Zoho has entered the UCaaS space with the launch of Trident.
The new suite allows businesses to harness a hub for internal communications, which contains all the foundational features of a UC platform, along with a couple of nifty innovations.
Indeed, its baseline capabilities include email, messaging, phone, and video calls. There is also a calendar, contact lists, and file storage solutions.
The video below demonstrates all of these and more.
Interestingly, it also highlights the high level of integration across the UCaaS platform and its close ties to the Zoho Workplace. This enables Zoho to present a single view of communications, whether they come through email, messaging, or another app.
Moreover, there is considerable interoperability within the platform. Its universal drag-and-drop tool takes advantage of this, allowing businesses to merge features across collaboration apps.
For instance, a business can drag an attachment from an email and drop it into a message.
Another one of those nifty innovations within Trident and Workplace is an AI-powered tool – BluePencil – which checks grammar and makes writing suggestions. In doing so, it removes the need for a plug-in such as Grammarly.
As such, the UCaaS platform appears feature-rich. But, as a prominent CRM player – operating in economic uncertainty – why has Zoho made this move?
Well, it likely spots an opportunity as brands aim to converge their communications system.
Zoho Helps Companies Converge Their Communications Stack
Zoho is a prominent CRM provider, and - with Service Desk - is slowly bridging the gap to CCaaS. By adding UCaaS over the top, it may satisfy all the employee and customer communications needs of its SMB customer base.
As such, Zoho offers its customers the chance to work with fewer communications vendors and meets a growing demand for systems convergence.
In doing so, employees access fewer applications, which adds to productivity, but also removes the onus on staff to remember passwords and complete extra admin tasks.
Thanks to these features, Zoho seems to have a promising proposition. Unfortunately, it is in a crowded market.
Indeed, the UCaaS space is significantly saturated, with many businesses already implementing Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or Webex. As such, there seems limited room for growth.
It is also highly mature. Indeed, when one vendor adds a new, exciting feature, a competitor adds it within months. This makes differentiation tricky.
So, while the system convergence is a bonus, what else does Zoho have up its sleeve to lure businesses away from their current UCaaS solution? A low price point.
