customers.
roughout our portfolio
Sangoma is not in the market
to compete on price. We have
the same feature set on our
on-premises solutions as we have
in our cloud options. Standard
features include call recording,
IVR, call queuing based on skills
routing and wait times. A basic
contact centre is also included as
is a client softphone for desktop
and mobile calling. We also have
our own headsets and session
border controllers.
Like many suppliers today
we are seeing a huge surge in
demand for home working
solutions.”
UC Product Director for
Wavenet, Barry Ward says that
at the start of the year, when it
came to IP Telephony, they were
nding that everyone wanted to
have all the features and benets
for the lowest possible price.
“Collaboration was just a nice
thing to have. Today however,
enabling collaboration is the
number one priority.
Users want a single interface
on the desk to enable eective
collaboration and their product
of choice to achieve this goal is
Microsoft Teams and that single
application, a transition from
desk phones to softphones, is now
driving the market.
Wavenet has a number of
solutions for our users including
Broadcloud, Teams with direct
routing and WebEx calling – you
could say we are experiencing
application creep! Organisations
want more than direct routing
with Teams, they want to know if
we can link existing PBX and add
more features.
As far as applications are
concerned our channels are
saying they want instant
messaging and external video
which is proving to be a big
driver, obviously with voice.
Oce 365 resellers are picking up
on this but there is a clamour for
Microsoft to release an API that
will enable call recording that can
provide regulatory compliance.”
Integrations
“We want to make sure that our
customers can access the tools
they want to build with,” says
Myles Leach, Managing Director
at NFON UK.
“If you want to put an
enterprise PBX on the back of
what you already have – that’s
ne with us. We believe the key
to success is to ensure you really
are dierentiating with a better
service and product suite. A big
benet of our cloud telephony
system is the fact that you can
sell an array of value-added
services around it. For example,
our integration with Microsoft
Teams changes the economics
for full-blown UC, unlocking its
capabilities for the SMB market.”
Justin Hamilton-Martin,
Myles Leach, MD at NFON
Director at Centile, “In the shortterm,
there is a strong message
around the real cost of using
consumer-grade tools.
Rather than a business buying
a bunch of disparate tools for
sta, the channel can provide
added-value, such as integrations,
support, and extra features and
functionality. Also, a bunch of
consumer-grade tools that do
not integrate and may not have
the scalability or enterprisegrade
security of other solutions
can bring risk and reduced
productivity. Why not hand
everything over to the channel,
and let them do all the work?
Integrations are a great
gateway to dierentiation, for
the channel to do things their
way, not dictated by vendors, or
locked-in to rigid solutions that
can look the same as each other.
Some channel companies just
want to resell a simple solution,
but we see more wanting to create
their own service packages and
to brand white-label solutions as
their own. From there, they can
CHANNEL
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target verticals, which I believe
has been often overlooked but
maintains big potential. Of
course, all this depends on having
a platform that makes integration
of multiple apps possible and
simple through powerful, open
APIs.
Also, people talk about
Microsoft Teams being a possible
killer, but if you can integrate it
into your own UC solution, then
it becomes an opportunity.”
Peter Oosthuizen, London
Partner Sales Manager for
Spitre, says application
integration with the likes of
O365 or Outlook are already
commonplace in the more
advanced systems like 3CX.
“However, the key question
is what level of integration is
required? Click to dial, contact
pop ups, report generation or
maybe integration is needed to
meet compliance? A company
must establish the level of
integration and the benet/value
that brings to a business.
As a channel provider it is
essential we deliver exibility
with our 3CX oering so our
partners can design bespoke
PBX solutions with the necessary
integration available to maximise
cost vs benet for their customers.
You should also consider
process integrations i.e. can you
ensure your call recordings meet
compliance? Is your approach
to security compatible with
your phone system? Our voice
environment includes additional
integration such as Retell to oer
MiFID II & PCI compliant
call recording as well as FTP
storage to store recorded calls,
all of which are available as tools
for us to design the right PBX
with the appropriate thirdparty
integration to maximise
productivity for the customer.”
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