Bridging the Gap in Solutions Delivery as the Cloud Evolves

The Channel evolution driven by the Cloud technology advancement has boosted the UCaaS and CCaaS sales volume, accompanied by larger and more complex installations. This has left a gap for solutions delivery in the channel for UCaaS and CCaaS sales. This large gap in the ability to deliver on the design, sale, deployment, integrations and support of these solutions has created a requirement for a new category of provider – the Master Solutions Provider. 

Since the early days of this evolution, we, being a Solution Provider, have advocated for the importance of deployment and support capabilities for the Cloud Solutions in the Channel. And today, we see a growing need of such capabilities and expertise to support Partners in the Channel. We see a fantastic opportunity for our Agent and MSP partners in the Contact Center as a Service mid-market sector.  This is as a space were LANtelligence is focusing its extensive Contact Center experience and expertise for this new Channel. This market offers less competition and bigger payouts for our Channel Partners.

The recognition that the entre voice world is moving rapidly away from premise based solutions, coupled with the existing poor delivery model for Cloud voice solutions was the opportunity that lead us to being a Master Solutions Provider. The ability to use our core strengths and partner with the strengths of those in the Channel to create a perfect win/win scenario for selling UCaaS and CCaaS.

When it comes to UCaaS and CCaaS the Cloud has made it possible for MSP’s and agents in the Channel to partner and sell voice and Contact Center solutions. They can deliver the products with confidence and the level of compensation that did not exist in try to partner to sell premise based voice solutions. It allows the channel to add UCaaS and CCaaS to their line card and the great revenue stream it produces with the confidence they can sell the solutions and maintain good relationships with their customers.

There are a number of facets to the gap. At the top you have the providers. They initially sold the idea of Cloud as a plug and play technology for voice. This did not turn out to be true even when the average deal size of the largest Cloud voice providers is less than 50 users. They had to take on the responsibilities of the deployments themselves. This has been a poor experience for the sellers and the end user customers. The primary sales channel for the UCaaS solutions has been the Master Agents who do not have the technical staff or capabilities to deploy these solutions they are providing access to for their channel. This causes a gap, especially as the deal size for UCaaS solution grows and you need hands on deployments.

LANtelligence has the relationships with the providers to give our channel access to sell the solutions. Then we fill in the GAPS by being able to demo, design, deploy and support these solutions completely or in conjunction with the providers. Our technical teams have experience and expertise in all areas of the deployments (Network, Carrier, LAN/WAN, SD WAN) not just the solution itself. We can provide our channel partners and the solution providers a complete partner experience.  

This is something the providers recognize and are rapidly working to find technical organization to relieve them of these project burdens.

For LANtelligence our depth in technical expertise, experience and focus on voice UCaaS and CCaaS solutions gives us the opportunity to partner with the channel to deliver these solutions is a complete form that no one else is today. Our Sales Support Model focuses on allowing our channel partners to focus on being in front of prospect/customers while we take care of all the other items that normally keep them out of the field and limit their sales potential.

Historically both Agents and MSP’s have had limited success partnering to sell voice telephony solutions. The sales process and complexity of the technologies made it extremely difficult to execute on these sales as an add on to their core carrier or Managed IT offerings. With UCaaS and CCaaS brining less complexity to the solutions and a partner model that allows LANtelligence to do all the technical heavy lifting from demo & design to deployment and support. An agent or MSP can offer their customers these solutions without any interference with their existing core business. In addition, the MRR revenue model has allowed for payouts that make the venture a key part of their future revenue plans, while closing a door on their competitors trying to use voice as a way into their customers.

I think we have seen many Managed IT applications evolving in the channel in a similar way. The one that probably is the most similar is Managed Network Security offerings. It is an area of great complexity and change that the providers in the channel today struggle to provide end to end solutions or support for. At the same time, it is a perfect fit for a Managed Service offering. This is where a Master Solutions provider with access to the solutions and the technical expertise to deliver them can make these offerings part of the Agents and MSP’s offerings.