MARKET REPORT Microsoft
Adding value
around Microsoft
With over half of businesses using Offi ce 365 to run their day to day processes many are looking at rapidly
adopting other parts of the Microsoft offering. In this feature we will look at where partners can add value
around Microsoft products to ensure they stay transacting via a partner and gain the most out of the
Microsoft suite
2020 has been tipped as
a major breakout year
for certain Microsoft
services, namely
Teams. I asked the market
where partners could add the
maximum value around the
vendor.
Paul Wake eld, SIP
Trunking Product Manager at
Gamma commented “ ere’s
a role for the Channel in both
enabling Microsoft services,
supporting deployment
through professional
services; technical expertise,
customer service and product
di erentiation. e value
to the user is that they are
provided with an end-toend
working solution that
meets their business needs.
Microsoft Phone System
isn’t a fully- edged PBX
replacement today, although
the development programme is
heavily resourced and catching
up quickly. is allows for
opportunities for feature and
service enhancements, either
lling current feature gaps
or augmenting the capability
with integrated services such as
cloud contact centre, business
analytics; PCI services or other
“niche” capabilities.”
Antony Black, Director
of Wholesale, Wavenet says
“Specialisation and strong
customer relationships are
key to driving the maximum
value from Microsoft and for
most partners, it is completely
dependent on their previous
expertise and current focus.
If you are simply providing
O ce 365 licences with no
consideration for integration
or process development, then
you are missing opportunities
to upsell and engage with
customers.
Adding calling into teams
still requires high levels of skill
and knowledge, for example
ensuring call ows, porting
and billing can all be delivered
successfully, especially at scale.
However, whilst Microsoft are
delivering great infrastructure
and technology, not all
businesses have the technical
know-how to set up these
solutions themselves, therefore
the reseller’s proposition and
continuing support are key
drivers for adoption.
With our acquisition of
VIA, a channel-focused
provider of external calling
and full-featured Uni ed
Communications capabilities
for Microsoft Teams, we have
signi cantly increased our
capabilities and technical
expertise in delivering and
supporting value-added
services for MS Teams. e
VIA UC platform provides
a visual management portal
enabling partners to fully
manage all our unique and
advanced calling features,
simply and easily in just a few
clicks. e acquisition of VIA
will further help our partners
support customers making the
move from Skype for Business
to Teams, in advance of the
Skype for Business Online endof
life of in July 2021.”
Andrew Graves – Presales
Technical Consultant,
Microsoft Specialist - Nuvias
UC said, “Along with Direct
Routing, the wide range of
peripheral products which
are required for a smooth
migration to Teams represents
a huge opportunity for channel
partners to add signi cant
VENDOR VIEW
PAUL DUNNE, SENIOR DIRECTOR, CHANNELS AND
ALLIANCES, EMEA - POLY
“As organisations opt to rationalise their property footprint and
encourage their associates to work remotely and fl exibly, this drives
real competitive advantage for the organisations that embrace this
methodology and also creates challenges in relation to how remote and
fl exible workers collaborate. There are now numerous companies offering
solutions to this challenge including Microsoft with Teams.
Collaboration can mean may things, including fi le sharing and
persistent chat. Once Teams is used as a real time communications
platform, this gives Poly partners an incredible opportunity to create
value around Teams and ultimately drive the adoption of Teams. Poly
and our partners have created a one-stop shop for your organisations
as they make the journey to Microsoft Teams for both personal and
group collaboration needs.
It’s not just about offering the most, or the best, unifi ed
communications and collaboration products that power Microsoft
Teams experiences, which we do. It’s about giving customers a
complete integrated end-to-end Teams solution set. The result is loyal
customers who stay with our partners because they are equipped to
give end users everything they need, including pre-sales consulting
and post-sale support.”
Andrew Graves – Pre-sales
Technical Consultant, Microsoft
Specialist - Nuvias UC
30 | Comms Business Magazine | February 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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