HOSTED VOIP
www.comms-dealer.com
The hosted opportunity
COMPANY IN FOCUS
A combination of the global recession, new regulations and improved technology has seen the demand for hosted VoIP telephony and other remotely managed services increase strongly in the last 12 months, presenting resellers with many challenges and opportunities, according to Andy Wilson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for CTI Group.
B
y promising end-users lower running costs, better information and data management and low, if any, capital expenditure required, hosted VoIP has offered resellers an excellent opportunity to expand their margins as well as throwing up new challenges, according to Wilson. “Although there are a number of benefits that hosted VoIP offers businesses of any size, a number of issues such as quality, reliability, availability and security have accompanied the new technology,” he said.
“Many of these were at one time valid but we believe they are now outdated. However, it is still vital for resellers to understand the technology behind hosted VoIP to be able to alleviate their customers’ concerns. If they do, and are able to convey this to their customers, the possibility of new revenue streams and previously unforeseen levels of customer retention could be the prize.”
As with any new technology, the biggest obstacle for resellers is in trying to overcome their customers’ lack of knowledge of the system and their resultant fears. Wilson’s experience is that businesses want
to enjoy the benefits of hosted services but need to be convinced of its reliability and security. He added: “The biggest myth is that hosted VoIP technology will not provide the reliable and usable voice system that is critical to any business. By disproving and overcoming these objections, resellers are able to position themselves to customers as experts in the hosted VoIP market.
“In the past, the standard telephony solution adopted by businesses was to install a premise- based PBX and to connect the telephone network using ISDN. These supplied businesses with a well tried and tested solution that provided them with the high reliability that they expect. This level of comfort is currently one of the largest barriers to widespread deployment of the hosted VoIP alternative. However, the combination of expanding broadband bandwidths and network quality guarantees that is now safe to consider hosted VoIP as a viable alternative to premise-based PBX systems.”
The most significant opportunity that hosted VoIP services offer resellers is the chance for them
It is vital for resellers to understand the technology behind hosted VoIP
Andy Wilson
“We recognised the market opportunity that a hosted carrier-class call recording platform presented”
to reduce customer churn, Wilson believes. “While selling a traditional premise-based PBX system often results in a reseller achieving a significant one-off payment, hosted systems are generally sold on a monthly ‘pay per usage’ scheme,” he commented. “Because businesses would no longer need to purchase hardware and software licenses, hosted VoIP systems allow the channel to offer cost effective and proven value- add applications such as call recording and call management.”
CTI Group’s network-based call recording solution is implemented by service providers and is used by a wide variety of end users. “Call recording is adopted by organisations for regulatory purposes, dispute resolution,
protection against lawsuits, record keeping, staff training and improving customer satisfaction,” Wilson noted. “By adding applications such as call recording and call management, hosted VoIP providers can ensure that they are offering their customers the level of service they would have come to expect from their premise-based PBX system. Additionally, the advanced functionality of speech analytics in call recording has opened up new sales and marketing opportunities for organisations beyond high- end call centres. By capturing the ‘voice of the customer’, end-users are able to identify vital trends that can have a significant impact on future sales.”
According to Wilson, CTI Group works with the channel to ensure it maximises its opportunities in this area. Hosted VoIP call recording and call management is a niche market that can be very profitable if utilised correctly.
“CTI Group’s hosted VoIP call recording and call management solutions, the SmartRecord and emPulse ACD Reporting, have been developed to have the architecture and commercial models required by service providers using carrier-class softswitches. The philosophy behind the design of these products is to ensure that they can be easily and quickly integrated into any hosted VoIP telephony service, while the pricing model is constructed to ensure high profit margins for resellers,” added Wilson.
CTI Group was quick to engineer a multi-tenant, white label, carrier- class call recording platform. “We recognised the market opportunity that a hosted carrier-class call recording platform presented,” said Wilson. “By developing our products when cloud computing was still in its infancy, we have consistently been able to deliver robust, reliable and cost-effective hosted VoIP call recording and call management solutions.”
Multi-vendor Telephone Maintenance & Support
46 COMMS DEALER JUNE 2010
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