Mitel bolsters hybrid UC offering

Mitel has continued to enhance its unified communications (UC) offering as it looks to gain a higher group on the hybrid UC market.

Earlier this year, the vendor announced a portfolio strategy that put the emphasis on UC, with its senior vice-president and head of the international region Simon Skellon highlighting the benefits for its channel.

“Businesses now find themselves in a post-pandemic, security-conscious work environment, and Mitel – together with our partners – is perfectly poised to support them in this setting,” he stated back in June.

“Our new portfolio strategy recognises that telephony alone is no longer enough, and for many businesses, neither is an off-the-shelf UCaaS [unified comms-as-a-service] application. Businesses not only need, but increasingly expect, tailored solutions that don’t require them to make trade-offs,” he added.

Mitel has now added a Common Communications Framework and Secure Cloud into the portfolio to meet evolving customer needs.

The framework will ensure customers gain access to quality services across a diverse network. The secure cloud is a managed service offering that improves levels of data protection. The vendor has also included more artificial intelligence (AI) features to make sure it can support other AI offerings in the portfolio.

The Secure Cloud offering is available in the UK now and is being rolled out to Germany in Q4 before further European countries are added in the first half od 2025. The aim is to continue until it is a global offering.

“Security incidents are increasingly prevalent, and when layered with regulatory requirements, we’re seeing growing customer concern around how to best mitigate the risks,” added Anurag Agrawal, founder and chief global analyst at Techaisle.

“In fact, 50% of organisations cite security, data privacy and regulatory compliance as the most important consideration when choosing a communications vendor, and that number grows in highly regulated industries like financial services. Mitel Secure Cloud offers the ultimate option for organisations facing this kind of complexity, without requiring them to make trade-offs in terms of ease or productivity.”

Mitel has been developing its response to growing demand for hybrid UC, with its own research, carried out with Techaisle, indicating 91% of customers are looking to take that approach to deliver communication to those in offices as well as working remotely.

“By bringing together the best of both cloud and on-premise communications into a true UC experience, we’re empowering customers to engage with our portfolio in the way that best suits their needs,” said Martin Bitzinger, senior vice-president of product management at Mitel.

Speaking earlier this summer, Skellon said the firm was continuing to pursue a vertical focus with partners that could provide customers with hybrid UC support, and it was keen to expand the partner base geographically.

“We’re especially looking to attract new partners in parts of the world where Mitel has the potential to expand and become even more relevant, such as APAC, MEA and Eastern Europe. Mitel is always open to welcoming partners into our ever-growing family who are willing to commit to embracing our solutions to their customers,” he stated.