{"id":48472,"date":"2022-01-26T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T14:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=48472"},"modified":"2022-01-26T06:52:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T14:52:14","slug":"unified-communications-as-a-service-dealers-making-the-push-into-smb-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/state-of-the-industry\/2022\/01\/unified-communications-as-a-service-dealers-making-the-push-into-smb-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"Unified Communications as a Service: Dealers Making the Push into SMB Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Recurring revenues have quickly become the lifeblood of the office technology dealer universe. The concept of everything\/anything-as-a-service is music to a dealer executive\u2019s ears. That\u2019s become heightened in a post-pandemic landscape that encapsulates supply chain challenges\u2014however long they continue to vex the business community\u2014and the reality that remote\/hybrid work is likely here to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Obviously, we know this doesn\u2019t bode well for the future of MFPs as the cornerstone offering in a dealer\u2019s arsenal. We\u2019ve heard all the statistics surrounding dwindling office print volumes but can\u2019t work on the assumption that print is here to stay, or at the very least, not hammer out long-term planning around that notion. Many of the more successful dealers have long since absorbed that message and widened their product\/service menu with a strong variety of ancillary offerings, not the least of which is VoIP phone systems and, more specifically, unified communications as a service (UCaaS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A number of dealers are marketing their UCaaS offerings in a major way, developing branded programs to more effectively drill deeper and wider into existing accounts with whom they\u2019d forged solid relationships through MFP offerings and other managed services. It\u2019s the king, prince and sultan of no-brainers all rolled into one\u2014after all, every client has a need for communications systems. UCaaS offers many features beyond voice, from video conferencing to team\/group messaging, presence detection, screen sharing, calendar integration, call recording and the ability to access functions from a mobile device or tablet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not a matter of evaluating clients to ascertain whether they have a need. Ferreting out pain points in the discovery phase is what dealers do best. It\u2019s low-hanging fruit at eye level, but it may take a more forceful tug at the vine, especially in an SMB space that\u2019s reticent to switch systems and providers. Luckily, the pandemic has forced the end-user landscape to be more receptive to change, just as it\u2019s coerced resellers to open their eyes to opportunities that can bolster the bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those dealers that haven\u2019t seriously pondered UCaaS in a meaningful way, the communications technology players may be largely foreign to them: RingByName, RingCentral, Intermedia, Cisco, Mitel, Poly and Konica Minolta, to name a few (OK, so maybe you\u2019re familiar with some). We have a roundtable on page 24 that serves as an introduction and backgrounder on their offerings and market approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But don\u2019t take our word on the viability of phone systems\/UCaaS as a meaningful profit center. We\u2019ve canvassed a number of dealers who\u2019ve traveled the road to recurring revenues in helping their increasingly mobile clients become more efficient with added tools that can enable them to better reach their customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tipping Point<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roland Tolan,UOTG<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Roland Tolan could see the writing on the wall. The COO\/partner of United Office Technologies Group (UOTG) in Irvine, California, sensed the need to diversify beyond MFPs and copiers even prior to the pandemic. The shutdown only solidified the belief that bundling services such as IT and unified communications would provide the boost in recurring revenue to offset lost print volumes. That prompted UOTG to tap Konica Minolta and its All Covered division to take full control of its IT operations, including VoIP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tolan didn\u2019t need convincing to choose Konica Minolta, which had served the dealer well on the MFP side. UOTG has a private-label agreement that taps into the strength of the OEM\u2019s call center fortified with hundreds of CSRs, but still maintains control of the contract. Konica\/All Covered\u2019s strength is now UOTG\u2019s, and unified communications is a big part of the offering. In fact, Tolan noted his dealer was (at press time) in the process of closing several large deals that encompassed both IT and VoIP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about the talk track and how you uncover the pain points that customers have,\u201d he said. \u201cVoIP is a very hot topic with SMBs. It\u2019s surprising to see how many of them are still using analog lines, and we win them over with the cost savings that we offer. We\u2019ve already earned credibility with the customers through servicing their MFPs, and they\u2019re more likely to select someone they know for phones because they\u2019ve enjoyed that high level of customer service and efficiency. Plus, we\u2019re backed by a half-billion dollar entity, with three data centers nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
VoIP is a very hot topic with SMBs. It\u2019s surprising to see how many of them are still using analog lines, and we win them over with the cost savings that we offer.<\/p>\u2013 Roland Tolan, UOTG<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The first step in the discovery phase is obtaining the client\u2019s phone bill. Occasionally, Tolan notes the resistance comes from customers that may have dipped their toes into the VoIP pool 10 years ago and found the viability and clarity of the systems to be lacking. That\u2019s when a demo can often help capture the contract, especially when presented with the enhanced feature sets for email, voicemail and messaging, through the computer, traditional handsets and mobile devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSome clients are under the impression that the transfer could take weeks, and they\u2019re afraid of missing calls and sales,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll provide a trial period and show them how the process will go, step by step, how painless it is and how quickly we can turn it on without disrupting their system. All of the previous VoIP issues have been overcome; it\u2019s certainly more reliable than a landline system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing a Competence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The growth of IT and unified communications has been well orchestrated for All Copy Products (ACP). The Denver-based firm acquired three IT specialist companies during 2015-2016, including Verticomm Technologies (now a division of ACP), and each of the firms had their own telecom solutions. Initially, ACP carried a white-label offering that was a basic VoIP system with voicemail to email and a mobile application as their UCaaS solution while the cloud continued to garner traction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike Gilly, Verticomm<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
According to Mike Gilly, division manager, communications services for Verticomm, the company sought to expand its feature set and went through a rigorous, year-long vetting process of white-label partners in the market. That quest led to Intermedia\u2019s front steps by virtue of the provider\u2019s comprehensive array of 100-plus features, and award winning 5-9\u2019s network reliability. Intermedia\u2019s solution includes chat, SMS, video conferencing, file storage, call recoding, presence, contact center (CX), softphone and a mobile application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verticomm\u2019s UCaaS offering dovetails nicely with its burgeoning IT competence. It now has 750 stand-alone UCaaS clients as well and many customers who have bundled it with IT services. While ACP\/Verticomm has more unified communications clients than IT customers, the price per seat for an IT client is five times that of phone seat. Either way, it\u2019s a win-win for the dealer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very crowded field; there are hundreds of UCaaS providers in the market, with most selling directly to the client and providing direct support,\u201d Gilly noted. \u201cWe\u2019ve focused on a white-label solution, so we\u2019re providing the support, doing the onboarding and the entire project management from start to finish. We control the customer experience. That\u2019s allowed us to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. Clients are calling the same number that they would for support on their copiers; it just gets routed to the voice team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve focused on a white-label solution, so we\u2019re providing the support, doing the onboarding and the entire project management from start to finish. We control the customer experience.<\/p>\u2013 Mike Gilly, Verticomm<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Verticomm primarily targets existing copier clients, but also ferrets out opportunities with prospects that are locked in with other dealers for their MFP needs and are seeking an upgrade to their current phone system. Gilly stresses that the key to selling new clients is understanding their pain points and extolling how the benefits of unified communications can drive efficiency and improve the customer experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRemote work has accelerated UCaaS sales the last 18 months,\u201d he said. \u201cWith people working remotely, the on-premise systems don\u2019t provide the flexibility and feature-rich applications clients need when working remotely off a laptop or a mobile application. Presence is a popular feature; it lets you see that someone you want to reach is on the phone or available, so you can call someone else as opposed to calling and leaving a voicemail and playing voicemail tag. It\u2019s about efficiency and saving time for an organization, and improving how (a customer) is communicating with its clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The all-in-one UC product is a great solution to organizations to consolidate a rash of different solutions that have grown during the pandemic, such as Zoom\/Microsoft Teams for video conferencing, Slack and Dropbox for file sharing. Through Verticomm\u2019s Intermedia-driven application, everything can be bundled into one solution for clients, in tandem with a full universe of other business-enhancement communication features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A UCaaS Evolution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coordinated Business Systems of Burnsville, Minnesota, embarked on unified communications in 2012 when it acquired a local Avaya reseller. While the initial foray was less than ideal, it served as the launching point for an evolving solution, according to President Kirk Studebaker. Coordinated weaved through various platform iterations\u2014the selling-through-an-agency model with access to virtually any platform, and then hosted solutions\u2014before landing in a cloud-based solution courtesy of Intermedia\u2019s Elevate offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kirk Studebaker, Coordinated Business Systems<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
According to Studebaker, the phone division falls under its MNS umbrella, but is sold through the dealer\u2019s traditional imaging reps, with techs and presales specialists reporting to MNS. \u201cIntermedia is the best fit for us as it allows us to control the customer,\u201d Studebaker offered. \u201cWe bill it and take all service calls.\u00a0This is helpful because when we worked with hosted platforms or through the agency model, it was confusing to the customer as those deals were handoffs.\u00a0They weren\u2019t our customer anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Studebaker noted that UCaaS was a fairly logical match for Coordinated\u2019s existing offerings, and it plays well for clients that value technology and customer service\u2014all tied together in a consistent monthly payment. End-users driven only by price will find no lack of alternatives that lack the service component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are lots of cheap cloud-based platforms out there,\u201d he added. \u201cUsers can \u2018click here\u2019 and some phones will show up, along with the first monthly bill. The rest is up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coordinated\u2019s value proposition is augmented by a great sales force, strong product and a support system that understands telecommunications. A healthy list of prospects has enabled the dealer to truly gain traction in a field of providers lacking the aforementioned components. And given the WFH influx, the \u201cneed for this product is immense right now,\u201d Studebaker said. Businesses are keen to maintain the ability to communicate seamlessly, regardless of their location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We bill it and take all service calls. This is helpful because when we worked with hosted platforms or through the agency model, it was confusing to the customer as those deals were handoffs. They weren\u2019t our customer anymore.<\/p>\u2013 Kirk Studebaker, Coordinated Business Systems<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that simple, or at least the concept is that simple,\u201d he said. \u201cYou also have to have a team that understands how to design a system to accomplish this outcome.\u00a0That isn\u2019t simple. It requires phone people with experience to accomplish it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Branded Brilliance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fraser Advanced Information Systems of West Reading, Pennsylvania, has enjoyed solid growth courtesy of its Smart Connect Unified Voice solution, which is part of the dealer\u2019s overall quest to guide the clients\u2019 journey to the smart office and help consolidate vendors in the process. Melissa Confalone, vice president of sales for Fraser, notes the pandemic has greatly impacted the way businesses view their technology and their vendors. With a UCaaS platform that integrates into the IT infrastructure of its clients, Fraser can address the tech and vendor points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dealer\u2019s UCaaS success rests on three value points. Fraser hired a well-respected UCaaS expert who specializes in both presales and back-end implementations, which has enabled it to scale quickly. The second point is the depth and quality of the relationships Fraser has forged with its client base; they trust the dealer\u2019s service competency, and the bonds have yielded \u201can amazing jumping-off point to bring our offering to market,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naturally, success certainly wouldn\u2019t be possible without the third point: the quality and comprehensiveness of Fraser\u2019s UCaaS solution. \u201cFrom design, implementation, training and support\u2014without outsourcing any aspect of our offering\u2014we provide solutions that businesses need to be successful,\u201d Confalone added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our position is that if you listen to the frustrations that customers are experiencing with their current provider, you can help them with a solution that best meets their needs and gain new business from traditional UCaaS providers.<\/p>\u2013 Melissa Confalone, Fraser<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Another factor behind Fraser\u2019s success in this space is resisting the urge to jump in the commodity pool as a price-driven proposition. Confalone notes that while Fraser prices UCaaS competitively, the dealer primarily focuses on service, support and the effective utilization of the technology customers crave. The conversations are steered toward the needs of employees working in a hybrid office environment, the ability to work anywhere at any time via the UCaaS mobility app, and how the UCaaS system can seamlessly integrate with the client\u2019s current technology to simplify business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToo many vendors have commoditized this industry,\u201d she said. \u201cOur position is that if you listen to the frustrations that customers are experiencing with their current provider, you can help them with a solution that best meets their needs and gain new business from traditional UCaaS providers.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recurring revenues have quickly become the lifeblood of the office technology dealer universe. The concept of everything\/anything-as-a-service is music to a dealer executive\u2019s ears. That\u2019s become heightened in a post-pandemic landscape that encapsulates supply chain challenges\u2014however long they continue to vex the business community\u2014and the reality that remote\/hybrid work is likely here to stay. Obviously, we know this doesn\u2019t bode well for the future of MFPs as the cornerstone offering in a dealer\u2019s arsenal. We\u2019ve heard all the statistics surrounding dwindling office print volumes but can\u2019t work on the assumption that print is here to stay, or at the very least, not hammer out long-term planning around that notion. Many of the more successful dealers have long since absorbed that message and widened their product\/service menu with a strong variety of ancillary offerings, not the least of which is VoIP phone systems and, more specifically, unified communications as a service (UCaaS). A number of dealers are marketing their UCaaS offerings in a major way, developing branded programs to more effectively drill deeper and wider into existing accounts with whom they\u2019d forged solid relationships through MFP offerings and other managed services. It\u2019s the king, prince and sultan of no-brainers all rolled into one\u2014after all, every client has a need for communications systems. UCaaS offers many features beyond voice, from video conferencing to team\/group messaging, presence detection, screen sharing, calendar integration, call recording and the ability to access functions from a mobile device or tablet. It\u2019s not a matter of evaluating clients to ascertain whether they have a need. Ferreting out pain points in the discovery phase is what dealers do best. It\u2019s low-hanging fruit at eye level, but it may take a more forceful tug at the vine, especially in an SMB space that\u2019s reticent to switch systems and providers. Luckily, the pandemic has forced the end-user landscape to be more receptive to change, just as it\u2019s coerced resellers to open their eyes to opportunities that can bolster the bottom line. For those dealers that haven\u2019t seriously pondered UCaaS in a meaningful way, the communications technology players may be largely foreign to them: RingByName, RingCentral, Intermedia, Cisco, Mitel, Poly and Konica Minolta, to name a few (OK, so maybe you\u2019re familiar with some). We have a roundtable on page 24 that serves as an introduction and backgrounder on their offerings and market approach. But don\u2019t take our word on the viability of phone systems\/UCaaS as a meaningful profit center. We\u2019ve canvassed a number of dealers who\u2019ve traveled the road to recurring revenues in helping their increasingly mobile clients become more efficient with added tools that can enable them to better reach their customers. Tipping Point Roland Tolan could see the writing on the wall. The COO\/partner of United Office Technologies Group (UOTG) in Irvine, California, sensed the need to diversify beyond MFPs and copiers even prior to the pandemic. The shutdown only solidified the belief that bundling services such as IT and unified communications would provide the boost in recurring revenue to offset lost print volumes. That prompted UOTG to tap Konica Minolta and its All Covered division to take full control of its IT operations, including VoIP. Tolan didn\u2019t need convincing to choose Konica Minolta, which had served the dealer well on the MFP side. UOTG has a private-label agreement that taps into the strength of the OEM\u2019s call center fortified with hundreds of CSRs, but still maintains control of the contract. Konica\/All Covered\u2019s strength is now UOTG\u2019s, and unified communications is a big part of the offering. In fact, Tolan noted his dealer was (at press time) in the process of closing several large deals that encompassed both IT and VoIP. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the talk track and how you uncover the pain points that customers have,\u201d he said. \u201cVoIP is a very hot topic with SMBs. It\u2019s surprising to see how many of them are still using analog lines, and we win them over with the cost savings that we offer. We\u2019ve already earned credibility with the customers through servicing their MFPs, and they\u2019re more likely to select someone they know for phones because they\u2019ve enjoyed that high level of customer service and efficiency. Plus, we\u2019re backed by a half-billion dollar entity, with three data centers nationwide.\u201d VoIP is a very hot topic with SMBs. It\u2019s surprising to see how many of them are still using analog lines, and we win them over with the cost savings that we offer. \u2013 Roland Tolan, UOTG The first step in the discovery phase is obtaining the client\u2019s phone bill. Occasionally, Tolan notes the resistance comes from customers that may have dipped their toes into the VoIP pool 10 years ago and found the viability and clarity of the systems to be lacking. That\u2019s when a demo can often help capture the contract, especially when presented with the enhanced feature sets for email, voicemail and messaging, through the computer, traditional handsets and mobile devices. \u201cSome clients are under the impression that the transfer could take weeks, and they\u2019re afraid of missing calls and sales,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll provide a trial period and show them how the process will go, step by step, how painless it is and how quickly we can turn it on without disrupting their system. All of the previous VoIP issues have been overcome; it\u2019s certainly more reliable than a landline system.\u201d Growing a Competence The growth of IT and unified communications has been well orchestrated for All Copy Products (ACP). The Denver-based firm acquired three IT specialist companies during 2015-2016, including Verticomm Technologies (now a division of ACP), and each of the firms had their own telecom solutions. Initially, ACP carried a white-label offering that was a basic VoIP system with voicemail to email and a mobile application as their UCaaS solution while the cloud continued to garner traction. According to Mike Gilly, division manager, communications services for Verticomm, the company sought to expand its feature set and went through a rigorous, year-long vetting process of white-label […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48477,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48472\/revisions\/48477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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