By Ronan Higgins

Ronan Higgins

Many managed service providers are missing out on an opportunity to serve global demand for unified communications (UC). According to distributor of market research reports Million Insights, the global UC market size is projected to account for $167.1 billion by 2025, with a 16.8% CAGR over the forecast period from 2019 to 2025.

Cloud-based services enable seamless and fast communication in enterprises, which is vital as distributed working environments become the new normal. We’re seeing a rapid drive, particularly toward the integration of mobile into UC platforms and hosted contact centers. For managed service providers, the challenge is serving the growing demand for cloud communications globally, without adding complexities to operations.

Service providers need to find ways to simplify cloud-based communications such as unified communications as a service (UCaaS), communications platform as a service (CPaaS) and contact center as a service (CCaaS), to meet changing customer demands and create new revenue streams for their business.

Challenges in the Channel

There is a growing opportunity in serving the local and global communications needs of enterprises. The challenge is to find the right partner that can simplify and remove the barriers to entering the market. Our industry is rapidly changing, and service providers need to differentiate their offerings to capture new revenue streams in voice and messaging.

However, the UC market is growing in size as well as in complexity. UCaaS is a great opportunity to bundle additional services into an existing offering, add value, extend reach and increase trust, but service providers need to be able to offer this without causing headaches.

It’s important to seek partner programmes that can support all kinds of channel partners, including service providers, carriers, value-added resellers and system integrators. The right partner will have a comprehensive solutions set to expand service providers’ portfolios and enable their business to scale in new markets.

Serving an Evolving Market

One of the simplest ways to capture and monetise the growing opportunity in UC is through a white-label platform approach. By utilising a comprehensive white-label platform, service providers can gain the provisioning, managing and billing needed to grow voice in any business, and include other key features such as fraud prevention, ticketing and reporting. White-labelling an all-inclusive platform for voice and messaging can create new revenue streams and opportunities, accelerate business growth and improve customer satisfaction by offering a range of new solutions.

The bundling of services can provide a real value-add for service providers in the channel trying to capture the opportunity in UC. Customers want to have easy access to a variety of services that can work together seamlessly and enhance their operations. White-labelling an existing platform enables service providers to expand their reach and solutions, without heavily investing in their own infrastructure or internal team of experts. They can utilise a voice and messaging platform with the network and solutions needed to benefit their customers with new opportunities, and even brand it to fit their own company. It’s a win-win situation.

Service providers can rapidly monetise voice and messaging with a partner that can execute both locally and globally. With end-to-end support and a suite of solutions, they can accelerate their growth in new markets and serve changing UC demands from customers.

By partnering with an independent player that has deep expertise in developing voice and messaging services, even local, small- to medium-sized providers can create value end-to-end and serve the growing demand for unified communications on a global scale.

Adapting for the Future

The voice and messaging space is constantly evolving, and it’s vital that service providers meet this pace of change. UC is only going to grow as more companies adapt their working environments post-COVID.

Almost all of 50 of the UK’s biggest employers questioned by the BBC have said they don’t plan to bring staff back to the office full-time, so it’s clear that UC will continue to grow in demand and complexity as remote working continues on a large scale.

The right partner programme and voice and messaging platform will provide the tools to increase agility and serve changing demand in the market with simple and easy-to-deploy solutions. Service providers can deliver more solutions and scale business in new markets with new products, customers, opportunities and expertise, with the flexibility to adapt their approach whenever needed. A comprehensive platform from an expert partner can really hold the key to meeting the rapidly changing communications demands of the future.

Ronan Higgins is commercial director of Coolwave Communications, where he leads the development and execution of the company’s commercial road map globally. With his background in solutions-based telecoms, he has experience in managed services, voice over IP, sales, business development and sales management. He previously was sales director at Imagine Communications. You may follow him on LinkedIn.