I had my first briefing with one of the UK’s leading providers of real-time and integrated communications solutions based in the cloud, VanillaIP. I sat down with Iain Sinnott, Sales and Marketing Director, DRD Communications a company, comprised of the brands VanillaIP and Uboss. He told me, if he were a business owner, he’d want to ensure that his suppliers had the tools to keep teams across the globe working wherever they need to work. “I would look to deploy a new mix of traditional voice services, inbound call management, reporting, and mobility tools where required,” he added. This is his response to what businesses should do next, after facing what felt like years’ worth of digital transformation in a few short months.
“Blend this with new virtual meeting tools that best fit with your workforce, and finally, ensure that suppliers have a portfolio of tools that would assist in the event of a second shutdown,” Sinnott advised business owners. The novel Coronavirus hasn’t changed VanillaIP’s product roadmap much, according to Sinnott who said the company’s always believed in on-demand cloud services, the flexibility of work, and the need for different tools to address workforce challenges.
He said the market’s aligned even more with the company’s strategy. “Uboss, our multi-product, multi-vendor, cloud management platform, is our differentiator and it performed well in late March.” The company added and changed tens of thousands of user services in days, without experiencing any manpower stress within its teams or VanillaIP resellers, which is an impressive feat.
Resellers have also seen an uptick in the adoption of cloud services, and Sinnott said these individuals fall into two categories: those eager and able to embrace the change in requirements from the customers. This means they embrace new applications, services, and a 30-day, on-demand commercial licensing model. And some aren’t. He contends, for the first group, they can broadcast the flexibility, breadth, and reliability of a portfolio that worked without hiccups during the initial stages of lockdown, “and long before COVID-19 made it a necessity.”
“For those who still rely on long contracts to cover overheads, this change is a real challenge, but because VanillaIP has both a flexible portfolio and flexible commercial options that can help resellers balance the necessity of term contracts on core telephony, with 30-day terms on productivity applications”
‘Uboss’ presents an attractive tool to reduce and manage back-office costs, both now, and long-term, as self-service and e-commerce become the battleground, I’m told. Sinnott said resellers have had no problem selling the company’s offering because of its choice of consumption models. “If you can play the 30-day game, its time to disturb the market, if you can’t, then this is time to be creative but you need to ensure you have a path towards a revenue only model.”
Wanting to leave readers with sound advice, he added, this is a unique chance to change, and a chance to harness the full power of the cloud along with the chance to win market share. Customer behaviors continue to evolve, and there’s a lot of potential as a result. His advice – don’t hold back, and don’t make things too complicated – if you listen to the needs and concerns of your customers, that, he said, will make all the difference.
