Road to Recovery INTERVIEW
Cloud movement
In this interview James Wells, Head of Channel Sales
at Byphone, talks about the drivers behind technology
purchasing decisions right now
CBM: What is driving
purchasing decisions
right now?
JW: Customers are
moving to the cloud.
ey see the necessity
of the cloud for remote
working and a second
wave of the virus.
File storage systems,
CRM systems and
communications will
drive these purchasing
decisions.
Our home worker
module, which is a free
add-on, is very popular
with our customers. At
the moment I think
businesses are sticking
with their current
suppliers and less likely
to engage with new
unknown suppliers. We
expect this to change in
a few months time, but
at the moment it’s vital
to engage as a trusted supplier.
Improving broadband resilience will be another demand area
for customers. ey wont want their whole business dependent
on a single broadband connection. Customers are looking at their
connectivity plans.
Mi devices are popular for home workers as they look at the
infrastructure they need to integrate with their companies.
CBM: Are customers making long-tern technology buying
decisions?
JW: Yes, customers can see much more reason for working from the
cloud. Some customers are experimenting with bolt on services,
such as the Byphone bring your own device product to avoid sharing
handsets, or Byphone’s easy route (an cloud based IVR) before we
pass on the call to their traditional phone systems. Others are
embracing the change and upgrading their systems.
One of the biggest changes is the insistence of web demos
rather than sales visits as customers consider how to upgrade their
technical estate.
Most o ces will run with a large percentage of their workforce
working from home over the next year until everybody is
vaccinated. We’re estimating most businesses are only able to
manage 50% of their sta with adequate social distancing in the
o ce.With this in mind, home working will drive the journey to the
cloud, for many reasons.
A positive picture
In this opinion piece Neville Bird, CEO of ReTell,
explains why he thinks business is going to bounce
back quickly
Inevitably, our business will
be impacted by the seismic
shifts sweeping the business
world globally, but we’re only
anticipating a change in the
balance of our product o ering
and customer pro le – rather
than a reduction in overall
business. We’re optimistic
that the perfect storm of new
government regulations and
changing working practices will
elevate the need for professional
call recording as part of a wider
digital transformation initiative
for UK businesses. I’m sure it’s
the same for many businesses,
but the lock-down has provided
us with a period of re ection
and the opportunity to reset.
So, we’re going to emerge with
a sharper focus and a stronger
team to support our new
channel proposition.
With that in mind we are
helping our channel partners
to get on the front-foot – to
be proactive and to be visible.
We believe that now is the
time to build on hard-earned
expertise and con dently
re-start conversations with
old customers and new
prospects. It’s a time to reinvent
old-school marketing
practices – with a focus on
local geotargeting, community
engagement, empathy-based
messaging and social selling – to
help grow a meaningful sales
pipeline. Most of all though, we
believe that developing longlasting
personal connections
with the right kind of buyers is
what’s going to ensure success.
I think the real opportunity
for resellers, MSPs and VARs
is to be more pro-active and
consultative in their sales
approach. e smart ones
will nd a way to meet the
ever-changing business needs
of their customers whilst
securing new long-term revenue
streams. Today’s business
communications buyers are
more sophisticated and better
informed than ever before, so
simply pulling o -the-shelf
technology bundles together
for them is unlikely to add any
value. Whilst this may require
reviewing and updating their
product portfolios, the channel
now has the chance to be more
creative in the way they develop
business solutions – speed-tovalue
and ease-of-deployment
will be the new watchwords.
e technology companies
that have thrived during the
pandemic clearly have solutions
that businesses value given
this challenging working
environment. ere will be a
slightly longer tail of businesses
though whose products – like
ours we believe – will have
their time in a post-pandemic
world. It’s for the channel now
to match the available solutions
with the emerging needs of their
customers – providing tailored
solutions empathetically,
creatively and proactively.
www.commsbusiness.co.uk September 2020 | Comms Business Magazine | 21
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