As the Unified Communications marketplace continues to transform, becoming more closely connected with the demand for collaboration and enhanced teamwork, organisations everywhere are looking for better ways to offer a unique value-added portfolio.
For more than a decade, Evolve IP has been building state-of-the-art customised strategies for their partners and resellers in the cloud computing and communication environment. Their commitment to disruptive technology and forward-thinking solutions allows them to drive exceptional opportunities for their community. The flagship product from Evolve IP, OneCloud, is built on some of the most reliable, and well-respected technology in the communication space, leveraging the tech that blue-chip businesses already trust.
Now, EvolveIP is working on accelerating its growth even further with more mergers and acquisitions, strategic decisions, and exciting opportunities for the future. I caught up with CTO Scott Kinka, and Director Paul Harrison, to learn more about Evolve IP’s journey.
What are You Building at Evolve IP today?
Initially, I was keen to get an insight into the kind of global platform that Evolve IP are currently trying to build, and the vision that the business has in mind. Scott Kinka told me that the company began to execute on their growth plan about 3 years ago – a strategy that they hoped would help them to triple the size of the brand. “We wanted to take several approaches to growth. First, we were looking to double down on our organic growth, and we’ve been successful there – this year has been our strongest ever in organic growth.”
Evolve IP also wanted to continue growing consciously through mergers and acquisitions that rounded out their capabilities in terms of IT. “We purchased solutions for speech analytics, identity management, omnichannel engines and so on. Now it’s 3 years later, and we have a brand-new, improved business. We’ve done what we planned.”
How Did you Make your M&A Decisions?
The decision to create a pan-European business was a conscious and careful move for Evolve IP, and according to Scott, when the company was looking for merger and acquisition opportunities, they were searching for several things. “First, we wanted people who also worked around Cisco and BroadSoft. We’re proud of our position as a BroadSoft and Cisco partner, and we found two of the best companies to grow with from that angle.”
Kinka also noted that the Evolve IP was looking for cultural fit with the businesses that they worked with too. “We wanted to work with companies who shared our high-growth story.”
Today, Evolve IP is maintaining a serious level of growth all over the world, using what they refer to as a “Normalize, Standardize, and Grow” strategy. “We want to take what the business is already doing well and expand it while looking for new opportunities too.”
How Does Cisco Webex Calling Fit into the Strategy?
I was interested to find out more about how Cisco Webex Calling powered by BroadCloud would become a crucial part of the Evolve IP plan. Kinka told me that the company’s thoughts around UC is that they’ve done very well with Cisco and BroadSoft’s collaboration platform. “We’ve customised the offering and made sure that it extends into meetings, videos, calls and so on. Cisco has made a serious investment in competing with Microsoft Teams now, and we believe that this is an important step”
According to Scott, in the current collaboration market, Evolve IP feels that mid-market and enterprise brands will either be choosing Microsoft or Cisco tools, and they’ll want their collaboration solutions to combine with their PBX. “The Cisco strategy is great because it lines up with where we think the UC market is going.”
Paul noted that the Webex Calling solution from Evolve IP would also be appearing in the UK too. “We think the market is ready for this. We’re seeing that Cisco and Webex Teams is allowing us to open the door for partners and resellers to enter the mid-market and larger enterprise too.”
“We’re going to bring carrier-grade telephony into the mix, and we’re very excited about that”
How Are You Going to Stand out in the Collaboration Market?
Scott and Paul believe that the future of collaboration and UC is going to belong to Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex Teams. “We want to be the glue that’s sitting in the middle.”
According to Scott, it’s important to note that there’s no way for a customer to purchase a Webex solution and get BroadCloud included underneath it without getting a service provider involved at the end of the chain with PBX. “Cisco doesn’t provide the dial tone capability attached to BroadCloud. You need to go out and get a service provider to connect you up.”
A lot of the work that Evolve IP is doing today involves being the central component that brings a company’s communication environment and collaboration tools together. “Look at Microsoft Teams, for instance; it’s the fastest growing tool in Microsoft history. If you want to use that service with your Office 365 tools, we can provide a platform that includes everything in one. We also make sure that people get the PBX they need to be included too.”
Paul noted that Evolve IP isn’t getting involved in the market strategy that focuses on “racing to the bottom.” Instead, they’re concentrating on making sure that they’re delivering genuine value.
“Our resellers can give their end-users both the functionality and the price that they’re looking for. We want to provide people with a solution that creates a better place to work in”
