What's Up with Tech?
Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!
With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Telecom/5G and more!
What's Up with Tech?
Unlocking Hybrid Unified Communications: Mitel's Cloud Strategies, Security Measures, and Future Innovations
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Ever wondered why hybrid unified communications are becoming the go-to solution for organizations across various industries? Join us as we sit down with Eric Hanson, Chief Marketing Officer at Mitel, to uncover the secrets behind their innovative hybrid cloud strategies. Learn how Mitel's recent acquisition of Unify has propelled them to an astounding global reach of 70 million seats, and discover the flexible deployment models that are reshaping how companies integrate on-premises, private cloud, and as-a-service solutions. We dive deep into the specific security measures Mitel employs to meet the stringent requirements of regulated industries like healthcare, ensuring that data integrity remains uncompromised.
Frontline workers are often the unsung heroes of any organization, and in this episode, we shine a spotlight on Mitel’s strategic focus to enhance their productivity. Explore the tailored solutions designed for sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services, including advanced virtual collaboration systems that leverage AI and video conferencing. We also reveal the exciting details of Mitel's groundbreaking partnership with Zoom, aimed at delivering unparalleled hybrid communication experiences. Plus, get a sneak peek at the upcoming NextGen Contact Center and the game-changing innovations set to roll out by Q1 2025. This is one episode packed with insights and innovations you don't want to miss!
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
Hey everyone. Today we're diving into the world of hybrid unified communications with a leader in the space at Mitel, eric. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. It's great to see you, Evan.
Speaker 1:Well, great for you to be here from a hotel on the road, as always, working from everywhere and anywhere, everywhere and anywhere. For those who may not be familiar with Mitel, give us a bit of the backstory, the history and vision at Mitel these days.
Speaker 2:Sure happy to. Yeah, so my name is Eric Hansen, I'm the Chief Marketing Officer at Mitel, and Mitel is one of the leaders in unified communications. We were founded more than 50 years ago. Last year we acquired another leader in the space, unify, and together that really brought together an install base of about 70 million seats in the market worldwide, and I think I joined the company about six months ago. I think one of the things that I think really sets Mitel apart is we still both produce, obviously, communication solutions, but that includes the software as well as the hardware, and so I think that really enables us to create some pretty special experiences for the diverse set of organizations that we support around the world, and I think that's especially true in complex environments, for companies in complicated regions like Germany, as an example, or in complicated industries like healthcare. So really excited to be here, and obviously we're going to get into some of those types of details in this conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a fascinating time to talk so much going on in the industry. We're making so many big moves. Maybe talk about your push forward in a world of hybrid cloud. You know you have a really hybrid, unique, hybrid approach that's ringing bells with clients everywhere. Why is that? Why are clients, customers, asking Mitel for hybrid solutions today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's interesting. We've. You know whether you a number of analysts have written about this. You know Frost and Sullivan did a survey, I think maybe a year or so ago, that indicated more than 76% of organizations around the world were prioritized what they called hybrid, which is sort of that mix of prem, private cloud and, of course, as a service, uc and contact center type solutions. And what their survey suggested and we've now validated with customers as well as our own survey, is that you know companies are not ready to go all in on one type of deployment model.
Speaker 2:If you think about it. You know we talk about these things but there's the solution that supports a specific set of users or use cases, and then there's the deployment model and we've sort of lumped all that together in the last several years and I think there was a lot of hype around. You know, certainly multi-tenanted. You know solutions that were out there and sold as a service. You know we labeled that UCaaS and CCaaS, of course, and I think the thing that was so exciting about those things was obviously it paralleled, you know, the app generation movement where people really got focused on, you know, sleek user experiences that could be deployed on mobile, and there was a lot of promise with the security space.
Speaker 2:That also has exposed us to risk in some cases in terms of security, resiliency and other things, and so I think the why really comes back to organizations wanting to balance that risk, and they don't want to go all in in one way. They want the flexibility and the user experience that I think we've been introduced to over the last decade, but they also don't want to give up control. You know they don't want to get, they want to be more secure. They have operations that might be in the US and have one sort of risk profile, but they've also got part of their estate in places like Germany, and so they're trying to figure out how do I rationalize these things? And the answer is hybrid and you know, selfishly, I'd like to think that the answer is Mitel, and those are really the people that we're building solutions for Fantastic approach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, flexibility is so key these days in a world of hybrid work and work from home, work from anywhere. Really, you're in a hotel right now and on the road, as we all are, and that brings a number of things to the floor, including security, working in very unique destinations, like a hotel room here. So how do you think about security? What are your customers asking you for? And talk about your secure cloud offerings that you've really doubled down on security. I see in some of your recent news.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no for sure. I think you know one of the things that was the result. I mentioned that we acquired Unify last year, and one of the things that you know Unify was founded out of Germany, you know. Originally its roots go back to Siemens, and then later Atos and now Mitel, and so we're one company and you know we've rationalized and brought the portfolios together and they had a really rich heritage in terms of supporting some very large organizations and some, you know, not just highly regulated countries, but also highly regulated industries like healthcare I mentioned, and so we've learned a lot from that. And so what we're doing in terms of what we announced this last week with our secure cloud offering is really, you know, try to round out the flexibility in terms of deployment models that we could offer organizations. What they're asking for is, you know again, like I mentioned before, they want to be able to.
Speaker 2:Might be that there's, you know, particular things like customer records, and healthcare is obviously a hot topic, but any type of personal data and where that data lives, and are you in a multi-tenanted solution where you're on the same infrastructure that another organization is and, yes, there's supposed to be, you know, security that bounds those different things, but you know there are a lot of organizations that want a greater degree of control over what, that you know what, managing that security risk, and so more of a secure cloud solution private cloud type solution is more interesting to them. So what we did is in order to address that. The way that we're thinking about it from a portfolio perspective is we want to be able to our solutions to all support this concept of you may have prem and you're trying to maximize the value realization that you're getting out of that existing asset, and we want to be able to support that with the solutions that we deliver for users. You may want to control that in your own data center, and so a customer hosted model may be the thing that you want. You may want you're working with a partner in region and you may want to have them host on your behalf because they're doing a lot of other services for you that are related. Or you may want Mitel to do it for a lot of the reasons that I described, across different countries, or you may want a combination of all of those, and so that's part of why we did two things.
Speaker 2:Number one we created this new framework. We call it, the Mitel Common Communications Framework, and that's really designed to enable and unlock that scenario where a customer wants to weave all of these different deployment models together to support that range of users that they need to support across their overall estate. And so that's one thing that we did and that also enables us to create something that goes deeper than just an API and really unlocks the possibility of third parties also tying into that infrastructure. And I think we're probably going to talk about one third party that we're working pretty closely with right now, a little later, and so you know, it gives that type of flexibility as well.
Speaker 2:And so then, when you think about the Mitel sort of hosted offering, we call it secure cloud. You know we have a small, medium and large offering associated with that, and we call that Mitel hosted, which is sort of the entry level, which has all of the you know typical security things that you would expect in a, in a hosted solution. But then, basically, we increase the security profile based on what your compliance requirements are. So, you know, somebody may have data residency requirements, but it can be it's in the EU versus in a specific country, and so we call that our trusted offering If you want more than that, where you want it actually in country, managed by in-country residents, then that's a different profile and we call that our sovereign profile within the secure cloud offering, and so we just announced this last week. We're really excited about it and so far the feedback's been really great.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic and there are so many unique demands in different markets. You mentioned US versus EU, but almost every country has unique requirements. Also, in the state fed, local government side, there are unique requirements. Certain industries you're active in, like healthcare, have very specific requirements.
Speaker 2:We see some really interesting things happening in financial services as well, which you would expect, and, of course, you know, ai throws a whole new dimension into this. I was in a meeting, you know, as you mentioned, I'm in a hotel, so I'm in London right now and you know cross-functional meeting earlier today talking about some of the changing requirements. You know, we thought GDPR was complicated. You know there's a whole new host of requirements that are being discussed here around AI and so I think you know, again, it just adds a level of complexity and you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd love to ask you about AI. I know you've been quietly working behind the scenes to integrate AI features and functionality and the world has caught up. How do you see integrating AI into this new hybrid landscape? What are some of the use cases or opportunities that are being piloted or customers are asking for?
Speaker 2:being piloted or customers are asking for. Yeah, no, I think you know, and many have talked about this. You know, there's certainly there's the hype of AI, you know, and as a, as a marketer, I look at some of my peers and of course it's a, it's a buzzword. It's some buzz letters, you know, but I think the reality is, and we've both been around long enough to know that we're not. I would argue that maybe we're not quite to the artificial intelligence level yet. We might be at the automated intelligence level or advanced deep learning, machine learning sort of stage, but it's still very exciting. And you know, I think there are a lot of companies that are chasing the hype and trying to create some of their own hype. And then there are companies like Mitel that are looking at it and saying and I think Apple's been a good example of this too they sort of did some things quietly behind the scenes until they felt like, okay, we actually understand how we can actually drive everyday value for our customers. And that's what Mitel has done.
Speaker 2:We've been doing AI for a while in terms of bots that support contact center type scenarios and different sorts of things around, certainly those use cases, and I think for us, we're really excited about taking that much further in terms of how calls are transcribed, how do you help coach and performance manage people, how do you use generative AI to build in, enabling technologies that are based on your own data, that really enable you to performance, to boost the performance and productivity of whether it's a call center agent or two sellers inside sellers that might be sitting side by side, one that's struggling, one that's doing really well, and so I think that those are the types of things that we're thinking about and building into our contact center solutions, primarily, of course, voice transcription and those types of things you know are really important. We're also looking at it from our partner's perspective, right, and so some of the things that we've unveiled this year also span, you know, you think about the size of our install base, you think about the number of languages that our customers speak, and you know, you think about the importance of our partners being able to support their customers and us being able to support those partners, and so we've actually been using AI and support in terms of, you know, basically a very dynamic FAQ. You could almost think in terms of all of the technical resources that we've assembled and being able to very quickly respond to partner requests, and we think that that's going to be a really valuable you know, really valuable resource. It's already proven. A lot of partners really excited about their ability to use that and deliver better experiences for their customers.
Speaker 2:The other thing that we've done you've got relationships with companies like PolyAI that we've showcased, that we've built into some of our solutions and so we're doing some things with some third parties like that where it becomes part of our delivered solution.
Speaker 2:And then one of the other interesting things that I'm again sort of the not to get too nerdy on you, but I think when you think about how we support customers that are either expanding or deploying new environments or optimizing you know how they deploy our solutions. You know, actually, a lot of the times, you know aspects of that deployment are repetitive and so being able to use natural language to describe exactly how you want things to be configured, you know in terms of call flows and the like, you know we've actually been showcasing that over the last six months as something that we'll be introducing in our NextGen Contact Center that we'll, you know, obviously share with you in the coming months. So you know that's how we're really thinking about it is what are those practical innovations that actually drive value and allow our customers to sort of put their foot in the water, not just in terms of exploring AI, but actually leveraging it and driving productivity for their IT teams that support our solutions as well, as, you know, for their users?
Speaker 1:Wow, exciting times ahead. More to see and watch. Talk about the state of the union, as it were, in unified communications. You've seen some of your legacy competitors sort of exit the market. Others have come down back to earth after the pandemic boost and you know Mitel's doubling down. So maybe talk about how you see that, how you kind of stand apart these days and how you see yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah no, it's a great question. You know you, I think you, you, you definitely hit it. I think, as markets mature, you, you definitely see consolidation, you know happening. You see some companies focus on their strengths, you know which. I think NEC is a good example of that in terms of their exiting. You know the market, think NEC is a good example of that in terms of their exiting.
Speaker 2:You know the market, you know you see some of our other competitors really double down on. You know, purely going after contact center and you know, certainly we believe contact center is obviously a really important part of our portfolio, but we actually you know why they're sort of going down that path and we're investing in that area of our portfolio. We also see, we also believe that there's been a lot of discussion over the last several years and nobody's really cracked it and that is one of the probably largest and underserved parts of the workforce, which is frontline workers. And so you know we're really doubling down on. You know hybrid matters for those types of scenarios. Again, you think about the composition and complexity of an organization's estate and in the highest, largest markets or industry categories like manufacturing, health care, financial services, you know those all top the charts in terms of number of employees and the revenue that they produce worldwide. And yet, you know, two thirds or three fourths of their workforce are frontline workers, and so that 400 million users that we've been talking about for more than 10 years, which is the size of the UC market. There's another I think 2.5 million workers out there that would label themselves as frontline workers that haven't really been, you know, optimized for from any vendor, and so we believe there's a great opportunity for that, and so the other part of our portfolio is really around building some tailored solutions.
Speaker 2:We've got our virtual collaboration, you know, solution VCCS, which you know weaves together, you know, video conferencing, mission critical communications, as well as AI for optimizing the experience for the doctor that walks in and needs quick context around what he's walking into, to how we actually provide secure access through that solution with you know, with, you know, customer or I mean, excuse me, patient records, and also being able to securely connect in loved ones, you know, when they can't be there me patient records, and also being able to securely connect in loved ones, you know, when they can't be there in person, and we know, with the aging population that we have that that becomes really important. And so we're really excited about you know, really doubling down, I think, not just on unified communications, but what unified communications can do, when we think differently about it, for this underserved part of the work population, right. So that's one area, you know, really excited about some other things that we're doing kind of in a similar vein. You know we have a lot of customers in Europe that you know in terms of the, both in financial services, on the trade, you know, and basically as a trading desk dispatch type center, but it's also used in, you know, in the airlines and also in the defense industry in similar types of situations.
Speaker 2:So, you know, pretty excited about, you know, those types of technologies which are, you know, yes, they tend to be a little bit more in the niches of industries, but they're super valuable, mission critical and very differentiated and, I think, a really great compliment to the rest of the portfolio. So that's really the area that we're doubling down. It's really, you know, what are those areas where we can create differentiated experiences that address the real complexity in global organizations, and that's part of the reason for hybrid. And then what are we doing in terms of some of the verticals that have these very valuable mission-critical types of use cases that we can solve with the 150 years of experience that Unify and Mitel bring together as one company.
Speaker 1:Wow, fascinating opportunity. You've also had some blockbuster partnership news recently. Tell me what's going on and what's the big idea behind this collaboration.
Speaker 2:I can't believe you waited almost 15 minutes to ask this question.
Speaker 1:I buried the lead. Yes, Very patient, Evan.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So actually, let's see, this morning, before the market opened, we announced a new strategic partnership with Zoom and very, very excited about it, and what I think is very exciting about it is that, you know, zoom is one of those companies that obviously has been an innovator and in real time collaboration in real-time collaboration and certainly on the forefront of, you know, online meetings and really taking that to the next level, I would argue. You know, over the course of their history and more recently, certainly, covid, you know, helped fuel innovation and execution, I think, for them and, you know, turned them into a household name, of course, and they actually understand the value of hybrid. And so, from our perspective, what better partner to have than a partner that actually understands the value of what we're trying to do for our customers and is interested in doing some joint development around creating a really cool hybrid experience that brings the best of their solution, alongside the best of our technology, into a really cool experience for customers and users? And so that's what we announced a strategic partnership where they will also be our exclusive UCAS provider within our portfolio.
Speaker 2:So, for those mixed environments, like the law enforcement agency that I mentioned in Europe, where they've got users that they need to support in the carpeted areas that I mentioned in Europe, where they've got users that they need to support in the carpeted areas that might want to go with a pure UCAS solution but still be connected to other parts of the estate. You know, those types of scenarios can absolutely be supported and certainly there are a number of our customers that are interested in going pure UCAS and so certainly this provides an avenue for them, you know. So it really is the best of providing, you know, bringing the best of hybrid together as opposed to the lowest common denominator of what you see, I think, elsewhere in the industry, so pretty excited about that.
Speaker 1:I think so. Yeah, I'm a big fan and user of Zoom, so I definitely see the opportunity. How do you see some of the benefits for customers and partners alike and any comment on the timeline in terms of all this goodness being rolled out?
Speaker 2:you know, generally available product in, basically, q1 of 2025. We'll certainly be showcasing, you know, over the next several months, some early, you know sort of functional you know product prototypes, if you will, or early development. You know we'll start to showcase that over the over the coming months, you know, we will, you know. So that's that kind of gets to the timeline, I think, in terms of what you can expect from a user. I think for those users or customers that decide that they want this hybrid experience, for those users that are using a soft phone, zoom will be the front end experience with a deep integration back to our call control infrastructure and mission critical voice capabilities call control infrastructure and mission critical voice capabilities but it will be seamless. This is not about plugins and add-ons. This is about deeply integrated capabilities that I would argue surpass some of the other players that might be headquartered out of Washington.
Speaker 1:Fantastic Well, we won't mention them by name, but various three and four letter agencies, Very exciting. So what's next for you and the team? You have a lot on your plate. You're traveling now multiple countries and regions. What else is going on?
Speaker 2:was to share with the teams. There's a subset of the executive team that's here and we wanted to share with the teams. Obviously, the announcement with Zoom is a pretty important one, and not just from a technology perspective, also from a go-to-market perspective. So getting the sales teams excited about it, we will be reselling that product as part of the hybrid portfolio and we'll be enabling our partners to do something similar to what we're doing with our direct sellers, and so starting to get that ball rolling is part of why I'm here and certainly that's going to keep me occupied for the next several months, I would say.
Speaker 2:So that's obviously a big one, important relationship, important partnership. We want it to be successful and expose our customers to it as quickly as possible. I think, beyond that, obviously, we've got a lot of other things that we've got up our sleeve that we'll be announcing over the next couple of months. I mentioned the NextGen Contact Center, so more details to follow on that, but very excited about what that's going to bring to the portfolio, again as an extension of the concept that I talked about in terms of the common communication framework, and how do you support and give customers the optionality that they need to enable their users in the right ways and deploy it based on what makes the most sense, for you know the different parts of their estate, you know so we'll obviously be continuing to beat that drum and introducing new products that tie into that over the coming, you know, next two quarters.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Well, thanks for the update. Safe travels back to the Bay Area and, yeah, really excited to see all the energy and innovation enthusiasm coming out of Mitel these days. It's wonderful to see and, yeah, thanks for watching. Everyone Definitely follow Mitel on all the social channels where they put out some great content. Thanks, Eric.
Speaker 2:Great, great to see you, evan. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Likewise Take care Thanks everyone.