{"id":38752,"date":"2017-03-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T00:18:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T07:18:59","slug":"what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ZK<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications<\/a> (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of innovation. It started as VoIP<\/a>, then evolved into unified messaging<\/a> and other telephony centric apps, merged with video, moved to the desktop and then to the cloud. The one thing that has been consistent with UC since its inception is constant innovation, as people want better and faster ways of communicating.<\/p>\n

Enterprise Connect<\/a> has always been about innovation and pushing the collaboration industry to boldly go where it has never been before. The 2017 version of the show will be no different, but I am expecting the following over-arching themes.<\/p>\n

The evolution of the cloud<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cloud and communications have gone hand in hand like Kirk and Spock (yes, I\u2019m a Trekkie) for almost a decade now. To date though, the value proposition of the cloud has been about delivering business communications faster, cheaper, and more efficiently than on-premises solutions can. However, it\u2019s my belief that the cloud sits on the precipice of significant change, as it will deliver communications that is more predictive and contextual, changing the way we work.<\/p>\n

The enablers of this new type of cloud are data, analytics, and machine learning, all of which are coming into their own now. I\u2019ll be discussing this topic during my panel, Cloud Communications 2020: Will Enterprises Go to UCaaS\u2014and Beyond<\/a><\/em>. Hope to see you there.<\/p>\n

The rise of the API economy<\/strong><\/p>\n

People want the ability to do things faster and more efficiently from any application. Communications can be cumbersome, as users need to switch between mobile apps<\/a> and the different communication tools. For example, if I\u2019m in an airline app and want to send a message, why do I need to leave the app and go to different one? Application programming interfaces<\/a> (APIs) make that much simpler as developers can drop UC modules, such as chat, SMS<\/a>, click-to-call, and others into apps. Over the past few years, the communications platform as a service (CPaaS) market has come alive and offers customers a way of buying \u201cmodules\u201d of communications from the cloud.<\/p>\n

More video in more places<\/strong><\/p>\n

The maturation of WebRTC<\/a> has made it possible to build plug-in-free, real-time video<\/a> into almost any application on any device. There\u2019s no question that video meetings<\/a> are more effective than audio only, but the technology was too difficult to get up and running to make it worth most workers\u2019 time to try and use. Now that the ease-of-use barrier has fallen, expect to see the use of video explode.<\/p>\n

However, as with everything in life, for every yin it seems there must be a yang, as there is a downside to all this innovation and that\u2019s \u201cUC tool sprawl.\u201d The vision of \u201cunified\u201d communications has been largely a myth, as workers need to deal with multiple non-unified UC applications. I\u2019ve talked to some workers that are trying to manage half a dozen or more specialty applications for chat, file sharing, voice, video white boarding, and almost any other collaborative function you can think of, which makes the worker the integration point for all this technology. The impact of this problem is wasted time. My research has found that 15 minutes of every meeting is wasted trying to just set up the technology. Also, workers wasted hours of time daily managing these disparate platforms. It\u2019s clear that UC as it\u2019s currently formed is not working.<\/p>\n

Luckily, and I\u2019ll quote the philosopher and song writer, Bob Dylan to make my point, the times they are a changin\u2019. I recently authored a report titled The Rise Of Collaborative Communications<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0which highlights the problem and introduces \u201cworkstream communications and collaboration\u201d (WCC<\/a>). The early vendors in this market focused almost exclusively on persistent messaging, but recently the market has seen mainstream UC vendors, such as RingCentral, throw their hats into the WCC ring<\/a> and broaden their scope to include real-time functions like voice<\/a> and video as well as content sharing, white boarding, and other collaborative functions. WCC<\/a> fulfills on that original vision of UC by being a single application that can meet all of a worker\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

The feedback on WCC from early adopters has been more than positive. It\u2019s common for users to report that they get back at least one hour a week\u2014sometimes up to three or four. Also, the use of WCC can significantly cut down on email<\/a>, and there\u2019s no one I\u2019ve ever talked to that wishes they got more email.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m expecting WCC to have a significant presence at Enterprise Connect as the technology is set to go mainstream because of the increased functionality. If you\u2019re heading to the show, I encourage you to download and read the report<\/a> so you can have a better understanding of the value WCC provides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of innovation. It started as VoIP, then evolved into unified messaging and other telephony centric apps, merged with video, moved to the desktop and then to the cloud. The one …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":38753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18885],"tags":[4606,14150,14151,6764,12725,9692,4711,14152,3245,1549,14153,6053,1783,113,1798,11772,285,1855,14154,7328,14101,948,14156,14157,12216,7058,14145,14146,7021,7491,14060,13997,14158,667,2392,1611,14159,14160,14161,8274,524,14162,296,6603,14163,7670,4557,1732,14164,8654,14088,9505,13310,306,132,14165,14166,14167,8941,14168,14169,5113,4613,14170,11202,11379,3261,2601,4304,106,8752,14171,10979,12228],"class_list":["post-38752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ringcentral-newsdesk","tag-ucaas","tag-airline-app","tag-analyst","tag-api","tag-api-economy","tag-apis","tag-application","tag-application-programming-interfaces","tag-audio-conference","tag-big-data","tag-bob-dylan","tag-business-analytics","tag-business-communications","tag-business-phone-system","tag-business-sms","tag-chat","tag-click-to-call","tag-cloud-communications","tag-cloud-communications-2020","tag-cloud-communications-platform","tag-cloud-phone-platform","tag-cloud-phone-system","tag-collaboration-industry","tag-collaboration-workstreams","tag-collaboration-workstreams-the-key-to-digital-transformation-webinar-recap","tag-communication-tools","tag-communications-platform-as-a-service","tag-cpaas","tag-data-analytics","tag-developers","tag-devs","tag-ec17","tag-efficient-phone-system","tag-email","tag-enterprise","tag-events","tag-evolution-of-the-cloud","tag-kirk-and-spock","tag-machine-learning","tag-messaging-apps","tag-mobile-apps","tag-persistent-messaging","tag-ringcentral","tag-ringcentral-api","tag-ringcentral-audio-conference","tag-ringcentral-desktop-app","tag-ringcentral-video-conference","tag-sms","tag-star-trek","tag-team-collaboration","tag-team-collaboration-app","tag-team-messaging-app","tag-team-messaging-apps","tag-technology","tag-telephony","tag-telephony-apps","tag-the-rise-of-collaborative-communications","tag-trekkie","tag-uc","tag-uc-modules","tag-uc-tool-sprawl","tag-unified-communications","tag-unified-communications-as-a-service","tag-unified-communications-market","tag-unified-messaging","tag-using-ringcentral-webrtc","tag-video-conference","tag-video-meetings","tag-voice-over-internet-protocol","tag-voip","tag-wcc","tag-wcc-providers","tag-webrtc","tag-workstream-communications-and-collaboration"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview | RingCentral Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RingCentral Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ringcentral\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T07:18:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zeus Kerravala\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ringcentral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ringcentral\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zeus Kerravala\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Zeus Kerravala\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7140504ee99546ac58980ab904a2d8c9\"},\"headline\":\"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T07:18:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\"},\"wordCount\":829,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png\",\"keywords\":[\"(UCaaS)\",\"airline app\",\"analyst\",\"api\",\"API economy\",\"APIs\",\"application\",\"Application programming interfaces\",\"audio conference\",\"Big Data\",\"Bob Dylan\",\"business analytics\",\"business communications\",\"business phone system\",\"Business SMS\",\"chat\",\"Click-to-Call\",\"cloud communications\",\"Cloud Communications 2020\",\"cloud communications platform\",\"cloud phone platform\",\"cloud phone system\",\"collaboration industry\",\"Collaboration Workstreams\",\"Collaboration Workstreams: The Key to Digital Transformation (Webinar Recap)\",\"communication tools\",\"communications platform as a service\",\"cpaas\",\"data analytics\",\"developers\",\"devs\",\"ec17\",\"efficient phone system\",\"email\",\"Enterprise\",\"events\",\"evolution of the cloud\",\"Kirk and Spock\",\"machine learning\",\"messaging apps\",\"mobile apps\",\"persistent messaging\",\"ringcentral\",\"ringcentral api\",\"RingCentral audio conference\",\"ringcentral desktop app\",\"ringcentral video conference\",\"SMS\",\"Star Trek\",\"team collaboration\",\"team collaboration app\",\"team messaging app\",\"Team messaging apps\",\"technology\",\"telephony\",\"telephony apps\",\"The Rise Of Collaborative Communications\",\"Trekkie\",\"uc\",\"UC modules\",\"UC tool sprawl\",\"unified communications\",\"unified communications as a service\",\"unified communications market\",\"Unified Messaging\",\"Using RingCentral WebRTC\",\"video conference\",\"video meetings\",\"Voice-over-Internet Protocol\",\"VOIP\",\"wcc\",\"WCC providers\",\"WebRTC\",\"workstream communications and collaboration\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Company news & culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\",\"name\":\"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview | RingCentral Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-01T07:18:59+00:00\",\"description\":\"I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"RingCentral Blog\",\"description\":\"Intelligent Communications\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"RingCentral\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ringcentral-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ringcentral-logo.png\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":309,\"caption\":\"RingCentral\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ringcentral\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ringcentral\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ringcentral\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ringcentral\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7140504ee99546ac58980ab904a2d8c9\",\"name\":\"Zeus Kerravala\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zeus Kerravala\"},\"description\":\"Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. Kerravala provides a mix of tactical and long term strategic advice and research to end user IT and network managers, vendors of IT hardware, software and services, and the financial community looking to invest in the companies that he covers. Kerravala does research through a mix of end user and channel interviews, surveys of IT buyers, investor interviews, as well as briefings from the IT vendor community. This gives Kerravala a 360 degree view of the technologies he covers from buyers of technology, investors, resellers and manufacturers. Kerravala uses the traditional on line and email distribution channel for the research but heavily augments opinion and insight through social media including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. Kerravala is also heavily quoted in business press and the technology press and is a regular speaker at events such as Interop and Enterprise Connect. Prior to ZK Research, Zeus Kerravala spent 10 years as an analyst at Yankee Group. He joined Yankee Group in March of 2001 as a Director and left Yankee Group as a Senior Vice President and Distinguished Research Fellow, the firm's most senior research analyst. Before Yankee Group, Kerravala had a number of technical roles including a senior technical position at Greenwich Technology Partners (GTP). Prior to GTP, Kerravala had numerous internal IT positions including VP of IT and Deputy CIO of Ferris, Baker Watts and Senior Project Manager at Alex. Brown and Sons, Inc. Kerravala holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/zkresearch.com\/\"],\"url\":\"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/zeus-kerravala\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview | RingCentral Blog","description":"I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview","og_description":"I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/","og_site_name":"RingCentral Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ringcentral","article_published_time":"2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T07:18:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Zeus Kerravala","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ringcentral","twitter_site":"@ringcentral","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zeus Kerravala","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/"},"author":{"name":"Zeus Kerravala","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7140504ee99546ac58980ab904a2d8c9"},"headline":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview","datePublished":"2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T07:18:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/"},"wordCount":829,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png","keywords":["(UCaaS)","airline app","analyst","api","API economy","APIs","application","Application programming interfaces","audio conference","Big Data","Bob Dylan","business analytics","business communications","business phone system","Business SMS","chat","Click-to-Call","cloud communications","Cloud Communications 2020","cloud communications platform","cloud phone platform","cloud phone system","collaboration industry","Collaboration Workstreams","Collaboration Workstreams: The Key to Digital Transformation (Webinar Recap)","communication tools","communications platform as a service","cpaas","data analytics","developers","devs","ec17","efficient phone system","email","Enterprise","events","evolution of the cloud","Kirk and Spock","machine learning","messaging apps","mobile apps","persistent messaging","ringcentral","ringcentral api","RingCentral audio conference","ringcentral desktop app","ringcentral video conference","SMS","Star Trek","team collaboration","team collaboration app","team messaging app","Team messaging apps","technology","telephony","telephony apps","The Rise Of Collaborative Communications","Trekkie","uc","UC modules","UC tool sprawl","unified communications","unified communications as a service","unified communications market","Unified Messaging","Using RingCentral WebRTC","video conference","video meetings","Voice-over-Internet Protocol","VOIP","wcc","WCC providers","WebRTC","workstream communications and collaboration"],"articleSection":["Company news & culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/","url":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/","name":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview | RingCentral Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png","datePublished":"2017-03-21T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T07:18:59+00:00","description":"I\u2019ve been covering the unified communications (UC) market as an analyst for the better part of 20 years. The market has gone through several waves of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#primaryimage","url":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png","contentUrl":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png","width":700,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Connect 2017 Preview"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/","name":"RingCentral Blog","description":"Intelligent Communications","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#organization","name":"RingCentral","url":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ringcentral-logo.png","contentUrl":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ringcentral-logo.png","width":2048,"height":309,"caption":"RingCentral"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ringcentral","https:\/\/x.com\/ringcentral","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/ringcentral\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ringcentral"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7140504ee99546ac58980ab904a2d8c9","name":"Zeus Kerravala","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Zeus Kerravala"},"description":"Zeus Kerravala is the founder and principal analyst with ZK Research. Kerravala provides a mix of tactical and long term strategic advice and research to end user IT and network managers, vendors of IT hardware, software and services, and the financial community looking to invest in the companies that he covers. Kerravala does research through a mix of end user and channel interviews, surveys of IT buyers, investor interviews, as well as briefings from the IT vendor community. This gives Kerravala a 360 degree view of the technologies he covers from buyers of technology, investors, resellers and manufacturers. Kerravala uses the traditional on line and email distribution channel for the research but heavily augments opinion and insight through social media including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs. Kerravala is also heavily quoted in business press and the technology press and is a regular speaker at events such as Interop and Enterprise Connect. Prior to ZK Research, Zeus Kerravala spent 10 years as an analyst at Yankee Group. He joined Yankee Group in March of 2001 as a Director and left Yankee Group as a Senior Vice President and Distinguished Research Fellow, the firm's most senior research analyst. Before Yankee Group, Kerravala had a number of technical roles including a senior technical position at Greenwich Technology Partners (GTP). Prior to GTP, Kerravala had numerous internal IT positions including VP of IT and Deputy CIO of Ferris, Baker Watts and Senior Project Manager at Alex. Brown and Sons, Inc. Kerravala holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.","sameAs":["https:\/\/zkresearch.com\/"],"url":"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/zeus-kerravala\/"}]}},"rc_img_url":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZK-Research_r2a.png","rcblog_by_author":"<a href=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/zeus-kerravala\/amp\" data-dl-events-click=\"true\" data-dl-element=\"link\"><span class=\"image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\" alt=\"\" width=\"30\" height=\"30\" layout=\"fixed\"><\/img><\/span><span class=\"by-author-name\">Zeus Kerravala<\/span><\/a>","rc_author_full_name":"Zeus Kerravala","rc_author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9a8d989fa7e72af5bd5cf487cf7080318b695de4be89de382c5e64305dd0249c?s=480&d=mm&r=g","rc_author_link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/zeus-kerravala\/amp","rc_post_categories":"<a href=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/category\/trending\/ringcentral-newsdesk\/amp\">Company news & culture<\/a>","amp_link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-an-enterprise-connect-2017-preview\/amp","excerpt_title":"What to Expect When You\u2019re Expecting: An Enterprise Conne...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}