Fujistu calls on RingCentral to help broaden its UCaaS portfolio

VoIP provider RingCentral has entered a strategic partnership with Fujitsu that will see the two companies work together to provide new cloud communications and call centre software to organisations across Europe.

The agreement builds on Fujitsu's recent push into unified communications as a service (UCaaS) as part of its managed "Digital Workplace" brand.

The deal means Fujitsu can now offer RingCentral Office and RingCentral Contact Centre products as standard to any customers operating within Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

It also allows Fujitsu to diversify the range of products on offer under its Digital Workplace portfolio, adding to existing partnerships with Microsoft, Cisco, VMware and Citrix, which come together to create a single managed environment.

Annette McInnes, head of employee experience at Fujitsu, said that the agreement would allow for the sale of "industry-leading workplace solutions" to EMEA customers.

"The cloud has changed the workplace and how people work forever," said McInnes. "Employees want to be more autonomous, entrepreneurial, and free from the constraints of traditional working hours.

"To attract the best talent and unlock its creativity, businesses must create a compelling employee experience that enables and supports their expectations."

UCaaS services have proven incredibly popular among businesses looking for cost-effective ways of moving communications to the cloud, something that Fujitsu is clearly hoping to exploit.

Recent estimates suggested the UCaaS market was worth just over $4 billion in 2018, with the expectation this could soar to $17 billion by 2024.