Businesses worldwide continue to augment their investment in Unified Communications(UC) Collaboration and UCaaS (including telephony) solutions. Due to the pandemic, they are moving away from strictly hardware-based, premise based IP PBX/UC systems. This tailwind interprets into market growth. According to International Data

Corporation(IDC), the worldwide revenues in the Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) market grew 7.2 percent year over year to $15.4 billion in the first quarter of 2023(1Q23).

Zoom experienced a 1.8 percent revenue growth in the quarter, reaching approximately $1 billion, and surpassed Cisco to secure the second-place spot in terms of market share, accounting for 6.8 percent (a decrease of 40 basis points). However, Microsoft continues its dominance in the global market, increasing its revenues by 22 percent yearly to $6.6 billion in the first quarter. The global giant gained 510 basis points in market share to account for 42.6 percent of revenues last quarter.

It is quite evident that anything that provides more communication flexibility and interoperability at a lower cost has buyers' attention. The IDC report also implies that interoperability and integration are key for the success of videoconferencing systems and cloud-based UC collaboration vendors. Indeed, it is also a significant influence on clients' outcomes as well. The benefits that a cloud-based approach brings only increase with the AI capabilities being rolled out, handing enterprises the keys to drive value across their business quickly and cost-effectively. In this special issue, we unfurl some interesting stories from the unified communications industry. Do let us know your thoughts.