Verizon's audio conferencing solution was awarded the 2017 North American Audio Conferencing Product Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan. The summary recognizes that Verizon focuses on high-quality audio which accounts for 60% of its conferencing revenue and is the foundation for many deployments. Verizon offers flexible audio solutions to meet diverse needs and ensures reliability through quality monitoring and engineering services. This focus on dependable audio positions Verizon for continued growth and leadership in the conferencing market.

1. 2017 North American Audio Conferencing
Product Leadership Award

2. BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH
© Frost & Sullivan 2017 2 “We Accelerate Growth”
Contents
Background and Company Performance ........................................................................3
Industry Challenges..............................................................................................3
Product Family Attributes and Business Impact ........................................................3
Conclusion...........................................................................................................5
Significance of Product Leadership................................................................................6
Understanding Product Leadership................................................................................6
Key Benchmarking Criteria ....................................................................................7
Best Practices Award Analysis for Verizon......................................................................7
Decision Support Scorecard ...................................................................................7
Product Family Attributes ......................................................................................8
Business Impact...................................................................................................8
Decision Support Matrix ........................................................................................9
Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best
Practices .................................................................................................................10
The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards.....................11
Research Methodology ........................................................................................11
About Frost & Sullivan ..............................................................................................11

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Background and Company Performance
Industry Challenges
The conferencing industry is in a state of evolution, with many service providers striving
to add new features and capabilities to increase the usefulness and overall return on
investment (ROI) of their solutions. Video, screen sharing, collaborative functionality, and
other advanced features have quickly grown in importance, and are often a necessary
component for attracting new clients. Thus, these added capabilities have quickly evolved
from being value added features to being client-expected functionality.
However, despite their potential benefits and ability to attract new customers, advanced
features are used far less than basic audio functionality in most organizations. Thus,
many adopting organizations are purchasing solutions based on features that might see
little internal adoption or use. However, companies which focus on, and improve, their
audio capabilities and reliability, are likely to experience the highest level of customer
satisfaction and long-term retention. Due to this, audio is still the most important aspect
of a conferencing and collaboration solution.
Verizon offers an industry-leading audio conferencing solution, which is easily integrated
with web and video services as well. Verizon’s approach to focus on audio first also places
the real-world requirements of end users first, thus fostering conferencing and
collaboration deployments which emphasize end-user satisfaction and operational
efficiency.
Product Family Attributes and Business Impact
Match to Needs
The needs of the conferencing industry often differ substantially from the wants of the
conferencing industry. The only consistent component across both needs and wants is
reliable, high-quality audio conferencing capabilities. Audio conferencing is at the heart of
every conferencing and collaboration deployment, and is the one critical component that
cannot be allowed to fail or under-perform. When video, screen sharing, or collaborative
document editing fail, the meeting can continue; however, this is simply not true with the
audio component of a conference. If audio is allowed to fail, or the service degrades
substantially, it impacts the conference more adversely than any other component of the
system.
Thus, Verizon’s dedication to call quality and reliability, coupled with its video and web
capabilities through strategic partnerships, allows the provider to focus most on what is
important to clients. Verizon currently offers High-quality audio performance and
reliability; which accounts for the majority of their revenue within the conferencing and
collaboration industry.

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Currently, Verizon offers four tier levels of audio service to meet the diverse needs of
clients, including: instant meeting, unattended, standard, and premier service. These
meeting categories incorporate varying levels of services ranging from bare-bones audio
conferencing to fully managed meetings with multiple conference coordinators and
available participant list data. Additionally, Verizon also offers both IP and Public Switched
Telephone Network (PSTN) access capabilities, which can be used exclusively or in a
hybrid configuration. This allows for more flexibility than traditional IP or PSTN audio
conferencing services.
Reliability and Quality
The single most requested improvement to conferencing technology by clients throughout
the industry is audio quality. Adopting organizations throughout the industry rely on the
audio component of their conferencing and collaboration deployment the most. Thus,
while features and new capabilities may help draw new clients to a solution, audio is the
necessary component for keeping clients satisfied with the solution.
Verizon’s audio capabilities are extremely dependable and reliably offer a high level of
quality of service; with some of their service levels offering periodic or continuous
monitoring of the quality of service. This not only ensures that the call quality is of a
high-standard, but also results in quick resolution to any issues that may arise during a
conference call. Additionally, Verizon offers network engineering and consulting services,
which can mitigate or prevent potential quality of service issues before they ever become
a problem.
Positioning
Although adopting organizations and those considering adoption generally have an
extensive list of desired features when shopping for conferring solutions, this rarely
translates directly to features that will be utilized throughout the organization. This is
because the list of desired features more accurately reflects what IT personnel and key
decision makers believe is ideal for each department in their company, rather than what
their employees are comfortable using, and familiar enough with to be efficient while
using.
Verizon has positioned their audio service to adhere to the needs of a broad range of
adopting organizations from low-cost, instant meetings, to large, managed presentations.
Verizon also offers IP and PSTN hybrid flexibility, as well as active quality monitoring to
ensure the integrity of the conference call. In addition, Verizon’s engineering and
consulting services can address and optimize client networks for audio conferencing. This
includes, level balancing, duplex settings, bandwidth utilization, SIP configuration, and
addressing packet send and receive issues. Thus, Verizon’s audio capabilities are uniquely
positioned to be competitive in all audio conferencing use-cases, while upholding high
standards for quality.

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Additionally, Verizon offers a compelling combination of many other unique features,
which allows them to be used in demanding applications with unique needs. Some of
these features include: audio translation in over 120 different languages, saved/re-
playable conferences, participant screening, polling, question and answer functionality,
sub conferencing, Web RSVP, conference room locking, two factor authentication, and
meeting transcription.
Financial Performance
Verizon’s dedication to the reliability and quality of audio can be seen in their overall
market performance in audio conferencing, as well as web conferencing and video
conferencing. However, currently 60% of Verizon’s revenue in the conferencing service
market comes from their robust audio conferencing offering. Due to audio playing a role
in all of these markets, Verizon maintains a strong overall conferencing and collaboration
industry presence and subsequent growth rate. Additionally, Frost & Sullivan anticipates
that their strong audio performance will also help Verizon have a high level of customer
retention as the web and video conferencing markets mature. While it is common for
clients to change the web or video components of their deployment, the
proven/dependable audio component is far less likely to be changed.
Growth Potential
Verizon is expected to continue to grow in audio, video and web conferencing, while
maintaining a high level of customer retention. While much of this growth is due to new
features and capabilities, customer satisfaction and retention is reliant on Verizon’s audio
capabilities. Despite industry growth shifting toward web and video services, Frost &
Sullivan anticipates that Verizon’s audio services will remain the foundation for countless
current and future conferencing and collaboration deployments.
Conclusion
As one of the three largest audio conferencing providers in North America, and a strong
competitor in web and video conferencing, Verizon continues to have an impactful
presence on the overall conferencing and collaboration market. Its dedication to quality
audio and expansion through partnered web and video services will both secure its
existing customer base and enable the provider to continue to expand outside of pure
audio. Its strategic approach to this industry greatly improves Verizon end-users’
efficiency and ability to perform their job tasks.
With its strong overall performance, Verizon has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Product
Leadership Award.

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Significance of Product Leadership
Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from a
company and then making the decision to return time and again. A comprehensive
product line, filled with high-quality, value-driven options, is the key to building an
engaged customer base. To achieve and maintain product excellence, an organization
must strive to be best-in-class in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the
brand, and differentiating from the competition.
Understanding Product Leadership
Demand forecasting, branding, and differentiating all play a critical role in finding growth
opportunities for your product line. This three-fold focus, however, must be complemented
by an equally rigorous focus on pursuing those opportunities to a best-in-class standard.
Customer communications, customer feedback, pricing, and competitor actions must all be
managed and monitored for ongoing success. If an organization can successfully parlay

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product excellence into positive business impact, increased market share will inevitably
follow over time.
Key Benchmarking Criteria
For the Product Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated two
key factors—Product Family Attributes and Business Impact—according to the criteria
identified below.
Product Family Attributes
Criterion 1: Match to Needs
Criterion 2: Reliability and Quality
Criterion 3: Product/Service Value
Criterion 4: Positioning
Criterion 5: Design
Business Impact
Criterion 1: Financial Performance
Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition
Criterion 3: Operational Efficiency
Criterion 4: Growth Potential
Criterion 5: Human Capital
Best Practices Award Analysis for Verizon
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 Product Family Attributes and Business
Impact (i.e., These are the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria; the
definitions for each criterion are provided beneath the scorecard.). The research team

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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
participants as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.
Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)
Product Leadership
Product Family
Attributes
Business
Impact
Average
Rating
Verizon 9.0 10.0 9.5
Competitor 2 9.0 9.0 9.0
Competitor 3 8.0 7.5 7.75
Product Family Attributes
Criterion 1: Match to Needs
Requirement: Customer needs directly influence and inspire the design and positioning of
the product family.
Criterion 2: Reliability and Quality
Requirement: Products consistently meet or exceed customer expectations for
performance and length of service.
Criterion 3: Product/Service Value
Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar
offerings in the market.
Criterion 4: Positioning
Requirement: Products or services address unique, unmet need that competitors cannot
easily replicate or replace.
Criterion 5: Design
Requirement: The product features an innovative design, enhancing both visual appeal
and ease of use.
Business Impact
Criterion 1: Financial Performance
Requirement: Overall financial performance is strong in terms of revenues, revenue
growth, operating margin, and other key financial metrics.
Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition
Requirement: Product strength enables acquisition of new customers, even as it enhances
retention of current customers.

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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: Product quality strengthens brand, reinforces customer loyalty, and
enhances growth potential.
Criterion 5: Human Capital
Requirement: Company culture is characterized by a strong commitment to product
quality and customer impact, which in turn enhances employee morale and retention.
Decision Support Matrix
Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,
analysts 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
BusinessImpact
Product Family Attributes
Verizon
Competitor 2
Competitor 3

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Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching,
Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices
Frost & Sullivan analysts follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and
assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the
Awards are based on close adherence to this process.
STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT
1
Monitor,
target, and
screen
Identify Award recipient
candidates from around the
globe
• Conduct in-depth industry
research
• Identify emerging sectors
• Scan multiple geographies
Pipeline of candidates who
potentially meet all best-
practice criteria
2
Perform
360-degree
research
Perform comprehensive,
360-degree research on all
candidates in the pipeline
• Interview thought leaders
and industry practitioners
• Assess candidates’ fit with
best-practice criteria
• Rank all candidates
Matrix positioning of all
candidates’ performance
relative to one another
3
Invite
thought
leadership in
best
practices
Perform in-depth
examination of all candidates
• Confirm best-practice criteria
• Examine eligibility of all
candidates
• Identify any information gaps
Detailed profiles of all
ranked candidates
4
Initiate
research
director
review
Conduct an unbiased
evaluation of all candidate
profiles
• Brainstorm ranking options
• Invite multiple perspectives
on candidates’ performance
• Update candidate profiles
Final prioritization of all
eligible candidates and
companion best-practice
positioning paper
5
Assemble
panel of
industry
experts
Present findings to an expert
panel of industry thought
leaders
• Share findings
• Strengthen cases for
candidate eligibility
• Prioritize candidates
Refined list of prioritized
Award candidates
6
Conduct
global
industry
review
Build consensus on Award
candidates’ eligibility
• Hold global team meeting to
review all candidates
• Pressure-test fit with criteria
• Confirm inclusion of all
eligible candidates
Final list of eligible Award
candidates, representing
success stories worldwide
7
Perform
quality check
Develop official Award
consideration materials
• Perform final performance
benchmarking activities
• Write nominations
• Perform quality review
High-quality, accurate, and
creative presentation of
nominees’ successes
8
Reconnect
with panel of
industry
experts
Finalize the selection of the
best-practice Award recipient
• Review analysis with panel
• Build consensus
• Select recipient
Decision on which company
performs best against all
best-practice criteria
9
Communicate
recognition
Inform Award recipient of
Award recognition
• Present Award to the CEO
• Inspire the organization for
continued success
• Celebrate the recipient’s
performance
Announcement of Award
and plan for how recipient
can use the Award to
enhance the brand
10
Take
strategic
action
Upon licensing, company is
able to share Award news
with stakeholders and
customers
• Coordinate media outreach
• Design a marketing plan
• Assess Award’s role in future
strategic planning
Widespread awareness of
recipient’s Award status
among investors, media
personnel, and employees

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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 participants and for identifying
those performing at best-in-class levels.
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
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research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation
of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages more than 50 years of
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please visit http://www.frost.com.
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