Hosted Telephony MARKET REPORT
“Businesses’ hierarchies of needs have changed completely, what people value most has changed, and getting
Iain Sinnott, Sales & Marketing
Director of VanillaIP
apart from those that don’t.”
Mark Curtis-Wood, Group
Sales & Marketing Director at
Vaioni said “At the start of the
lockdown there was a scramble
to get people up and running,
so they could take and receive
calls from home. Post lockdown
there is a new opportunity to
drive over the top productivity
solutions. Rich analytics, call
recording and CRM integration
are perfect value-added services
where resellers can nd extra
margins.
is presents a great
opportunity for partners to
build longer term relationships
with customers by enabling
them to experience the
frictionless experience of
quick deployment and
teams working and collaborating via hosted cloud solutions is seen as a priority.”
implementation. is will lead
to customer loyalty as they
experience the bene ts of new
technology leading to longer,
larger contracts.”
Justin Hamilton-Martin
added “Businesses’ hierarchies
of needs have changed
completely, what people
value most has changed, and
getting teams working and
collaborating via hosted cloud
solutions is seen as a priority.
However, we are hearing that
many businesses are really
struggling to get to grips with
their adoption strategies and —
in some cases — purchasing is
out of control. Many businesses,
simply do not have the time
or the appropriate resources or
ambition to become telephony
experts overnight.
is is where the channel
has a huge opportunity to help
those businesses make the right
decisions, through locallybased
consulting and advice
from companies who truly
understand their customers’
needs. Partners can be the
Justin Hamilton-Martin, Director of Centile
guiding light for businesses to
develop more formal, structured
strategies around cloud-based
UCaaS.”
The Teams phenomenon
ere is no escaping the tech
gorilla that is Microsoft. e
Teams product has exploded
and has given rise to many
questions about what this
means for partners. At the
recent Commsverse event, a
Microsoft community (virtual)
gathering, Je Teper, CVP for
Microsoft 365 Collaboration
with Team, Sharepoint and
OneDrive addressed the
audience. He said
“ e support that you have
given us in the growth of
Microsoft Teams, the feedback
that you have given us on the
product, all the partners who
have built solutions - hardware,
software, or services around
Microsoft Teams - we wouldn’t
be here without you.”
Although many remain
skeptical about Microsoft’s
long-term intentions, especially >
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in the wake of the Metaswitch
acquisition, it is impossible
to deny the opportunity they
have given traditional telecoms
partners and service providers
with Direct Routing.
Dominic Martini is Head
of Product Management at
BT Enterprise commented
“Direct Routing and
integrated propositions aren’t
necessarily all equal, instead
they are speci cally relevant
and matched to a business
need. ere is no one single
solution or proposition that
will do that and often it can be
quite confusing for customers.
For some, a standalone point
solution may be all they need.
For others, an integrated
solution into their hosted voice
environment may be more
applicable.At BT, our approach
is about promoting choice and
helping guide our partners
and customers to deliver the
business outcomes they are
looking for.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales &
Marketing Director of
www.commsbusiness.co.uk August 2020 | Comms Business Magazine | 31
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