There's a new UCaaS provider in town, Switch.co, and it's targeting the neglected market of Google Apps users. It has a great concept, but finding a home for itself won't be easy.
Google Apps, which was estimated to have as high as 50% market share for cloud-based productivity suites in 2012, includes Hangouts for instant messaging and presence (IM/p). However, the service doesn't yet have an API to allow IM/p in Hangouts to be accessible to third-party applications. Switch.co, along with other third-party integrations, will need to overcome this and other barriers to creating an integrated Google Apps experience.
Most organizations choose between two mainstream approaches for their productivity and email needs -- the Microsoft Office suite (private or hosted) and Google Apps. While the Office/Exchange side is well covered for voice integrations, (EVERY major UC vendor integrates with Exchange), the Google Apps ecosystem is significantly smaller. However, it has been growing steadily.
A key component of any UC implementation is IM/p, the oldest of the "new" communication modes popularized over a decade ago with services from AOL and Yahoo. The three basic camps for IM/p today are Microsoft with Lync and/or Skype, Google Hangouts, or a third-party solution typically implemented across a single organization.
Team: Led by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, the twisted pair that previously launched DialPad (sold to Yahoo) and GrandCentral (sold to Google); team also includes veterans Dulce Ramirez and T.R. Missner and about 60 developers
Backed by: VC firms including Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures
Claim to fame: Began life as Firespotter, creator of UberConference. For now, UberConference remains a standalone service but will eventually integrate with Switch.co
