Integrating unified communications into the Google Apps experience sounds great, but UCaaS providers like Switch.co have their work cut out for them.
There’s a new UCaaS provider in town, Switch.co, and it’s targeting the neglected market of Google Apps users. It has a great concept, but finding a home for itself won’t be easy.
Google Apps, which was estimated to have as high as 50% market share for cloud-based productivity suites in 2012, includes Hangouts for instant messaging and presence (IM/p). However, the service doesn’t yet have an API to allow IM/p in Hangouts to be accessible to third-party applications. Switch.co, along with other third-party integrations, will need to overcome this and other barriers to creating an integrated Google Apps experience.
Most organizations choose between two mainstream approaches for their productivity and email needs — the Microsoft Office suite (private or hosted) and Google Apps. While the Office/Exchange side is well covered for voice integrations, (EVERY major UC vendor integrates with Exchange), the Google Apps ecosystem is significantly smaller. However, it has been growing steadily.
