How To Keep Your Business In Shape And Fit For The Future: Cloud Communication Industry Insights
Paul Harrison outlines the opportunities ahead with Evolve IP and why partners need to cross-sell and expand their solution sets to stay one step ahead of the competition
The role of a reseller continues to rapidly evolve in an increasingly converged world of connectivity and collaboration.
The days of separate voice and IT specialists will further diminish as our partners successfully juggle more integrated skills and services than ever before.
This continued convergence of technology has triggered a significant increase in cross-sell and up-sell opportunities as well as creating a few challenges too. It’s crucial to remain agile and fit for the future. Don’t let a competitor steal your lunch!
Here at Evolve IP it’s our role to manage and monitor the latest industry developments and ensure our customers are fully equipped to stay ahead of their rivals – avoiding any possibility of becoming a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.
In many ways it’s been a slow journey to reach where we are today but an all-IP world is finally on the horizon. Technology convergence has been occurring for decades; however, the rate of overlap and integration appears to have increased over the past 5 years with the accelerated adoption of cloud-based technology systems across all areas.
Traditional Siloed Sales Continue To Converge
This is one of many key findings from the latest research by Cavell who highlight how traditionally siloed areas of technology were once the preserve of specialist providers within each sector – where IT, networking and connectivity, and communications were less regularly sold by a single provider. However over the last two decades, this has begun to change with larger systems integrators and providers, possessing a much broader range of capabilities to provide a breadth of services across multiple areas.
More fuel is being poured on the convergence fires through easily accessible cloud-based systems that enable providers to enter particular technology sectors without barriers such as upfront infrastructure costs that would have been prohibitive in the past.
Collaboration solutions such as Webex and Microsoft Teams offer capabilities that would have previously fallen into different areas of technology. Now, as these solutions become even more popular globally, partners who traditionally would have focused on IT services are encountering established communication partners and vice versa, according to Cavell.
Power-Up Your Portfolio & Profits
Cavell’s 2024 service provider survey found that 92% of respondents’ sales deals involve aspects from at least two previously siloed areas of technology.
Providers with the broadest and most seamlessly integrated portfolios can offer customers benefits in terms of efficiency and single-provider management whilst also realising advantages in terms of increased customer retention and portfolio resilience.
There’s now a diverse mix of on-premise, UCaaS, contact center and CX, networking and connectivity plus infrastructure and also communication platform-as-a-service (CPaaS). There’s little doubt this momentum will continue to grow, further blurring the lines between different technology sectors.
Why Evolve IP is Ideally Placed to Help
As a white-label cloud communications specialist we know there’s no one-size-fits-all in an ever changing landscape, with a diverse mix of industries and needs. The transition to an all-IP future is about timing and understanding where a customer is on their own individual journey. The key for us is offering a wide mix of integrated solutions including alternative options that are flexible and device agnostic.
To find out more about Evolve IP’s growing portfolio contact us here
