At this week’s virtual UC&C Summit 2021, the Wildix unveiled its latest platform along with other additions to the company’s communications portfolio.

The x-bees platform routes all business communications, including VoIP calls, chats, video calls and more, into a single in-browser interface. The platform is designed to increase sales by improving lead management procedures.

It likely will roll out for beta testing next month.

Robert Cooper is director of Wildix Americas. He said more partners were able to participate in the annual Wildix conference because no travel was necessary.

Wildix now has more than 1,000 partners globally and about 150 in the Americas. Those include VARs, MSPs and SIs. They are a “component” of the solution delivered to customers.

Evolution of Communications

Wildix’s Robert Cooper

“The overall theme for us is for the partners to understand that the evolution of technology is taking place, especially with communications,” Cooper said. “And it’s no longer about a telephone system. It’s really not even about just selling unified communications. It’s about a business solution that will help the partners grow, win customers, manage customers and provide a better customer experience.”

Other portfolio additions include:

In addition, Wildix will expand its partner rewards program. It will further reward high rates of monthly recurring revenue in the coming year.

Wildix’s Alberto Benigno

“In 2020, we handed out over a half-million dollars in bonuses to you in discounts and rebates,” said Alberto Benigno, Wildix’s chief sales officer. “We will introduce a special incentive not only for the best results, but also for the top growing businesses. In this way, no one is excluded from the Wildix rewards program.”

Cooper said the x-bees platform is all about customer experience.

“It gives [partners] a competitive advantage because we’re no longer talking about buying a phone system,” he said. “We’re talking about how we’re going to help the customer capture their customers, how we’re going to help the customer grow their business, how we’re going to help the customer provide a better customer experience for their customers. So it’s a different conversation. We’re addressing business issues, and business needs and requirements, providing value to that end user customer in a way that none of the others can address.”

Smart Work

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses were forced to focus on remote work, Cooper said. However, Wildix is focused on “smart work,” which goes beyond remote work.

“Remote work is. ‘I need to build kind of a remote office for you at your home,'” he said. “That’s just extending the office capabilities to another dedicated location. We look at smart work as being able to work from wherever you are on any device. And and that’s a different dynamic. But during the pandemic, it opened up the smart work concept because it’s not just remote work; it’s I now can hire people in other geographical areas. I can expand my talent pool. I can take advantage of opportunities in other areas because I can now have people and resources available in different geographies. So smart work is fundamentally different.”

Wildix was built for the smart work environment, Cooper said.

“We’re capable of doing that, having a secure-by-design platform, having a browser base, no downloads, having it all-inclusive of all the technology and collaboration capabilities into one window,” he said.

Big Growth Ahead

Despite the pandemic, 2020 was …

… a good year for Wildix, Cooper said. Furthermore, the company sees 2021 as a big growth year.

Last year prompted a lot of panic buying and a massive jump in e-commerce, he said. Ten years of e-commerce growth occurred in three to four months last year. That resulted in 10 years’ worth of equity loss in the channel.

“We firmly believe that going forward, as these companies get back to what they do now, they’re going to be thinking about and give more consideration to, ‘OK, what’s the direction, what do I really need to do?'” Cooper said. “And that will begin to open up for the channel to create more opportunity … to walk in the door and provide a value-added solution to meet their needs.”

At last year’s summit, Cooper called RingCentral, 8×8 and other prominent UCaaS providers “vampire vendors” who are “sucking the lifeblood out of the channel.” He said more partners are now waking up to this.

“The hosted providers are taking the channel’s business equity,” he said. “Either you’re looking to run a lifestyle business where the hosted provider is paying you commissions and no value to the customer … and everybody’s an agent, or you’re in this business to provide value to grow, establish your authority, own your customer base and provide value to them. That’s significantly different. and there will be a clear demarcation between the two. Wildix stands right there in the face of that to say, ‘If you’re a partner with us, we’re going to help you beat that. We’re going to help you maintain your customers and help you grow.’ That’s the difference in the market.”