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November saw the publication of seven reports looking at M&A activity in CPaaS, product updates for Google Assistant and Cortana, and a couple of reports looking at digital healthcare transformation featuring VMware, Orion Labs, Netsfere (Infinite Convergence) and Deltapath. The business communications segment has been increasingly influenced by communications PaaS (CPaaS), a disruptive model for delivering business communications. This is a large and lucrative opportunity: 451 Research's CPaaS Market Monitor projects that the CPaaS segment will increase at a 33.4% CAGR, reaching $11.4bn by 2023. The mainstreaming of programmable communications has already sparked M&A, with seven CPaaS-related deals so far in 2019 and a total of 14 the year before, according to 451 Research's M&A KnowledgeBase. Our CPaaS Sector IQ report "Communications PaaS M&A activity expected to continue through 2020" (451 subscribers) looks at key players, market dynamics in

October brought a total of nine reports including several company impact reports (Deltapath, Rammer.ai, Speakeasy.ai and Brightlink), analyst notes, spotlight reports and a deal analysis report on Sangoma's acquisition of VoIP Innovations. Key topics covered include CPaaS, speech recognition, intelligent assistants and UCaaS. This month once again CPaaS was a hot topic. We published a company impact report looking at how Brightlink  is targeting the growing enterprise segment and communications providers with added features and an enhanced user experience in its CPaaS Platform 2.0. We also wrote about how the acquisition of VoIP Innovations positions Sangoma as a CPaaS vendor, complementing its portfolio with programmable communications capabilities. We also covered the new hearable devices from Poly, Google and Microsoft , which integrate with intelligent assistants including Cortana, Alexa, Alexa for Business and Google Assistant . Finally, we published a spotlight report &

Vonage hosted an analyst event to coincide with its first user conference, Vonage Campus, the last week in October in San Francisco. The user conference was a good reason to host an analyst event, but Vonage held a similar event earlier this year. This made me (and others) think there were big news waiting to be announced, which is exactly what happened. Vonage CEO Alan Masarek opened the event and provided an overview of what 2019 looked like and a vision for the future. In addition to a good number of product updates and new products like Conversations and Meetings, the company unveiled its new branding, which boasts a brand new logo and brings together the company's portfolio under the Vonage brand. The new branding reflects the trajectory that Vonage embarked on a few years ago with the acquisitions of Nexmo, TokBox, NewVoiceMedia and more recently, Over.ai. The company, under the leadership of Masarek, has articulated a strong vision and is executing very well, bringing t

Highlights in September include a Sector IQ report where we looked at M&A activity for speech technologies; and two deal analysis reports,one in CPaaS and one in speech technologies. We also attended Mitel's Analyst and Consultant event. Our two deal analysis reports include McDonald's acquisition of Apprente, an early-stage startup focused on developing speech recognition applications that are used to optimize order-taking workflows at quick-service restaurants. We previously covered Apprente with a company impact report and were joined by its founder for the panel discussion we hosted at SpeechTEK in DC. Our other deal analysis report covered Voyant's acquisition of mobile applications developer Acrobits, which continues a surge of M&A activity in the CPaaS space this year. The acquirer indicates that the deal should help accelerate its product roadmap by expanding the mobile communication capabilities in its portfolio, which includes unified communications-as-a

We recently finalized the 2019 edition of our Workforce Productivity & Collaboration Market Monitor for communications platform as a service (CPaaS). CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables developers to add real-time communications features to their own applications without needing to build back-end infrastructure and interfaces. In the last ten years, vendors of unified communications and contact center solutions have seen themselves increasingly challenged by CPaaS, which provides flexible alternatives to embed real-time communications for customer engagement and employee productivity and collaboration. This report leverages 451 Research's deep knowledge of and relationships within the CPaaS market, resulting in a proprietary forecast based on a bottom-up analysis of 40 vendors' current revenue and growth expectations through 2023. Included is an overview of the CPaaS market and two sub-segments: market and sub-segment revenue estimates and growth forecasts, and a

Our production this month included company impact reports, user deployment reports and our coverage of two vendor events, Twilio SIGNAL and VMworld. Company impact reports this month included Speakap , an employee communications and engagement platform, and Cisco Webex ; we also published a user deployment report looking at how Punch Technologies partners with Bandwidth for emergency communications. We also published spotlight reports and analyst notes from Twilio SIGNAL and VMworld. Key highlights include: Twilio shows IoT use cases for communications PaaS. On day two of its annual developer conference, Twilio shared use cases that leverage its IoT portfolio. Three years ago, it launched Programmable Wireless, designed to allow developers to access cellular connectivity via APIs. At last year’s SIGNAL event, it launched Twilio Narrowband, targeting use cases with IoT devices that do not require a lot of bandwidth or are not sensitive to latency. This year the company invited cus

Next week I will be hosting a panel discussion at SpeechTEK '19 , a technology conference focused on speech, voice, and AI. The event will take place at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel in Washington, DC April 29 - May 1, 2019. I will post an update after the event with takeaways and insights from our discussion. In the meantime you can read a 451 Research spotlight report published earlier this year where I cover some of the topics we will be discussing, and includes an overview of some of the companies featured in our panel discussion next week. To read the full report follow this link . C205. PANEL: Speech Technologies Inside The Enterprise Tuesday, April 30: 4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Voice is rapidly emerging as the main user interface for many apps and devices. Speech recognition and natural language understanding will change how knowledge workers interact with computers and applications, opening opportunities for innovation in human-computer interaction, including intelli

Slack's annual user conference wrapped up yesterday after two days filled with product and business updates. The opening keynote featured founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield and tennis star Serena Williams. I'm still processing all the information but here are my initial thoughts. Key announcements included integration with video communication platform Zoom and a 'bridge' to connect with email and calendar. For a nice summary of Day 1 announcements follow this link . These announcements signal team collaboration is expanding as a core productivity tool Workflow automation and third party integrations were once again, central topics in the keynotes, breakout sessions and show floor. These highlight the emphasis that Slack is placing on workforce productivity.  Coming up soon: a company impact report with my thoughts and key takeaways from the event for 451 Research subscribers.

Had a busy week in the West Coast, first with BlackBerry for their annual Analyst Summit in San Ramon and then rushing over to San Francisco for Slack Frontiers. I was tweeting and blogging throughout the two days at Frontiers but decided to hold off on my comments from the BlackBerry event since I was not sure what was on NDA. I've reviewed my notes and here are my key takeaways. If you're curious about what other attendees were talking about check out Twitter with the hashtag #BlackBerryTrust. BlackBerry has undergone a significant transformation in the last five years. CEO John Chen opened the event and provided an update on the company's transition to software and services. The company has made several strategic acquisitions over the last five years that support its positioning in cyber security the Internet of Things for connected devices like cars. BlackBerry is targeting verticals with a solutions-based approach that brings together several products in its portf

"Don't tell me what I'm doing right ... tell me where I can improve ... it's constructive criticism ... I'm competing with someone that is working as hard -or harder- than I am ..." great insights from @serenawilliams at #SlackFrontiers — Raul Castañon (@rcastanonm) April 24, 2019

Full house for opening keynote at #slackfrontiers #Collaboration #Workforce productivity pic.twitter.com/aPtAeUlVCU — Raul Castañon (@rcastanonm) April 24, 2019

Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) just published an interview I did with them earlier this year at MWC in Barcelona. Below an excerpt from the interview, for the full text and video follow this link  or check out the interview below. In 2017, 451 Research launched a paper that revealed the extent to which consumer software and devices had infiltrated the workplace. It reported that nearly three in four employees were using consumer messaging apps for business purposes. That obviously presented a security risk for enterprises. Yet 451 Research found that 62 percent of companies had not made any BYOD policy changes in the previous six months. Two years on, the problem of uncontrolled BYOD policies still persists. However, according to Raul Castanon-Martinez, Senior Analyst – Workforce Collaboration, 451 Research, it’s now become a little more nuanced. In short, even when companies do mandate their own communications channel, they cannot be sure employees will use them.

In San Francisco this week for Google Cloud Next '19. This is my third time attending and every year it has significantly grown in the number of attendees, sponsors/exhibitors and speakers. In 2016 – shortly after Diane Greene took the helm as Google Cloud CEO – it hosted 2,000 attendees. The following year it grew to 10,000 attendees. Last year, attendance more than doubled, with over 25,000 registrations. This year Google Cloud reports a 50% growth with over 35,000 registrations. Update 04/19/2019: You can read my comments regarding product updates to G Suite in this article by Matthew Finnegan of Computerworld. I also published a spotlight report (451 Research subscribers only): "Next '19: Google Cloud is redefining human computer interaction with voice user interfaces". Voice technology-related announcements at Google Cloud Next '19 included general availability of Google Voice for G Suite – which was announced at last year's event – and new capabilit

I attended Enterprise Connect again this year; this was my fourth time attending and probably the busiest ever. I had the opportunity to meet with many vendors including Poly (formerly Polycom/Plantronics), Dolby Labs, PGi, LogMeIn, Voiceimplant, Ribbon Communications, Bandwidth, Twilio, Google Cloud, RingCentral, Cisco ... too many to list here. In the past I have been critical of the event which in many ways reflects its near 30-year legacy rather than looking at the future. However EC has experienced a major turnaround in the last 2-3 years; it also continues to be an important event for education and technical training. Check out the excerpt below from my EC '19 report. The full report was made publicly available by 451 Research at:  http://go.451research.com/mi-enterprise-connect-2019-aws-google-cisco.html Enterprise Connect is one of the largest events for business communications and enterprise networking, gathering 6,500 attendees and more than 200 exhibitors this yea

451 Research has announced the Q1 2019 451 Firestarters award recipients. 451 Firestarters  is an analyst-led program that recognizes exceptional innovation in the technology industry. Any company or technology that we believe could substantially disrupt an existing market – or even create a new market category – has the potential to become a 451 Firestarter. I'm happy to share that my nomination for Q1 2019 is included with the award recipients. To read more about how Vonage has positioned itself as a leading cloud communications provider for the enterprise, follow the link below. Q1 2019 451 Firestarters: Vonage Technologies – Contextual Experience .  Cloud communications provider that has redefined unified communications as an open platform built on APIs that enable organizations to customize their own applications. BigID – Universal Risk. BigID works to change how companies can protect and manage the privacy of personal data in the face of new breaches and new regul

Foldable phones and the promise of 5G dominated the headlines at MWC this year. 5G is not a new topic; it has been a headliner at MWC for the last two years. What's different this time is that network equipment vendors – including Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei – are in the process of rolling out their first 5G deployments. In addition, device manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei and LG are bringing to market 5G devices that will be made commercially available later this year. In this report, we look at MWC 2019 announcements that highlight the imminent arrival of 5G; we also look at the impact we expect this will have on workforce productivity in the near term. Check out the full report at  http://go.451research.com/2019-mi-5g-and-promise-workforce-productivity.html .

#MWC19 starting in one hour pic.twitter.com/nOx6JSWaWx — Raul Castañon (@rcastanonm) February 25, 2019 Excited to attend MWC for the fifth time. A lot of briefings lined up including Samsung, VMware, Tango Networks, Ericsson, Huawei, Telefonica, Polycom, Ribbon Communications, Infobip, Tata Communications, Twilio, Buddy Platform ... too many to list. I'll be publishing a spotlight report on the event and company impact reports from my different briefings. Also proud to be judge for the MWC Glomo Awards for the fifth time. A lot of work ahead this week but very happy to be back in beautiful Barcelona.

I had the opportunity to attend the Cisco 2019 Collaboration Analyst Summit in San Jose. This was very good timing on Cisco's behalf. The company shared upcoming updates that will be announced next month at Enterprise Connect; the event also provided an opportunity to meet Amy Chang, SVP and GM of the Cisco Collaboration Technology Group. My main takeaways are that Cisco is streamlining its Collaboration portfolio and improving the end user experience with a strong focus on workflow integration; it is also working on improving how it does business with its customers and partner network. 451 Research subscribers can read my comments following this link .

Excited to attend the analyst summit for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) Connex '19 in Monaco. It is a special occasion as ALE is celebrating its first 100 years. This is my first time attending an ALE event but they have been on my radar for the last few years. Last year I wrote about how its acquisition of of a majority stake in Austria-based Sipwise would enhance ALE's CPaaS and UCaaS offerings; 451 Research subscribers can read my report by following this link . My key takeaway from the event: ALE plans to leverage its networking and communications portfolios to focus on five key verticals (education, government, transportation, healthcare and hospitality) with digital transformation initiatives. The company will face intense competition but its vertical-focused approach and position as a vendor of CPaaS, UCaaS, IoT and networking technologies provide an important differentiation. Daniel Doppler from @quicktextAI talks about Zoe at Connex 2019, an intelligent assist

Apple made voice recognition mainstream when it launched Siri with the iPhone 4S in October 2011, influencing consumers' familiarity with voice-enabled applications. Our expectation was that human-computer interaction (HCI) could evolve and that by 2015, voice-enabled applications would be widely used on computers, smartphones and wearable devices by consumers and in the workplace. It is four years past our initial prediction, but there are signs that 2019 will be a turning point for the industry. Voice is emerging as the main user interface for many applications, devices and appliances. This includes smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, which according to 451 Research's most recent VoCUL Smart Home Leading Indicator survey, continue to be the most-owned smart home devices. The trend is now extending into the enterprise, but unlike the consumer segment, adoption is driven by use cases rather than devices. In this report, we look at six companies – Apprente, A