MARKET REPORT Microsoft
“If you are simply providing Office 365 licences with no consideration for integration
or process development, then you are missing opportunities to upsell and engage
with customers.” Antony Black, Director of Wholesale, Wavenet
Mark Whitehead, MD of VoIPcloud Wholesale
design and delivery of Direct
Routing is critical. Features
such as emergency service
routing, direct integration
into carrier networks, billing
and fraud management are
often overlooked, yet they
are gradually becoming more
important in our increasingly
mobile workforce.”
I asked the same question to
Claire Makin, Voice Product
Manager at Digital Wholesale
Solutions. She said “By
choosing the right partner, yes.
Ease of consumption is one
of the biggest elements of a
product’s success, and this is
where some IT providers and
Microsoft partners may struggle
with telecom integration. In
the UK we have numerous
regulatory items to consider,
plus we have a complex calling
network tiers and pricing
structures. It is not easy for IT
companies to provide and bill
a call service which is, without
a doubt, why there is a Direct
Routing option in the rst
instance.
Flip the scenario on its head:
telecoms providers can do
the calling side with ease, but
ask a telecoms provider to use
PowerShell (the con guration
and management framework
from Microsoft), and they
become stuck. What the
channel needs is an integrator
that can handle both sides of
the equation and make it easy
for providers to put our calling
services into the Microsoft
solution. I think in the next
couple of months the channel
will see a variety of products
that o er such services which
will allow providers with all
skillsets to enter the Direct
Routing marketplace.”
Makin added, “Microsoft
Business Voice can be added
into Teams to provide a PSTN
breakout but is limited in terms
of features. Direct Routing is
without a doubt an easy way to
provide value to both the seller
and the Teams user too. e
ideal direct routing voice service
would provide every feature
we receive on a UC platform,
alongside enhanced features like
call centre capability, compliant
call recording, call analytics
and CRM integrations. e
possibilities of true integrated
uni ed collaboration between
teams on telephony increases
users’ productivity and allow
di erent revenue streams for the
channel.”
Mark Whitehead, MD of
VoIPcloud Wholesale said
“Microsoft and launched Teams
to their Indirect CSPs and given
a date to end life for Skype for
Business. I believe it is more a
question of, is the reseller better
o buying MS Phone System or
accessing MS Teams through
a telecoms company that has
invested in Direct Routing
and are pulling PBX features
through their own hosted
solution? Going for the latter
gives the resellers more features
and better margins. After all,
Microsoft are many things but
are not a telecoms company!
You don’t need to be an Indirect
Microsoft CSP and the revenue
is not rebate based.
“Many resellers already
provide Microsoft licencing
or manage them for their
customers. Putting Teams voice
add-ons to their service o ering
enables the reseller to add a call
revenues to per seat monthly
revenues, increasing shareholder
value. MSPs have taken full
advance of moving customers
to Azure over the last couple of
years and now they can do the
same with hosted/voice revenues
through MS Teams.”
The Fear Factor
Microsoft has been seen as a
threat for the Channel for many
years, with the investment in
their Channel programmes and
tens of thousands of partners
now onboard have the fears now
subsided?
Wake eld says “As a Channel
Partner, the key questions will
always be, “Where do I add
value?” and “How do I make
any money?”. It’s in Microsoft’s
interests to support the Channel
as a critical route to market,
particularly with the blurring
of the lines between traditional
IT and Telecoms partners and
enabling active users as opposed
to simply selling licences.
Equally, Microsoft have taken
a strategic decision through
“Direct Routing” and their API
programme to support partners
to drive their UC proposition
and Teams enablement. ey
will continue to be dominant
partner in any relationship but
for the rst time in at least a
decade, this currently feels like
a real opportunity.”
Makin added, “In July last
year Gartner published an
article with a bold statement
which made everyone a little
nervous within our industry, ‘by
2023, 40% of new enterprise
telephony purchases…will be
either Microsoft or Google’.
ere is no denying that Teams
>
DISTIE VIEW
IAN BRINDLE, HEAD OF UC DEVICES AT NIMANS
CBM: Where can partners add maximum value around Teams?
“Regarding Teams as a licence-based solution, there are very few
resellers that offer the full 100% end to end solution. The majority
of Microsoft partners are heavily focused on the deployment of the
solution. From an end point perspective they often walk away from
the opportunity – be it handset, headset, audio or video. The systems
integrators tend to fi ll the gap and even Microsoft themselves have gone
into the hardware market, but not been successful. It’s not their forte.
The majority of our traction from Teams is coming from an audience
of systems integrators. With the high touch we provide though those
partners it covers proof of concept workshops so the end user knows
they are selecting the right products in a market which tends to be
65% headset and 35% desktop plus audio and video conferencing
on the back of that. It’s important to understand the DNA of a user’s
environment and the different type of roles they deploy. There’s more
and more choice now as manufacturers recognise the scale and volume
of the opportunity.”
32 | Comms Business Magazine | February 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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