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channel management
More than 700 are on a Meta-
switch softswitch. Almost 200
are running Netsapiens. There
are numerous on versions of As-
terisk, Freeswitch and other pro-
prietary systems (Fuze, Broad-
view, 8x8, RC, Dialpad to name
but a couple). There are another
hundred offering one Cisco plat-
form or another (HCS, Spark).
Coredial is just one white label
UC provider, which has more
than 500 customers. Add in 70
million users of Office365 with
Skype4B, 3 million daily users
of Slack and all the other col-
laboration space, and you can
see how crowded the space is.
Sales are hard to come by. This isn’t
a product with a true pain point. It isn’t a
replacement service. The worst way to
sell UC is as a key system replacement,
but that’s what people do. It’s why there is
churn and a slew of unhappy customers.
At its core unified communications is
about change. For the business to get
more efficient and productive, it has to
alter how it does business. Problem: no
one likes change. We aren’t selling it as
change. Hence, the disconnect and the
hang up on sales.
Almost half of UC sales are now with-
out phones – softphones or mobile apps
only. Yet the industry, after more than a
dozen years, has not penetrated more
than 30 percent of the market. In fact,
premises-based PBX sales still eclipse
cloud sales. In 2020, it is expected to
cross-over.
What’s a channel manager to do?
It’s a challenge. You want to hit your
UC quota; your company doesn’t want
to drop the price or match the spiffs.
Here are three tacks channel managers
can take.
One, be specific about where in
the market your product fits. Product-
market fit is a key ingredient for sales
success. The market is at least seven
segments (maybe eight). Repeat over
and over where your sweet spot is.
Partners tend to self-select where you
fit if you don’t tell them.
Two, follow this repeated message
with signs of success. By that I mean,
let them know you are closing deals.
Every time you close a deal inside
your sweet spot (or higher) email your
partners with a quick note. What type
The UC Price War:
What Can You Do?
T
here are more than 2,000 providers in
the U.S. offering some version of hosted
PBX or unified communications. Of
those, 400-plus are on a Broadsoft platform.
By
Peter
Radizeski
d Spectrum
UCaaS Seats Installed with Telephony
Source: Synergy; Broadsoft; courtesy RAD-INFO INC.
are still using it
Incumbents are protected
from interference from
PAL and GAA
PAL has priority over GAA
licensed via auction, 10 MHz
blocks, up to 7 licenses
GAA can use any spectrum
not used, yields to PAL and
incumbents
3650
3700 MHz
radar
FSS RX
WISPs
A
BroadSoft
Cisco
Metaswitch
RingCentral
8 x 8
Genband
Mitel
ShoreTel
Microsoft
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Millions
Q1 16
Q3 16
Channel
Vision
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March - April, 2017
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