In a rapidly evolving digital landscape where innovation is the key to survival, companies must continually adapt to meet the changing needs of customers.
Voiceflex is one such company that’s evolving from its traditional roots into a new era of communications technology.
Established over two decades ago, Voiceflex initially gained recognition for its pioneering SIP services. However, as technology advanced and customer expectations shifted, the company recognised the need to transform its model and portfolio.
This realisation marked the beginning of Voiceflex’s transition from a traditional telco provider to a dynamic technology enabler, focusing on serving the channel, CEO James Arnold-Roberts told UC Today.
“We’ve had double-digit organic growth over the last few years, which, without M&A, is quite impressive,” he said.
“We’ve been delivering SIP services for nearly 20 years; now we need to ride the next wave and take the business from traditional telco and connectivity to a total techco business.
“We want to become the UK’s most innovative voice enablement partner.”
Arnold-Roberts said this transformation has not been a sudden pivot but rather a gradual process driven by a commitment to staying ahead of the curve.
Voiceflex has powered its transformation through a combination of both internal development and shrewd strategic partnerships.
Voiceflex Flow is its UCaaS platform, created in partnership with Televox, which integrates with Microsoft Teams.
OmniChat, meanwhile, sees Voiceflex collaborate with Meta to connect businesses to customers on WhatsApp.
Finally, Voiceflex recently announced a deal with AudioCodes that sees it distribute Voca – AudioCodes’ AI-powered Teams contact centre and IVR.
“These are the three main pillars that we’re going to market with in 2024,” Arnold-Roberts said.
“And the important thing is these aren’t individual silos; they sit horizontally within our portfolio, so you can consume them all together.”
R&D Credentials
Arnold-Roberts said one of the cornerstones of Voiceflex’s transformation journey is its commitment to innovation.
Product launches and partnerships have largely grabbed the headlines, but behind the scenes, a considerable effort has gone into research and development.
The company has made significant investments in building a talented team of developers and engineers, now in double digits, which is tasked with driving product innovation and enhancing the company’s technological capabilities.
“We’ve got the development capability to deliver on the move from telco to techco,” Arnold-Roberts said.
“We needed to own the development stack; we’ve invested heavily in that team, and we’re going to have increased capability this year as well.”
Partner Margin
Voiceflex’s metamorphosis into a true tech player is driven largely by its desire to create success for its channel partners.
The birth of UCaaS and other cloud-based services is threatening the livelihood of partners not yet moving beyond transitional comms technology – particularly as licensing margins continue to contract.
Arnold-Roberts said that Voiceflex is arming partners to deal with evolving revenue models – particularly around Microsoft, which has quickly taken a dominant position in the unified communications market through the success of Teams.
“The Microsoft Teams ecosystem is a critical path,” he said.
“Microsoft won that war, so we need to piggyback on that. None of the resellers will get rich selling licences, so they need to make margin out of the ecosystem.
“There are going to be 100 million telephony-enabled users by 2028, so we want to help partners maximise their footprint across those users through our voice enablement.”
Looking to the Future
Looking to the future, Voiceflex is not resting on its laurels.
As its UCaaS, contact centre and omnichannel applications take flight, Arnold-Roberts is already looking at new technologies that can be stitched into its existing offering.
Top of mind at the moment is enterprise-grade conversational intelligence platform Kore AI, along with planned integrations with Cisco’s Webex platform.
Crucial alongside Voiceflex’s portfolio is its ability to white-label its services, something Arnold-Roberts said has seen it beat out competition on two big deals just recently.
The broadened portfolio has also led to relationships with larger channel partners that need assistance with more complex projects. Voiceflex typically worked with sub-£20m revenue partners but is now increasing its footprint with partners between £20m-£100m.
“We want to be the most innovative voice enabler,” Arnold-Roberts said.
“Microsoft and the rest have the other pieces, and we’re never going to compete with them.
“But voice is our heritage, so we want to deliver the voice element to the applications people are using. We might not ever be the biggest voice enabler, but we can be the most innovative. That’s the key.”
Find out more about Voiceflex’s offering here.
