CPaaS, Google Assistant, Cortana: News Roundup for November

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 this segment and potential targets, as well as our expectation for how M&A activity will continue in 2020.

A couple of product updates from Microsoft and Google Cloud signal the mainstreaming of voice user interfaces in the enterprise. Google Cloud announced it will expand Google Assistant capabilities in G Suite, its productivity and collaboration suite comprising communication tools such as Gmail, Hangouts and Calendar, and productivity tools like Drive and Docs. 451 Research subscribers can check out my analyst note here.
At Ignite, its annual developer and IT conference, Microsoft unveiled new Cortana features for Outlook mobile. Cortana is the speech-enabled intelligent assistant developed by Microsoft for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. 451 Research subscribers can check out my analyst note here.
Two reports worth highlighting focus on digital healthcare transformation. Our spotlight report "Supporting the digital employee experience for frontline workers in healthcare"  features three providers of horizontal solutions for enterprise communications – Deltapath, Infinite Convergence and Orion Labs – that are looking to help organizations streamline real-time communications for patient-interfacing healthcare professionals. Our case study "St. John's enables the digital employee experience with VMware Workspace ONE" looks at how St. John's Health is using VMware Workspace ONE to enable the digital employee experience for clinical care staff and remote employees.
We also published reports on Zello, which provides a push-to-talk (PTT) offering that connects workers, teams and communities; and the acquisition of Hotshot by HighSide, which aims to build on an existing technology partnership to form a company that will provide highly secure, zero-trust identity and a unified communications and collaboration application.
Finally, a press interview definitely worth mentioning is Edward Gately from Channel Partners who published "The CP List: 20 CPaaS Providers You Should Know" featuring 8x8, AT&T, Avaya, Intelepeer, Mitel, Nextiva, Ribbon Communications, Twilio and Vonage.