According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, the North American hosted IP telephony and unified communications (UC) services market growth will remain steady over the forecast period from 2014-2021 at compound annual growth rates of 26.7 percent in terms of installed users. As this market continues to move away from early-adopters to the mass-adoption stage, telecom agents will have to differentiate their business by upgrading their offerings.

September 12, 2016

5 Min Read
4 Reasons Why Traditional Telecom Agents Must Get Comfortable Selling Cloud Solutions

By Pino Vallejo

According to a recent Frost & Sullivan report, the North American hosted IP telephony and unified communications (UC) services market growth will remain steady over the forecast period from 2014-2021 at compound annual growth rates of 26.7 percent in terms of installed users. As this market continues to move away from early-adopters to the mass-adoption stage, telecom agents will have to differentiate their business by upgrading their offerings. By acknowledging the opportunity to meet the demand for cloud-based services as a real opportunity to bring new solutions to their existing clients, as well as reach clients they couldn’t before, they can remain competitive.

Below are just four reasons why by presenting cloud phone systems as a viable option to their clients, partners can position themselves and their clients for financial success for years to come.

Preparing Clients for Disaster Recovery

Communication is always vital to business success, but this reality is heightened during emergencies. The National Centers for Environmental Information reports that in 2016 (as of July), there have been eight weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States. It is important for partners to identify a client’s potential vulnerabilities and evaluate the risk they pose to business continuity. For example, problems can arise when employees do not have the right equipment to respond to customer needs when the office or company data is not accessible. Cloud-based systems eliminate the threat of down-time and provide continuity for an organization’s communications in the event of outages. Since communications are centralized, hosted virtually and routed through the internet, disastrous events or disruptions from landlines are no longer an issue.

Additionally, cloud-based phone systems make it possible that work remain undisrupted if an office must close. Organizations have complete control over how customers’ calls are handled with advanced features like mobile twinning, which sends inbound calls to mobile and desk phones simultaneously, the ability to re-route calls online, and auto attendants that serve as virtual receptionists ensuring every call is answered.

Offering Undeniable Security

Storing a business’ critical data in a place that is easily accessible, secure and backed up is imperative. A 100 percent cloud-based UC system ensures critical communications are secure. Having a good managed security service means regular data back-up, reducing the amount of time it would take to recover from a potential security threat, as well as the amount of time exposed to any risk. This is pivotal to ensuring that sensitive data is monitored and secure 24/7.

Being unable to look up customer information or process transactions can have a crippling effect on a business. Housing data and servers in the cloud provides a much more secure way to store business information, with the added benefit of universal access for employees anytime and working from anywhere. Businesses should also consider transitioning servers to the cloud for improved scalability. With the ability to increase off-site server capacity through a web-based portal, organizations become more nimble in avoiding potential disruptions.

Saving Clients Long-Term

When offering cloud-based solutions, partners should explain the cost through a long-term perspective, as cost savings are not always realized as immediately as the benefit to communications. Housing servers in the cloud is often much more cost effective, as businesses don’t bear the burden of maintaining the IT infrastructure. Frequent hardware updates can be costly for organizations looking to stay ahead of the technology curve. By contrast, an excellent cloud-based UC solution should include ongoing maintenance and support, ensuring your technology stays up to date and fully operational.

To protect your clients from unplanned costs down the road, partner with providers who offer ongoing software updates, the latest applications and any required hardware. Unlike legacy software systems, cloud-based software is managed and updated off site, eliminating the hassle of updating a system. Since a vendor stores the data, they are also responsible for taking care of uptime and ensuring that data remains secure. Intuitive web portals give online management to IT staff and end-users. Therefore, a centralized administrator can easily add or remove users, features and phone lines instantly by using online administrative controls – no need for the hassle or fees for initial configuration and installation or sunk costs in hardware.

Building Strong Client Relationships

Partners with the most successful ROIs invest in long-term client relationships, building value through both their trusted advisory role and the quality of the service providers in their portfolio. Unlike single hardware installations, cloud-based services offer opportunities for ongoing management and monitoring. High-quality, intuitive cloud products foster higher client satisfaction and ultimately generate more revenue as a result of less to manage and service. Partners can ensure long-term benefits with a secure and adaptable solution, positioning the business to meet industry challenges and produce the greatest ROI.

Some providers offer partners the ability to access and manage all clients using a particular cloud phone system in real-time and from one dashboard. This allows for the partners, clients and provider to collaborate more effectively through direct connections so that systems can be deployed faster, with less burden on the partner to supply constant technological support and maintenance on their own. In return, clients can immediately realize the return on their investment with increased efficiency from day one and less money spent upfront on training, hardware installation and maintenance or expertise to service. Over time, relationships deepen as partners provide clients with peace of mind, turning them from technology providers into trusted advisers.

To have the ability to efficiently communicate with co-workers and the capacity to best address the needs and concerns of customers, it is essential to offer clients the ability to house 100 percent of communications in the cloud. The cloud is the foundation of a fully-optimized UC system, and modernizing business phone systems provides unmatchable benefits. Finding ways to add additional value for clients, such as introducing more UC solutions, strengthen client relationships and will put a partner’s business leaps and bounds ahead of others while building an iron fence around their client base.

Donna Wenk is the Senior Vice President at and responsible for Channel Sales for Broadview Networks, one of the top 10 UC cloud providers in the nation. Broadview’s cloud offerings include OfficeSuite UC™ the easy-to-use hosted phone system that is 100% cloud-based using technology unique to Broadview.  Ms. Wenk has more than 25 years’ experience in the communications industry, and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Saint Lawrence University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing from the University of Rochester.

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