Market disruptors are commonplace in the unified communications (UC) industry, particularly over the past decade.

We’ve seen the advent of BYOD, demand for more mobility, a plethora of new apps, better efficiencies through integrated technology, as well as an ever-increasing movement to the cloud.

The industry is evolving due to consolidations, mergers and acquisitions and the emergence of new niche players.

The latest announcement by Mitel that it’s going private and accelerating its move to the cloud adds yet another element to the competitive landscape.

With this latest move, Mitel is signaling a focus on growing its cloud business.

Though the company states that it will still offer on-premises options for now, it’s easy to assume that less R&D will be focused on that line of business going forward.

Fewer choices will be available, especially for customers that are not ready or interested in moving to the cloud at this time.

Channel partners selling both on-premises and cloud solutions could also be negatively impacted.

UC customers benefit more by having options, be it cloud, hybrid cloud or on-premises, depending on their current business situation.

A provider that can optimize the technology already in place, while helping to create an effective ongoing UC strategy, is more important than ever.

History of Understanding Customers’ Needs

NEC has demonstrated an ability for knowing what customers need when they need it and bringing value to help improve their businesses.

We pride ourselves on giving customers options.

Throughout our nearly 120-year history, NEC has proven to be much more than a voice communications and UC provider.

Analyst firm Frost & Sullivan noted in the 2016 Enterprise Communications Transformation Strategies Company of the Year Award , “As organizations seek business transformation, they often wish to upgrade or implement their networks and IT infrastructure for integration with business systems and processes, as well as communications systems.”

Frost & Sullivan pointed specifically to NEC’s Smart Enterprise strategy when recognizing the company for this award.

The Smart Enterprise approach brings together communications, networking and IT solutions to help people work and communicate better.

NEC’s approach is not to combine disparate components.

Instead, we tap into our services-based offerings of cloud UC, analytics, biometrics, IaaS and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies to design communications and IT solutions that meet on-demand requirements.

Our broad portfolio brings the agility, flexibility and efficiency required for business transformation.

A wide range of technologies and services helps us create solutions that address customers’ current and future business needs and challenges by driving safety, security and operational efficiency.

Our competitors really can’t offer that range of capabilities.

It’s a Matter of Choice

Each organization has its own requirements and aren’t easily configured into a “one size fits all” mold.

They want options, and NEC has a track record of offering customers more choices.

When moving to new UC solutions, customers benefit from being able to re-use or add value to their existing investments in communications technology.

We can assist by offering on-premises, cloud or hybrid solutions.

Our vast portfolio of solutions enables us to offer broader solutions to solve both IT and communications challenges.

Technology will continue to evolve. NEC has shown throughout our history that we have the capability of understanding customers’ needs and evolving our solutions to meet those needs.

Original Article via NEC