by Jim Lundy
Five9 had their earnings call last week and it was a record quarter. To us, this symbolizes the focus of the company, the flexibility of the offering, and the growing demand for cloud.
The 2017 Five9 revenue highlights that stand out are a revenue increase of 24% to a record $200.2 million, compared to $162.1 million in 2016. This occurred during some management change in Q4 of 2017, where CEO Mike Burkland stepped back from day-to-day operations. Dan Burkland was named president and CFO Barry Zwarenstein was named interim CEO.
Cloud at the Center of Innovation
Like CRM, email, web meetings, and sales enablement, SaaS applications—which are inherently cloud-based—are providing the power and flexibility that an enterprise needs.
Five9 is one of the fastest growing cloud contact center providers and they have shown the ability to partner with large CRM providers like Oracle and Salesforce, and also offer buyers flexibility on integrations, along with a growing global delivery capability.
UCaaS Was First: Cloud Contact Center Is Here
Firms like RingCentral and 8×8 have seen strong growth in cloud-based PBXs—Unified Communications as a Service (UCaas)—and they are replacing legacy on-premise PBXs. From an opportunity perspective, we see huge potential for the same playbook in the contact center. This means replacing legacy offerings and no longer running on-premise call center applications.
How Far Will Five9 Go?
I attended their annual analyst conference this week in Fort Lauderdale and one of the questions I asked is, “How far can Five9 go?” It is a fair question—in fact, we think their revenue growth will continue, particularly if they continue to win larger deals. It was a great update and they indicated that they’re doubling down on their product innovation.
In just three years, Five9 doubled its revenues and it shows no signs of slowing down (see Figure 1). Part of the reason for the success at Five9 is the cloud CC platform that has regular releases, a strong sales organization, and the overall market shift to cloud.
Aragon and Cloud Contact Center
Aragon covers the broader digital workplace and digital business landscapes, including nearly every aspect of communications and collaboration. Later this year, Aragon will be publishing its first GlobeTM report for Cloud Contact Centers.