Despite the wider uncertain economic conditions businesses are currently facing the channel has been a crucial component in transitioning companies to digital technologies and helping them craft new ways of working.
The next phase of hybrid working comes as government support for businesses starts to wane. The work the channel has enabled will be put to the test as countries start to relax their restrictions.
According to Avaya’s Life and Work Beyond 2020 report, 62% of workers were happier in 2020 than in 2019 because they could choose where to work from and almost half (46%) said they preferred to work remotely or at least be given the option and tools to do.
A commissioned study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Elastic, February 2021 – Base 1,000 global IT leaders and decision-makers showed 60 % were investing in employee experience to improve the productivity and performance of a distributed workforce. The same report stating that 57% of IT leaders believe that enabling employees to work flexibly and remotely will improve the adaptiveness of the business but, only 40% have the right tools, policies, and procedures to support a remote workforce and flexible work arrangements.
We asked our channel experts what kinds of challenges are still to be solved when it comes to hybrid working and what the opportunity for partners will be moving forwards into 2021 as businesses continue to define their business models, ways of working and the future of their working culture.
What kinds of business problems are being solved/ yet to be solved when it comes to hybrid working?
Dave Reynolds, UK MD of Xelion:
“The biggest challenge with hybrid working is providing an opportunity for unstructured meetings, so called ‘water cooler chat’ – those incidental, chance interactions with colleagues at the water cooler, copier, coffee machine and so on.
While structured meetings have been successfully replicated using conferencing apps, chance interactions are difficult to simulate. However, chance interactions can be very productive, allowing the cross fertilisation of ideas and preventing the entrenchment of silo mentalities.
Despite this, the pandemic has proved that hybrid working is as productive and can be more productive than conventional entirely office-based work. Given the huge cost savings employers can make regarding office space, building security, janitorial services, travel weighting of salaries and a host of related expenses, there is unlikely to be a wholesale return to office only working post-pandemic.”
Paul Taylor, Sales and Marketing Director – Voiceflex:
“Many people are coming to terms with working from home (WFH) and those that are able to are looking at WFM 100% of the time. Communications is the easy part, as we move forward hybrid as a service (HaaS) will be an important aspect of the comms channel, including but not limited to PC, MS Teams license, UC&C , data connection, furniture, and HR tools to monitor employees (a company still has a duty of care where ever the employee is based). A whole new sub-industry will emerge.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales & Marketing Director – VanillaIP:
Sinnott summarises the big market questions that need to be answered.
How do teams best attend meetings that are split between office and home working attendees? With meetings now driving a lot of work are there enough meeting rooms, are individuals far enough away from other participants not to get echo?
Does hybrid just mean which day you are in and which day you are at home, or does it cover the time you get to the office and leave on office days? People have got used to school runs, dog walks and may perhaps look to travel on less crushed trains.
How will HR cover lone workers in the office if there is no minimum staff headcount? Will there have to be a rota against which you have to state an exception and who administers this? What about first aiders and fire marshals?
How is health and safety covered for workers whilst they are at home and what different HR contracts need to be drafted?
Staff may not fully establish the correct balance for 18 months or more, with some coming back full time then wanting to make that 3 days and some staying at home but then wanting to start coming in more. When is it safe to downsize an office?
One last challenge emerging is too many meetings. With virtual meetings so easy to call and attend are we filling the diary with an endless number of them.
What are the major challenges the channel face in terms of implementing hybrid working products and services for their customers?
Matt Worboys, Director – Business Development Channel – Gamma “
“The channel knows better than anyone that no one size fits all – in times of uncertainty and change this is more relevant than ever. We have seen a spike in demand for popular products such as Microsoft Teams, but more often than not, a solution such as Teams will only be part of the answer to customer problems.
“Partners and suppliers will need to show they can provide and manage an end-to-end solution, which includes both voice and connectivity, to overcome the challenges brought on by these uncertain times”
For resellers, success won’t just be about delivering a good product anymore – to achieve success, they will need to understand customer priorities, their challenges and pain points, and use that knowledge to deliver a personalised and holistic experience.
Ultimately, the most important aspect to succeed in the coming months will be choosing a trusted and supportive partner such as Gamma; a partner who not only can provide future-proof voice and data solutions across the board, but can also assist them and support them from the sales cycle right through deployment. Additionally, we have noticed a huge demand for IT skills, so choosing a partner that can support resellers in that aspect will be critical.”
Justin Hamilton-Martin, Director – Enreach for Service Providers:
“Many channel firms are in the same position as businesses: they are not sure where to start. The answer is, of course, cloud-based unified communications, because it enables them and their customers to get up and running fast, and without needing to do their own investments and technology investments”
“However, as more channel players get on board with UCaaS, this is going to become a crowded and competitive market. Therefore, it is vital that channel companies start differentiating themselves as soon as possible. This can be achieved by using UCaaS platforms that offer flexible and open integrations, so that customized solutions can be built easily and rapidly.
In addition, demand for mobile UCaaS is accelerating, so there is a real opportunity for the channel to get on board with that early and grab market share ahead of their competitors.
One thing to bear in mind is customer relationship ownership: agency business models effectively take the contract and engagement away from the channel. I consider that a dangerous way forward: the channel needs to carry on owning the customer relationship, with the platform provider focusing on support if and when required.”
Dave Reynolds, UK MD of Xelion:
The rapid onset of the pandemic caused customers to implement expedient solutions for home working, often based on apps designed for domestic social interaction and not business unified communications. While these quick fixes worked well enough, given the sudden emergency, they are unsuitable for long-term distributed voice and data comms.
The challenge for the channel is persuading customers to focus on long-term solutions for hybrid working based on proven business class solutions that combine flexible working with robust business continuity assurance.
The only sure way of engaging with customers is to provide a strong business cost case for change. Successful businesses always examine working practices critically to see if there is a better way of doing things that reduces the cost base.
Alison Hastings, Regional Channel Director UK&I, Avaya:
“Some challenges for the channel include ensuring compliance, security and GDPR. They also need to ensure that end-user customers feel that the promise of total experience has been fully delivered or else they will not see growth in adoption levels”
Again, UCaaS is the answer. With a unified experience, employees are saved from having to navigate a confusing mix of disjointed calling, meeting, and team messaging applications that are not integrated, let alone other enterprise apps they need for things like project and task management, customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP). A fragmented environment is more expensive to operate (separate licenses for each app, higher staffing costs for needing to manage each app individually) and difficult for supervisors to manage and monitor, which drives many to push for on-site work.
An integrated UCaaS solution provides a single-user interface for accessing all features across desktop and mobile devices; automated upgrades to new features, centralised management and control (manage information, make changes, and securely monitor communications anywhere using one simple app available on any device) and built-in analytics that enables admins to gain a deeper understanding of their organization’s communications – anywhere, on any device. The best UCaaS are built on open platforms and so can work with data from other applications (ex: Business Intelligence reporting) and allow for seamless integrations with CRM, ERP, HR, and other enterprise apps.
A further challenge is finding the right use case, and therefore consultative selling above and beyond deploying UCaaS licenses is key and needs a change in mindset on both the customer side and the channel.”
How will the hybrid working evolve this year and what does that mean for Channel?
Justin Hamilton-Martin, Director – Enreach for Service Providers:
“Hybrid working is here to stay and so companies are realizing that they now have to plan for the long-term and lay down the right foundations for a more flexible and fluid work environment. They are moving away from the quick-fixes of 2020 and are looking for more business-grade solutions. For the channel, there is a huge opportunity to help those businesses navigate towards a more seamless and consistent hybrid work environment, using UCaaS and mobile-enabled UCaaS. Plus, by moving conversations beyond just voice and connectivity products, resellers and service providers can expand their offerings, add more value, and build additional revenue.
“As UCaaS continues to evolve, so will the opportunities for the channel, for instance adding cloud-based contact centres as part of a UCaaS solution, and integration of more AI to enable smarter, more relevant engagement between users and customers”
Jon Knight, MD of Ascentae:
“For the channel, this presents a unique opportunity to get to know the needs of these individual customers and prescribe bespoke solutions tailored to their new needs that can support and ultimately boost collaboration amongst these dispersed teams. As 2021 progresses and we all hope to see more people returning to their workplaces gradually the nature of the problems that end users need to solve will change. Initially the focus will be safety and creating confidence that the organisation has the right measures in place to support safe working. Then it will be about enriching the experience in all environments that users need to collaborate with colleagues.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales & Marketing Director – VanillaIP:
“From June 2021 to June 2022 we will see different swings. Some may be based on Covid data and the struggle to manage an open society but more will come from trends we don’t yet understand”
Channel players can gain a great advantage here if they are selling flexibility. Many other players need to nail down incomes for their own reasons. Deals on 36 and even 60 month terms will be pushed for supplier reasons not customers reasons so those with a 30 day capability need to sell that hard so customer make it part of their requirements list.
Businesses need to communicate the choices to their staff clearly so they know if they can move further from the office and still be a full participant. If not, they may seek work with firms that support their mover to lower cost housing areas.
Hybrid working can go beyond knowledge workers so channel players need to look closely at their clients workflows and perhaps add collaboration tools their rather than just as a users tool.”
