Choosing a Partner: Why Vendor Identity Should Matter to Unified Communication Resellers

In business, two things are more important than most – your identity and your Unique Selling Point.

No matter the vertical, customers are attracted to strength in both.

Of course, products, service and price are huge too.

But get those first two key factors right – or partner with an organisation that does – and it’s likely the other good stuff will follow.

An even bigger trick is for one to be simultaneously the other: for your identity to be your USP and your USP to be your identity.

Confused? 

Well, take being a uniquely British business in a market populated by global players.

Strong identity. Strong USP.

Together, it’s a potent combination capable of having a big impact. 

“Being British is a strong brand value in and of itself – we are proud of it and we believe it is a powerful differentiator,” says Robin Hayman, Director of Marketing and Product Management at channel-focussed voice solutions provider Splicecom, which is the world’s only wholly-British developer of cloud and on-premise SMB unified communications systems.

Founded 21 years ago and still occupying its original headquarters in Hertfordshire, it believes its 100 or so (and growing) reseller partners are attracted to its heritage as well as its products and solutions.

“We are a mid-size business ourselves, competing successfully at the point of sale with global, billion-dollar household names,” says Hayman.

“Ninety five per cent of our resellers are also small or medium sized British businesses, just like us. They share our sense of identity and our core values. Once they partner with us, they stay with us.

“They have more significance to our business than they would to a huge global player and they know that they and their end-user customers have a significant influence on our products, our developments and our strategic direction. I think they enjoy that.”

Not that it’s just being British per se that scores well.

Splicecom is based in the UK and provides UK-based technical support, but it has also made the UK its primary marketplace.

Many of its global competitors see the UK as simply a small slice of a much bigger pie; attaching more strategic value to, say, the US or Canada or China where scale is king.

And that can also influence solution design and the speed at which technological advancement or customisation can respond to ever-evolving end user customer challenges.

“Being agile and focusing on the smaller, UK market means that market is our number one priority and we can respond to its challenges rapidly and with tailored expertise,” says Hayman.

“It’s a little like specialising in something. We are UK specialists: we know the market, we know how end user organisations work and we know how best to provide our resellers and MSPs with the solutions and the support they need to succeed”

In Splicecom’s case, that is a powerful and scalable cloud-based, on-premise or hybrid UC/UCAAS system; its ‘Vision’ call recording and data analytics business management and contact centre solution; plus its softphone solution and a range of telephony hardware and associated support functions.

Crucially, it is all innovated, designed and built by its ever-growing UK team.

“The UK has rightly always had a cachet for being a fertile, creative and innovative country,” says Hayman.

“We have always been a nation of innovators and inventors and brave entrepreneurs. Many tech start-ups have been born here but end up owned by organizations in the US and other countries, which is a shame.

“Many UK resellers and end user organisations we speak to for the very first time are surprised that we are not American. When they understand our Britishness and our heritage, they see added value in partnering with us. 

“We are a progressive, outward-looking business with great people and a personality. Working hand-in-hand with resellers is a really important part of that identity and I think they pick up on that. That’s always been the way and hopefully it always will be.

“We celebrated our 21st birthday this year. It felt like looking up from the laptop and saying: ‘wow, where have those years gone?’ It’s gone amazingly quickly but I think that’s because every day is different, with different challenges to be solved and exciting new developments.

“We have so much to give to the channel; to resellers and Managed Service Providers and their end user customers. 

“The more the merrier!”

• To learn more about how Splicecom can help your business grow and succeed, visit www.splicecom.com