16 01732 759725 ...continued UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS EnableX and international numbering and international voice transit expert Coolwave Communications. “Every time we buy something, we are thinking how can we make this easy and simple for a partner to sell,” he said. Belshaw added that Gamma also does important work advocating for small businesses and the channel in policy discussions with the Government and other industry and regulatory bodies and, on the product side, through its relationships with leading vendors like Cisco, Ericsson LG and Microsoft. He was followed on stage by Gamma Chief Technology Officer Colin Lees who explained how Gamma invests time and money to make it easier for partners to do business, citing the work of GammaLabs, which brings together 500 engineers to work on solutions, as well as Gamma’s UK network and partner portal. Lees provided a sneak preview of enhancements due to be launched over the next 12 months, including an advanced fibre comparison tool and the introduction of single sign-on and API capabilities that make it easier for partners to integrate Gamma’s products and deliver services to their customers. Gammaverse 2024 concluded with a keynote speech from Jason Fox, ex-Royal Marine Commando and star of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, who gave an inspirational account of a real-life mission completed during his days of service. www.gammagroup.co date has achieved a 70-80% customer retention rate. SafeWeb Plus, launched at the start of the year, combines dark web monitoring with additional features such as phishing simulation training, 24/7 incident response support and a toolbox for compliance with data regulations. Working together When Gamma CEO Andrew Belshaw took to the stage, he highlighted the delivery of new solutions gained through acquisitions as one of the ways Gamma supports partners, pointing out that the company had made five acquisitions since the last Gammaverse, including annually), increase recurring revenue and add value for customers. The easy to deploy set of white-label tools, already used by 30,000 customers, identifies whether any of a company’s data, such as usernames, passwords and email addresses, is for sale on the dark web and explains what to do about it. In a fireside chat later in the day with Holly Sharp, a Microsoft Voice Sales Specialist at Gamma, Candio’s Tom Chedham claimed that its SafeWeb and SafeWeb Plus products are a great way to sell cybersecurity to SMEs. Part of the reason, he said, is that they come with a whole go-to-market strategy, including a 30-day free trial that to Recordings of Gammaverse 2024 sessions are available on demand. If you would like to view them, contact the Gamma team. The world of UCaaS A standout moment of the day was the panel discussion on UCaaS, moderated by Will Morey, Managing Director of Pragma. An impressive lineup of speakers – Gareth Bleasdale (Senior GTM Lead: Modern Work, Microsoft), DP Venkatesh (Chief Growth Officer, Cisco Collaboration), Ahed Alkhatib (VP of Sales and Marketing, Ericsson-LG Enterprise) and Rich James (Head of UCaaS Product Management, Gamma) – shared their thoughts on the growing importance of UCaaS, which market research company Cavell expects to grow from 9.5 million seats in 2023 to 15.9 million seats in 2028, with a market penetration of 88%. Will Morey had hoped for argument and disagreement between panellists, but in the event there was a high degree of consensus about the value of UCaaS both for end user customers and channel partners. Even Ahed Alkhatib’s assertion that ‘voice is still the killer app’ went unchallenged. All agreed that UCaaS enables businesses to communicate in new ways, get things done more easily, bring balance to the working lives of people and future-proof working practices to meet employees’ and customers’ changing expectations, For channel partners, it offers the chance to accelerate the transition to a monthly recurring revenue business model and develop new higher margin business. In this context, every panellist highlighted the use of APIs to integrate UCaaS with systems and applications, effectively using it as a strategic tool for differentiation and business improvement. Channel partners can maximise the opportunity to add value, increase customer stickiness and develop high-margin business by addressing specific verticals with a more consultative sales approach based on a thorough understanding of the customer’s pain points and desired business outcomes. Gareth Bleasdale also highlighted the value of managed services, pointing out that 43% of Teams Phone customers add managed services that have a margin of $11 to $12 per seat per month.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDUxNDM=