If you follow the UC/CC industry with even the slightest of interest, you might find it hard to get away from the juggernaut that is Microsoft Teams and a plethora of cloud contact center providers who’ve been in the top right hand corner of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for the last five years.
But now we know there’s more to Zoom than “just video” and industry commentators feel it’s rightly been included in both the UCaaS and CCaaS Gartner reports for 2025. It’s my take that Gartner highlights the power of a single platform designed to help organizations connect, collaborate, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
So, why do we (the royal we; media, analysts, industry commentators) still have this perception that Zoom is just a video platform? Even when we know the true enterprise communication potential of Zoom, some are saying no for the wrong reasons.
In fact, we know that Flex and Capital One use Zoom for services outside video conferencing—and these are some of the largest businesses in the world.
Whether some businesses aren’t buying say no to Zoom for the wrong reasons is another matter. But the fact we’re even talking about this must be viewed as an opportunity for Zoom.
In this blog post, we’re going to introduce the core reasons why businesses have traditionally said no to Zoom and suggest whether (or not) there is a market ripe for penetration from a great unified communications and contact center tool.
Zoom now competes across enterprise security
For Zoom to truly compete against the likes of Webex and Microsoft, the largest organizations take security components more seriously than any other. With this comes longer sales cycles—something Zoom is used to.
And it’s taken strides already:
- End-to-end encryption (“E2EE”) is available for meetings with up to 1,000 participants, as well as for one-on-one Zoom Phone calls within the same account. 2024 saw FedRAMP Moderate authorization for Zoom Contact Center, positioning Zoom for regulated industries.
- Zoom’s advanced enterprise offerings provide a framework for data residency, legal-hold and retention settings across meetings, phone and contact center—critical as the EU’s NIS2 directive looms.
- Zoom has successfully implemented a comprehensive Zero Trust Architecture, treating every user, device, and application as untrusted until verified. This implementation includes continuous identity verification through robust multi-factor authentication (MFA), endpoint security validation, microsegmentation within data centers, and real-time monitoring with AI-driven analytics.
- Zoom Meeting Survivability, deployed through Zoom Node, provides uninterrupted meeting services during network disruptions by shifting operations to local servers.
The opportunity for Zoom:
Users want friendly interfaces that require zero learning. Admins and security teams demand the highest levels of security as standard.
If Zoom continues to meet enterprise demands for security and compliance requirements, it stands a huge advantage over its largest competitors, who despite significant UI improvements, receive negative reviews from even its biggest fans.
Integration and differentiation with Microsoft
We know that Teams has over 300 million monthly users, yet other platforms exist and thrive.
Way back in 2018, Wired ran the headline “The Office-Messaging Wars Are Over. Slack Has Won.” One statement even read “The company boasts more active users than Microsoft’s competing Teams product, including many who are surprisingly passionate about it.”
Of course, history tells us that office messaging evolved into business collaboration and is now coming into a new phase of AI-induced productivity. Slack won back in 2018 and Microsoft is thriving in 2025, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for competition.
In fact, many businesses using Microsoft Teams also use other collaboration apps. Multi-platform usage comes with both benefits and disadvantages (read on for more on this). So while it is possible for Microsoft Teams and Zoom to exist within the same business, there remains a significant opportunity for Zoom in Microsoft accounts.
The opportunity for Zoom:
If it’s decided that Teams is the front end interface for meetings, chats, etc., it’s possible for Zoom Phone to underpin the calling infrastructure. For many businesses, the lack of feature parity in Teams Phone compared to their incumbent provider is a real issue.
Likewise, with components like contact center and other areas of communication, Teams may excel in one area but lack critical functionality in others. The solution must be to pair platforms that provide that specific functionality.
The growing number of app sprawl
Leading to higher costs, higher burden on admin teams, uncertain security, and lack of integration, app sprawl is what happens when multiple apps get rolled out across your business.
And it’s not just Microsoft Teams.
Sanctioned or otherwise, different departments have preferences and end up with some/all of Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, etc.
According to Cavell data, over 70% of businesses use more than one communications platform. In fact, 40% use more than four, with some even using more than 10.
With so many apps in play, adding Zoom doesn’t sound like it makes much sense.
The remedy here is platform consolidation.
When asked If you could change one thing about your current communication setup, what would it be? respondents to a Cavell survey suggested that integration and consolidation was their priority.
In the same Cavell survey, 99% of businesses said they believe it’s important that their communications platforms work well together. Yet, 91% of those same companies reported issues due to poor integration between solutions.
The opportunity for Zoom: Not only does Zoom offer a single platform for unified comms and contact center, it now extends that functionality to email, webinars, calendars, and other components that once tied businesses to Microsoft forever.
Everything is AI now
You can’t turn a corner without stumbling across AI. You’ve got AI Assistants in every UCaaS and CCaaS tool going.
This will only be a good thing for the businesses that get implementation and adoption right. That starts with the vendor communicating when and how to use AI.
Some providers will fail here, setting their customers up for overdependence or lack of adopting—resulting in poor return on investment.
The opportunity for Zoom:
Zoom’s approach to AI is distinctly centered on delivering tangible value to customers and enhancing user experiences, rather than adopting AI as a mere trend. Its platform demonstrates a strong alignment between strategic vision and product development, prioritizing AI features that are both practical and user-friendly.
Key strengths include a seamlessly integrated and genuinely helpful AI assistant, as well as adaptable video layouts that cater to diverse meeting needs. The service also stands out for its persistent work capabilities, brought to life by robust document collaboration tools and no-code workflow automation accessible to all employees.
Zoom continues to enhance the overall meeting experience by thoughtfully linking AI-driven note-taking with broader work automation, ensuring that every innovation serves a clear, user-centric purpose.
Businesses want rapid implementation
We’re in the era of instant demand and gratification. In our consumer lives, we link this to dopamine hits on social media. In business, this is also true thanks to things like budgets, pressure from end users, and the rapid progress of roadmaps.
With the exception of small businesses, rolling out and even buying a UCaaS/CCaaS solution takes longer than it should. As someone who sat in the pre-sales team in my junior years, I often wondered why the customer hadn’t bought the solution they very clearly needed. Industry-wide, it’s on sales and marketing teams to do better to serve and win customers.
The opportunity for Zoom:
Zoom benefits from strong familiar brand familiarity, perceived fit, and content relevance. This is something lesser competitors struggle with when coming up against market leaders who may quote longer implementations.
As I noted when documenting the history of Zoom, “Zoom had been on billboards, airport lounges, and train seats long before the pandemic. So, while you may have been using Zoom for the first time during 2020, you’d probably seen it displayed somewhere.”
Good marketing pays off.
The EMEA market is different to North American markets
In fact, you may be surprised to hear that Webex holds a higher market share than both Teams and Zoom across the UK, Germany, France, Benelux, the Nordics, and MEA regions.
This is no doubt thanks to Cisco’s acquisition of BroadSoft’s calling platform back in 2020. Combined with Webex Calling, the VoIP/UCaaS market was already dominated by BroadSoft in a pre-collaboration era.
The opportunity for Zoom:
Zoom holds a consistent mid-tier presence across most regions in EMEA, according to market share analysis by Infuse. The report continues to suggest there’s clear opportunity for competitive displacement, particularly where incumbents are overextended or underperforming.
Without singling out one vendor that may be underperforming, the sheer volume of competition in the market plays into Zoom’s strengths. One outage or a run of poor feature updates could see Zoom’s brand familiarity (detailed above) spring into action as top of mind.
80% of contact centers will the in the cloud by 2029
According to the Cavell CCaaS Market Evolution Report 2025, there’ll be more than 500,000 contact centers in the United Kingdom alone, with market penetration reaching 80% across EMEA.
Especially in the case of small businesses, if contact center technology works, the legacy asset will remain until completely exhausted. Even the most forward-thinking contact center and IT managers become restricted when funds aren’t readily available.
So, while they know there’s a world of AI dialers, predictive routing, and sentiment analysis on the other side, they’re yet to get their full value from their currently installed contact center model
The opportunity for Zoom:
In the same survey, only 9% of respondents said they never plan to move their solution to a publicly hosted cloud platform.
That’s a large chunk of on-premises contact center operators that will be (or are already) shopping for a cloud contact center. As Zoom’s contact center continues to go from strength to strength, both small and large businesses alike may look to Zoom for cloud contact center—especially if they’re already using video or VoIP elements.
What’s more, cloud contact center adoption continues to surge in the face of broader market trends. 60% of respondents reported that they planned to transition some of their on-premises assets to a publicly hosted cloud in the next one to two years.
Small businesses don’t want to pay for comms tech
While a focus on enterprise technology is a smart move for the betterment of the overall portfolio, there must also be a focus on enabling large volumes of smaller accounts.
For business health, relying on a (relatively) small number of high-paying customers could be risky. Ensuring the continued support of small businesses must be top of mind for any vendor focussed on growth in the UCaaS and CCaaS industry.
Lacking a freemium version of your product is a weakness for any vendor interested in small business revenue.
The opportunity for Zoom:
Zoom offers a freemium model that’s scalable from small to large businesses. Simply, if you don’t need large and long meetings, you don’t need to pay for it. That’s been the way since pre-pandemic and remains true today.
As a foot in the door, this is one of the most attractive selling points for a small business testing the water. If they can hold online meetings—perhaps for the first time—and can do so for free and without training or installation time, the proposition is instantly promoted up the shortlist.
Specialist sectors have complex requirements
In the financial and healthcare industries, for example, you can’t just roll out a cloud platform. You’ve got compliance regulations like FINRA, HIPAA, FedRAMP, and to think about at all times.
It used to just be a data conversation. And that won it for most large vendors that also had a storage or security product in its portfolio.
The same applies to government organizations and higher education outfits. While the restrictions aren’t quite as strict, there’s always been an extra layer of safety when it comes to migration to the cloud.
The opportunity for Zoom:
Zoom can secure digital-first citizen experiences while supporting customer needs for HIPAA, FINRA, and GDPR compliance. With a scalable platform incorporating multiple components, it offers a feature-rich, secure option for businesses typically hesitant with cloud adoption.
Research by Demand Factor highlights:
- Healthcare: Existing Zoom usage opens path to integrate CCaaS for scheduling, follow-ups, and remote service desks.
- Government / Public Services: High opportunity—Zoom must lead with security certifications and localized data handling.
The single platform approach here helps position against best of breed apps that must partner with other specialist providers, increasing the risk of potential data breaches and leakage.
Zoom isn’t just video
During the pandemic, Zoom was the video hero. Today, it’s a full enterprise communications suite.
When enterprises evaluate communications solutions, they often compartmentalize vendors into specific categories.
- Zoom: video.
- Slack: chat.
- RingCentral: voice.
This categorization makes it harder for Zoom to compete for comprehensive UC deals, even when its feature set matches or exceeds competitors. However, the sheer size of the portfolio should be enough to match and exceed prospect requirements.
If you look at the feature set evolution (pictured below), it’s a significant platform to the one the public discovered nearly a decade ago.
The opportunity for Zoom:
The brand familiarity is there. Even if Zoom is synonymous with video only, this is a good thing.
Who is top of mind when it comes to video conferencing? Zoom. Well, what else does Zoom do? Maybe Zoom provides this other cloud tech product my business needs?
These are all possible scenarios in the mind of an IT buyer. What’s more, in larger businesses where meetings may be the only Zoom product consumed, questions are being asked about meeting room technology and telephony. There is a natural extension even when Zoom is “just video”.
Conclusion: Zoom’s second act
Zoom survived the post-pandemic cool-down by diversifying into phone and contact center, amassing seven million paid Zoom Phone seats (as of Q3 2024) and proving it can win five-figure CCaaS deals. Its competitive edge now lies less in glossy meetings and more in AI-pervasive workflows and interop pragmatism.
Yet challenges persist.
Monetizing its free user base, sustaining revenue growth, and fending off Microsoft’s bundled Copilot assault must be top of mind. This will be partially armed by the introduction of new enterprise security features and continual improvement of its AI models.
If Zoom can translate AI Companion enthusiasm into paid stickiness—and keep tightening its embrace of rival ecosystems—it stands a real chance of writing a second growth chapter.
Zoom in 2025 is no longer “just video”. It’s a true ecosystem—and the meeting is only the beginning.
