UC and collaboration technologies have seen rapid change over the past 12 months, alongside explosive adoption. But for PGi, creators of the GlobalMeet platform, that’s just the most recent transformation in a 30-year history.
“Once we were a phone card company, then we evolved into an automated notifications company with email and voicemail blasts’, explained Tom Maurath, Senior VP ,Global Channel Partners. “We transitioned into audio conferencing after that, and now specialise in virtual events, but what we learned through the COVID-19 experience is how powerfully people need to communicate.”
By deliberately not choosing to play in the commodity space of per audio or video minute, PGi have adopted a bespoke partnership approach, both in their virtual events white glove management service, and now in their marketing of GlobalMeet through local carriers as channel partners.
Partnerships to support carriers and customers
Carriers are investing in steady incremental growth in things like 5G infrastructure to serve their local markets, but as Maurath pointed out, when it comes to collaboration, there is further opportunity.
“OTT providers are starting to steal market share from carriers, so they need to find new services which complement what they already offer.
“What we saw during the pandemic was people turned to their carrier because they needed things like virtual meetings and events, their first port of call was their communication services provider. And what those carriers are realising now is that in the new normal, they cannot NOT offer this as a service, because their customers are demanding collaboration services alongside their voice and other channels. It used to be optional, but now it’s mandatory”
Carriers cannot, from a business perspective, partner with Microsoft or Google, who are directly competing for routing services. So an alliance with PGi is a win-win, particularly because in addition to their enterprise-grade private label video conferencing they constantly review other tools and solutions that can add value – bringing their decades of industry experience to support the changing demands of their clients’ customers.
A visible partnership model for future growth
As Global Strategic Channels and Alliances VP, Gahn Lane, explained, it’s time for that strength to become visible and empower regional carriers, so they can fight back against market capitalisation by huge global enterprises. And that means putting collaboration front and centre in their local go-to-market strategy:
“The alliances I am crafting now, we’ll support each other publicly, going arm-in-arm to the press and to trade shows”, he explained. PGi has been a best-kept secret for too long, but this is starting to change, and will empower those local providers to offer credible alternatives which are tailored to suit their local markets.
“This is our core competency,” Lane continued, “PGi isn’t doing collaboration until the next shiny thing comes along. We’re committed to our carrier partners for the long term, and supporting their efforts in local markets.”
“And we do this by truly supporting our partners,” explained Maurath “Making it easy for them by supporting sales collateral, training, pricing, customer care, all that kind of stuff. We have all those independent groups within our channel. So they can support the carrier in their work with their customers.” This includes supporting their negotiation and liaison with customers directly: “We’ll come on the phone as the resident expert in collaboration for our carrier with during big RFPs, with full disclosure of course, but showing the customer we’re a true extension of the carrier partner at that stage.”
