UC Disruption is Imminent
Whatsapp just got acquired. For $19B USD. That's 50 employees. 32 developers. And they had 450 million active monthly subscribers. People tell me UC is alive and well, and so does enterprise video conferencing.
Sure. Whatsapp doesn't do telepresence in full HD. It doesn't even do voice calls. But somehow, people find ways to communicate with it - a lot more than they do with their expensive UC systems.
WebRTC is here as well, and it is going to make things much worse for the incumbents. That 32 developers? They can now add video calling in real time to their mobile-first or mobile-only apps. And it will cost them less to build it from scratch than it would to an incumbent to add it as just another access point.
How do I know WebRTC changes everything? I don't, but I think this is where we're headed.
Thomas Frey, a futurist, writes about the expected collapse of colleges:
"In the past few months the level of experimentation surround college education has shot up considerably, and many are getting considerable traction. A high level of experimentation is always a leading indicator of change even if we don't have a clear view of what it will look like on the other side."
Change "college education" with WebRTC, and you get the drift.
There are now 350 vendors of WebRTC that I am tracking. In just 2 short years, we've got to a point when I just can't stand looking at another one of them video calling services based on WebRTC. They are all different from one another in some aspects, but they also look so much the same. If one does succeed - where will that leave the incumbents?
UC is a market at the brink of some real disruption, and that won't come from the existing players as far as I can tell - they aren't moving fast enough.
If you are a player in this market, here's my shortlist of suggestions to you:
1. Get a team of 4 to look at WebRTC:
-
Front end developer - a wizard in all things JavaScript
-
Back end developer who knows Node.js, Django, Ruby or any of these cool frameworks. Skip Java and C++ please
-
A VoIP guy with an open mind
-
The smart guy that is never satisfied with "how things are done around here"
2. Give them a free hand for 4 months. Let they play with WebRTC to their heart's content
3. Give them $10K USD spending money on whatever online services or SDKs they wish to use
4. When they come up with a solid plan for the future - forget everything you know about your company and listen closely
To succeed with WebRTC, we need to unlearn a few tricks. I am a signaling guy in my roots. Had to throw that out the window when WebRTC came knocking. What are you planning on leaving behind when WebRTC appears in your doorstep?
Tags
Start YourCustomized Search
SOLUTION AREA
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
- 8x8 (2) Apply 8x8 filter
- Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (1) Apply Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise filter
- AudioCodes (1) Apply AudioCodes filter
- Avaya (8) Apply Avaya filter
- Cisco (13) Apply Cisco filter
- Five9 (6) Apply Five9 filter
- Fuze (2) Apply Fuze filter
- Genesys (5) Apply Genesys filter
- IBM (2) Apply IBM filter
- Lumen (2) Apply Lumen filter
- Microsoft (9) Apply Microsoft filter
- Mitel (6) Apply Mitel filter
- NEC (2) Apply NEC filter
- RingCentral (4) Apply RingCentral filter
- Tata Communications (1) Apply Tata Communications filter
- Unify (4) Apply Unify filter
- Vonage Business (4) Apply Vonage Business filter
- Zoom (4) Apply Zoom filter
- Aspect (1) Apply Aspect filter
- BT (1) Apply BT filter
- NewVoiceMedia (1) Apply NewVoiceMedia filter
- Verint (5) Apply Verint filter
- Bandwidth (1) Apply Bandwidth filter
- Huawei (3) Apply Huawei filter
- Logmein (2) Apply Logmein filter
- Ooma (1) Apply Ooma filter
- UJET (2) Apply UJET filter
CONTENT TYPE
- (-) Remove BC Expert Insights Market filter BC Expert Insights Market
- BC Expert Insights Objective - Vendor Neutral (42) Apply BC Expert Insights Objective - Vendor Neutral filter
- BC Expert Insights Planning (15) Apply BC Expert Insights Planning filter
- BC Expert Insights Solution (12) Apply BC Expert Insights Solution filter
- BC Expert Insights Vendor (80) Apply BC Expert Insights Vendor filter
- BC Expert Insights Vendor Solution (145) Apply BC Expert Insights Vendor Solution filter
- BC Expert Roundtable (133) Apply BC Expert Roundtable filter
- Bcs Webinar (0)
- Bcs Webinar Registration (0)
- Best Practice (38) Apply Best Practice filter
- Buyer Guide (14) Apply Buyer Guide filter
- Case Study (29) Apply Case Study filter
- Executive Interview (145) Apply Executive Interview filter
- Expert Roundtable (450) Apply Expert Roundtable filter
- Guest Contributions (35) Apply Guest Contributions filter
- Multimedia (38) Apply Multimedia filter
- News Analysis (2081) Apply News Analysis filter
- Newsfeed Article (1) Apply Newsfeed Article filter
- Newsfeed Article (1303) Apply Newsfeed Article filter
- Thought Leadership (21) Apply Thought Leadership filter
- Vendor Collateral (211) Apply Vendor Collateral filter
- Vendor Resource Best Practices (24) Apply Vendor Resource Best Practices filter
- Vendor Resource Buyers Guides (2) Apply Vendor Resource Buyers Guides filter
- Vendor Resource Multimedia Content (4) Apply Vendor Resource Multimedia Content filter
- Vendor Resource White Paper (4) Apply Vendor Resource White Paper filter
- Webinar (13) Apply Webinar filter
- Webinars (7) Apply Webinars filter
- White Paper (64) Apply White Paper filter
MORE FILTERS
INDUSTRY
- Banking And Investment (1) Apply Banking And Investment filter
- Education (0)
- Energy And Utilities (0)
- Finance (0)
- Government (2) Apply Government filter
- Healthcare (0)
- Hospitality (1) Apply Hospitality filter
- Insurance (0)
- Manufacturing (1) Apply Manufacturing filter
- Media/Publishing (0)
- None (0)
- Professional Services (0)
- Retail & Distribution (0)
- Technology (3) Apply Technology filter
- Transportation (0)
Comments
There are currently no comments on this article.
You must be a registered user to make comments