Key Takeaways
- Zoom and Mitel partner to offer hybrid cloud solution combining Zoom Workplace and Mitel platforms.
- Partnership addresses enterprise demand for flexible, secure, and AI-driven communication solutions.
- Joint solution will be available in first half of 2025, offering seamless integration and enhanced capabilities.
- Collaboration aims to empower businesses with advanced communication tools while leveraging existing Mitel investments.
Topic Summary
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. and Mitel have announced a strategic partnership to deliver a hybrid cloud solution that combines Zoom Workplace and Zoom AI Companion with Mitel’s communication platforms. This collaboration aims to address the growing enterprise demand for flexible, secure, and AI-driven communication solutions. The joint offering will provide a Zoom-first experience within Mitel’s hybrid portfolio, allowing seamless access to Zoom Workplace while maintaining existing Mitel investments.
The partnership responds to the evolving landscape of modern work, where 82% of leaders plan to implement more flexible working styles in the near future (source). With 91% of enterprises prioritizing a hybrid approach for business communications (source: June 2024 Mitel / Techaisle survey of 1,954 organizations), this collaboration offers a solution that balances control, regulatory compliance, and security for mission-critical communications with advanced collaboration capabilities. The integrated system will leverage Mitel’s Common Communication Framework to deliver a fully embedded experience without the need for add-ons or plug-ins.
Key features of the partnership include UC and mobile app integration, hardware device-level integration, and advanced business process capabilities such as bi-directional presence and call-to-video escalation. Users will gain access to Zoom Phone with embedded support for Mitel PBX platforms, regardless of deployment method. This integration creates an opportunity for Mitel’s extensive global user base to enhance their collaboration experience while maintaining their existing infrastructure investments.
The partnership also establishes Zoom as Mitel’s exclusive UCaaS offering within its UC portfolio. This arrangement enables Mitel’s sales teams and partners to cross-sell the Zoom-first experience as part of the hybrid solution or assist customers in migrating to Zoom for UCaaS deployments. Additionally, Zoom sales teams will be able to offer Mitel’s award-winning devices for hybrid customers requiring physical endpoints. This collaboration is expected to create new opportunities for partners to expand their service offerings and build sustainable revenue streams.
The joint solution is scheduled for general availability in the first half of 2025, with advanced capabilities and enhancements planned for future releases. This partnership is poised to address the largest segment of today’s communications market, particularly in the EMEA region, by providing a seamless, AI-first collaboration solution that caters to the complex needs of modern distributed workforces while offering the flexibility and control demanded by enterprise customers.
Background Information: Click Here to ViewOur Thoughts and Commentary
Yep. I get it. This makes sense.
Mitel Customers Want More
Mitel has a roster of 70 million end-users who depend on their existing, fully configured, field-proven Mitel telephony system. These customers enjoy the privacy, flexibility, and reliability of a single-tenant communication platform. But now, they want more. They want cloud-powered features. They want AI. They want next-gen collaboration apps. They want video interop. Etc. But they don’t want to upset the apple cart to get these things. And they DO NOT want to purchase and manage two disparate systems. Been there. Done that.
Checking the Rearview Mirror
This is not new territory for Mitel. Back in 2021, Mitel entered into an exclusive partnership with RingCentral to provide Mitel’s global customers with a seamless migration path to cloud-based unified communications (UCaaS). At that time, Mitel had a customer base of more than 35 million users. As a part of this deal, RingCentral also acquired certain IP rights and patents from Mitel for $650M. As I’ve said before, Mitel is not just a technology engineering company … it’s also a financial engineering company. Somehow, Mitel always finds the money in every situation.
Within a few short months, it became clear that the Mitel / RingCentral partnership was not a match made in heaven. Staff on both sides of the equation cited differences in mindset, conflicting priorities, and a lackluster response from many customers. Also, the fact that RingCentral had entered into a similar agreement with Avaya just two years earlier meant that Mitel was not RingCentral’s only priority. Ultimately, neither party saw this partnership as the win-win they’d hoped for. In fact, during its Q2 2024 earnings call, RingCentral CEO Vlad Shmunis described the Mitel partnership’s contribution as “de minimis” and announced that RingCentral’s exclusive UCaaS partnership with Mitel had ended. Enough said.
This Time Things are Different
Now, just six weeks later, Mitel announced an exclusive UCaaS partnership with Zoom. On the surface, the defunct Mitel-RingCentral partnership and the new Mitel-Zoom partnership seem quite similar. But there are some noteworthy differences. For example:
- RingCentral paid Mitel $650M up-front, but we haven’t heard about any such payment from Zoom.
- The stated intent of the RingCentral deal was to help customers with their cloud migration, while the stated intent of the Zoom partnership is to offer a hybrid solution by integrating Zoom’s capabilities with existing Mitel deployments.
- Mitel’s hardware was not a significant part of the RingCentral partnership, but in this new arrangement, Zoom will support Mitel’s desk phones, headsets, and session border controllers.
- While both companies offer VoIP and video calling services, RingCentral is more telephony-centric than Zoom.
We agree. Except for the $650M payment, the other points are nuances. [ Mitel and Zoom probably see things differently, and that’s fine. ] But in business, and almost all relationships, nuances matter.
Finally, while this partnership may seem like déjà vu with a different logo, we should consider that a lot has happened in the last few years. COVID has come and gone (almost). Workers went home and many have returned to the office. AI has taken UCaaS’ place as the industry buzzword. Cloud has become even more pervasive. And perhaps most of all, telephony and video calling have continued to commoditize. I could go on, but you get the idea.
Innovation Today Goes Beyond Just Features
Partnerships like this newly-inked Mitel / Zoom deal offer a great opportunity for vendors to innovate. But success here will depend on more than technology. Each partner must be happy with its part of the overall value proposition, and the associated revenue. We’re hoping for the best, but only time will tell.
I say again … at least in concept, this makes sense.