By Jim Lundy
(Aragon Research) – 2017 is starting out fast as Collaboration providers make moves to position themselves to buyers. During the first week of February 2017, Google, LogMeIn, Polycom, and Slack all made announcements that are sure to attract attention. This blog reviews some of the highlights of what they announced.
Google G Suite Adds Enterprise Edition
Google announced its new G Suite Enterprise that is the highest tier for G Suite, which now has paid subscriptions at US $5, $10, and the new $25 dollar per user per month, which is not being advertised yet on its website. Google’s big move here is to match more of the options against Office 365, which in December 2015, announced Office 365 E5 edition for $35 per user per month.
G Suite Enterprise Edition goes further into providing bullet-proof security with Security Keys, which is more than what others offer with Multi-factor authentication. Google is also offering Data Loss Prevention (DLP) for Gmail and Drive, something it used to offer in Business Edition. There is more that Google offers with this edition and the company hinted that more is coming. To us, G Suite Business Edition is the best value, but just like Microsoft, for security conscious buyers, you will have to pay to get the best security.
LogMeIn Completes Acquisition of Citrix GoTo Division
LogMeIn announced it completed the purchase of the GoTo Division of Citrix. The news was shared in a press release and via a letter from LogMeIn CEO William Wagner. We analyzed the purchase of Citrix GoTo when LogMeIn announced this last year.
LogMeIn is now one of the larger Cloud-based Web and Video Conferencing providers. It faces product rationalization opportunities, since Join.me and GoToMeeting are direct face-offs. The challenge will be to demonstrate to the market that it can innovate, since others, such as Cisco and Zoom, are not standing still. Developing.
Polycom Takes Video to a New Level
Polycom just took Corporate Video to a new level with the unveiling of its Polycom RealPresence Immersive Studio Flex, a new Room system that features a true immersive video experience. Participants feel like people are across from each other. Deployments are also easier and faster than competitive systems.
Besides Immersive Video, Polycom has also added what it calls Polycom 3D Voice, which helps to have participants feel like the audio is coming right from the speaker who is talking. Polycom is gaining traction with its new endpoints that feature innovations that make the work experience better. Its partnership with Microsoft is also helping, since Polycom is one of the lead video and voice stories for Office 365.
Slack Launches Enterprise Grid
Slack put enterprise Collaboration providers on notice with the launch of Enterprise Grid. With enhanced scalability and security, Slack now claims over 900 app integrations. All of this combined means that Slack has put Cisco, Microsoft, Google, and all of the other Collaboration providers, such as Jive and IBM, on notice.
What’s Next for Collaboration?
Cloud technology and agile development is proving that innovation is alive and well in the Collaboration and Communications markets. Enterprises have more choices than ever. This is one of the reasons Aragon feels that we are entering an era of multiple Collaboration deployments. This will be a theme in our syndicated research in 2017.