Top 10 UCaaS Leaders In 2016

Top 10 UCaaS North American Leaders

The Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) market generated $3.9 billion in revenue in North America alone last year, and research firm IHS expects the market to grow 11 percent annually through 2020.

In view of the roughly 100 UCaaS companies operating in North America, IHS compiled a list of the top 10 UCaaS vendors in the region.

IHS analyst Diane Myers, who authored the 2016 UCaaS Scorecard: North America report, said the top providers have been consistent over the past few years, but there has been a shift in the ranking since 2015. "Most of these companies started by selling to the smaller businesses, but now their strategy is very focused upmarket," said Myers in an interview with CRN.

Research Criteria

The ratings are based on criteria such as service capabilities and development, financial stability, operational cash flow, growing revenue, market strategy, installed base of seats and support options.

The 2016 UCaaS Scorecard: North America report identifies the unified communications service providers that HIS believes are leading the UCaaS market and are best-positioned to succeed in the long term, according to Myers.

10: Nextiva

CEO: Tomas Gorny

New to the top 10 is privately held service provider Nextiva, which made the list because of its installed base number of seats. What helped boost the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based vendor is its customer support, with more than half of its employees in service or support roles, according to Meyers.

"They're focused on customer support and the model they use for customer support sets them apart," said Meyers. "They started off on that small-business customer, but have moved up to more midmarket. … They're growing and doing very well."

9: Fuze

CEO: Steven Kokinos

UCaaS provider ThinkingPhones acquired startup Fuze in the last year, with ThinkingPhones assuming the identity of Fuze. The vendor's niche is its focus on the large enterprise space, which is unlike many of its competitors on this list, as well as Fuze's strong analytics base.

"[It does] a great job differentiating itself because [it was] focused on analytics from Day 1," said Meyers.

In February, the Cambridge, Mass-based vendor disclosed it received $112 million in a Series E funding round.

8: Broadview Networks

CEO: Michael Robinson

Meyers said Broadview Networks has "done the best job in terms of their user portal and user interface."

Rye Brook, N.Y.-based Broadview recently rolled out a slew of new features for its enhanced partner portal this year to make it easier for partners to manage end-customer accounts and add new lines of revenue quickly. Broadview also recently integrated its OfficeSuite Phone cloud-based UC solution with Microsoft Skype for Business.

7: Star2Star

CEO: Norman Worthington

What sets Sarasota, Fla.-based Star2Star apart for the pack is its 100 percent channel strategy, says Meyers. "I've always found them to be a top 10 standout because of their 100 percent channel model," she said.

The UCaaS specialist recently hired former Polycom executive Gary Testa as its new president and chief revenue officer with the goal of quickly expanding the company globally and onboarding new partners.

"I'm going to be very focused on working with and onboarding new partners that are focused on the mid- to large enterprise space -- that would be [managed services providers] and folks with deep experience in the enterprise," said Testa in an interview with CRN.

6: Verizon Enterprise Solutions

Global President and Senior Vice President: Chris Formant

New York-based Verizon Enterprise Solutions owns an array of services around UCaaS to help customers build voice connections and give mobile customers secure access to systems, as well as VoIP services.

"What differentiates Verizon from the rest is Verizon has been really focused on that global nature," said Meyers. "They also really play off their mobility assets and are using assets on the LTE side."

5: Mitel

CEO: Richard McBee

Ottawa, Ontario-based Mitel offers multitenant, multi-instance cloud platforms along with call center and mobile solutions. Meyers said Mitel has successfully made the transition from being an on-premise-focused provider to being both an on-premise and cloud provider.

In April, Mitel revealed that it would acquire videoconferencing specialist Polycom for nearly $2 billion. Although some channel partners expressed their concern over the merger, solution providers and Mitel execs said the integration of the two companies technologies will create a "industry leader" around communications and collaboration.

4: RingCentral

CEO: Vlad Shmunis

Belmont, Calif.-based RingCentral is the largest UCaaS provider in this space. Meyers said RingCentral's acquisition of Glip, a cloud messaging and collaboration company, last year makes the vendor even more differentiated in the market.

In a recent interview with CRN, RingCentral's new channel chief, Zane Long, said the company has been bolstering the vendor's channel drive like never before, which resulted in its strongest quarter ever for indirect sales. RingCentral is mounting an unprecedented push by its channel community into the enterprise unified communications space.

"We're waking up the partner community to where you can now find 'RingCentral' in the same sentence as 'large enterprise,' " said Long.

3: West Corp.

CEO: Tom Barker

Omaha, Neb.-based West Corp. offers multiple UCaaS solutions across a common delivery platform aimed at the midsize to small enterprise market. West has a strong relationship with Cisco around the network leader's Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), which is helping to increase revenue.

"One of the reasons they stand out is with Cisco -- that's the basis with a lot of their growth," said Meyers.

2: Vonage

CEO: Alan Masarek

Meyers said Vonage didn't even make the top 10 UCaaS list just a few years ago, but the Holmdel, N.J.-based vendor has made several acquisitions over the past few years -- including VoIP vendors Telesphere Networks and Vocalocity.

In 2015 alone, Vonage spent nearly $350 million on three acquisitions -- snatching up UC vendors Nexmo, iCore Networks and SimpleSignal.

"They saw an opportunity and they just rolled all those [acquisitions] up," said Meyers. "They've proven that they can do UCaaS as good as anyone now and they're going to grow."

1: 8x8

CEO: Vikram Verma

San Jose, Calif.-based 8x8 is ranked the No. 1 UCaaS vendor in North America for the third year in a row.

"They're one of the stalwarts of the industry," said Meyers. "They have a large installed base, … a great financial position and are continuing to evolve their product and service capability."

The UCaaS leader is also now providing analytics solution in the space. Last year, 8x8 made several acquisitions to boost its UC and contact center portfolio.