CV_Fall_21

50 A unique company with a unique- name. More on that in a moment. NUSO is a premier cloud services provider that embraces its channel-only model. Unlike other providers, NUSO works exclusively with its authorized partners to provide products and servic- es to the SMB and enterprise markets. The name, NUSO, roughly trans- lates to “naked” in Esperanto, and it is truly embodied throughout the organization. Noting that it considers its channel partners an “ally instead of a competitor,” NUSO delivers a portfolio of UC, hosted VoIP, SIP trunking, collaboration, contact center and SMS text messaging services, among others, with 99.999 percent uptime. Recently, we sat down with NUSO CEO, Matt Siemens, to talk about where the company is headed. ChannelVision: For those who aren’t familiar, please talk about NUSO and what makes the company so special. Matt Siemens: As a channel- focused entity, we provide UCaaS or hosted phone service, SIP trunking, contact center and CPaaS services to customers throughout 49 states and four provinces in Canada. That being said, (unlike many of our competitors) we’re 100 percent channel driven, focused on partners being able to work with their end user customers and being able to automate selling and deploying services. We give them the control to do not only real-time change to the services and modifica- tion but also adding seats, deleting seats and changing license types. Those kinds of things – speed, what we refer to as frictionless deployment and also longevity and the revenue stream – were the reason that in 2019, our top 250 partners doubled their earnings. CV: When NUSO calls the channel partner an “ally,” what exactly does it mean ? MS: Those who have been in the channel long enough have seen this evolution from the older, slower players in the market. They’d gone direct first and decided that, “Hey, this channel thing is kind of cool.” The problem is – and we hear from partners all the time – when you have a direct side and a channel side, sometimes deals get pulled out of the channel side and handed over to the direct side. We don’t have a direct side that’s going to end up competing with the partner. We don’t publish our prices, so that allows partners to structure a transaction to meet their needs and the customer’s needs more effectively. CV: Along with the channel-only focus, what else sets NUSO apart? MS: Really the speed and the efficiency of us being able to deliver service. This idea of being friction- less. It’s those types of things that we actually look at on a day-to- day basis. The ability to serve our partners is critically important to the people in our organization. CV: Kind of along the same lines: where does NUSO see the most poten tial? MS: The MSP space is a large opportunity, mainly because of who they actually serve. Part of the challenge with those older, slower service provid- ers is that they don’t deliver the same level of customer support and service to smaller [companies], those that are 50, 75 seats and below. They’ve abandoned that space, purposely. That’s opened up spots for us in the MSP channel. Our automation allows us to be able to do work with a 25-, 30-, 40-, 50-seat customer, support them fully and actual- ly take care of that customer. CV: What’s in store for your partners this year? MS: We’re getting back out to see you, back on the road. I think our growth is going to be close to 50 percent this year. It’s very good to be back. CV: You talk about 50 percent growth. Where do you see NUSO in five or 10 years? MS: We have two paths. We have an organic growth path that is the majority focus today. We’re looking at acquisition targets and companies to integrate with us. We’re not just looking for a bulldog for revenue. We’re looking for services that our channel wants to exploit in the market. It is always impor- tant for us to meet the needs of the channel. And we are confident we will continue to be successful. o Additional info is available by calling (844) 438-NUSO or by emailing contact@nuso.cloud. As-a-Service Company NUSO CEO ‘Bares All’ in Sitdown PROFILE NUSO CEO Matt Siemens AT YOUR SERVICE: XaaS CHANNEL V ISION | Fall 2021