BroadSoft is an innovator in the technology and communications space. Their aim over recent years has been to develop and enhance their portfolio in a way that empowers customers to take advantage of a truly unified communications platform, complete with everything from workstream tools, to best-in-class conferencing.
As we move into 2018, BroadSoft is one of the many UC vendors with plenty to look forward to in the year ahead. The CDMO for BroadSoft, Taher Behbehani, sat down with me to provide some thoughts, insights, and tips for our UC Insights series.
What Has Been Significant for BroadSoft in 2017?
It's safe to say that 2017 has been a year of disruption and transformation for companies in the Unified Communications industry. New technologies like AI and IoT have entered the market, while vendors around the world continue to consolidate to provide their channel partners and customers with the ultimate end-to-end solution. I asked Taher which changes he considered to be most significant for BroadSoft over the last year.
"I think perhaps the biggest thing is the migration to the cloud. We've been talking about this move for a while now, but now we're starting to see the changes occurring in a very tangible and real way. I think this is going to be an astronomical evolution of the marketplace, and it's also something that's likely to continue dominating the minds of CIOs for any enterprise, across all industries."
In terms of what BroadSoft has to offer their service providers, the brand is currently focusing on the true power of Unified Communications as a driver for revenue and growth.
"If we look at the market, top-line revenue for the industry is incredibly significant. Our message right now is that Unified Communications is officially here, it's ready, and the demand is there. What channel partners need is the ability to take solutions to market, and that's what we're focusing on at BroadSoft."
How Are You Empowering Partners and Customers?
One of the ways that BroadSoft has really differentiated itself in the marketplace during 2017, is by developing a new channel partner programme known as "Powered by BroadSoft". I asked Taher to explain how this solution is giving the brand the strength it needs to really empower its customers.
"Today, the technology in the UC market is becoming simpler, but selling that technology has grown to be more difficult. Many channel partners are used to selling devices and data plans, but in the years ahead they're going to need to shift to start selling solutions that really help businesses by tying into the workflow and adding additional value – it’s a whole mindset that needs to be changed"
According to Taher, the relationship between partners and service providers has changed with the growth of cloud solutions. It's now more important than ever for partners to make sure that their customers are having a great user experience, and that they have access to the latest technology out there.
"We decided that we needed to help our partners and channel. We created a plan that involved assistance for selling to end-users, onboarding end-users, and improving end-user adoption. Over the last year and a half, we've been focusing more on that "selling" part, and moving forward, we'll be looking more at the onboarding part of things, and how we can get people to access the strategies from BroadSoft that they need."
The "Powered by BroadSoft" strategy isn't just a good idea either - the company has already seen results, for instance Taher told me that:
