Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise’s Cloud Sales Continue to Surge
On May 24, 2021, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) briefed on its Q1 performance for FY21. FY20 saw ALE’s global revenues impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and these effects continue to ripple into FY21. While global cloud sales continue to dominate, alongside a strong quarter in China, global revenue was down 5% year-over-year (YoY).
ALE continues to see strong performances with its cloud products, particularly its Rainbow unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution. Sales for cloud products were up 64%. The sale of terminals is also performing well, up 7% YoY. There are now 26,500 Rainbow subscribers, up from 24,500 in FY20 Q1. Regionally, sales in China were up 140%, with an overall strong quarter for APAC sales.
However, overall revenues continue to stay down. SMBs were down nine percent, MLEs were down 17%, and overall global revenue was down 5%. One of the major reasons for these results was chalked up to a lack of penetration for IP products in MLEs.
Our Take
The global growth in cloud-based solutions is fueling ALE’s revenue comeback, with a strong performance in China setting a foundation for continued APAC gains. However, given ALE’s largest market share is in EMEA, particularly in France, it’s a continuing headache to see sales flatline in this region.
However, with Rainbow’s building popularity, ALE is holding course. As the year goes on and hybrid work reaches the forefront of each region ALE plays in, demand may begin to uptick as offices get their transformations underway to accommodate the return to in-office work.
SoftwareReviews UCaaS Data Quadrant. Accessed 31 May 2021.