As we head into the new year, it seems like everyone is talking about what the next disruptive technology will be in the UC and collaboration market. Over the last year, we’ve seen countless innovations in everything from 5G and AI, to IoT and automation.
While many of these new technologies offer exciting new opportunities, they also present challenges that need consideration. It’s important for businesses to think carefully about how the bleeding edge of technology is going to translate into real market propositions we can sell today and in the near future, and that end customers can benefit from straight away – without feeling like guinea pigs.
Tollring, one of the market leaders in the data visualisation world, is offering today’s service providers and resellers access to the information and insight they need to take advantage of emerging tech. I spoke to the Director of Strategic Alliances at Tollring, Carl Boraman, to gain his thoughts on how partners are evolving to deal with the latest tech trends.
Emerging Technologies
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Carl Boraman[/caption]
Everyone’s interpretation of the emerging tech landscape seems to be different these days. I was interested to find out what Tollring sees as the “reality” for digital transformation and exceptional customer experience in the modern landscape. Carl told me that cloud technologies are bringing many of the innovations of the future into current reality. “However, people frequently get caught up with the acronyms like AI and IoT and forget about what really matters – how will the technology directly help or improve my business?”
To truly deliver on emerging tech trends today, Tollring believes that resellers need to gain a better understanding of their customers’ day to day needs. This should focus on the pain points that business owners and managers need to solve. This most commonly results in them developing a solution in-house, but not always.
“Traditionally we’ve developed 100% of our tech in-house, but there are some emerging technologies for which it makes sense to work with another vendor. Speech analytics is the best example. Tollring can take time building and developing its own speech analytics engine or partner with a leading platform provider. We go through a 10-point test to establish the route we should take, including product roadmap, geographical coverage, commercials, and general fit. Resellers need to take a similar approach, looking at what their customers need and then deciding whether it’s something they can build and deliver themselves, or whether to partner with a technology vendor with products that are ready to go, as well as the skills, knowledge and resources to deliver. In doing that, the reseller can focus on improving customer experience and maintaining high standards of service delivery.”
Carl also told me that there are challenges for resellers in determining what kind of commercial strategies they can actually sustain in the current landscape. “There’s a lot that has to be done to deliver these emerging technologies. And there are a lot of question marks: Does the commercial model work, will people buy it, and who’s going to buy it? Without answering these questions honestly, and with data, it’s easy to get carried away. Visions of amazing tech that helps a small number of customers are great, but can it open up opportunities for more end users, and for our partners?”
Reseller Differentiation
Carl believes that there’s a lot of opportunity out there for resellers that can pivot and adapt according to the demands of their specific market segment. As new and exciting technology enters the marketplace, today’s resellers need to think about how they can translate this into their current and new customer offerings.
“With cloud-delivered solutions, differentiation is a challenge. To combat this, resellers need to spend more time understanding how people are using existing technology in their business, and understanding the vertical market segments they play in. This will allow them to better align their products and services and package themselves as ‘knowledge experts’.
“Right now there’s a real cross-section of businesses adopting cloud telephony. Within our customer base we’re seeing certain market segments adopt the technology quicker than others"
"Organisations like law firms, doctors’ surgeries, consultants, retail and estate agents seem to be the early adopters. Of course, these organisations aren’t just buying hosted telephony, they’re also moving to other cloud delivered services like accounting software, UC, CRM, etc. Resellers could be leaving money on the table if they don’t think about where they can add value in bringing these services together.
