News about Microsoft, Slack, Mitel & RingCentral

UC News roundup 29th November to 5th December 2019

The festive season is here, and do we have some amazing gifts for you!

This month, you can expect to see plenty of fantastic stories from UC Today, about all of the best brands in communications and collaborations, as well as some special extras too. Over the last week, we’ve had some interesting updates to share from Mitel, AWS, AT&T, and more.

If that wasn’t enough, we’re helping you to prepare for the new year with our trends and insights for the deskphone and headset environment in 2020. Here are the top stories that you shouldn’t miss out on from the last week.

Slack to Microsoft: “OK, Boomer”

The weather might be getting colder, but the rivalries in the collaboration world are hotter than ever this week. As the competition between Slack and Microsoft Teams continues, Slack called Microsoft Teams out on Twitter last week. Soon after Microsoft announced it’s 20 million active daily users, Slack accused Microsoft of padding their numbers with a pointed blog post, then took to Twitter to suggest that Microsoft had “copied” their ad.

Poking fun at Microsoft’s senior status in the tech industry, Slack posted a video with the caption “Ok, Boomer”, referencing clear parallels between Microsoft’s “The Art of Teamwork” video, and Slack’s own ad from Frontiers 2019. You can see the videos and the tweet for yourself in our latest story here.

Mitel and AWS Join Forces on Next-Gen Collaboration?

While two collaboration giants go head to head on Twitter, another pair is choosing to work more closely together in the years to come. Mitel recently announced that they have become Amazon’s first customer to use the Chime software development kit. The new package allows developers to add real-time communication to a host of applications.

Mitel’s decision to use the AWS tech highlights a deepening relationship between the two brands. After all, AWS is already hosting Mitel’s CloudLink microservers. According to Mary McDowell, the President, and CEO of Mitel, AWS and Mitel are working together to create all of the elements that businesses need to enable a seamless collaboration experience. Read the story for yourself here.

RingCentral and AT&T Strengthen Relationship

Another example of companies working and playing nicely together this holiday season comes in the expanded relationship between AT&T and RingCentral. AT&T recently announced that the Office@Hand solution will now be a lead offer for the UCaaS tools offered by RingCentral. The AT&T service will be a crucial part of the broader voice and collaboration portfolio offered by RingCentral in the years to come too.

The new AT&T Office@Hand solution leverages the RingCentral platform, bringing a state-of-the-art mobile-first service into the market for companies in search of collaboration, meetings, messaging, voice and video. Additionally, AT&T and RingCentral are planning on jointly developing their technologies to allow for even greater opportunities in the future.

UC Trends 2020: The Deskphone and Headset Edition

As we continue to edge closer to the new year, the team here at UC Today are still working on providing our readers with a comprehensive overview of what to expect from 2020. We’ve been checking out the trends of the marketplace and talking to some of the experts in various fields to bring you a range of insights into the communication and collaboration landscape.

This week, we spoke to AudioCodes, Snom, Poly, Cisco, and Yealink about what they think might change in the world of headsets and IP Phones in the months to come. You can check out the full roundtable here for quotes directly from our experts.

Kaizala Comes to Microsoft Teams

Finally, a little bit of heat from Slack isn’t enough to stop Microsoft Teams from making progress on its collaboration strategy this week. The company recently announced the latest on the connection between Kaizala and Microsoft Teams, which was originally announced a little while ago. Now, users will be able to access new capabilities for Kaizala on Microsoft Teams, including surveys and polls for capturing quick information from team members.

Other upcoming features that are set to appear as part of the Kaizala and Microsoft Teams integration include Non-AAD phone number sign-in, built-in action cards, hierarchical groups, and support for Teams open directory too. You can find the complete story about the Microsoft Teams and Kaizala connection right here.