INTERVIEW Matt Worboys - Gamma
“For customers that are yet to shift their telephony to the cloud we’ve seen partners
problem solve with new technology to keep these businesses going.”
Matt Worboys, Director - Business Development Channel - Gamma
A helping hand
In this interview Comms Business spoke to Matt Worboys, Director - Business
Development Channel at Gamma to fi nd out what they are doing to help partners
through this diffi cult period
Comms Business Magazine
(CBM): What are your partners
telling you about the economic
crisis right now? How are they
coping?
Matt Worboys (MW): Speaking
with our partners, many are in
the midst of an extremely busy
period deploying home working
solutions and managing
requests to both increase and
decrease capacity for their end
customers.
For customers that are yet
to shift their telephony to
the cloud we’ve seen partners
problem solve with new
technology to keep these
businesses going. For example
diverting the old PBX to
Horizon and using soft phones
for remote workers.
As the channel has
demonstrated countless times
before, they have remained
committed to supporting
businesses during this di cult
period, working overtime
and going the extra mile to
ensure customers have what
they need to carry on. We are
seeing activity starting to slow
as businesses adapt to the new
normal and many are using
government back schemes to
support their business and
ensure they are in the right
nancial shape.
From an end customer
perspective, some are looking
at ways to minimise their
communications spend during
this time and the support
package we have given to
Channel Partners will enable
them to do this. Whilst other
business owners are planning
for the new normal and where
remote working solutions can
help them now and in the
future. For example how will
their sales teams win business
remotely or enabling sta to
work from anywhere.
CBM: Are you seeing any
businesses which are more
resistant to the economic
fallout than others?
MW: Looking at our base of
partners, those who have shifted
to the hosted model with
monthly recurring revenues
are in a stronger position than
those reliant on one-o big
system sales, and the measure
we have introduced are further
assisting our Horizon partners
businesses.
Clearly verticals in the public
sector are performing well and
will continue to do so. We
have also seen a signi cant
increase in mobile data sales as
customers are unable to order
Ethernet or DSL at present.
For customers who are already
set up on Microsoft Teams
but don’t necessarily want to
use Microsoft’s Calling Plans,
we are seeing a lot of positive
conversations to provide an
integrated collaboration and
voice solution through Gamma’s
Direct Routing proposition.
CBM: What is Gamma
introducing to help the partner
base get through this period
of uncertainty?
MW: Whilst there are some
elements we can’t control, like
the need for payment breaks
on connectivity services,
Gamma has worked quickly
to address what we can control
individually.
Beginning in April we
launched a raft of measures,
immediately providing free
of charge support in order
for our channel partners to
meet customer demand. ese
measures focussed on SIP
Trunking, Microsoft Teams
Direct Routing, Horizon Cloud
PBX, Horizon Collaborate and
MyInbound. ese solutions
provide businesses with home
working, business continuity
and capacity management
capabilities, to keep customers
operating as e ciently as
possible.
We will support these
measures until the 30th of
June and may decide to extend
this period according to the
changing human and business
environment. Broadly they fall
into the following areas:
• Existing customers entering
‘hibernation’ – free of charge
reductions to users/channels,
no early termination charges.
• Helping new customers – free
of charge services; video and
home working, hosted PBX,
SIP channels (inc Microsoft
Teams Direct Routing) and
enhanced cloud resilience
• Upgrading existing customer
services – free of charge
upgrades; to provide
resilience, more features and
full blown UCaaS
e support package aims to
provide simple and straight
forward help to Gamma’s
channel partners. No contract
extensions or roll overs, no
reduction in bundles, services
or quality. New customers can
access 30 days contract terms
and still enjoy the free of charge
period.
16 | Comms Business Magazine | May 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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