Hybrid UC That Actually Works

Evan Kirstel (0:02)

Hey, everyone, really excited for this chat today. Mitel is rolling out Mitel Workforce Experience, or Mitel WX, with a big focus on hybrid communications, frontline workers, AI, and bringing the entire workforce into the communications experience, joined by quite a panel to talk about what's changing in the market, what the research is telling us, and what Mitel has actually built. So, folks, how are you?

Good.

Eric Hansen (0:32)

Great, Evan.

Evan Kirstel (0:33)

Great to see everyone. Really excited for this chat. Let's start with some introductions. Eric, to yourself, and also, how would you describe Mitel these days?

Eric Hansen (0:43)

So, Eric Hansen, I'm the Chief Marketing Officer, as well as head of our global partner program. And I would describe Mitel as both one of the leaders in unified communications, but also kind of a trailblazer, if you will, in terms of where communications is going for the workforce going forward.

Evan Kirstel (1:02)

Fantastic. Trailblazer indeed. Head trailblazer is Martin from Mitel in Europe. Martin, how do you describe you and your teams' work within Mitel for the folks viewing?

Martin (1:14)

Yeah, thanks, thanks, Evan. Yeah, so what we're trying to do is really get focused on, you know, solving communication problems for the entire workforce. And that's what I keep reminding my team of, because there has been a time, and I think especially over the past few years, where there was a lot of focus on, you know, people in our home office and in front of our desks. And people kind of have overlooked that, you know, the overwhelming majority of the workforce, especially globally, is front-line workers, also like things like contact center employees, etc., where a lot is changing as well.

And what we're trying to do is, you know, solve the problems that's specific to that constituent of people.

Evan Kirstel (1:56)

A lot of complexity there, but you make it sound so simple. That's the big idea. And Oru, I've been reading GlobalData Insights and Analysis for years.

Tell us about yourself and who is GlobalData for those who may not be familiar.

Oru (2:11)

So, yes, I'm Oru, and Principal Analyst at GlobalData. I cover unified communications and contact center together. So to put it, to summarize it, it's business communication.

So GlobalData is a research vendor and they cover data as the name implies, but it goes beyond that with a lot of qualitative insights that covers technology, but also verticals. It's a comprehensive research vendor that covers data across the world.

Evan Kirstel (2:44)

Brilliant. So let's talk about qualitative insights. Hybrid UC was once treated as a kind of a stepping stone to the cloud. It was just a journey to the cloud. That's not quite the way customers see it today. How do you see it today?

Is Hybrid a waypoint or is it potentially the destination?

Oru (3:06)

Well, I see it exactly how the customers see it. So Hybrid UC as a transitional state is the narrow view of the market, and it reflects lack of choice. It is true that for some, it's a transitional state, but for others, it's the state itself because that's how they work. Let me give you some examples. Let's say regulated industries such as health care or public sector, they cannot tolerate outage and they need to keep parts of the communication close to home. Same goes for data-sensitive industries like defense. They again can't take part of their communication infrastructure to Cloud. They are just mandated by regulatory authorities to keep it in-house.

Does this mean that you deprive them of Cloud benefits? No. You have to give them the choice to be able to choose from best of both worlds, and that's what's lacking at the moment.

Let me just expand on that a little bit more. Ten years ago, when Cloud was the flavor of the day, we thought Cloud would replace everything, and there will be no on-prem. They're still on-prem, and not just that. There's also a reverse migration from public Cloud to on-prem. Now, what does this tell you? This tells you that customers are not finding the right fit.

They went to Cloud, they came back, they're just looking for the right fit. So basically, what they need is the flexibility from vendors to be able to design their own solutions that suit their workflows, that suit their needs specifically, rather than having to fit into a mold, either this or that.

Evan Kirstel (4:55)

Well, great insight. We're hearing the term workforce experience from a lot of vendors during the pandemic.

It was a key area of focus, and then a lot of folks moved on to the next big thing. But, you know, it's still fundamental to a business. You know, what does integrated workforce experience really mean as a best practice? And what's different from maybe the legacy definition that we've been talking about since the 80s?