34 01732 759725 TELEPHONY Stephen Try Strength in breadth Snom is continuing to diversify its product offering to meet changing customer needs and address new market opportunities Last year, Snom, developer of the world’s first commercially available SIP endpoint device, celebrated the 25th anniversary of its first IP handset, surpassed 30 million euros in revenue and broke into new markets with an expanded product portfolio. Despite these achievements, Snom UK&I Channel Manager Steven Try says the brand is still something of a ‘best kept secret’ in the UK, where it doesn’t have the market share it enjoys in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. “When I speak to people, I find they know the Snom name, they know we’ve been around for a while, but they may not be up to date with our full product range,” he says. Such is his faith in the quality of Snom products that Try takes every opportunity to get devices into the hands of potential customers. “We’re confident that if people test our products, they will buy from us,” he says. Quality is not Snom’s only selling point. Others include: 1 Branding opportunities. Most Snom handsets come with a small glass plate that can be branded with a customer’s logo free of charge. “We can manufacture handsets in the customer’s brand colour as well,” says Try, “and create bespoke buttons, so if a customer requires a specific function key on one of our handsets, rather than having it on a soft key, we can print their own keycap.” 2 Snom as-a-service. Instead of paying for equipment upfront or entering into a leasing agreement, customers can pay a monthly rental for devices. “We’re talking to a couple of ITSPs and they are only interested in Snom as-aservice,” says Try. “Twenty years ago people would budget years in advance to buy hardware. If ITSPs can change that capital expenditure to an operating expense by adding £2 or more to the licence cost per month, the handset attachment rate will go up because customers won’t have to find budget for hundreds of handsets.” 3 European headquarters. Snom, founded in Berlin in 1997, was bought by Hong Kong-based VTech Holdings in 2016, but still sees itself as a European business. “We’re headquartered in Germany and all our R&D, our provisioning server and our data is based in the EU and subject to EU data laws. That does have a certain amount of clout when it comes to specific verticals. If you’re dealing with government and the public sector, it might not be a deal breaker, but it certainly gets you that bit further,” says Try. In addition, while Snom does manufacture products in China, it also has a manufacturing facility in Malaysia, enabling it to meet the needs of organisations with rules about the sourcing of technology products. “That is a priority for some organisations, and we have won business that was about to be signed with a competitor because we have that choice in our portfolio.” Vertical strength To these differentiators, Try adds an expanding product offering that includes deskphones, DECT phones, hospitality phones and conference phones, as well as headsets, location and asset tracking solutions, announcement systems, IP desk phone terminals and accessories, all of which are enabling it to address new opportunities. “Demand for deskphones is declining in offices where not everyone comes in every day, but Snom is strong in sectors like healthcare, education, retail and logistics that still need a device, often to communicate internally. In some cases, getting a message to a colleague on the shop floor as quickly as possible can be a matter of life or death, and you can’t rely on a mobile phone for that. With DECT technology, you have greater stability and greater security. We have such a strong DECT portfolio that it has more than offset the decline in traditional deskphone sales,” he says Today, DECT solutions make up 40% to 50% of Snom’s business. As an example, Try cites a sixfigure contract won by one of its partners to roll-out a multi-cell DECT solution across the showrooms of a big UK car dealership. He adds that Snom’s acquisiton by VTech has also opened up opportunities in the hospitality market, where VTech is very strong. “Their route to market is different to ours, so we asked to take on their hospitality range. We launched the first product from it at the beginning of 2024 and recently introduced three or four new SIP devices, as well as a range of analogue devices. Orders are now regularly coming through for hospitality handsets, and that’s a completely new market for us,” explains Try. In the meantime, Snom is continuing to develop its IP phone offering to be more competitive – its D815 IP deskphone is 20% cheaper than the premium handset in the D7 series, even with its more modern design and built-in Wi-Fi – while also meeting customer expectations. Later this year, for example, Snom is planning to introduce a high-end deskphone with a large display and touchscreen. In the meantime, Try will continue to raise Snom’s profile and, most importantly, get devices into people’s hands so they can experience Snom quality for themselves. www.snom.com
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