Ericsson-LG Enterprise (ELG) and ARIA Technologies – their sole Australia partner – have embarked on a Cloud journey to continue a decades-long partnership in the Australian Unified Communications market.
Recognizing the market shift to Cloud communications and determined to maintain their market leadership position locally, ARIA “undertook a huge transition of the company, completely restructuring with a focus on company culture,” shares Tony Vitale, CEO of ARIA Technologies.
Refocusing their business strategy on delivering iPECS Cloud Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), the transition involved changes in management and partner base, a transition from a CapEx to an OpEx model, and significant investment in the company’s ERP systems.
“ARIA remains a critical partner and Australia an important market for ELG, and we’re delighted to continuing the tremendous success and a dominant position we’ve enjoyed over the past decade,” says Ericsson-LG Enterprise’s Head of Sales and Marketing, Ahed Alkhatib.
“The dramatic market shift in recent years has forced us to rethink our core proposition and the way that we go to market,” he notes. “We have invested in technology that meets the changing demands of Australian businesses and remain committed to our customers.”
ARIA and ELG have set a mutual goal: Reclaiming that same #1 market position in the Australian SMB segment they’ve enjoyed with on-prem, this time with cloud. Here’s the full story of their journey.
A Change of Approach: The Shift to Everything as a Service
One of the biggest challenges of ARIA’s journey is shifting its sales model to a monthly recurring model, effectively transitioning to a subscription-based model for their entire portfolio – software and hardware alike.
“One of the key challenges in moving to a subscription model is that revenue flows differently, impacting your P&L,” Vitale explains.
“This challenge is no different for our partners, so we and they need to have a medium to long term view of building a successful subscription model.”
However, Vitale testifies that the benefits for ARIA and its partners alike far outweigh the challenges. Other than enabling them to eliminate the need for large capital expenditure on hardware and freeing capital for other investments, it also provides a predictable monthly fee for their communications services.
Understanding Your Customer
Vitale stresses the undeniable importance of knowing your customers and meeting their business needs.
“We spend a lot of time understanding our customers and what is important to them,” he notes.
“Together with ELG, we’ve created a proposition that provides choice to the customer and allows them to customize their journey to the Cloud at their own pace.”
Vitale took great importance in enhancing the exterior of ARIA’s propositions to reflect what lies behind them: their position as the only player still in the marketplace able to provide traditional on-prem alongside several different Cloud models, including hybrid models.
With their decades-long success in the Australian marketplace, ARIA and ELG have established a significant base of installed customers. This now means that they can migrate those existing customers to a new-and-improved cloud value proposition without forcing them into any aggressive infrastructure or user experience changes.
“The broad iPECS portfolio uniquely positions us to address the varying customer needs and allows us to tailor a solution that best fits their business requirements,” Alkhatib explains.
Local Feel, International Standards
ARIA embarked on their still-unfolding journey while keeping the local Australian market and its unique needs top of mind.
“We definitely focus on that local feel for customers, who we know prefer dealing with local providers,” Vitale says.
“We have a decent sized Australian partner base, our infrastructure is located here, as well as all of our support.”
ARIA’s current mission is further driving the transition from on-prem to cloud in the Australian market, noticing the growing local demand for it.
“That’s the beauty of our product suite today – the ability to seamlessly go from one user to thousands, with a focus on the SMB space,” Vitale says.
ARIA and ELG continue to work together to ensure their customers enjoy the most advanced solutions and keep up with industry trends.
“We continue to innovate to help our customers help their customers,” he concludes.
To learn more about ARIA Technologies’ iPECS Cloud proposition, visit their website here.
