© xiaoliangge-stock.adobe.com © bodnarphoto-stock.adobe.com
HOW DO YOU VIEW THE CONTACT CENTRE OPPORTUNITY IN 2020?
• Growth - 67% • Decline - 0% • Same – 33%
COMMENT: Clearly the market is looking at the Contact Centre as a major opportunity this year.
Avaya’s recent deal with RingCentral for UCaaS sums it up. A renewed focus on their core strength,
the contact centre, would indicate they think there is more than enough opportunity for them to
capitalise on. Customer Experience (CX) has been spoken about at length, expect that conversation
to continue and be a major area of differentiation for businesses. Artificial Intelligence in the CC
space will most likely make a big splash this year.
DEALERS, RESELLERS AND VARS
HS2 OR FULLFIBRE,
WHERE DO
YOU WANT YOUR MONEY SPENT?
• Full Fibre - 81%
• HS2 – 19%
COMMENT: This statistic says it all. Why are
we spending £106bn on the HS2 project
when we could build a world leading fibre
network for about a third of the cost.
For our market the argument is an easy
one, physically travelling up and down
the country has become less critical
as conferencing solutions across the
board have been more widely adopted.
For businesses that don’t need a central
location for staff to gather it makes sense
to adopt distributed workforce model and
use the technology to empower them to get
their work done. Is this project a waste of
money? Time will tell.
AVAYA’S TIE UP WITH
RINGCENTRAL, WHAT DO YOU
THINK?
• Smart move, great for partners – 20%
• No impact on me or my business – 5%
• This transition is going to a nightmare – 55%
• Who Cares? – 25%
COMMENT: One of a few big Unified
Communications stories in 2019, the Avaya deal
with RingCentral has captured the attention
of many in the market. The joint proposition
is called Avaya Cloud Office (ACO) and will
see a true cloud UC proposition delivered
to Avaya customers. Was the deal all about
Avaya getting some cash or was there some
true synergy there? Either way 55 per cent of
respondents think the transition is going to be
a ‘nightmare’. Avaya has released some more
details since this survey was taken which may
have eased some fears of partners. For the UK
contingent, who generally prefer to own their
customers in a reseller model, the jury is out
whether this will be a successful venture.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM
YOU FACE IN SELLING HOSTED
TELEPHONY?
• Race to the bottom on price - 76%
• Reliability of platform - 7%
• Vendor/ supplier support - 3%
• Paying the salesman from an OPEX sale
- 14%
COMMENT: This has long been discussed in
the Chanel, we have a huge price problem in
the market which partners are struggling to
overcome. The transition to selling on value
rather than price is not an easy one to take
on but some vendors are doing their best to
equip partners with the right programmes,
training and tools to ensure they aren’t
just trying to beat the competition with
a number. For some customers, they are
always going to price sensitive no matter
the value and business benefits you can
bring to their organisation. Partners may
need to ask themselves, are they better
off walking away rather than taking on a
customer for little to zero profit margin?
TO DATE, HAS THE INTERNET OF THINGS IMPACTED YOUR LIFE AND/OR
BUSINESS?
• Yes – significantly 0%
• Yes – somewhat -40%
• No – not noticeably – 30%
• No – Not at all – 30%
COMMENT: This result goes to show that the hype can be far ahead of the reality. For IoT, clearly
things are moving forwards. Unfortunately, they aren’t moving forwards at a pace anyone
expected. The good news for partners is there is still time to study the market, find your sweet
spot and then augment a proposition which suits your current portfolio.
www.commsbusiness.co.uk www.commsbusiness.co.uk C Chhaannnneel lP Prroofifileless 2 2002109 || 3333
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk