Enterprise Connect Panel Discussion

Monday, March 27, 2017

Orlando, Florida

 

The trend toward communication vendor consolidation continues strong and may even accelerate, both for on-premises and cloud providers. When one (or more) of your critical communications vendors is involved in a merger or acquisition with another industry player, the impact on your enterprise communication systems operation is likely to be major and ongoing. The deal will likely affect product lines and roadmaps; sales and support relationships; potentially even your enterprise's strategic technology directions. This session will equip you with ideas, methods and knowledge you need in order to be prepared for possible vendor changes. You'll also learn how to be ready to start making the right contacts and asking the right questions as soon as a merger/acquisition happens with one of your key vendors. You'll learn how to grapple with each step of the process as the consolidation unfolds, how to minimize the impacts, and perhaps even gain some benefits for your enterprise. You'll come away better prepared to respond effectively to possible consolidation moves among your key vendors.

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KEY QUESTIONS:

 

• How do you prepare your current contracts and maintenance agreements to anticipate and protect against consolidations?

• If you learn that one of your key vendors is being acquired, how do you gather the information you'll need to assess the impact and to communicate the situation to your leadership?

• What are the best ways to understand and correctly interpret the consolidating vendor's messaging around product suite integration or product discontinuation?

• What if you don't like the products or vision of the acquiring vendor, or the new roadmap does not meet your enterprise's needs?

• How should you move forward if your vendor is broken up into different pieces and you have products/services/solutions that go to two different acquiring companies?

• What else would you need to do if one of your key vendors is acquired by a financial entity (private equity firm, etc.)? Are there some common themes to these types of acquisitions that impact enterprise communications planning and decision-making?