The world of unified communications is a complex, multi-layered one, in which services and products can be applied at various different stages. With services coming directly from the vendors, peripheral services can either be applied directly by them, at distribution level or by innovative resellers trying to maximise their offerings to customers.
UC Today spoke to John Bennett, CEO of Swoop Datacom Ltd to find out how their platform, ForgeServe, is being used by vendors, providers and resellers throughout the different stages of the UC eco-system.
“We have deals with manufacturers directly, who utilise our services at the point of deployment, but we also provide the same services through distributors for resellers who recognise the huge benefits of using ForgeServe to enhance and simplify IP device provisioning and management.”
As with any new innovative product, gaining industry recognition is one of the hardest aspects of its go-to-market strategy. Designed and productised in 2015 by Swoop Datacom, ForgeServe, is a multi-tier IP device provisioning and service management platform offering a raft of benefits to resellers, service providers, and distributors. ForgeServe quickly gained traction and recognition around the globe and now is being utilised behind the scenes, in many cases, to enhance IP device deployments.
The drive to unified communications in the cloud continues and the amount of IP devices being deployed is increasing, often with these devices becoming the core hardware proposition of the solution. ForgeServe is assisting the world over, enabling single pane estate management, real-time change control, zero-touch device provisioning and simplified logistics.
ForgeServe’s existing global partnerships with distribution giants, Westcon-Comstor and Synnex, mean that the platform is enhancing some of the innovative cloud deployments with customers using platforms from BroadSoft, 8×8, and RingCentral. As well as improving the efficiency of IP device deployment globally, ForgeServe’s features are also utilised by huge amounts of customers in the UK who are operating Daisy, BT, Gamma Horizon and Fuze platforms. The service can not only enhance the processes but also provide an additional revenue stream for partners.
As well as deals with distributors, there also discussions around partnerships which would see ForgeServe utilised seamlessly behind the scenes by some of the world’s largest IP endpoint providers. In the modern, cloud enhanced world more and more providers, distributors and resellers recognise the benefits in avoiding the historical pitfalls of device management. The traditional method of deployment, with the unboxing and manual provisioning of devices has always been rife with potential errors and issues. The overheads aligned with device management are vast and require planning and investment of vital resources when it comes to physically visiting and managing the device estate. Now with ForgeServe, providers can negate these and enhance their management and visualisation through their revolutionary cloud service.
The rapid growth in the uptake of the product is hugely encouraging for John, who hopes that wealth of impressive case studies can only enhance its proposition to potential new partners and customers.
“Customers across the globe using almost every call control platform are benefiting from ForgeServe.”
“We are always looking for exciting new partners to work with. For us it doesn’t matter if they are a UCaaS vendor, distributor, reseller or enterprise, we know that ForgeServe can provide a huge range of benefits at any level of the supply chain. Before the year end 2018 we will see a further ten endpoint vendors join us with ForgeServe integration and, due to market demand, we will be expanding device provisioning and management with metrics and analytics of many network based hardware and software peripherals such as session border controllers, switches and network access points”.
