22 01732 759725 CLOUD TELEPHONY TR: What are some of the changes to the partner program you’re planning to make? AW: Enhancements might be a better word than changes. In Germany, where 80% of our revenue is generated, we have more than one program running at the same time and rather than picking one over the other we have decided to adopt a totally new approach and include everything from both programmes, plus everything around AI, from a commercial perspective, a training enablement perspective and a marketing and communication perspective. We will have one programme for all regions and all types and level of partner. TR: In what areas of your partner base are you hoping to boost sales? AW: The overall aim is revenue growth, and within that there are different types of revenue: you can drive volume or you can drive value, in terms of average revenue per user. We have a good solution and we really believe that we are able to increase our average ticket size, our average number of users per logo. We want to grow this. From a channel partner perspective, we are interested in working more with partners in the managed services arena because MSPs have good relationships with slightly bigger businesses. In the UK specifically, we want to grow in the MSP arena and that means increasing the current number of partners in that space, while maintaining or increasing our existing level of partnerships. In the UK, we have an 80:20 ratio between wholesale partners, people like Aro, Chess and Radius, and direct partner business. We want to grow the UK market overall by increasing our share in the MSP area, the direct partner area. TR: In what areas can you make a difference to partners? What problems do you help them resolve? AW: Our main benefit, specifically in the UK, is our pre-sales capability: we can supply solutions and don’t have just a standardised product. As I have already mentioned, we have a technical consultant capability and work closely with partners on their projects or pre-sales. My UK sales team always tell me partners like us because we work with them. We are small but that brings some benefits. Partners can talk with us whenever they want – every second, every hour – and we are really interested in working with them on projects. and aren’t interested in going to the next level, because existing commission schemes will keep them secure for the next three, four or five years. At the other extreme, roughly 20% of partners have already identified interested customers and are selling AI to them. The majority of partners are in the middle ground. They understand the opportunity but are uncertain how their customers will react or how their own organisation will be able to handle AI. We need to provide such partners with enablement. We started last year with our own sales team and early adopter partners and now need to enable the majority so that they feel comfortable discussing AI with their customers. They are interested and see the opportunity in AI but need that final push. TR: Presumably this will be part of your enhanced Nexus partner programme. Can you tell me a bit more about that? Or is it too early? AW: It is too early, but what I can say is that Nexus is our North Star for the next few years and will include a partner enablement programme, a partner training programme and maybe something around certification to give the end customer confidence that a partner really knows what they’re talking about. I think in 12 months we will use AI in our regular sales pitches; it will be part of our daily life. Just think how fast WhatsApp messaging has already become part of normal business. integrating a chat bot on a website or designing an omnichannel communication, in which the cloud telephony is just one part alongside a tech-based solution for routing calls depending on what the customer wants to do. This combines cloud telephony, an incoming channel and an AI solution. Or you could enable customers to specify how they want to be contacted, be it WhatsApp, outbound call, SMS, email or chat. A 360-degree communication solution such as this would involve consultancy and an integration project, making it possible to increase revenue from your existing customer base. Partners can also generate new business due to the greater attractiveness of the core proposition or find completely new revenue streams away from the cloud telephony business, for example in process efficiency. If you get tons of email messages over the weekend, you can use AI to work through them on Saturday and Sunday, so on Monday you only have to deal with the 20% of messages that couldn’t be processed with a clear, structured bot approach. TR: You introduced partners to your AI plans a few months ago. What sort of feedback have you had? AW: I would say there have been three responses. At one extreme are typically older partners who say ‘I’m fine. I’m not really keen to learn something new’. In Germany, we have a lot of partners of a certain age who own their own company ...continued
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