Panasonic’s exit from the business communications space, as UC Today reported late last year, will accelerate many small businesses’ search for modern UC tools. Small businesses are walking away from legacy phone systems because they want per user, per month cloud UC services that work from anywhere, are cost-effective, and secure. No hardware to buy or manage, no software that requires constant patches or late-night upgrades. Former Panasonic resellers need to be ready to help these businesses make the leap.
Answering the Call
Greg Zweig
Cloud-based UC services are gaining popularity because almost every business had to adopt some kind of web conferencing tool in 2020. Small business owners want to keep it simple, by extending those tools to manage customer phone calls. For resellers, that means learning these tools, learning how to add phone lines (SIP trunks), and learning how to migrate the customer’s existing equipment (if needed). That’s where Ribbon Communications comes in. Ribbon provides the Session Border Controllers (cloud services, software or hardware) that securely connect these new cloud UC services to a carrier’s SIP Trunks. Ribbon SBCs can also act as the “glue” to simplify migrations of old key systems and analogue endpoints to the latest cloud UC services. And with 15 years’ experience building enterprise SBCs, Ribbon knows a thing or two about interoperability, with both legacy devices and all the latest UC services.
“Resellers are feeling the impact of how cloud economics is changing their business. At Ribbon, our focus is on making it easy for our partners to embrace the cloud, whether it is a Service Provider-hosted UCaaS offering or a collaboration centric offer from Zoom or Microsoft Teams,” said Greg Zweig, Director, Solutions Marketing.
“Our solutions give partners the tools and technology to migrate their customers and their livelihood from traditional PBXs like Panasonic to cloud-based services”
Upfront investment in traditional office phone gear may be going away but that doesn’t mean a small business’ customers are going to stop calling them or expect less service. Resellers that have successfully sold Panasonic phone systems for years have the benefit of knowing the kinds of call flows that make these customer-focused organizations tick. They simply need to transition that knowledge to cloud-based services. In fact, one of the benefits of moving to cloud-based offerings is the reduction in one-time costs required to start selling and supporting a new solution. “Our turnkey services like Ribbon Connect don’t require upfront investments in hardware, software, or training. Resellers can start selling and making revenue on day 1,” Zweig continued, identifying the fact that most resellers are small businesses themselves and have some of the same concerns as their customers relative to investing too much cash in new technology, even when the benefit was clear.
Enabling migration and growth
Ribbon is focused on making its partners successful as they migrate businesses to cloud-based UCaaS offers. Its entire SBC portfolio (cloud services, software, or hardware) is Teams, Zoom, and BroadSoft/Cisco certified, allowing customers to pick the cloud UC solution that best meets their needs. Ribbon Connect for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing takes ease of use one step further by administering Teams itself as part of the Ribbon Connect Portal set-up. Resellers don’t need to be Teams gurus to use Teams to replace a legacy Panasonic deployment. The Ribbon Connect Portal even has tools to integrate with the customer’s PBX — making everything seamless for customers.
Of course, Ribbon SBCs are also built on open standards, so they interoperate with almost any SIP Trunking provider, Ribbon also has solutions to connect traditional analogue and digital ports (FXO, FXS) as well as local site survivability (medical offices, etc.).
The past year has forced us all to accept major disruptions to our professional and personal lives. Let’s hope that wherever we can, we embrace that change and ultimately create environments that make us more successful for years to come.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/36wnyFG
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