Australia-based specialist fiber and network solutions provider Vocus’ partnership with unified communications platform vendor Zoom Video Communications is timely as demand for video and team collaboration tools is strong due to companies implementing remote working to cope with the Covid-19 situation, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Reportedly, Vocus agreed to resell Zoom Meetings, Rooms and Webinars to enterprise and government customers in Australia and New Zealand. This is the first carrier partnership that Zoom has entered into within the Australian market.

Siow Meng Soh, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, says: “This is a positive move for Vocus because the partnership enhances its unified communications and collaboration portfolio and creates opportunities to increase customers’ wallet share.”

Zoom is gaining momentum in the market and it has reported an addition of 2.22 million monthly active users so far during 2020, which is more than it did in the whole of 2019 (1.99 million).

GlobalData’s Install Base analytics tool reveals that in Australia, while some large enterprises have already deployed Zoom’s solutions, there are still a lot of opportunities for Vocus since Zoom’s penetration in the country is relatively low – less than 1%.

Soh adds: “There are greater opportunities in the mid-market, which is a sweet spot for Vocus. This move is also timely since companies are encouraging remote working for business continuity reasons in the face of Covid-19; and video conferencing and team collaboration tools are in demand. 

“Moreover, the solution is intuitive and open – already integrated with Microsoft Teams, Slack and Google Hangouts. This makes it easier for Vocus to sell the product and enjoy a competitive advantage by being the first telco to resell Zoom.”

However, this is a reseller agreement and Vocus is offering Zoom as an off-the-shelf product and not integrating it with existing products or service management tools. Verizon in the US, for instance, has integrated Zoom with existing audio to ensure consistent quality across all locations; and it provides onboarding and ongoing monitoring/support services.

Soh concludes: “Vocus is also relatively late in the cloud-based video conferencing and team collaboration space and competitors already offer similar solutions from other vendors (e.g., Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Teams. Slack, Google G-Suite and Bluejeans). To have a more compelling offer, Vocus can consider bundling zoom with other products such as SIP, VPN for remote users, SD-WAN and wireless solutions.”