Do you know that saying when one door closes, another one opens? Or the one, when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade? 

Well, a door opened, and we found lemons!🍋

Let’s rewind. When we were in the trenches of the COVID-19 outbreak, all of our offices were closed, and our employees were forced to work from home. Economic Development of Greater Saint John, also known as EDGSJ, started looking into companies staying ahead of the curve amidst the pandemic. After sharing our story on adapting and innovating, we received an invitation to hire an MBA Intern from the University of New Brunswick Saint John for a business consulting project.  

Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, many MBA students could not fulfill this requirement in their curriculum because of the financial constraints businesses faced. Not to mention that physical offices were closed, making it challenging to hire a new person.  

Thankfully, even though our physical offices were closed, we were fully functioning from home! Our WFH products made it an easy transition to add another member to our team and we were happy to contribute to the MBA program at UNBSJ. Although we have hired our fair share of interns, this was the first time we hired an intern of such caliber. 

The MBA program pushes students to adapt to managing priorities, identifying problems, and presenting viable solutions. We were looking forward to finding an individual in a pool of global business professionals to work on a project to a problem we were facing. It was especially exciting to find out that many of the MBA students were international students. Our Saint John office works closely with organizations like the EDGSJ, and the Newcomers Association to attract employees who recently moved to the area. 

With technology growing daily, it can be difficult to keep track of new developments in the industry. In-depth market research and a competitive analysis are two projects we’ve been working on for a while. As easy it is to communicate, being a global company has its challenges when filtering the correct information to a team that is spread across the globe. 

We were promised the MBA students were ready and qualified to tackle any project, and that is precisely what Viacheslav Latypov did! 

Viacheslav, Slava, for short, could not have been a better fit for Bicom Systems! He is a graduate student with a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Engineering. Slava has a passion for technology and, for nearly seven years, has been working in IT. To compensate for the lack of business education, Slava’s MBA degree will specialize in Business Development and Professional Sales. 

Although two months is not nearly long enough for the project’s scope, we were eager for Slava to get the ball rolling. We recently launched our new product, gloCOM Meeting, and wanted a fresh opinion to tell us what we do not know about the market.  The research will help to position gloCOM Meeting in the competitive video conferencing market. 

The research will help adjust both marketing and sales strategies, as well as research and development for new features that are important to customers. The study’s core will include mapping the industry, competitor analysis, trends, forecasts, customer’s expectations, and needs, etc. At the end of the nine-week project, Slava will finalize the report and emphasize the recommendations he suggests based on his findings. In the end, all deliverables will be in a ‘ready-to-use’ stage to begin implementation. 

Although Slava has not completed his research, I was able to snag a sneak peek of some of the main highlights he has found! Stay tuned for the final report, that will be available to all Bicom Systems staff as well as our partners.

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS

📌As per Valuates Reports, the video conferencing market size (including hardware, software & services) is USD 10.57 Billion in 2020. It is expected to grow up to USD 16.19 Billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 8.9%.

📌 Video conferencing solutions will be considered increasingly essential to the standard suite of productivity software such as word processors and spreadsheet software.

📌 One of the essential benefits of video conferencing is that it decreases the time and cost of business travel.

📌 IBISWorld expects corporate users of video conferencing software to account for 63.4% of industry revenue in 2020. 

The expectations of the majority of customers who need video conference services are mainly focused on essential functions, such as:

• • Good Video Quality 
  • Remote Control
  • File Sharing
    
  • Screen Sharing
    (both a specific application and the monitor screen)
  • An organized Chat (option to answer by quoting and privately)
  • A shareable board for painting and annotations 
  • Integration with a Contact List of Organization
  • Ability to Make a Call Immediately 
  • Ability to Schedule a Meeting Immediately 

📌 When looking at the video conferencing industry, it can be seen that the intensity of competitive rivalry is very high due to:

• • A high quantity of players
  • The entry of low-cost service providers 
  • Innovations in the telecommunication business
  • Big industry players like Google and Microsoft

📌The bargaining power of buyers in the UCaaS industry is relatively high.

• • Customers can check the prices and functions of different vendor companies quickly on their website.
    
  • Some services can be used for free or have free trials.

📌 The threat of new entrants in the market is low. 

• • New entrants must establish distribution channels that are not easy to obtain when they are a new player in the industry. 
  • Lack of expertise in the industry.

It was found the key to success was the integration to the customer environment, as well as, the user-friendly interface. Stay tuned for more information on the market research Slava has conducted. Make sure you are following Bicom Systems on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for new updates!