Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Fuze with the Innovation and Leadership Award for Its Comprehensive Portfolio of UCC Solutions

Fuze's UCC solutions meet customers' demands for advanced messaging, web and video collaboration tools, mobility, and contact center, in addition to core telephony and voicemail services

SANTA CLARA, California, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) and converged conferencing services industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Fuze with the 2017 North America and Europe Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award for its expanding portfolio of unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions.

Mega Trends such as the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), growing employee mobility, the emergence of the virtual organization, and the increasing role of digital natives in decision-making are affecting business technology requirements and driving businesses to adopt advanced information technologies (IT) and innovative communications and collaboration solutions to improve worker productivity, business agility, and overall competitive positioning. A key element of digital transformation is the move to cloud communications and collaboration services. Businesses adopting such cloud solutions seek innovative providers with robust portfolios, a keen focus on Mega Trends and a powerful technology vision that is aligned with evolving business requirements.

"As businesses embrace a digital future, they acknowledge the need for tight alignment of technology, people, and processes. To address new market challenges, businesses need to adjust their internal processes and company culture to foster more collaborative environments, boost innovation, accelerate decision-making abilities, and improve customer engagement, particularly through cloud applications," said Elka Popova, VP and Senior Fellow. "Forward-thinking organizations are also adopting new technology consumption models to better support evolving workforce and customer requirements."

Fuze, a top-ten UCaaS provider in North America, has continually expanded its cloud solutions portfolio to deliver greater value to businesses and withstand intensifying competition. In addition to robust cloud private branch exchange (PBX) functionality, the company's portfolio includes mobility, audio, web and video conferencing, persistent group chat and team collaboration, instant messaging and presence, and contact center and strong analytic tools.

Key pillars of its market strategy are:

• Strong focus on the user experience;
• Mobile-first technology development, as exemplified through its "reimagined" user interface that integrates softphone capabilities with rich audio, video conferencing, modern group chat/persistent messaging, and dynamic content collaboration capabilities in a single, simple user experience;
• Differentiated converged conferencing capability, including advanced web and video collaboration features;
• Enabling of multi-modal, secure, and reliable, contextually enhanced conversations; and
• Communications integration with workflows and productivity applications.

Mid-size and large organizations are particularly demanding. Fuze addresses these demands by having a portfolio of solutions that can integrate with over 30 third-party applications, creating greater value for businesses with large investments in multiple software solutions looking to boost productivity through a more unified user experience. Another key focal area is the delivery of contextual data and analytics to better align the use of advanced communications and collaboration tools with broader business goals. The launch of the new Fuze user interface and the integration of technology through the acquisition of Contactive and Fuzebox are examples of Fuze's efforts to improve business processes by enabling contextually enhanced communications and collaboration.

To strengthen its own compelling communications and collaboration applications feature set, Fuze leverages a strong technology ecosystem to enable integrations that allow its customers to innovate, customize, and differentiate. Through open application program interfaces (APIs), both Fuze and its partners can quickly and easily develop integrations with popular applications such as Salesforce, Microsoft Lync, and Skype for Business or Google G Suite (formerly Google Apps), as well as customer-specific proprietary and "home-grown" applications. In addition, the company works with over 200 partners, including SHI International, AVANT, Intelisys, CDW Corporation, Softchoice, Invite Networks, and Alphaserve Technologies, to help extend Fuze's market reach and provide the high-quality customer support that is critical for growth and market share gains in the fragmented cloud communications and collaboration markets.

"Fuze's rapid growth over the past few years is proof of effective execution of its growth strategy. In 2016, Fuze continued on a strong growth trajectory and reported 43 percent growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR), which was higher than the growth rate reported by most other North American and European UCaaS providers," said Popova.

Additionally, the company more than doubled its international headcount in 2015-2016, adding marketing, sales, and professional services resources in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific. Fuze reports particularly strong growth in Europe, where it has established itself as one of the top 25 UCaaS providers.

Fuze stands out among competitors with its broad portfolio of cloud communications and collaboration solutions. It has differentiated with its strategic focus on mid-size and large businesses. For these reasons, coupled with the company's demonstrated success with its growth strategy execution, Fuze has earned Frost & Sullivan's North America and Europe Innovation and Leadership Award.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has leveraged competitive intelligence to successfully execute a strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning, and customer satisfaction.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Fuze
Fuze is a global, cloud-based unified communications platform that empowers productivity and delivers insights across the enterprise by enabling simplified business voice communications, flexible video conferencing, and always-on collaboration. Formerly ThinkingPhones, Fuze allows the modern, mobile workforce to seamlessly communicate anytime, anywhere, across any device. Headquartered in Boston, MA, Fuze has additional locations including New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Ottawa, London, Amsterdam, Aveiro (Portugal), Madrid, Paris, Munich, Zurich, Copenhagen and Sydney. For more information, visit www.fuze.com.

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