More Agents Will Certify with UCaaS Vendors

MaryTom Hofer, director of operations at Kairos Data Communications, predicted that more technology advisors will obtain the training required to perform professional services on behalf of their UCaaS and CCaaS vendor partners.

That stems in part from the money partners can save their clients.

“Some of these suppliers are charging between $5k-$15k for what they call ‘professional services’ on deals that are less than 100 seats, and some aren’t very complex solutions,” Hofer told Channel Futures.

Not only can partners save customers money on implementation; they can do a much better job.

“If agents actually looked at what these implementation packages include – or rather, what they don’t include – they’d be shocked. ‘Guided implementation’ sounds fancy and helpful, but most of the time that just means the customers get a link to 600 videos and are expected to build the platform themselves,” she said. 

Project management in the vendor space is steadily declining, Hofer said. Partners would do well to bridge that gap.

“Why not get educated and do it for your customer and provide a better experience?” she said.

For David Goodwin, managing partner and co-founder at Advanced Technology Consulting (ATC), it makes sense for vendors to financially incentivize partners that offer more professional services. ATC handles implementations for all UCaaS deals and offers tier I and II support replete with ticketing and metrics. Goodwin said suppliers see the value in these partner services. But if they see the value, why not reward that value?

“I think over time, vendors are going to pay people like us more than the agents who just bring business, flip it over the fence and don’t really do anything,” Goodwin said. “How do you justify paying them the same amount as you pay us?”

On the other hand, some suppliers may end up filling the services gap through their own resources and winning customers as a result. Hofer also noted that agents may benefit from testing our newer, smaller providers that can offer responsive, U.S.-based support. Michael Agri, president at North Atlantic Consultants, said customer support will be a deciding factor for the still-growing UCaaS market.

“The UCaaS provider that offers agents the easiest and quickest ways to implement and manage clients will win the channel,” Agri told Channel Futures.