Comcast Business announced Monday morning that it has beefed up its Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) portfolio by buying Blueface. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Dublin, Ireland-based Blueface, which was founded in 2004, provides its UCaaS offerings to enterprises and service providers.
“Blueface is the only truly global Unified Communications-as-a-Service platform that can equip service providers with a customized unified communications solution for businesses large and small,” said Blueface CEO Alan Foy, CEO, in a statement. “We are thrilled to join Comcast and work with the Comcast Business team to invest in and scale our technology roadmap to create compelling B2B product offerings."
The deal added Blueface’s proprietary and customizable cloud voice unified communications platform to Comcast Business’s portfolio of business-grade solutions. Blueface, which was privately held, gives businesses the ability to communicate and collaborate seamlessly and globally.
"The addition of Blueface’s Unified Communications (UC) solution to the Comcast Business portfolio will provide customers access to industry-leading audio and video tools to connect employees across devices and locations," said Comcast Business President Bill Stemper, in a statement. "Whether connecting within a company or directly to customers, Blueface technology, powered by Comcast Business, will provide businesses a seamless communications experience. We look forward to delivering innovative solutions that enable businesses to help power employee productivity and extraordinary customer experiences in 2020 and beyond."
Other service providers, such as Frontier and Spectrum Enterprise, offer UCaaS services across their footprints. The UCaaS business has been booming of late, and that trend is projected to continue. According to a November report by Synergy Research Group (SRG), the installed base of UCaaS subscribers will grow by an average annual rate of 26% over the next five years, with growth being increasingly driven by enterprise customers.
In terms of UCaaS service providers, SRG said each segment had a different market share leader, with Fuze leading in enterprise, RingCentral in mid-market and Mitel in small business. Other noteworthy UCaaS providers included Cisco (Broadsoft), 8x8, Vonage, LogMeIn and Broadview, according to SRG.
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