DEMAND
CREATION
and services across the board.
“What users want from
solutions in 2019 and what they
are going to actually receive may
well be two di erent things. With
focus tending to revolve around
new features sets and uni ed
communications, providers may
well be using a hammer to crack
a nut (the nut being the majority
of businesses they provide for).
For smaller businesses with a
speci c need and limited budget,
these developments can be
overwhelming and simply not
nancially feasible.
is year, VoIP providers
should be o ering their customers
what they actually need: real
choice. From the features and
functionality that their business
needs, to their licensing models
and commercials, genuinely
tailored solutions is set to be the
2019 must-have customers want.”
What’s Next?
Tom Maxwell, Nimans’ Head
of Channel Sales, believes the
next chapter in hosted telephony
represents a golden reseller
opportunity.
“Ultimately it’s about pushing
people up the margin stack and
how you can help and enable
a business get more out of
their communications. at is
predominately about arti cial
intelligence and having the
ability to assess every single call.
Pushing the standards up, which
helps with training to enable sales
to rise. It’s making everything
and everybody more e cient.
A new era in hosted
communication is dawning with
many new dimensions.
Some of the latest
developments include a UC
application that sits on a platform
and enables users to interact with
instant messaging and share
documents. Exciting times are
ahead.
Businesses need to see a
return from their investment in
a hosted voice solution which
should always deliver value to any
comms estate through enhanced
productivity tools - underpinned
by a series of security policies
that mitigate risk for partners
and their customers. Security
and risk mitigation, business
continuity and also compliance
are all important factors resellers
should consider when choosing a
platform.
According to Dave
Reynolds,XelionUK Managing
Director, SME customers want
the best of both worlds, they like
the familiarity of the traditional
telephony feature set alongside all
the bene ts that UC and Fixed
Mobile Convergence brings.
“ e key drivers for user
demand are xed-mobile
convergence and UC. To meet
these needs reseller’s must o er
a hosted solution in which
mobile working is integral to the
hosted service and not a tacked
on afterthought. And for UC
resellers must o er a solution that
is easy to integrate with other
back-o ce solutions such as such
as CRM systems, MS Exchange
and O ce 365.
For mobile working Xelion
has standardised patented
apps for desktop, mobile and
tablet providing users with the
same interface, making it easy
to use the solution anywhere,
anytime. e Xelion platform
is also licenced by users, not by
devices. is means every user
can have the Xelion desktop
client, mobile app and physical
phone as standard on a single user
license. With the boom in mobile
working this is a real cost bene t
for customers and a great selling
Dave Reynolds,XelionUK Managing Director
point for partners.
To support UC solutions
Xelion has an open architecture.
RESTful APIs allow third-party
apps to be integrated seamlessly
with the service, allowing
partners to design bespoke
solutions for customers with
best of breed apps. Xelion o ers
an Integration Market Place,
providing partners with ‘prepackaged’
integration between
the Xelion platform and a host
of leading CRMs and other
applications freeing partners from
spending time, and expenditure
programming interfaces.”
Reseller Comment
Adam Freeman of Glemnet says
users are looking for simplicity.
“Most SME’s are very
comfortable and familiar with
their current on-premise PBX,
so they want simplicity when
moving to a hosted platform.
ey mostly want additional
features but not all at once, so
we nd simple features like
voicemail to email, and being
able to manage call forwards are
easy wins with SME’s. ey’re
easy for them to understand
without confusing them with the
more advanced features of our
softphone client or mobile client.”
Freeman cautions, it’s key for
us to know who we’re dealing
with and what level of knowledge
they already have on IP telephony
/ SIP so we can ensure we’re
speaking in a language they
understand.
“One SME will be up to speed
on what SIP and the cloud is and
will already be using it in their
personal life, another will have
no clue of the cloud so it’s vital
that we explain the concept of
IP and the cloud in very simple
language.
e exibility and scalability
of a hosted solution. Hosted
or SIP solutions are no longer
location dependant, so they
don’t need to be concerned
with moving o ce and losing
numbers, or expensive engineer
call outs to move on premise kit
and phone lines. Functionality
that enables Flexible and home
working is a big winner.”
28 | IP Telephony 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk