As the coronavirus continues to impact the way we live, work and do business, the world is driven to consider the benefits of cloud solutions like never before – nowhere is this more evident than in business communication and collaboration. Cloud adoption has accelerated and UCaaS sales skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic.
Despite this, various misconceptions around UCaaS are preventing some partners from embracing and offering the technology. Malkit Badesha, Vendor Business Lead EMEA, Partner Management, tackles some of the common objections about adding UCaaS to your solution stack, so you can make the most of the opportunity.
I don’t want to lose control
Partners that value owning their customer relationships are sometimes reluctant to sell UCaaS because of the Master Agent model, where partners give the vendor customer referrals and earn commission on the contract.
Westcon offers a range of sales models to suit every UCaaS opportunity, but Master Agent is flexible: wholesale or hosted, and a choice of customer engagement so you don’t give up your trusted adviser relationship or stickiness from adding consultancy or services.
I want to ‘own’ the customer
If you don’t have 100% share of the wallet of the customer, then you don’t own the customer anyway. Security, networking, device/AV and IT resellers are now selling UCaaS and therefore competing with you for ‘your’ customer’s business.
Our vendors will hold a ‘terms of engagement’ call with you to understand and accommodate any requests before introductions to the prospect. And we’re also on hand to support you in any deal. You can retain as much control of the customer as you want. Security and networking partners can simply hand over the referral and enjoy the monthly recurring revenues. UC partners can retain their existing close customer relationships so they can continue to cross-sell, up-sell and add services.
UCaaS is only for SMBs
Small businesses have traditionally been seen as the best fit for UCaaS, since they have fewer resources for building and managing an integrated calling, data and collaboration infrastructure.
But UCaaS is increasingly attractive and adopted by larger enterprises looking for a cloud-first strategy, agility to scale up or down for seasonal flux, and API integrations for all major CRM, social and much more.
My customers are happy with their legacy system
Ask what they spend on support contracts, and offer to demonstrate the competitive advantages of a modern UC. UCaaS solutions are class-leading, future-proof and hold an investment roadmap to develop best-in-class integrations with other applications.
Cloud billing is too complex
Our BlueSky cloud billing platform simplifies all the complexities of cloud billing. It removes the burden of admin and vendor management, so you can focus on your core business: finding deals or fostering existing customer relationships.
BlueSky streamlines and secures cloud revenue streams by automating the subscription billing process, whilst enabling much greater flexibility in subscription terms, consumption-based pricing models and payment choices.
UCaaS isn’t our core business
Experts project the market for UCaaS to grow to almost $80 billion by 2024. With that in mind, it’s not a question of whether end users will need UCaaS, but who will provide it – you or your competitors?
At Westcon we work with world-leading UCaaS vendors and offer sales models suited to every kind of partner or sales agent. Huge investments have been made in R&D and channel partner programmes. Get in touch and see how we can maximise your UCaaS opportunity.