The other day I was on a “call” with another firm that we do business with – of course it was more than a “call” – it was a web meeting with desktop sharing, video and chat as well. As we were waiting for one of the other participants to join, something occurred to me that made me smile.

What struck me was not that I was sitting in my home office in rural southeastern Washington State having an amazing collaboration experience with people around the world. No, I’ve gotten used to that. What struck me that day was a little glimpse into what I call the modern era of collaboration.

As I scanned the screen looking for the mute button, what occurred to me was a realization that the meeting was hosted on the fifth different online collaboration platform I had used that week. (That doesn’t even count the old-fashioned dial-in bridge that someone had mercilessly forced upon me the day before. Dial-in? Really? Ugh.)

As a product marketer, it feels good when a real-world, personal experience lines up so perfectly with the story you’re telling about a product. The good feeling I was experiencing, came from knowing that Nectar was about to release our new, next-generation collaboration management platform, a tool that is purpose-built for this modern era of collaboration.

End-users have more choices than ever to find the best ways to work together across distance and traditional boundaries, both organizational and vertical. We’re clearly experiencing both a massive technology shift and a fundamental change in the user-experience.

These shifts do present some new challenges for IT professionals, however. I view three driving factors most changing the landscape for our partners and enterprise customers right now:

1. Cloud – No question that we’re crossing the chasm into mainstream cloud adoption of voice, video and collaborations platforms by large enterprise organizations in most industry sectors. What’s not yet clear is how the enterprise can support cloud-based user experiences.
2. Multi-Vendor – Gone are the days of homogenous communications platforms within an enterprise. Even when the environment is built on standardized platforms, the new norm is multi-vendor and, as a result, very likely a hybrid of on-premise and cloud.
3. Video – it took much longer than its proponents would have liked, but video has finally become a major collaboration modality used in conference rooms, on desktops and in huddle spaces.

As a backdrop to all of this, the macro business trends of mobility, globalization and digital transformation are also shaping the modern era of collaboration.

Our industry needs a new paradigm for managing these environments and, today, we’re excited to announce, Nectar built it.

Nectar 10 is built to leverage our company’s strong legacy in the premise-based voice monitoring sector with a new, easier to use, industry-leading platform that is purpose-built for the realities of today’s voice, video and collaboration environments. With a simpler deployment model, a more intuitive user interface, a more scalable architecture and the new Central Correlation Engine, Nectar 10 will position Nectar as a must-have tool for enterprises and service providers managing multi-vendor cloud, premise or hybrid environments.

In the weeks and months to come, we look forward to sharing more details about the exciting journey that we begin when Nectar 10 for Cisco is made generally available on April 8^th. More platform vendor support will follow quickly, and, in the near future, we’ll be sharing even more exciting capabilities of our next-generation platform, Nectar 10.

Nectar’s commitment to help you deliver great user experiences for voice, video and collaboration has never been greater. As platforms evolve and the landscape shifts, you can count on Nectar to provide you with the best tools available.

I look forward to seeing you soon on the collaboration platform of your choice…. (just not dial-in, right?).

Nectar is proud to deliver effective unified communications solutions to our clients. To learn more about what we offer, contact us today.