2016 European Video Conferencing Customer Value Leadership ... · Or deploy StarLeaf GTm native S4B...

2016 European Video Conferencing Customer Value Leadership Award

2016

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2016 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Customer Impact and Business Impact of StarLeaf ................................................... 3

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 7

Significance of Customer Value Leadership .................................................................... 8

Understanding Customer Value Leadership .................................................................... 8

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................... 9

Best Practice Award Analysis for StarLeaf ...................................................................... 9

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................... 9

Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 10

Business Impact ................................................................................................. 10

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 11

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 12

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 12

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 13



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

Recent Frost & Sullivan research on the global video conferencing market indicates

revenue growth of 6.1 percent in the endpoint segment and a 13.5 percent decline in the

infrastructure segment in 2015.

Frost & Sullivan analysis confirms that the high-end video endpoint segment has reached

a stage of saturation that limits room for further growth. On the other hand, there is an

abundant availability of unequipped small meeting spaces and huddle rooms that stand to

benefit from next-generation, low-cost video conferencing endpoints. This has led to the

growth of more cost-effective and innovative video conferencing endpoints. At the same

time, end user organizations are seeking to simplify their collaboration experiences.

Accordingly, the video conferencing infrastructure segment is undergoing a demand shift

to hosted/cloud-based video conferencing services - which Frost & Sullivan expects to

grow at a CAGR of 22.2 percent between 2014 and 2019.

The lack of a single unified interface across existing legacy room systems, huddle room

systems, contemporary collaboration systems, and desktop and mobile applications

creates separate islands of collaboration in an enterprise. Furthermore, endpoints and

video cloud services offered by an increasing set of players in the ecosystem is adding to

the IT departments’ burden of pairing, monitoring, and management processes - rather

than supporting more strategic initiatives.

Frost & Sullivan points out that a high degree of innovation is essential to ensure

interoperability between multiple modes of connectivity. The customer value leader

successfully addresses these industry challenges and offers an efficient, user, and admin-

friendly, yet robust video conferencing solution at an affordable price.

Customer Impact and Business Impact of StarLeaf

Customer Purchase Experience

StarLeaf was founded in 2008 by the well-respected founders of Codian, with the vision of

extending the architectural simplicity of telephony to video. In 2011, StarLeaf launched an

on-premises video PBX and a range of endpoints to register with this on-premises PBX.

Recognizing the video paradigm shift to cloud, StarLeaf acknowledged the trend early on

by re-engineering its video PBX into a complete cloud service in September 2012. In

addition, the company launched a series of hardware video endpoints that are quite

affordable and tightly integrated with the StarLeaf Cloud. Subsequently, StarLeaf has

leveraged its experience to develop products and services to provide optimal flexibility to

users in scheduling and joining video meetings.



StarLeaf facilitates the following use cases:

1. Purpose-built hardware endpoints designed for large meeting rooms (Group

Telepresence 3351), small meeting/huddle rooms (GT Mini 3330 Range), and

desktops (PT Mini 3020).

2. Purpose-built hardware endpoints for Skype for Business (S4B) - (GTm 5250, GTm

5140 Huddle) for large, huddle and small meeting rooms.

3. Software endpoints as applications available for PCs, tablets and smartphones

(StarLeaf Breeze) to enhance mobility and enable pervasive video conferencing

access.

4. StarLeaf Cloud, delivering video conferencing services (such as QuickMeet) that

allows ad-hoc conferencing with up to 5 users and via scheduled and meet-me

conferences for far larger numbers of participants. These are hosted from StarLeaf

points-of-presence (PoP) across the globe.

5. Cloud endpoint subscription services to safeguard customer investments in legacy

third-party video clients (including Cisco, Polycom, Lifesize, and Avaya) and to

enable the transition to cloud without rip and replacement.

6. Third-party investment protection by integrating standards-based third-party MCU

and other components that customers already have in place.

7. Desktop video conferencing - all users within the enterprise receive access to the

StarLeaf Breeze video software client.

8. Integration of room systems with S4B. As enterprises have a higher penetration

rate of S4B on the desktop, there is a growing need to connect S4B with room-

based systems.

StarLeaf offers 2 options for this scenario, including:

Register existing endpoints to the StarLeaf Cloud to provide interoperability

with S4B users and deliver a native S4B experience in a meeting room

setting, including comprehensive collaboration functionality - such as bi-

directional content sharing.

Or deploy StarLeaf GTm native S4B endpoints that register directly to an

enterprise’s S4B deployment.

By offering a plethora of options to connect to a meeting, Frost & Sullivan applauds how

StarLeaf demonstrates its clear understanding of client requirements and the company’s

ability to deliver solutions that do not ask customers to compromise.



Growth Potential

Frost & Sullivan recognizes how StarLeaf is clearly committed to changing the video

conferencing landscape. In many ways, the company is ahead of the rest of the

competition due to its early recognition of the growing potential cloud video services to

solve customer problems. In 2012, StarLeaf focused its efforts on enhancing the features

and functionalities of its cloud-only platform - while traditional vendors were banking

significantly on expensive, complex, and rigid on-premises infrastructure.

Subsequently, StarLeaf has developed a holistic video portfolio comprising endpoints,

cloud optimization and management features, and more. The company continues to

evolve, augment, and enhance its portfolio. As a result, StarLeaf is experiencing stable

growth.

In order to accelerate growth and diversify its revenue streams, StarLeaf is leveraging its

expertise to expand into adjacent areas. In June 2016, StarLeaf announced UC

OpenCloud, which leverages StarLeaf Cloud as a services platform for cloud-based unified

communications services. The UCaaS offering is available to third-party solution providers

and endpoint manufacturers under the UC OpenCloud brand as well as white-label under

the partner’s brand. As part of this launch, StarLeaf has engaged with partners - such as

Tata Communications, Yealink, Tely, and Grandstream - to enhance the reach of its

portfolio.

Also in June 2016, StarLeaf launched StarLeaf GTm 5140 Huddle, a purpose-built system

for S4B environments. Keeping in tune with the trend of higher preference for S4B at

desktops, StarLeaf launched GTm 5140 to deliver a single unified Skype for Business user

experience to small meeting spaces.

By staying on top of technology trends and honing its internal resources, StarLeaf has

clearly strengthened its position in the broader UCC market to the benefit of customers.

Brand Equity

As an emerging player and disruptive game-changer in the video conference space,

StarLeaf’s video conferencing endpoints and cloud services are employed in various types

of organization spanning verticals including education, distribution, financial services,

apparel, IT, and telecom, and other high tech segments. StarLeaf clients include Dr.

Martens, Permira Advisors LLC, Bridgestone Group, Alert Logic, SSI Schaefer,

Northumbrian Water, Van De Wiele and Travelex.

Backed by its success in Europe, StarLeaf is expanding aggressively in Australasia, and

Central and Latin America. The company has been recruiting highly experienced industry

executives to establish its presence in these regions and target untapped enterprises that

are seeking affordable video conferencing solutions.



Frost & Sullivan firmly believes that StarLeaf’s high brand equity in Europe and its global

cloud platform will serve as strong foundations to help the company attain considerable

recognition across the globe.

Customer Acquisition

StarLeaf adopts an indirect sales model in all of its markets, including Europe. Some of its

most notable partnerships in Europe include Electrosonic, BIS, AVCenter, Dekom and

Cancom. These known and respected companies provide not only extended reach for

StarLeaf, but also validate the competitiveness of StarLeaf’s solutions.

In addition, StarLeaf utilizes an aggressive trade-in program to win customers away from

its competitors. The company offers to replace any legacy video conferencing endpoints

from Cisco, Polycom, Avaya, Tandberg, Radvision, Lifesize and any other H.323 systems

with a GT Mini product, along with StarLeaf Touch 2035 controller. As such, the hardware

is available for free, and the customer needs to pay only for the endpoint cloud

subscription and warranty on the GT Mini system.

By leveraging reseller partnerships and helping customers realize maximum value from

their deployment, StarLeaf has successfully expanded its customer base across Europe

with limited churn.

Customer Ownership Experience

StarLeaf positions security, as well as ease of deployment, ease of use, and

interoperability as core business strategies in video deployment. As an illustration, the

company deployed video conferencing endpoints and offered cloud services to Groupe

Cahors, a leading logistics firm in Europe. Groupe Cahor’s requirements included a highly

secure solution built on native cloud architecture, unlimited scalability, and interoperability

spanning all modes of collaboration (room, desktop, and mobile endpoints).

StarLeaf’s video conferencing endpoints coupled with cloud-delivered applications was

found to be the best fit for Groupe Cahors’ expectations. The company’s impressive ability

to provide security on par with on-premises infrastructure infused immense buy-in and

confidence into Groupe Cahors’ management. StarLeaf’s cloud platform proved to be

highly scalable, addressing Groupe Cahors’ user base spread across the globe. In addition,

StarLeaf’s superior management capabilities helped the customer experience a single

unified interface across systems and enriched their product ownership experience.

Customer Service Experience

Sound reliability and infrastructure backup, highly scalable solutions, and a robust

management platform are essential when building customer trust and serve as key criteria

for customers when choosing a service provider. StarLeaf Cloud is hosted in 10

datacenters across the world that include two in the US (California and New Jersey), three



in Europe (Frankfurt, Paris and London) and five in Asia (Beijing, Tokyo, Mumbai,

Auckland, and Sydney). These highly scalable PoPs provide unparalleled connectivity

irrespective of networks by employing techniques such as forward error correction for

packet loss errors, dynamic bitrate control, and scalable video coding. In addition, the

platform is designed with a significant level of redundancy to route calls efficiently in the

case of failed instances. In addition, the multiple PoPs afford compliance in countries and

regions where governance requires certain data remains in-country or in-region.

In terms of security, StarLeaf ensures that it abides by industry standard protocols while

integrating third-party endpoints with StarLeaf Cloud. The company uses techniques such

as AES, H.235 and TLS for encryption, and H.460 and ICE methods for firewall traversal.

StarLeaf’s proprietary endpoints and servers are built with signed certificates that ensure

mutual authentication at the time of connectivity.

StarLeaf Cloud administrators receive access to a management portal to self-provision,

manage, and monitor endpoints. This facility provides organizations with complete control

over their endpoints and cloud usage, thus preventing costs related to dedicated on-

premises management infrastructure or video network operation center (VNOC) services.

Conclusion

Today’s enterprises require cloud video conferencing service offerings that truly provide

flexibility. With its versatile video portfolio, StarLeaf offers integration across its own and

third-party endpoints and infrastructure with a high level of interoperability, reliability,

security, and ease of use.

With its strong overall performance, StarLeaf has earned the 2016 Frost & Sullivan

Customer Value Leadership Award.



Significance of Customer Value Leadership

Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from a

company, and then making the decision to return time and again. Delighting customers is

therefore the cornerstone of any successful growth strategy. To achieve these dual goals

(growth and customer delight), an organization must be best-in-class in three key areas:

understanding demand, nurturing the brand, differentiating from the competition.

Understanding Customer Value Leadership

Customer Value Leadership is defined and measured by two macro-level categories:

customer impact and business impact. These two sides work together to make customers

feel both valued and confident in their products’ quality and long shelf life. This dual

satisfaction translates into repeat purchases and a high lifetime customer value.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Customer Value Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently

evaluated two key factors—Customer Impact and Business Impact—according to the

criteria identified below.

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Business Impact

Criterion 1: Financial Performance

Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition

Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency

Criterion 4: Growth Potential

Criterion 5: Human Capital

Best Practice Award Analysis for StarLeaf

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation;

ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Customer Impact and Business Impact

(i.e., the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the definitions for each

criteria are provided beneath the scorecard). The research team confirms the veracity of

this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which confirms that small changes to

the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative

rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players in

as Company 2 and Company 3.

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Customer Value Leadership

Customer

Impact

Business

Impact Average Rating

StarLeaf 9.0 9.2 9.1

Competitor 1 8.5 8.7 8.6

Competitor 2 7.6 7.7 7.7

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar

offerings in the market

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Requirement: Customers feel like they are buying the most optimal solution that

addresses both their unique needs and their unique constraints

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service, and have a

positive experience throughout the life of the product or service

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty

Business Impact

Criterion 1: Financial Performance

Requirement: Strong overall financial performance in terms of revenues, revenue growth,

operating margin and other key financial metrics

Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition

Requirement: Customer facing processes support the efficient and consistent acquisition of

new customers, even as it enhances retention of current customers

Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency

Requirement: Staff is able to perform assigned tasks productively, quickly, and to a high

quality standard



Criterion 4: Growth Potential

Requirements: Customer focus strengthens brand, reinforces customer loyalty and

enhances growth potential

Criterion 5: Human Capital

Requirement: Company culture is characterized by a strong commitment to quality and

customers, which in turn enhances employee morale and retention

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts can then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

High

Low

Low High

Bu

sin

ess I

mp

act

Customer Impact

StarLeaf

Competitor 2

Competitor 1



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best

Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often, companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degree research methodology provides an evaluation platform for

benchmarking industry players and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN

THE CHAOS



About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best in class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages almost 50 years of experience in

partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment

community from 31 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit

http://www.frost.com.

http://www.frost.com/

Date post:	22-May-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	2 times
Download:	0 times

2016 European Video Conferencing Customer Value Leadership ... · Or deploy StarLeaf GTm native S4B...

Documents