Oosthuizen says that Spitre
also understands there is no one
size ts all in the channel.
“Instead we oer a range of
products, services and methods
of delivery to ensure a bespoke
designed solution for the end
user. e dierent methods of
delivery also provide exibility
to channel partners when
building these products into
their portfolio.
For those who are cost
conscious but still require a
feature rich telephony solution
without compromising on
quality we have built Hosted
PBX 2.1. Not only does this
deliver all the features you
would expect from a cloud-based
PBX, it benets from Spitre’s
expertise and dedicated voice
network, providing assured voice
quality at all times.
Hosted PBX 2.1 is still
however an incredibly feature
rich system, with everything
available out of the box. It
provides expected standard
PBX features, everything from
call routing/auto-attendant/
voicemail/conference calls
all the way up to soft phone
functionality and a sophisticated
web-based management console.
e bigger picture with this is
that our partners are empowered
to make a lot of the changes
to their end user’s system
themselves– leading to a more
streamlined experience.
Do partners still want to own
the customer in the UK? We
have seen the prevalence
of the dealer models work in
other markets, but will that
translate to our shores?
As solutions become more
complex do partners really
want to construct their own
offerings and take the best
of breed services? Is that
even necessary in 2020 and
beyond?
Adam Wilson, Regional
Channel Manager (EMEA)
for Vonage considers the UK
is displaying a gradual move
towards a referral-based channel
model in some use cases.
“I believe a key driver in
the communications use case
to be the public cloud, which
is becoming more and more
trusted by businesses to full
their communications needs.
As organisations move from
on-premises, to hosted, to
private cloud and then to public
cloud the value exchange in the
channel must adapt - meaning
that the value proposition
between the vendor and the
channel partner must change
(as long as the vendor is willing
to trade value!) Before it might
have been that the channel
partner looked after the data
centre or the computing,
storage and networking
required to develop a solution
for the customer, but with a
public cloud delivered solution
from the vendor there’s no need.
If vendors feel they can deliver
more of the overall solution
and at scale (thanks to public
cloud technology) then the role
of a channel partner naturally
changes and what we’re seeing is
a gradual emergence of a trusted
advisor model.
is drives adoption of
the referral model as trusted
advisors don’t have the resource
or interest in owning the
contract with the customer.
Many VARs and MSPs
have spent years developing
their businesses; becoming
specialists in their elds
with very well qualied sta
across sales, sales engineering,
project management / service
delivery and support services.
Switching from a reseller model
that allows them to extract
value from the customer for
delivering complex IT solutions
to a trusted advisor model that
provides incentives by way of
sales referral commissions will
not take place overnight!”
Peter Oosthuizen for Spitre
recognises as a channel provider
that the key is exibility.
“We need to move in the
direction the market moves. We
have a spectrum of oerings
from full partner managed
solutions to 100% resell. We
need to be able to deliver cloud
PBX products in dierent ways,
in dierent voice environments
using dierent support levels
and pricing models. We also
continue to develop our own
platform as customers/partners
requirements change and they
tell us what they want out of
their telephony solution.”
Dave Reynolds, Managing
Dave Reynolds, UK Managing Director - Xelion
Director at Xelion says he has
seen the prevalence of the dealer
models work in other markets,
but will that translate to our
shores?
“As solutions become more
complex do partners really want
to construct their own oerings
and take the best of breed
services? Is that even necessary
in 2020 and beyond?
is is the RingCentral
question isn’t it? My answer is
that absolutely yes, the partner
wants to own the customer
in the UK. I can’t ever see a
scenario where the partner
would not want to own the
customer. If you want to build
a business, you have to own the
customer – it’s where the value
is which is why we only operate
a reseller model.
I’m aware in other markets
the agent/dealer model is the
norm, but it will never work
here in the UK.”
OVER A DECADE
OF DEVELOPING & DELIVERING RELIABLE TECHNOLOGY M Y P H O N E S . C O M
www.commsbusiness.co.uk IP Telephony 2020 | 19
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/