Peter Radizeski is Founder and President of RAD-INFO INC. He is an accomplished blogalyst, speaker, author and consultant. He has helped many service providers with sales training, marketing, channel development and business strategy. He is a trusted source of knowledge about the telecom sector. His honest and direct approach make him a refreshing speaker.

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The Coming Disruption

No, I don’t be AI.

Does anyone remember PGi and their GlobalMeet product? Siris acquired PGI in 2015 for $1B! PGi was in the video meeting, webinar, collab space. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, they were nowhere to be found. Kind of like Webex. When was the last time you received a Webex invite? Except for my clients that own a BroadWorks, I never receive a Webex invite.

At CCA, all the talk was about AI.

At Enterprise Connect, much of the talk was about AI.

No one is talking about service delivery or customer pain.

During the pandemic, it was Zoom and Microsoft that took hold. Neither were on any quadrants prior to that.

As I look at the cloud communications arena, I am almost sure it will be an outside horse that takes the market by storm.

There are dark horses already: Content Guru, Sprinklr, Gladly, Kustomer and so many more.

There are platforms launching aimed just at very small business.

Everyone is looking at AI.

The business software platforms like Hubspot, Zoho, Freshworks, Zendesk and of course Salesforce and Adobe – are all making noise in Agentic AI. All have added Voice and chat. These platforms alongside Amazon are eating away at the market that was dominated by Avaya and Mitel.

Ultimately, the UCaaS providers have to realize that voice is why people are buying from them – along with a sense of “replacing the PBX” while remaining close to that experience.  They need to RE-IMAGINE what cloud comms mean.

Prior to the pandemic, UCaaS was a solution without a problem. It still is. Hybrid communications, Work from Anywhere or as Cavell has coined, “Intelligent Workplace”. It all is still in the UC&C bucket. The problem is what pain point is the Buyer searching for?

At CCA25, the analysts said that the use cases were generic and the AI was generic. This industry should have Gone Vertical years ago. But they all thought they would be the next AT&T or get acquired. How did that work out?

Even with AI, the lack of Differentiation is a large problem.

Sales are getting bogged down by AI.

Transformation is hard to sell. Change is Hard all by itself, but selling Charge is hard. People don’t like change. And we actually have a huge amount of it happening around us — so why buy more?
Meanwhile, Jeff Pulver, Thomas Howe, Alan Quayle, Andy Abramson and others are in Cape Cod talking about the next tech idea: vCons.
vCon does solve some compliance and privacy issues. It is like blockchain, AI, call recording and PBX joined hands, but I think the majority of the squeeze in this particular citrus is in verticals. STROLIS uses vCons but only sells to the automotive industry. The data across customers is much more valuable in a vertical silo than if it is mixed in with other retail.
This will be harder to sell to CSPs than a Broadsoft was in 2003.
UC Today, Informa, the pundits (Michels, Arnold, et al), and the CCA spend cycles pumping up an industry that peaked in 2020. Without anyone poking holes in it, the strategy can’t improve and strengthen. It is like hiring all yes men when you become CEO because you would rather have smiles and nodding heads than people working with you to make your strategy and planning better.
There is a lot of follow the leader, even when the leader is no longer the leader. RingCentral just signed up Cox to resell them despite the Mitel BK filing tells a tale of working with RingCentral that was laden with dispute. I have often wondered how much the ILEC or MSO keeps when selling RNG — and what is the story you twll a buyer about whey they should buy RNG from Cox instead of RNG direct??? It makes no sense to me. 
Also, when you talk to veterans of the UCaaS fight – that have been in it since 2003-2009 – they are done with it. It isn’t any fun. It is a grind. Many have moved on to other pastures. This is another reason why I think an outsider, non-telecom provider will slide in and take over much of the market.
As buyers become Millennials and Gen Z, they will have only known the iPhone. That changes everything. They have never had a landline. Never used a desk phone. Think Tiktok beats YouTube. Facebook is for old people. What is a fax?
Meanwhile many CSP decision makers are 20+ year veterans of telecom. Way different viewpoint. Outdated actually. We really are not selling voice. We are selling software. And voice is just a part of it. The key is what can that software do for the business?
I will end with one last thought. Many small businesses are running off of a software platform that is vital to their business. For example, the A/C guy runs his business off of an iPad or cellphone leveraging Service Titan or Housecall Pro or similar. Everything from scheduling the appointment to quote to pay is done on this mobile enabled software. Where does a PBX fit into that equation? It doesn’t and isn’t really needed. And if it was, it wouldn’t be that hard to add it to Housecall Pro. If your software cannot integrate with that software, do you think you have a fighting chance of winning business?

Why UCaaS?

During a discussions at Cloud Connections 25, how do we migrate people to cloud comms quickly? After 20 years of pushing the concept of IP-PBX, Hosted PBX, UCaaS, Cloud Phone and other variations on this, there is no magic bullet to get customers to … [Continue reading]

A Cautionary Tale

Analyst Joe Rittenhouse has a post on LinkedIn about Mitel’s current situation. He references a UC Today story about the debt service being $130M per quarter! Comments on the LI post blame the wasted acquisitions and the CEO. The difference between … [Continue reading]

The Channel Opportunity 2025

When they have the TSD talking heads on keynotes, it would be nice to have a deep dive into their cliche responses. “”I think what we’re seeing is … there are more opportunities for advisors, and ultimately, that’s what creates a better market for … [Continue reading]

EC25 – AI and CX

Went to Enterprise Connect yesterday. Had some meetings and walked the show floor. Two terms showed up at most booths: CX and AI. Not a surprise, but really boring. The same thing over and over. At one meeting I was asked about the future of cloud … [Continue reading]