Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC: What It Means for Unified Communications

Choosing a unified communications (UC) platform can be challenging. Businesses need to weigh features, reliability, ease of use, integrations, security and cost, while also considering how a provider’s services may develop over time. The Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC-related markets can offer a useful starting point for understanding the providers and trends in this space.

But what does the Magic Quadrant actually measure, and how should organisations use it when comparing communications solutions? Here is a guide to the framework and the questions worth asking before making a decision.

What is the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC?

Gartner is an independent technology research and advisory company. Its Magic Quadrants are visual assessments of providers in a particular market, based on Gartner’s research and stated evaluation criteria.

In unified communications, Gartner’s research has covered areas such as Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). UCaaS brings communications capabilities—such as voice and video calling, messaging and online meetings—together through a cloud-based service. The exact market name, scope and participating providers can vary between reports and editions.

A Magic Quadrant positions evaluated providers on two axes:

• Ability to Execute: Gartner’s assessment of how well a provider delivers its products and services, serves customers and performs against its business objectives.
• Completeness of Vision: Gartner’s assessment of a provider’s understanding of the market, its strategy and how well it is preparing for future needs.

The four Magic Quadrant categories

Providers are placed into one of four categories, according to their position on the two axes:

• Leaders demonstrate strength in both execution and vision within the market Gartner has defined.
• Challengers are assessed as strong at execution, but may have a less complete vision than providers in the Leaders category.
• Visionaries show a strong vision for the market, though their ability to execute may be less established.
• Niche Players may focus on a particular market segment, region, customer type or set of capabilities. Their position does not automatically mean they are unsuitable for a particular organisation.

These labels describe a provider’s position within a specific Gartner report. They are not a universal ranking of every communications supplier, nor do they determine which platform is best for every business.

What can a UC Magic Quadrant tell you?

A Gartner Magic Quadrant can help organisations understand how providers compare within the market covered by a report. It may be useful for identifying established suppliers, exploring alternative providers and getting a sense of how Gartner views market direction.

It can also help shape questions for a procurement process. For example, a business might investigate a provider’s roadmap, service model, customer support, geographic coverage or approach to integrating voice, meetings and messaging.

However, a quadrant chart is only a high-level view. It cannot show how well a product will fit your organisation’s workflows, users, existing systems or budget. The report’s scope and research date matter, too: product capabilities and market conditions can change after an edition is published.

How to use the Magic Quadrant when choosing a UC platform

Use the report as one source of information, then compare providers against your own requirements. A practical evaluation could include the following steps:

1. Define your needs. List the capabilities your teams actually require, such as business telephony, video meetings, messaging, contact-centre functions or mobile working.
2. Check compatibility. Find out how each solution works with your existing networks, devices, business applications and identity systems.
3. Assess the user experience. Consider how easy the service is to learn and manage, and whether it works consistently across locations and devices.
4. Review security and resilience. Ask about security controls, data handling, service availability, support arrangements and continuity planning.
5. Understand the full cost. Compare licences, implementation, equipment, support and any costs associated with migration or future changes.
6. Test the service. Where possible, arrange a demonstration or pilot with representative users and realistic business scenarios.

Questions to ask UC providers

When speaking with potential suppliers, consider asking:

• Which features are included in the proposed service, and which incur an additional charge?
• How will the platform integrate with our current systems and working practices?
• What support is available, and how are service issues handled?
• How does the provider manage service availability and business continuity?
• What will implementation, training and ongoing administration involve?
• How can the service scale as our organisation changes?

Look beyond the quadrant

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for UC can provide helpful context, but a provider’s position should not be the only factor in a buying decision. A highly placed provider may not offer the right commercial model or local support for your organisation. A provider in another category may meet your needs particularly well.

Start with your users and business requirements, then use analyst research, product demonstrations, customer references and a detailed cost comparison to build a rounded view. The best unified communications solution is the one that meets your needs today and can adapt as they change.

Note: Gartner Magic Quadrant reports are Gartner’s research and opinions. The report title, market definition, criteria and provider positions may vary by edition. Consult the relevant report for its scope and methodology.