2022 is shaping up to be another significant year for channel partners selling UC and collaboration services into businesses around the globe.
As the world tackles new variants businesses are deploying hybrid working strategies to combat an ever-challenging landscape.
In this round table three prominent companies, Intermedia, Zoom & Five9, share their vision for the next 12 months.
What are the biggest UC and Collaboration trends the Channel should be aware of in 2022?
Mark Creamer
Mark Creamer, Senior Channel Marketing Manager at Intermedia
“What began as a short-term pivot to remote work solutions in 2020 evolved into a long-termer outlook in 2021, and now a key business strategy for all organizations in 2022 and beyond. Previously held notions of a ‘return to normal’ to the pre-COVID office have gone by the wayside. Instead, businesses in many industries are proactively adopting hybrid working models on a permanent or indefinite basis. This is becoming the de facto choice for myriad reasons, including efficiency, safety, business continuity, hiring, and retention.
At the onset of the pandemic, organizations and individuals reached for whatever tools would get the job done in the moment. That was a necessary response in 2020 and lingered through 2021, but it produced a patchwork of disparate tools that make it difficult to share information because of data silos, managing different apps, and other issues. The key now is a single solution to meet all remote/ hybrid work needs both within an organization (internal collaboration – phone, video, screen sharing, chat, file sharing) and externally (customer service/communication).”
Laura Padilla, Head of Global Partner and Platform Sales and Business Development, Zoom
“Some of the biggest trends I’m following include the shift to hybrid work and platform consolidation. Organizations are looking for one vendor to solve all of their communications needs whether their employees are working from home, an office, a combination of both. Similarly, employee preferences vary on their communication styles; from chat and collaboration to voice, video, and workspaces. A single, unified platform enables businesses to grow, scale, and ensure their employees’ and customers’ communications needs are met. The channel will continue to need to adjust how it reaches customers and meet their evolving needs.
We’re continuing to focus on and invest in enhancing our partner programs. Our goal is to support our partners in their journey and grow their businesses with Zoom. One opportunity for partners is to ensure that the customer is at the center of our relationship, as this will help create a more holistic ecosystem revolving around customer success.”
Jake Butterbaugh
Jake Butterbaugh, VP of Global Channel Sales, Five9
“Expect both the UCaaS and CCaaS markets to continue to accelerate. Collaboration is critical to each industry’s success, and customers are on the move. Legacy tools are simply not aligned to the experience customers expect at this point.
Buyers are evolving as well. While there are still independent UCaaS and CCaaS buying motions, we are seeing some convergence in the network and legacy UC buyers being asked to participate in CCaaS decisions.
The idea that the Contact Centre is the front door to many customer’s businesses – means we must make sure it delivers a positive experience on every engagement channel: chat, email, IVA, traditional voice, etc. It will also be critical for agents to have the ability to interact with other knowledge workers through UC tools in an incredibly efficient, tightly integrated, and seamless fashion. That’s what we intend to deliver at Five9.”
Where are the best value opportunities for partners next year?
Mark Creamer, Senior Channel Marketing Manager at Intermedia
“The best opportunity is for partner to go to market with a single solution that meets both internal productivity needs, as well as external communication and customer service needs. This comes together in a single solution/product that is both UCaaS and CCaaS, conventionally existing as separate, non-integrated solutions.
Not only is the solution itself a means to meet market opportunity with customers, but the way in which partners are able to take the solution to market makes for a big opportunity. Specifically, taking it to market via a white-label partnership with their vendor, enabling the partner to lead with their branding, own their customer relationships, and ultimately earn 5X more revenue than a traditional commissioned agent partner model.”
Jake Butterbaugh, VP of Global Channel Sales, Five9
“Expect both the UCaaS and CCaaS markets to continue to accelerate. Collaboration is critical to each industry’s success, and customers are on the move. Legacy tools are simply not aligned to the experience customers expect at this point.
Buyers are evolving as well. While there are still independent UCaaS and CCaaS buying motions, we are seeing some convergence in the network and legacy UC buyers being asked to participate in CCaaS decisions.
The idea that the Contact Centre is the front door to many customer’s businesses – means we must make sure it delivers a positive experience on every engagement channel: chat, email, IVA, traditional voice, etc. It will also be critical for agents to have the ability to interact with other knowledge workers through UC tools in an incredibly efficient, tightly integrated, and seamless fashion. That’s what we intend to deliver at Five9.”
Laura Padilla
Laura Padilla, Head of Global Partner and Platform Sales and Business Development, Zoom
“A significant part of building a trusted partnership is ensuring security. The channel recognizes the importance of this more than ever and will turn to the technology and partners that are prioritizing security and a zero-trust approach.
It will be important to have a strong focus on supporting partners’ demand generation efforts through strategic planning, ABM and account mapping, and incentives. Our partners’ roles will evolve and be critical in helping customers make a smooth transition to the “return to work” experience.”
What kinds of channel disruption do you anticipate in 2022?
Mark Creamer, Senior Channel Marketing Manager at Intermedia
“Customer experience will reign supreme, specifically the experience that channel partners’ customers provide to their customers. Online reviews and consumer reports will only increase in importance in the remote, physically disparate business world, with many options for consumers to choose from. Equipping businesses with a means to provide a quality customer experience, and support, will be key. And an essential component of that is visibility into the quality of customer experience that a business is providing.
We can think of this as “the 3 I’s”: Interactions; Intelligence; and Integrations. Interactions – quality interactions between a business and its customers. Intelligence – having data and visibility into those interactions to assess performance, success and identify gaps to improve. Integrations – having a seamless means to marry the external/customer interactions and associated insights with internal communications flows and processes to improve business practices. This is where an integrated UCaaS and CCaaS platform can really help any organization collaborate better internally, provide a great customer experience, and improve as a business based on enhancing the customer experiences they provide.”
Thomas John
Thomas John, VP, EMEA Channels, Five9
“The disruption is primarily going to come from emerging technologies: AI, RPA and IVA. In the buying patterns and behaviours we have observed, it took some time (and a global pandemic) to push folks into trying the cloud, but this has increased their appetite to continue to ‘try’ more.
So, for example, organizations have now seen that IVAs can augment, empower, and radically change the contact centre, and that is something that will be a major disruptive force in our industry over the next two years – for both consumers and agents.”
Laura Padilla, Head of Global Partner and Platform Sales and Business Development, Zoom
“Looking ahead, we see organizations continuing to embrace a hybrid workplace. As this next generation of work style evolves, technology must continue to adapt to provide businesses with what they need to succeed. One example of that is Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery: an innovative feature to keep hybrid meetings more equitable. With this being the ‘new normal,’ the channel must continue to innovate to effectively reach prospects and customers, delivering them the best products and services available, and much of that comes from training.”
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