Collaboration System Trade-offs Become Clearer

No doubt that global pandemic forced many utilities to deploy new collaboration tools so they could communicate with employees and customers in socially distancing ways. The initial emphasis was on consumer based solutions but moving forward, energy producers may opt for commercial grade systems.

With individuals shuttered from offices to home, utilities needed to invest in new collaboration tools. As a result, worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) solutions grew 26.7% year over year and 6.6% quarter over quarter to $12.2 billion in the third quarter of 2020, according to International Data Corp.

The Old and the New

The market is divided into two segments. Vendors, like Microsoft, Cisco, and Avaya, deliver platforms based on legacy technology. Zoom and RingCentral, has been the next generation vendor that garnered the most attention.

The benefit of the legacy systems is that they are enterprise grade. They include sophisticated management and security functions. But they can be difficult to deploy and use.

The new systems’ attraction is their modern architecture. These systems are easy to use and simple to maintain. However, their management and security functions are not very robust.

Moving forward, utilities will need to continue to offer remote work options in the short term. So, many will face the dilemma of choosing a system either for its ease of use on the front end or its sophisticated backend functionality.