The 2021 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) was released – and at Blackstar we’re psyched to see the names of four of our strategic partners in the top-right Leaders quadrant.

 

Why is this such great news?  Leaders know where they’re going and how to get there.  According to Gartner, Leaders have been delivering complete UCaaS solutions for years to established bases of enterprise customers.  They use their solutions to acquire new customers, expand their footprints and innovate in new areas. 

Blackstar partners with Zoom, 8×8, Microsoft and RingCentral– four of the five Leaders in the quadrant – providing us with a broad portfolio of world-class UCaaS offerings.  Each of these vendors has their own unique strengths, and we’re really proud to be able to offer you choice when it comes to your UCaaS needs.  Having such a diverse range of solutions to choose from, we work with you to ensure your needs are met, and provide you with your communications, your way. 

Zoom 

Zoom was one of the big winners when the pandemic hit, becoming the go-to service for everything from school lessons to pub quizzes.  Its ease of use made it a trusted name, and Zoom is now more than just meetings.   

Their UC offerings add telephony and messaging to its well-known meeting platform.  They have done really well leveraging their brand – adding over 1 million Zoom Phone users in 2021, Zoom has seen the biggest growth of any vendor on the Quadrant, apart from Microsoft.    

Zoom Phone offers full PSTN replacement in 46 countries.  In countries where this isn’t an option, they support bring-your-own carrier functionality.  This broad reach ensures Zoom is now attracting the right kind of international attention. 

8×8 

Although 8×8 is a relative newcomer to Blackstar’s portfolio, it’s a perfect fit.  Our engineers and our customers both find it easy to deploy and maintain.  And it just works.   

8×8’s X Series is full Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), offering the whole range of UCaaS options, including PSTN replacement, contact centre, meetings and team messaging.  They have presence in 46 countries and are one of the few communications providers able to provide service to users in China thanks to a partnership with a local telecoms provider. 

8×8 also stands out for their ability to integrate with Microsoft Teams.  Their 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams product enables telephony and contact centre via Teams in more than 40 countries. 

To find out more about 8×8, visit our product page here. 

Microsoft 

Speaking of pandemic winners, the grand prize has to go to Microsoft for Teams.  Teams is the fastest growing UCaaS platform on the market.  According to Gartner “The adoption of Microsoft Teams for UC over the past year has surpassed that of every other provider… by more than an order of magnitude.” 

Teams can boast nearly 80 million monthly active Phone System users and nearly 250 million monthly active users of the core product (meetings and chat).  Because it does so well meeting users’ needs in the collaboration space, a lot of IT directors immediately look to explore the Phone System aspect of Teams when it comes time to replace their existing PBX. 

At Blackstar, we got on the Teams bandwagon early, well before Covid saw the rapid rise in monthly users.  We have been providing Teams calling through Direct Routing since the early days.  But don’t take our word for it, check out our customer case studies here. 

RingCentral

Of our UCaaS solutions, RingCentral places best for completeness of vision.  This means RingCentral gets their customers – they understand your needs and translate that understanding into a product that will work for you.   

RingCentral’s core UCaaS product is MVP – Message, Video, Phone.  This integrated platform allows organisations to streamline their internal communications and collaboration.  Their heavy investment in the video meeting experience over the last year has made this element of MVP very competitive with big hitters like Microsoft and Zoom. 

On top of their own offering, RingCentral also provides the UCaaS muscle for other providers like Avaya, ALE, Unify and most recently, Mitel.  With a global footprint in over 100 countries and more than 250 out-of-the-box integrations, they are truly able to offer something for everyone.   

According to Gartner, RingCentral’s future is likely to be hugely successful.  And Blackstar is very excited to be part of that journey. 

In Conclusion 

At Blackstar, we take the time to evaluate every product in our portfolio.  That time and care has paid off as our three core UCaaS products come about as highly rated as you can get.  To find out more, or to book a discovery session, contact your account manager.  Or, drop us an email at [email protected].