps contact centers manage incoming calls from mobile phones. Analysts said the latest service could help reduce costs. Read Now
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Article
New Microsoft Teams features include Cortana integration
The latest Microsoft Teams features include foreign language translation of messages, recording of meetings and integration with the Cortana voice assistant. Read Now
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Article
New Masergy UCaaS feature helps avoid overpayments
Masergy UCaaS customers can use their human resource applications to automate adding and deleting UCaaS users. The new feature can avoid overpayments. Read Now
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Article
Enterprises given clarity on cost of cloud services
Enterprises are gaining greater clarity about the cost of cloud services for UCC, as many IT departments are discovering that cloud deployments don't usually save them money. Read Now
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Article
Enterprise Connect 2018 to showcase latest UC innovations
The latest UC products will be on display at this year's Enterprise Connect, including mobile unified communications platforms and team collaboration workspaces. Read Now
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Article
RingCentral Meetings offered as stand-alone web conferencing platform
RingCentral has expanded its cloud portfolio with the release of RingCentral Meetings, a stand-alone web conferencing platform. Other recent product upgrades should make it a stronger player in the contact center market. Read Now
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Article
Twilio Flex provides a customizable cloud contact center platform
Twilio Flex offers a customizable interface that sits atop the vendor's application development platform. The offering could appeal to large enterprises looking for a flexible cloud contact center platform. Read Now
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Article
Cisco-BroadSoft cloud PBX to bring telephony to Spark
Cisco plans to use the BroadSoft cloud PBX to open Spark to the public telephone network. The PBX came with the Cisco-BroadSoft acquisition completed last month. Read Now
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Article
New UC products highlight unified communications market trends
ZK Research focuses on eight UC products that emphasize strategic business value in light of unified communications market trends. Read Now
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Article
Vonage Business Cloud offers midmarket cloud-native UCaaS
Adding a Vonage cloud business option for the underserved midmarket, ZK Research says new UCaaS option was built with a cloud-native approach to accommodate market changes quickly. Read Now
2Enterprise Connect 2018 Trends & Analysis
Contact center technologies, video conferencing rooms and the lack of integration between Cisco Spark and Microsoft Teams are just some of the topics to follow at Enterprise Connect 2018. Plus, industry analysts dissect these issues and UC users share their stories.
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Article
Cloud contact center benefits include simplicity, integrations
More organizations are putting their contact center in the cloud to simplify and integrate their agent communications. But other organizations are taking a hybrid approach. Read Now
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Article
Ready for artificial intelligence in speech recognition?
Artificial intelligence in speech recognition is transforming the technology, but are enterprises ready to employ these new tools within their operations? Read Now
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Article
Microsoft Teams integration with Cisco Spark presents challenges
Microsoft and Cisco interoperability does exist in unified communications. But, for team collaboration, Microsoft Teams integration with Cisco Spark adds another wrinkle. Read Now
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Article
How the top cloud collaboration tools stack up
Team collaboration apps have saturated the UC market. See how the leading products compare on calling features, video conferencing support, pricing and other criteria. Read Now
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Article
Conference rooms of the future target meeting efficiency
When overhauling your meeting room technology, don't forget the basics, such as high-speed network connectivity and power accessibility for all end users. Read Now
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Article
Team collaboration tools see different adoption strategies
Team collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams can be deployed in different ways. The options include focus on end-user choices or greater IT and executive control. Read Now
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Article
Putting the contact center in the cloud blurs lines with UC
The line between unified communications and the contact center is blurring as organizations look to bring both technologies together via cloud adoption. Read Now
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Article
Many enterprises need better conference room technology
Enterprises are taking action to ensure they have the conference room technology necessary to support the latest collaboration tools. Read Now
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Article
Huddle rooms help fuel audio conferencing endpoint market
Despite recent economic struggles, the audio endpoint market is benefiting from the newest trend of smaller collaboration spaces in enterprises. Read Now
3Enterprise Connect 2018 Video
Watch product demos and glean analyst insights from Enterprise Connect as we track the latest innovations and trends in the unified communications industry.
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Video
How to select a UCaaS provider amid market volatility
As mergers and acquisitions swirl around the UCaaS market, organizations need to inspect potential vendors' long-term financial stability and product roadmaps. Watch Now
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Video
New Microsoft Teams features on deck, but more work needed
Microsoft has made progress, as it moves Skype for Business features into Microsoft Teams. But more capabilities, especially enterprise voice features, are needed. Watch Now
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Video
Open-office plans prompt noise-mitigation technology
From noise-cancellation headsets to officewide acoustic management systems, organizations are looking to quell noisy chatter associated with open-office environments. Watch Now
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Video
Cloud video services spark adoption of conferencing tools
Video conferencing is becoming prevalent in most unified communications products. Cloud video services, in particular, have fueled the adoption of video conferencing tools. Watch Now