SPECIAL
“Our collaboration tools are also being applied to new sectors in the wake of the outbreak.”
Paul Clarke, UK Channel Manager - 3CX
The ultimate test
Comms Business spoke to some of those businesses equipping partners with the right tools for their customer’s
needs in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak
Given the challenging
position many businesses
have been put in during
the pandemic crisis we
asked our Channel vendors
what they are experiencing right
now.
Lee Fletcher, Channel
Manager UK&I at snom
commented “Coronavirus
has highlighted who can and
who can’t cater for remote
working technologies. For us
as a business, it has highlighted
where we need to make
adjustments in order to give
people the tools they need
to remain operational. For
example, the rise of virtual
meetings and video calls
means we’ve seen a huge spike
in demand for our USB and
wireless DECT headsets –
people want a headset that
works in perfect tandem with
their desk phone so that they
can move freely and talk and
still experience the perfect audio
quality they get from their desk
phone.”
Justin Hamilton-Martin,
UK Sales Director at Centile,
part of Enreach said “As far as
our customer communications
are concerned, we have been
‘mobile rst’ from day one,
so for us, that is businessas
usual. Physical meetings
have been cancelled, but so
much of our engagement with
our ecosystem is already via
our own ISTRA platform, at
which mobility is at the heart,
from basic services through to
advanced CRM integrations.
Mobiles become a seamless part
of the organization, connected
through to business apps, rather
than siloed. e organic growth
of mobile-rst adoption will
be propelled by the current
situation. We have seen a 30%
uplift in app users in the past
few weeks showing how much
this is needed in these testing
times.”
Paul Clarke, UK Channel
Manager commented “3CX
downloads have soared since the
outbreak, with our web meeting
service in particular seeing
a huge increase in demand-
usage rates have increased by
approximately 25%.
Our collaboration tools
are also being applied to new
sectors in the wake of the
outbreak. Where they were
once predominantly used
in corporate environments,
we’re now seeing traction
in the health and education
sectors. For the education
sector, collaboration tools are
essential if the school gates
remain closed- classroom style
webinars, instant messaging
and live chat all enable pupils
to stay connected wherever
they are.”
Lee Fletcher, Channel Manager UK&I at snom
Are we grasping the benefits?
Remote working is certainly not
new, people have been doing
this for many years. However,
the sheer scale of what we are
experiencing now just couldn’t
have been anticipated. Are
businesses nally coming
round to the bigger picture and
benets of deploying a Remote
Working Strategy?
Alan Shen, CEO of Yeastar
commented “In my own
opinion, I might say yes.
Flexible working allows people
to work anywhere, anytime
anyway, as long as they can
nish their work on time and
eciently. Stuck in one seat,
facing the computer screen
for more than 8 hours, to
me, it’s wasting employee’s
energies and creativity. I prefer
a exible working pattern to
create more possibilities. But to
some business owners, exible
working may not be good for
them to manage their sta. You
know, people without selfcontrol
may loaf on the job and
become a drag with all kinds of
excuses.”
Lee Fletcher commented
“People have been developing
relationships online for years,
but the current climate means
Try before you buy
Ali Hastings, Ali Hastings, Regional Channel Leader at Avaya
UK&I – “We do have a ‘try before you buy’ program, and
specifically for educational establishments and not-forprofit
organisations, we have a free to try offer where users
can see the value in the application before they decide to
buy. We are working closely with our partners in this sector
to help users, for example to provide advice on the network
capacity needed for Spaces applications such as Video so
that full end to end communication is achieved.”
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42 | Comms Business Magazine | May 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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