Mitel Preps API for Unified Communications

Now that Mitel has decided to focus all of its efforts on unified communications, CEO Rich McBee says Mitel is in the final stages of readying an application programming interface (API) that will foster integration with a wide variety of third-party applications and services.

McBee says CloudLink will also be instrumental in ushering in a new era of “microapps” spanning everything from integration with Amazon Echo voice-controlled devices to even rival unified communications platforms.

As a practical matter, McBee says, the average IT organization can’t afford to rip and replace all the investments they’ve made over the years in existing communications systems and applications. They are now looking to Mitel for new unified communications applications as well as ways to integrate with collaboration applications from, for example, Cisco and Microsoft that are delivered as a cloud service.

“We’re entering a great period of cooperation,” says McBee.

As part of that effort, McBee says, Mitel will be making investments in everything from bots that turn call centers into omni-channel platforms to mass notification applications that can be employed by emergency responders.

Many of those applications, adds McBee, will be delivered as a cloud service as Mitel looks to increase the amount of recurring revenue it generates annually.

Like a lot of companies that have their roots in telephony, Mitel is essentially trying to reinvent itself in an age when all types of workflows are about to be transformed by various forms of digital communications. None of that, however, will be achievable without first putting in place a robust set of APIs that make crafting those workflows a whole lot simpler.