Microsoft Wins Best of Enterprise Connect Overall AwardMicrosoft Wins Best of Enterprise Connect Overall Award
And AWS, Microsoft, Mio, Optanix, and Plantronics-Polycom win in four new breakout categories.
March 18, 2019
This morning we announced the winners of our annual Best of Enterprise Connect Award competition for exhibitors with products and services that best advance enterprise communications and collaboration. This year’s award program was bigger and better than ever, with a record number of exhibitors companies -- 62, nearly a third of all exhibitors -- submitting for the Overall award as well as for and four new breakout categories.
For the second year running, Microsoft took home the Best of Enterprise Connect Overall Award, this time for Teams for firstline workers and new workspaces, a version of the team collaboration solution aimed at providing tools forcatering to what the company estimates to be 2.3 billion primarily mobile-first, frontline workers who are not considered information workers and are more mobile in nature.
A panel of four independent judges evaluated all submissions with an eye on factors like technology advancement, innovation, differentiation, scope/reach, relevancy for large/midmarket enterprises, pricing, and business impact. This year’s judges were:
Phil Edholm, president and founder, PKE Consulting
Robert Harris, president, Communications Advantage
Irwin Lazar, vice president and service director, Nemertes Research
Melissa Swartz, founder, Swartz Consulting
These judges selected Microsoft from seven Overall Award finalists to earn top honors, pointing to the breadth of capability and vision the solution demonstrated as a determinant key factors. In addition to Microsoft, the 2019 finalists for the Overall Award are:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) (booth 2106) -- A machine learning-based solution addition to the Amazon Connect contact center service
Cisco (booths 201 and 226) -- The AI-driven Cisco Webex Room Kit Mini for huddle spaces provides "cognitive collaboration" intelligence that optimizes how Webex Meetings participants interact and form relationships, available to all through mass scale deployment
CounterPath (booth 1205) -- Bria Teams is a subscription-based cloud service that unifies team communications and collaboration on desktops and mobile devices
Mio (booth 2314) -- Mio synchronizes real-time messaging between Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex Teams for seamless workplace communications
Plantronics-Polycom (now known as Poly) (booth 713) -- Polycom Studio is a plug-and-play video bar that marries high-quality audio and video with USB connectivity for video collaboration
Talkdesk (booth 1927) -- The Enterprise Cloud Contact Center Winter 2019 release adds omnichannel, enhanced analytics, a visual routing flow designer, mobile support, and a self-service SDK, all powered by a new AI layer, Talkdesk IQ
Break-Out Category Awards
In addition to naming Microsoft as the winner for the Best of Enterprise Connect Overall Award, judges also named winners in four new Category Awards. These categories are: Best Application of Artificial Intelligence, Best Innovation for Collaboration, Best Upgrade to an Existing Produce, and Best Communications/Collaboration Device. The winners are as follows.
Best Application of AI Winners:
AWS -- Amazon Connect (see above)
Optanix (booth 1139): The Optanix Platform uses advanced analytics and intelligence to provide predictive and proactive full-stack monitoring and management of IT infrastructure and services
There were five finalists for this Category Award. Runners-up were Noble Systems for Conversations Analytics Now (booth 1532), Omilia for its Natural Language Understanding and Dialog Management Platform (booth 202), and Voximplant for Dialogflow Connector (booth 2027).
Best Innovation for Collaboration Winner:
Mio -- team messaging synchronization (see above)
Microsoft was the runner-up for this category for Teams for firstline workers.
Best Upgrade to an Existing Product Winners:
AWS -- Amazon Connect (see above)
Microsoft -- Microsoft Teams for firstline employees and new workspaces (see above)
Talkdesk was the runner-up for this category for its Enterprise Cloud Contact Center Winter 2019 release.
Best Communications/Collaboration Device Winner:
Poly -- Polycom Studio (see above)
There were four finalists for this category. Runners-up were Cisco for its Webex Room Kit Mini solution, Kaptivo for its Kaptivo device (booth 1239), and Lifesize for its Icon 700 video conferencing system (booth 1233).
Check back in to No Jitter later this morning for more on Microsoft’s winning solution from one of our award program judges, Melissa Swartz, who will share insight into what made Microsoft stand out above the rest. And be sure to visit Microsoft on the Enterprise Connect Expo floor, in booth 507, to learn more about the company’s solution and latest advancements.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!
