Unifi ed Communications MARKET REPORT
“UC is about bringing teams along with their customers closer together and allowing them to communicate
effectively using whatever they have to hand.”
Ian Rowan, UK Channel Manager, Wildix
“Our conversations and our
partners’ conversations are now
gravitating around the topics of
customer experience, i.e. how will
this enhance the service I provide
and how will it ensure I am being
compliant and protecting my
business and employees?
If you are able to demonstrate
the ability to enhance customer
experience, integrate back o ce
systems, move away hardware,
do away with CAPEX, improve
internal collaboration and
communication, mitigate
downtime, and show cost control
and then achieve compliance – a
recent hot topic of conversation
- you’re more than likely to whet
the appetite for a SME.
at can obviously be a
license-based model on number
of users, but it can also be a
more traditional conversation
about being able to o er an
upgrade path by perhaps scally
supporting the buy-out of a
contract.
As we become embedded
in an age where
customer reviews
and referrals reign
supreme, the
ability to be agile
enough to the
communication
demands of
customers is key.
at can mean a
>
even if the knowledge gap around
technology exists - as it invariably
does for many business people.
Bringing to life and talking
business challenge, rather than
tech jargon, is the key driver for
our conversations in this space.”
John McKindland, Head of
Solution Sales, Nimans, makes
a useful point when he says
rationalisation of the supply chain
can be a driver.
“Go back ve or six years and
people were buying UC products
from multiple suppliers. Now
through enhanced distribution,
the headset, the handset, the
connectivity and everything else
can be sourced from the same
place.”
What business outcomes are the
hot buttons to press for SMEs?
As with any technology, says
Ian Rowan, if it’s not easy to use
or needs weeks of planning to
implement, then the ROI will
never be realised as the users will
not adopt the solution.
“ ese returns are shown
through many features of UC
such as being able to share
your screen or document
by pressing a single button,
instantly being able to
start a video call or video
conference along with
uni ed email and chat
systems. If these are just
nice to have
tools then why
would anyone
invest, it has to
show real value that the end user
can quantify.
Also, any solution
implemented should not be a
draw on the resources of the IT
department, many SME’s don’t
have the budget for highly skilled
IT sta or run these departments
on stretched resources. Any UC
solution should have little to no
impact on these departments, this
is where WebRTC comes into
its own and there is no install, its
simply log in and use.”
Roy Shelton at Connectus
believes SMEs are looking for
transition, not transformation.
“ is comes back to the
issue of cost as well as business
e ciency. Is there a manner
in which existing platforms
or investment can integrate
without an entire overhaul? If
there is an overhaul, how can
expense be minimized? at
comes back to the OPEX per-seat
model that supports agility of
the organisation and the ability
to ex, dependent on business
headwinds.”
“ ere are
two hot buttons
from a reseller
perspective,”
says John
McKindland, at
Nimans.
“Do they
want to be
able to sell a bundled o ering
with perpetual licences or do
they want to o er hardware as a
service and bundle hardware and
software in there? We’re seeing
a lot of resellers stepping back
slightly from recurring revenue,
looking to lease certain services
and products so they can get
their margins and revenue a lot
quicker.”
What are SMEs looking for –
magic bullets with which to
level the playing fi eld?
Iain Sinnott at VanillaIP says that
Chat queues are a real SME game
changer, especially if they are in a
B2C sector.
“Chat on a website is not new,
but management and control of
the performance of sta on chat
will be for many, and that can
really boost revenue.
Sta remain the key cost and
key asset, so tools that help them
perform and that help managers
re ne their performance are key.”
Roy Shelton at Connectus,
www.commsbusiness.co.uk April 2019 | Comms Business Magazine | 41
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