MARKET REVIEW
Continued from page 48 competitors. “Therefore offering IT tools such as teleworking, mobility and the full UC suite of applications that enable the in-office experience irrespective of location are key,” Skellon said. “This deployment of the latest technologies shows employees that they are valued and, more importantly for the organisation, makes that employee more productive.”
There is a big market opportunity to provide enterprises with functional, less complex and easier to manage UC solutions. Likewise, branch office environments require flexible options and features that include local PBX and collaboration tools for end users along with access to centralised UC applications.
Addressing this need, the Avaya Aura for Branch and Midsize Enterprise Solutions 6.1 offers simple functionality with pricing options. Installation is faster, easier and support costs are reduced, making it an attractive proposition. Chris Barrow, Product Marketing Manager, Unified Communications Avaya EMEA, observed: “As today’s business environment moves toward decentralisation to get closer to customers, an organisation’s satellite offices are expected to be autonomous yet have access to home office feature sets. Employees may be located anywhere, but need to work as if they’re in the same building. With solutions such as Avaya Aura 6.1 businesses can use video to address teams, support mobile, remote and home-based workers.”
Avaya’s B5800 Branch Gateway enables mid to large size businesses to effectively extend communications to their outlying branch offices and is scalable up to 350 users per location. “We’ve learned from our
channel partners that our mid-size customers are looking for product improvements and customer satisfaction which deliver RoI immediately,” added Barrow. “It’s the business benefits that the customer is most interested in.”
Productivity drive Videoconferencing technologies have always had the potential to drive productivity and improve efficiency and there is a strong business case for videoconferencing especially in light of the current economic environment. “Today’s business world is experiencing a renewed interest in cost-efficiencies and videoconferencing technologies can help companies of all sizes to address their own specific business objectives,” said Barrow.
Small businesses may be most concerned about the mobility of employees and their ability to communicate with colleagues whether they’re working from home or at a remote location. However, a mid-size business may be most concerned with cutting the costs of travel and implementing the latest high specification videoconferencing solutions to allow executives to communicate with colleagues across all office locations. “In any case, as part of a larger UC overhaul, videoconferencing is not only a justifiable investment, but a key tool for business success,” Barrow noted.
Perhaps the key differentiator is in the service offering that a SMB reseller is able to offer its enterprise clients, observes Mike Ballantine, Business Development Manager, Aastra. “Service and consultancy are both crucial factors when trying to win the business of a large enterprise,” he said. “The SMB reseller will therefore need to demonstrate an ability
and solutions when the enterprise expands.”
Chris Barrow
It’s the business benefits that the
customer is interested in
to support the extensive demands put upon them by the larger enterprise.”
Ballantine also notes that it is essential for a SMB reseller to take a holistic approach when tailoring a solution to the needs of a large enterprise. “Often where a business has grown rapidly systems are put in place to cover immediate needs with little or no regard to long-term solutions,” he said. “The result is invariably separate networks for voice, data and mobile with duplication of costs and greater wastage. UC solutions can often address these challenges and usually eliminate them all together, reducing running costs for an enterprise and quickly providing a significant RoI.”
Market inhibitors Despite the significant opportunities in the enterprise space there are some market inhibitors in this segment. “Purchase price is usually the main inhibitor as most companies, particularly in the current climate, are focused on
2011
Marriot St. Pierre, Chepstow,Gwent. 16th June 2011
50 COMMS DEALER MAY 2011
return on investment,” added Ballantine. “Unless resellers can demonstrate a clear RoI it will be hard to convince the enterprise to bite. Demonstrating a healthy RoI is not necessarily a hard task as the maintenance on old equipment can often be a big cost in terms of labour, parts and down time caused by providing that maintenance.”
To achieve maximum RoI the length of the sales cycle should be longer, with the need to provide a complete proposal by conducting extensive research on the operation in question and its requirements. “These accounts require a high level of professionalism to win, and quite often there will need to be a greater level of account management involved after the sale,” commented Ballantine. “The benefit is that once resellers are in with a large enterprise they are usually there to stay, and will subsequently reap the rewards as that enterprise grows by providing add ons when necessary and providing both equipment
Paul Burn, Head of System Sales at Nimans, notes that there are stronger levels of growth at the higher end of the market based on two main factors: Companies are under more pressure to cut costs so technology becomes more relevant in this space. “It may sound perverse but in many ways the economic uncertainty creates bigger sales opportunities than smaller ones,” commented Burn. “Equally, return on investment in the 100- plus extension market is much stronger and easier to quantify simply due to volume of scale.”
Specialisation
Resellers that specialise in certain vertical sectors become masters in their field rather than a jack of all trades, and this appeals to the larger customer. “Integration requirements in certain sectors such as health are based on a standard set of packages or solutions which require specific knowledge,” Burn pointed out. “But the biggest factor is credibility in a particular sector. The customer will want reassurance that a reseller understands their market and has the experience and expertise in place. One way around this is to work with growing customers who organically expand. It can be tough at the beginning but once the momentum starts to build there is no looking back.”
Another key to success at the upper end is to ensure that customers use all of the new technology features available, so that they can maximise business productivity benefits and yield a faster return on investment. “Don’t let customers get complacent,” said Burn. “They need to embrace new working practices to get the best out of the technology their investment.”
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n Azzurri case study – page 55
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