Unified Communications - an Interview with Paul Pyatt, regional account manager at ICON

Are customers initiating the UC conversation and how much of what your typical SME needs is dominated by mobile technology?

“There is still a huge educational exercise needed both in the market, and in the channel, before UC is sufficiently understood to be requested by the user.

Many users are still ignorant of what UC means and how it relates to a modern day telephone system.  The message that UC is affordable and can have a marked impact on bottom line has been slow to permeate through the channel to the end user.  In some cases, resellers do not fully understand UC and are not confident about talking about UC to the customer.  In other cases, resellers prefer to stick to the traditional sales model of proposing extensions and lines rather than business solutions.  

Nowadays business is mobile. Not only do the classic road warriors need access to their messages and calls but so do the site-based employees whose jobs take them away from their desks.  In such an environment, a UC solution with its focus on mobility will help a small or medium sized business work more effectively.  

However, instead of getting a UC solution often the customer ends up with a simple mobile phone twinning solution.  A good UC solution such as Vertical Communications Wave-IP provides close integration of the mobile phone with the UC solution.  This means the road warrior and mobile employee get the same functionality that their desk bound colleagues enjoy"

Why if a UC solution can offer mobile workers so many benefits is mobile phone twinning more often proposed?

Except for the keynote vendors such as Vertical Communications with its Viewpoint mobile app there are few vendors who have a workable and reliable UC app for android and IOS phones.  Put this together with some reseller’s unfamiliarity with UC business solutions it is easy to see why customers are often sold a twinning solution rather than a UC solution such as Viewpoint mobile.
 

Paul went on to say.  Mobile technology in and of itself is not a UC feature. Mobile access to the features of a UC solution is what it is all about and it is probably true to say that, if an IP-PBX solution does not provide mobile access to its features it is not a UC solution.    Solutions such as the Wave IP-PBX from Vertical Communications are a UC solution that provides mobile access to its UC capabilities for both android and iOS handsets with its Viewpoint mobile app.  

Where are the opportunities for the Channel and how can resellers differentiate in this market?

For the reseller who is willing to embrace UC fully the opportunities are numerous but,  says Paul, the reseller must adopt a different selling model to the traditional extensions and lines approach.  It’s all about solutions when you are selling UC

UC is about business processes and productivity.  A UC solution links in with the work processes of your company and enhances the way you work.  

The reseller who is prepared to spend just that little more time to understand the customers’ business and how they work is able to offer a solution customised for the company.  Setting themselves apart from the traditional resellers in this way is a brave step for many to take. But by doing so they are able to out run the competition and differentiate themselves from the traditional reseller whose offer focuses on extensions and lines.

Is there such a thing as killer UC app that is going to drive sales of UC CPE or hosted solutions?   

 No, says Paul. There are plenty of must have apps but at the moment there is no one app which is universally desirable by all businesses.

The true mobile UC applications such as Viewpoint come close but the SME market still has a long way to go before UC solutions have a 100% penetration into business and businesses understand the power UC can bring to the bottom line.  Until this happens, the universality of Viewpoint mobile type applications will not take off.   

 

With the plethora of end user apps aimed at the consumer market available does this make the UC a hard sell?

Selling a UC solution is about selling productivity at the bushiness level.  Get that right then the arguments for investing in a UC solution become self-evident and the need to “hard sell” the solution does not arise.   

Do you think that end users are better served by single vendor solutions or by a best of breed mix of third party applications?

A single UC vendor cannot be expert in all technologies needed to deploy a UC solution.  This has given rise to a number of alliances.  Microsoft have partnered with Spectralink who are providing the endpoints for messaging, data capture and the like for Lync, Vertical Communications has also partnered with Spectralink who it relies on to provide on-site mobility endpoints for its UC solution Wave IP.    

Vertical has also opened up its UC solution Wave IP to third party developers.   

In addition to its android and IOS mobile Viewpoint app for smart phone and tablets, Vertical is encouraging third parties to develop UC apps to run on the UC Wave –IP platform. 

The available apps include CRM integration solutions and, mobility, reporting and utility applications.

Opportunities for office wireless solutions and Android BYOD platforms - an interview with ICON

In your view do resellers often miss opportunities to add an office wireless product to their solution proposition?

Wireless solutions are not quoted as often as they could be.

Some resellers sell and support wireless solutions where the handsets are designed and built only for use in office or carpeted areas. Thus, the opportunity to place solutions in areas of the organisation such as production, service delivery, and dispatch is frequently overlooked.

In addition, the perception in some resellers’ minds is that wireless handsets are no more than a mobile alternative for a desk phone. This is often because their experience is mostly of supporting wireless solutions that are not able deliver much beyond that of a simple voice mobility solution.

With enterprise quality wireless solutions, such as those from Spectralink, the handset is frequently used as a component of a business or process solution. And in some cases, such as the Spectralink BYOD type handset PIVOT, its role as an endpoint for a PBX is secondary to its use as a device for running business apps or reporting the real time status of an organisations control, process or monitoring systems.

This extended capability opens up opportunities for the channel reseller to quote a wireless on-site mobility solution as part of a total business solution. The benefit of supporting an enterprise solution such as the Spectralink wireless solution is increased sales opportunities this opens up.

Where are the missed opportunities?

On-site mobility solutions are great tools for leveraging existing business relationships. Upselling, developing new clients, and expanding into new fields are just a few of the opportunities which resellers often miss out on because they are either not alert to the potential or the wireless solution they support cannot deliver the functionality needed by the customer.

One case in particular exemplifies the potential to upsell an opportunity, add value to the customers’ business, and strengthen the customer-supplier relationship.

This is the case of a reseller proposing to install a DECT solution in a hotel. After a call to ICON, the reseller was able to expand his proposal to include the management of the hotels fire control system using Spectralink mobility solutions. For the reseller this resulted in the expanded opportunity to upgrade the existing wireless infrastructure in readiness for an integrated fire control and wireless handset solution.

It is this ability to see and understand the bigger picture that is key to ensuring that opportunities are not missed. Often resellers add an on-site voice mobility solution to a PBX proposal only as a means of increasing the sale value and enhancing the margin.

Many resellers miss or overlook the opportunity to quote wireless handsets as alternatives to desk phones often to their long-term cost.

Quoting a wireless solution can help to lock a customer in to your business. Not quoting a wireless solution is not only a lost opportunity but may also mean the end of your business with that customer.

If you do not quote a wireless solution, the door is open for someone else to offer a solution at a later date. ICON is aware of a number of cases where resellers have displaced the incumbent telecoms supplier by doing just this. Wireless solutions such as the Spectralink voice mobility solutions can be retrofitted to just about any PBX or IP-PBX. This opens the door for a reseller to take the first steps to building a long-term relationship with a client by proposing a voice mobility solution.

However, looking at the bigger picture and adding a wireless handset solution to the proposal as part of a business solution will differentiate the proposal from the competition, deliver greater value to the customer, and produce a better margin than any number of wireless handset sales could.

In which areas of the market are you seeing strongest demand for Wi-Fi and/or IP DECT and what is driving this growth

Demand is strong across all traditional verticals. However, there is particular strong growth in on-site voice mobility solutions for real time messaging.

This is not to be confused with the handset-to-handset text messaging solutions available on many wireless solutions. Real time messaging is the integration of a business’s process and monitoring solutions with the corporate telephone network thus making it possible for staff to be automatically informed of critical events. These internal M2M type solutions can trigger alerts to Spectralink WiFi or DECT handsets whenever a state of a machine, control system or other monitored system changes.


Demand for this type of solutions comes not only from the hospitality vertical where these solutions are important for guest safety and service but also from retail and manufacturing sectors. ICON is seeing increased demand from resellers for Spectralink handset solutions integrated with the real time messaging solutions from companies such as BlueSky Wireless.

The Lync effect is also driving demand for handset solutions. However, this is particular to Spectralink wireless solutions which are the only solutions approved by Microsoft for direct connection to Lync.

The smart phone trend has also spurred growth in demand for the enterprise wireless solutions from Spectralink. As more and more companies look to use intelligent endpoints as part of their of business process it is becoming evident that the smart phone device has some significant drawbacks. Companies are turning to the dedicated enterprise wireless solutions from Spectralink such as the smartphone like PIVOT handset. PIVOT runs android applications like a smart phone but also delivers quality QOS, trouble free roaming and wire line like voice quality.


At brand level, demand for Spectralink solutions is being driven by the global technology and commercial partnerships established by Spectralink.   Channel partners are benefiting form the CISCO and Microsoft Lync technology approvals and the commercial arrangements with Avaya.

What's new and exciting in the office Wi-Fi and IP DECT product stable and what new margin opportunities are available for resellers?

New for 2014 is the Spectralink PIVOT smartphone type handset. Spectralink has combined its renowned handset durability and voice quality with smartphone-like usability in the PIVOT solution. PIVOT is based on the Android platform.

PIVOT is designed to bridge the gap between friendly/familiar/versatile consumer smartphone and purpose-built, enterprise, mobile, voice capable, computing devices. What makes the PIVOT solution different from other smart devices is in part Spectralink's hard-earned skills in on-site mobile voice solutions or what it likes to describe as “the secret sauce of VoWiFi”. PIVOT is built for purpose. Unlike BYOD consumer smart devices it can take the knocks and scraps of the workplace and has the added functionality for running business apps and enabling IT managers to control its data security and access to apps.

Retail, healthcare and hospitality system vendors using BYOD, mobile computing, and PDA devices will particularly benefit from PIVOT.

Does the timeworn voice over Wi-Fi versus IP DECT debate still apply?

WiFi and DECT are no longer competitive technologies.

However, in those cases were simple voice mobility is required the technology attributes do play a significant part in the decision about which solution to select. In these cases, issues of cost prevail and considerations usually focus on the quality of the wireless infrastructure and whether or not it will support a WiFi solution.

However, when the on-site mobility solution is deployed as part of a business solution then each technology is developing its own unique strengths and attributes. Voice over WiFi is best suited to data intensive applications where voice is not the primary requirement. DECT on the other hand is the better option for low data intensive messaging apps and were voice quality and extreme handset robustness is required.

Only in scenarios where DECT and WiFi could deliver equally does it come down to issues of deployment such as legacy infrastructure and choice of handset.

What is your channel strategy for Wi-Fi and/or IP DECT ?

As a value added distributor and solutions based company ICON’s strategy is focused on mobility solutions in general and not on the technologies in specific. Over the past year we have worked closely with our vender partner Spectralink to develop a UK national strategy for its mobility solutions.

The result is a strategy that aims to strengthen ICON’s already close working relationships with channel partners in the telecoms channel and in the converging IT reseller channel.

The aim is to work with the channel to develop sales through classical key account management (KAM#1) and relationship marketing. 

In practical terms this means

• Working through our UK account management team to develop the close relationships with individual channel partners
• Building the people and internal working processes needed to provide the pre-sales and support services our channel partners need.
• Providing a total solutions capability with the ability to deliver not only the voice mobility technologies but also the business solutions with which these integrate and the support services (training, solution workshops, second line support) needed by the reseller to sell, install and support the solutions

#1 “KAM is an approach which includes developing long term relationships with strategic customers whose needs you understand in depth and for whom, you develop a special offer with a differential advantage to offers of competitors” McDonald, MIllman, Roger 1996

Why should resellers focus more on the potential of Wi-Fi and/or IP DECTproducts?

In the medium term telecoms and IT resellers will need to offer some form of voice mobility solution that will support a range of business applications.

There is a fundamental restructuring taking place in the market and voice and solution mobility is key. The BYOD trend has kick started the move to use handset based business apps in the workplace. However, it is becoming evident that this can only happen if specialised and dedicated on-site voice mobility solutions that can integrate with the business solutions to deliver a not only the business app but a robust voice solution are available.

With the application specific solutions introduced by Spectralink PIVOT, this is fast becoming a standard market. Ignoring this trend is choosing to not to succeed.

How would you summarise?

The enterprise quality wireless solutions such as from Spectralink are no longer being used as mere mobile desk phone replacements on a business telephone system. They are being integrated with real time messaging solutions to deliver critical management and control information to staff or in the case of the PIVOT smart phone solution being used to provide an android platform on which to run business applications. The opportunity for the reseller is to exploit these new applications by selling not an on-site mobile handset but a business solution.

Call Management – an ICON View

 “Today’s telephone solutions are all about call management, and if you are using your phone only to make and take calls you are probably not using it to its full potential or working as productively as you could.”   Mark Shane, Sales Director at ICON.

Productivity, cost control and customer service

The PBX has grown up and with it call management.  The range of applications that are classed as call management has expanded considerably.  Modern communications platforms, such as the Wave IP from Vertical Communications include call management applications such as,

• Campaign tracking
• Instant messaging
• Intelligent call routing
•  Real time presence
•  Contact centre

These are just a few of the call management applications available and, along with a host of other applications, are all about making a business more productive, reducing operational costs, providing the tools to build customer service, and helping it grow – a far cry from the limited range of call management tools of yesteryear which focused mostly on measuring, controlling and reporting.  

Call management for the business and the user

The traditional call logging and statistical analysis tools are still there but in contemporary communications platforms the call management applications have been put into the hands of the user.  

The introduction of communication platforms that simultaneously provide business and user level call management applications is a powerful development for businesses and has been facilitated by developments in user interfaces such as Vertical Communications award winning Viewpoint.   



These interfaces put the call management functions onto the desk top and into the hands of the user, and often that means into the hands of every one who has an extension number, whether that be a desk phone, a remote extension or a mobile extension. 

At a business level

Call management applications are usually built into the communications platform and are ready to use. There is no need for additional servers or boxes.  Modern communications platforms typically include as standard contact centre capability with skills based routing, meet-me conference rooms, advanced call recording capabilities with multiple recording options (by extension, trunk, team etc.), voice mail options as well as the traditional call logging applications and the tools for managing trunk utilisation.

At the user level

Typically call management functions such as call recording, conferencing, and call transfer are all available on the user’s desktop through Viewpoint type user interfaces.  What is more, in the leading edge communication platforms these call management solutions are available to mobile phone users, and remote extensions.  Often an individual  call log management application is available for each user 

Large and small

In contemporary communication solutions all these business productivity innovations come packaged in a single platform delivering the same functionality to the 10-man business as to the 1000 man business putting advanced call management solutions within the reach of every business no matter what its budget.

Selling solutions

The transformation of the traditional PBX from a clunky call router into a sophisticated solutions/applications platform is not without consequences.  The process of selling the package has had to change.  

The modern call management application is not a feature to be sold as an add-on to make a telephone system look attractive.  That is missing the point.   

Today’s call management tools are the building blocks and fundamental elements of a customised business solution that will impact productivity and profitability throughout the company.  

With today’s communications  platforms the new call management solutions enable businesses to amongst other things:

• Automatically track print, electronic, direct mail and online marketing campaigns.
• Redirect customers on credit hold to the accounting department when they call in.
• Extend call recording to mobile phone users wherever they are.

This means that when selling a new communications platform you do not demonstrate a call management solution at its functional level you identify and sell it as part of the total business solution.   

In today’s competitive market the winning presentation is the one that presents and demonstrates the communications platform that will achieve the company’s objectives whether these are productivity, customer service or financially focused. 

Wireless Solutions and how to sell them

Expanding into the wireless market and building new revenue streams

In some cases WiFi networking and public Internet access is a peripheral requirement to a main requirement for a telephone solution.  In such situations, the traditional comms reseller with little knowledge of wireless can walk away from the opportunity or work with one of the WiFi infrastructure distributors such as ICON who can ease their transition into this lucrative market.  

As a value added distributor, ICON’s raison d’etre is to provide the field technical expertise needed for vendors to sell into the channel.  ICON’s purpose is to ease the introduction of new solutions into the channel through transfer of the new technology understanding into the reseller chain by providing support, training, and backup for the solutions at all stages of the business transaction - sales, deployment and after sales. 

The Digital Economy Act

The digital economy act is a minefield of confusion.  If you provide a hotspot service, you may be required to maintain records and you may be liable for misuse. However, this can depend upon the business model you use to offer the hotspot service.  

Compliance with the act is not something that it is easy to add after the hotspot has been deployed.  To ensure that the customer is able to meet its compliance requirements channel partners, when installing the hotspot infrastructure, need to deploy a solution such as the Nomadix gateways that includes the ability to record and track logons and usage.