SPECIAL REPORT recession proof
with all applications,” added Burn. “The key is getting resellers to go back into their own bases with all the tools they need.”
One of the greatest changes in the call management market is that its core business has shifted, observes Bart Delgado, Managing Director of Akixi. “Whereas once it was solutions to costs and charging that were primary drivers for customers in this market, increasingly these are becoming non issues as call costs have dropped dramatically,” he said. “Most resellers are now able to provide comprehensive call cost data to their customers through billing platforms and periodic reports. It is becoming quite rare to see a company invest in a call logger just to save on call abuse and costs.”
Sales of capex equipment have traditionally offered the highest profit margins for call management vendors. Since the economic downturn however customers are loath to pay the high costs associated with capex solutions, even if such equipment offers a high probability of improving service and reducing costs. “Customers simply can’t accept any additional expenditure in this economic climate, particularly when cloud-based SaaS solutions can basically offer the same functionality but with much lower start-up costs and a gentler more progressive method of billing the customer,” added Delgado.
Hosted VoIP is also gaining traction in the market. “Hosted VoIP is a disruptive technology and particularly appeals to new entrants to
the market with little or no legacy investment to sweat,” he said. “There’s also the added advantage of reduced risk, as customers only need to pay for what they need today, without having to buy technology that has been scaled for what they may need five years hence. We are therefore finding that Pay As You Go is the popular choice for new business, as there’s no finance and no upfront risks to have to manage.”
Joined up strategy Businesses are looking for ways to cut costs whether from reduced workforce, office space and reduced TCO of existing or legacy call management systems, noted Ian Massingham, Regional Sales Manager, AVST. “We are still seeing businesses with a non- joined up approach to their communication strategy and a proportion with an ‘if it is not broken don’t fix it attitude’,” he said. “Mobiles, in particular smartphones, are the ubiquitous gadget this century but they are capable of so much more when utilised with a complementary call management. Simple programming and downloading applications can make a huge difference to costs and productivity.”
Business has been good for AVST as it has no specific market segment or scalability restrictions. “We can address any vertical from finance to law to healthcare and public sector, so are not stifled by any particular sector cutting back,” commented Massingham. “Also, any size business can be addressed furthering the addressable market opportunity. Growth has been in the application space and we have had
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several significant wins using our speech applications for simple name dialling to full speech integration with unified messaging. Uptake of unified messaging is surprising and we find most new installations are accompanied with a request for integration to Notes or Outlook, and more recently G-mail.”
Speech is another growth area, notes Massingham. “It is still one of those technologies that generally has yet to gain more traction which is surprising given the advantages and demonstrable ROI,” he said. “We’re finding name dialling applications not only provide all the associated and obvious benefits but can convey a consistent call experience for their customers, and one that’s open 24/7.”
Massingham predicts an ‘exciting 2012’ and AVST has recently employed an internal team to address its legacy base and focus on new business. He added: “Marketing will also play a key role in 2012 and will be investing in more strategic social media as well the traditional forms, in particular end user subscriptions.” n
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