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We’re officially halfway through the year!
Service Management is July’s monthly focus, sponsored by Unify Square. Its software and services optimize and enhance the world’s largest collaboration and communication deployments, helping businesses manage and secure their meetings, messages, and calls. Unify Square’s PowerSuite™ software creates a unified dashboard to surface actionable insights and help manage collaboration and communications platforms - optimizing and transforming performance health and user effectiveness.
And whilst I have you, don’t forget to check out our UC Awards page to see who we have shortlisted as the finalists. We had a record number of entries this year, so thanks again to all those that got involved and submitted their applications. Our industry-leading judges have been working tirelessly and we can’t wait to share the results with you. The UC Awards final is on the 30th July at 14:00 BST. Add to your calendar now.
Here are some of the most popular stories in UC Today:
Five9 Strengthens its Global Presence
Leading communications company, Five9, has big dreams. Anand Chandrasekaran took over the EVP role for Five9, in 2019. Before working at Five9, Anand was responsible for Facebook’s Business Messenger platform. With Anand’s help, Five9 has been working on new opportunities for strategic growth and development.
Over the last 12 months, Five9 has celebrated a massive 41% year over year growth in international revenue. The company has branched out into Toronto, Sydney, Sao Paulo, and London. The scale of Five9’s growth means that the company will be looking to leverage new crucial partnerships. These collaborations will build on the existing connections that Five9 has with companies like Google Cloud.
Microsoft Teams and Breakout Rooms
Over the last few months, Microsoft has been working hard to make Teams the go-to place for team collaboration in the world of remote work. We’ve seen the arrival of virtual backgrounds for people who wanted to hide their messy living rooms from team members. Microsoft also promised that it would soon support up to 49 on-screen participants in Gallery view.
However, while Microsoft Teams does keep getting better, it still hasn’t quite caught up with all the features available from video-first solutions like Zoom. For instance, we’re still awaiting the arrival of breakout rooms, where teams can split video and audio into corresponding sessions. The good news? There might be a workaround. (Check out our latest article here to find out more.)
Cisco Collaboration Welcomes New Leader
Cisco has been busy over the last week, with lots of exciting updates for its community. One recent blog published by Cisco leader, Chuck Robbins, announced that Cisco would be updating its leadership team again. Jeetu Patel is joining the crew as the Head of Collaboration, Security, and Application. Two independent sources have confirmed that Sri Srinivasan is leaving his role as Head of Cisco Collaboration too.
Founder and Principal Analyst, Zeus Kerravala, spoke to us about the change in the leadership suite. He told Moshe that although Sri is coming back to the team, he won’t be the head of collaboration. Instead, Sri will be focusing on something new. (See the whole story here)
Transform Your Zoom and Teams Backgrounds
One of the most exciting parts of video conferencing right now has to be the ability to change your background to anything you like. On both Zoom and Microsoft Teams, users have the option to either blur their backgrounds, or replace them with a different image.
So, what if you want to spruce your background up with something a little different? We’ve got you covered. We tracked down some of the most impressive background options for Zoom and Microsoft Teams from around the web. All of these options, from the Death Star control room to the Tardis, are free to use and legit. (See them here.)
Google Snaps Up Some New C-Suite Execs
Google, one of the market leaders in the tech and cloud landscape, has been collecting some new talent lately. Senior Vice President for Salesforce, Pip White, will be responsible for the sales efforts of Google Cloud throughout the UK and Ireland soon. With more than 2 decades of experience in her field, Pip has had various leadership roles over the years.
She’ll be joining another major addition to the Google roster in the form of Chief Product Officer for SAP, Abdul Razack. Abdul will be acting as the newest Google Cloud VP of Tech Solutions for the US. Razack was head of technology and architecture at SAP for more than a year. He also has 25 years of tech experience to bring to the table. He’ll be coming to Google from SAP with Lori Mitchell-Keller and George Nazi. (See the facts here.)
