Cloud and managed services company Maintel is offering channel partners the opportunity to take its ICON cloud and managed services to market saying that these services make it easier and more cost effective for channel partners to offer the latest transformational communications technologies, without capital investment or risk.
Chris Bain, Partner Service Director at Maintel, says that the company has been on a channel acquisition program and currently has more that 100 partners, 70 of which are based in the UK.
“ICON is a Maintel brand encompassing the delivery and management of a wide range of applications and services and fills a gap in the market where resellers are faced with vendor propositions that restrict them taking full ownership of the customer. In essence, what resellers are being offered there is a sales lead function and not a channel proposition. Maintel wants to become a part of reseller propositions, sit squarely within channels owning the contract and being able to bundle in their own services including, say, billing.”
Bain says their ICON channel offering comprised three flavours; Mitel, Avaya Aura and Avaya IP Office and will include hybrid cloud offers.
“We will be maintaining the PBX functionality from the on-premises solution and helping the reseller take the customer on a journey to the cloud. This means that customers will retain some of their existing investments and resellers will be using their existing PBX skills as they shift to the flexible payment options that cloud consumption has to offer.”
Asked what are the killer applications and services Maintel are offering channels Bain says:
“There are two I would highlight; firstly, we can provide a trial led, internet delivered Unified Communications solution with full PBX features. Secondly, we have our own Call Media contact centre application for 50 to 500 seat applications.
With regards to reseller support we can provide, it does depend on the level of engagement we have. Our standard pack includes SLA and progresses through to full access to our pre-sales and bid teams. We can develop channels to become fully self-sufficient.
Security remains an incredibly important aspect of our service and no-one should take it for granted as there are tough penalties around GDPR and PCI compliance which is a reason why we maintain our ISO accreditations.”
So, what type of reseller partner is Maintel looking for to take on their ICON offering?
“There are four main types of reseller we are looking for.
- UK systems integrators and outsourcer companies such as ATOS and Capita, Service companies where we can increase their share of wallet through comms cloud services. This will help them keep a competitive and drive the digital transformation and customer service excellence
- UK comms-focused resellers. We will be able to provide them with access to skills, geographical reach and vendor capability. They will be able to walk in and take on legacy solutions and see revenues far quicker
- Telcos, where with our network services and cloud contact centre, we can help them diversify their portfolio and take on a wider range of applications. Again, they will be able to walk in and take on more of the vertical stack in the communications for example CRM integrations and ticketing systems to drive down response times
- International channel partners where we can extend their own portfolio and they can use our support services
“There are additional services we can provide the channels such as Microsoft teams calling plans to any organisation”
“Maintel will work closely with partners to ensure that each partner proposition is unique. Each partner will also be able to wrap Maintel’s cyber security, customer experience, call centre and digital workplace solutions into services. Maintel is vendor agnostic so can help channel partners design bespoke offerings that aren’t confined by technology partners.
The ICON services are provisioned from Maintel’s own datacentres and managed by specialist staff 24/7 to agreed SLAs. This helps reduce the amount of equipment needed to be managed by channel partners. This means that less infrastructure is needed, helping partners lower costs and dedicate more people to doing what matters most instead – focusing on transforming their customers’ business.”
Bain concludes,
“At Maintel, we understand that customers need to see the value from reseller propositions, not a conduit to a vendor”
“We are looking to work closely with our partners and help them deliver, ensuring that they can leverage our expertise and solutions to create services that plug gaps in their offerings, differentiate themselves from their competitors and increase share of wallet. Potential partners are encouraged to get in touch so that we can start conversations and begin building a truly unique offering.”
