Image Gallery: Nextiva NextCon 2019 Featuring Poly, Cisco
Nextiva partners learned about the company’s latest innovations to its NextOS customer experience management platform and were provided details regarding its upcoming new partner program at this week’s NextCon 2019 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The third annual partner conference drew more than 1,000 attendees. The new partner program will be launched in January. Nextiva also is expanding its marketing program and increasing its UCaaS portfolio.
Tomas Gorny, Nextiva’s co-founder and CEO, told attendees his company’s goal within the next two years is one-click implementation across all of the NextOS platform for all experiences.
“We’re working really hard on that,” he said.
InBox, patented customer journey technology, is being added to NextOS, Gorny said. In addition, NextOS includes latest automation and analytics capabilities, he said.
With NextOS, Nextiva‘s purpose is to “democratize innovation so every business has a chance to win,” he said.
Carl Katz, Nextiva’s vice president of channel sales for North America, said he wanted partners to leave the conference excited to sell solutions, “but also I want them to think about platforms.”
“The largest companies in the world are platforms … platform companies have higher valuations than companies that are not platform companies, so the worth of those companies is more and the companies that sell the platform technology not only have stickier customers, but higher valuations as well,” he said. “So I want them to go home and say ‘I need to increase my brand, I need to make my customers more sticky, I need to increase the value of my business for a longer-term annuity and I need to sell platforms.'”
Scroll through our gallery for highlights from the conference.
Marc Stoll, Nextiva's president and COO, told attendees that by the end of the conference they would be ready to take their business to the next level. According to Nextiva, previous NextCon attendees achieved seven times the revenue, 40% higher monthly recurring revenue and 55% more new accounts.
Latest Innovations
Gorny unveiled the latest innovations coming to Next0S. Nextiva has been "innovating like crazy this year and this year isn't even done," he said. With InBox, which is being added to NextOS, the “complete picture” of the customer is brought into focus and can be immediately updated as more communication data is gathered, he said.
During a Partner Lunch and Learn, Michael Burt, CEO/co-founder of Michael Burt Enterprises, a Nextiva customer, outlined four steps to becoming a "sales Goliath," which include: focus on new money; close the business in your pipeline by using the million-dollar follow-up formula; spending time in connection and engagement; and "love on" and create triple value for your biggest advocates. He also touted "prey drive," the instinctive inclination to see something optically or in the mind and having the courage to take action on it and see it through to its logical conclusion.
Janet Schijjns, long-time channel vet and CEO of JS Group, told attendees they need to stop talking to their clients about digital transformation because we've "shifted to a world where digital is the new normal."
"With this comes a whole new world of social engagement and way of looking at things," she said. "What matters is, as a result of a perfect storm in our world, a digital normal now exists. It started with innovation ... a sustained positive economy, and then boomers surprised us by embracing the new digital normal ... and millennials and Gen-Z said, 'We demand this.' If you’re still talking about transforming digitally, you’re behind."
Katz chats with attendees between sessions at NextCon.
"Partners are concerned about the race to zero and the consolidation not only from the UCaaS perspective, but internet, circuits, network and all the root technologies are decreasing in cost to the end user," he said. "So the innovation is not quite there because a lot of partners are not selling on that. So they like the refreshing technology and way Nextiva is going about doing their business, meaning that they're looking and saying, 'Hey, this is something different that I can offer my customers and change the conversation'. So the partners are excited about changing the conversation."
Poly shows off its latest VoIP phones, headsets and other equipment in the XBert Expo. This summer Nextiva introduced the Poly UC Software 5.3 release which is now available for all Poly VVX series phones.
Attendees chat in front of Nextiva's VoIP phone display in the XBert Expo. Nextiva recently announced that it has been selected as the official communications provider for the Buffalo Bills. Nextiva was recommended to the Bills by PremCom, a Nextiva channel partner that has outfitted the team with its business communications solutions since 2014.
Cisco displays its latest VoIP equipment in the XBert Expo.
"Partners have asked for assistance in sales," Katz said. "Partners are not subject matter experts because they know a lot about a lot ... so it's our job to be the master of our portfolio and our platform product. And we are going to assist our partners in creating those solutions, and locking up and cementing those long-term relationships so they can build a solid annuity long term."
Inference's interactive voice response (IVR) solution is resold by Nextiva. Inference’s AI-powered intelligent virtual agents automate the routine and repetitive conversations handled by live agents over voice, chat and text.
Cube's cloud-based solution is focused on providing a good experience while customers are on hold on in queue to be connected to a business. The company spoke to partners about its solution in the XBert Expo.
