A one-size-fits-all UC platform isn’t always the best choice. Explore the unique communications needs of different industries and how leading vendors are tailoring their services.
While most unified communications providers offer a core set of common services, such as calling, messaging and video conferencing, a one-size-fits-all platform approach may not meet the highly specialized needs of many industries.
Healthcare, financial services, and educational institutions, for example, require specialized capabilities tailored to their operating environments. As a result, a growing number of unified communications (UC) providers are delivering offerings customized for specific vertical needs.
How vertical UC requirements may differ
Continue reading at techtarget.com.
Metrigy’s third-annual UCaaS MetriRank study introduces its new Leadership Landscape, plotting the market position of the ranked providers.
June 11, 2026 – Research and advisory firm Metrigy released its UCaaS MetriRank 2026 report, identifying Cisco as No. 1 among Top 10 providers leading the market today and best positioned for long-term success. Providers are evaluated on financials, market share, product, and customer insights to assess long-term market sustainability and success.
Market share is the gating factor for inclusion in the UCaaS MetriRank, with a handful of large providers in a broad marketplace comprised of lots of options with Microsoft, Cisco, Zoom and RingCentral leading. According to Metrigy’s workplace collaboration market share and forecast report, the global market for UCaaS was $23.0 billion in 2025, up 6% year-over-year. Metrigy forecasts the worldwide market to grow at a 4% CAGR from 2025 to 2030, reaching $28.0 billion by 2030. This continuous growth highlights a mature enterprise environment, where Metrigy’s benchmark research shows that 58.6% of businesses worldwide now deploy UCaaS as their sole phone and workplace collaboration platform.
In this report, we introduce the new Leadership Landscape. Based on the evaluation criteria listed above, scores are measured and plotted into three categories: foundation, customer, and market. The result is Cisco, Zoom, Microsoft, RingCentral and Verizon in the Leaders segment. Cisco and Zoom have strong and balanced foundation and customer scores. Microsoft has the strongest foundational score. RingCentral and Verizon have the strongest customer scores.
“The five leaders within the UCaaS MetriRank Landscape have had long-term success in the market through a focus on product development, go-to-market momentum, and customer success. Cisco has earned the overall top ranking with continue growth migrating businesses to the cloud,” said Diane Myers, senior research director and principal analyst responsible for Metrigy’s MetriRank reports as well as market share and forecasting.
Metrigy 2026 UCaaS MetriRank Highlights
Following the Leaders listed above:
- Landscape Challengers include Vonage, 8×8, Gamma, and GoTo. These providers are doing well and just miss the leadership segment, making them a competitive threat. Gamma is a standout within the group of challengers as the provider with the strongest market score.
- Landscape Performers tend to be smaller providers but deserve attention of having a high enough market share to be including in the MetriRank. They are not to be counted out, having strength in specific areas that allow them to be nimble and focused. Nextiva is the sole provider in the performer segment.
Additionally, UCaaS providers that did not make the 2026 ranking but are on Metrigy’s watchlist due to strong performance in specific verticals include: Comcast, Dialpad, Fusion Connect, Google, Intermedia, Sangoma, Wildix, and Windstream.
Metrigy defines UCaaS as a cloud-based suite of integrated communications and collaboration applications that, at a minimum, provides public switched telephone network (PSTN) connectivity. Offers may be sold as telephone-only services or bundled with other enterprise capabilities, including video meetings and team messaging.
The full report, including all of our methodology, scoring indicators, standard deviations, deep-dive profiles on each provider, and much more, is available for purchase.
If you are interested in Metrigy’s UCaaS MetriRank study, please reach out to [email protected].
IP Desk Phones: Endpoint devices used to access IP PBX or UCaaS voice services; physical device that plugs into the network; includes conference phones
What We Count
In this service, we count vendor’s and provider’s relative revenue in US$ recognized during the calendar year for every category. We do not include revenue from management systems, service, or support within individual product categories.
IP desk phone units: number of deskphones
Regions
- Worldwide: all areas of the world
- North America: U.S. and Canada
- EMEA: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Asia-Pacific: Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia
- CALA: Caribbean and Latin America, including Mexico
SIP Trunking: Voice connectivity for premises-based PBX and contact centers with SIP interfaces and UCaaS/CCaaS services; includes Direct Routing and Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams
What We Count
In this service, we count vendor’s and provider’s relative revenue in US$ recognized during the calendar year for every category. We do not include revenue from management systems, service, or support within individual product categories.
Regions
- Worldwide: all areas of the world
- North America: U.S. and Canada
- EMEA: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Asia-Pacific: Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia
- CALA: Caribbean and Latin America, including Mexico
Enterprise SBC (eSBC): Network element that controls and manages real-time multimedia traffic flows between IP networks, handling signaling and media
What We Count
In this service, we count vendor’s and provider’s relative revenue in US$ recognized during the calendar year for every category. We do not include revenue from management systems, service, or support within individual product categories.
SBC sessions: number of simultaneous bi-directional media flows controlled via software licenses (not including oversubscription)
Regions
- Worldwide: all areas of the world
- North America: U.S. and Canada
- EMEA: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Asia-Pacific: Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia
- CALA: Caribbean and Latin America, including Mexico
Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS): Hosted, multitenant service used for placing and receiving calls across the PSTN, sold on a per-seat subscription basis; aggregates telephony, presence, messaging/chat, collaboration, and meetings
What We Count
In this service, we count vendor’s and provider’s relative revenue in US$ recognized during the calendar year for every category. We do not include revenue from management systems, service, or support within individual product categories.
UCaaS seats: number of business users supported
Regions
- Worldwide: all areas of the world
- North America: U.S. and Canada
- EMEA: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Asia-Pacific: Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia
- CALA: Caribbean and Latin America, including Mexico
On-Prem PBX/UC Platforms: Proprietary system hardware and call control software, includes TDM, pure IP PBX, and hybrid TDM/IP systems
What We Count
In this service, we count vendor’s and provider’s relative revenue in US$ recognized during the calendar year for every category. We do not include revenue from management systems, service, or support within individual product categories.
PBX/UC licenses: number of unique users supported
Regions
- Worldwide: all areas of the world
- North America: U.S. and Canada
- EMEA: Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- Asia-Pacific: Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia
- CALA: Caribbean and Latin America, including Mexico
New research from Metrigy shows what jobs are now in demand — and which ones are disappearing — thanks to automation and productivity improvements.
You don’t have to look far to find people who are concerned AI is going to take their jobs. And depending on what their jobs are, their fears could be well-grounded.
But broad-scale concerns about AI taking jobs is overstated, according to Metrigy’s AI Organizational Best Practices 2026-27 global study of 759 companies. In fact, when asked how AI is affecting jobs at each research participant’s company, 43.7% say AI has created jobs, 23.2% say it’s eliminated jobs and 42% say AI has not affected jobs either way.
Among those research participants that selected the option “both created and eliminated jobs,” (because both can be true), 66.3% say AI has created more jobs than it has eliminated. Tracking job changes is vital for high school, college, and early-career employees — or to anyone in a career that is showing high negative impact of AI. Education, retraining, and certifications are vital to success for both employees and employers. Our research is showing some expected changes, but others that are bucking early predictions about AI’s impact on the job market.
Contrasting views from employers and employees
Continue reading at nojitter.com.
An effective AI governance strategy for UC requires human review, bias mitigation, data transparency and security controls. CISO involvement is key to success and ROI.
The rapid growth of AI in unified communications and collaboration tools is challenging how organizations have traditionally addressed governance. As agentic AI, AI assistants and other capabilities become increasingly embedded into UC, organizations must adopt new governance strategies for data sovereignty controls, real time monitoring and other guardrails.
Generative AI (GenAI) security has become a key component of governance for communications and collaboration. Nearly 80% of organizations that currently have a governance plan or will have one in place by the end of 2026 named GenAI as the second-most included component, according to Metrigy’s Workplace Collaboration and Contact Center: 2026 study of 305 organizations. Other key AI-related components include data loss prevention and securing AI bots and agents.
As AI permeates every aspect of UC, organizations must ensure that their governance and compliance policies evolve to minimize risk. Key challenges for IT leaders include the following:
- Appropriate content controls for meeting artifacts, such as recordings, transcripts and summaries.
- Governance controls for AI-created content, such as documents and videos.
- Retention of internal and customer-facing conversations with AI virtual assistants.
- Capture of AI agent activity.
- Data localization and sovereignty control.
- Model training controls.
- Support for customer data removal.
Key AI governance strategies for UC
Continue reading at techtarget.com.
The UCaaS market is going through a rapid evolution as it matures, and as AI redefines capabilities and interfaces. Against this backdrop buyers face increasing pressure to minimize costs, assure security and compliance, and deliver new collaboration capabilities. During this session we’ll share Metrigy’s latest insight into UCaaS market and buyer trends, specifically answering:
– Are buyers changing providers, and if so why?
– What criteria do buyers use to evaluate UCaaS vendors?
– What features are necessary versus nice to have?
– How will UCaaS spending change in the coming years?
– What should buyers consider going forward?
Workplace Collaboration Expert Insights Series 1, Ep.1 – A UCaaS Reality Check: What Buyers and Vendors Need to Know
Presented by: Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst
Date and Time: May 28, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
