There is little doubt that most information and communications technology (ICT) capabilities are moving to the cloud, and for obvious and well-documented reasons relating to operational efficiencies and effectiveness and moving CAPEX to OPEX (News - Alert).  In fact, regardless of one’s geographic location or whether you are a small-to-medium business (SMB) or large enterprise, the use cases for moving your traditional PBX (News - Alert) functionality to a hosted PBX solution are in a word, “compelling.” 

Realities are that there is vast opportunity for providers of hosted PBX solutions. For example, one recent study found that rates of IP telecom adoption by SMBs are around 36 percent, even at the high-end, over 250-seat part of the SMB segment—and it is under 20 percent in the under 20-seat segment. The research also found why the opportunity is so great. Most of the SMBs that have not made the move said they intend to do so in the next two years. 

This makes sense for two reasons. First, the installed base of legacy PBX systems has by some estimates never been older. Second, the need for small companies to have state-of-the-art, unified communications and collaboration functionality to optimize business processes, speed decision-making and responsiveness—and improve the customer experience—is now a necessity rather than a nicety. In short, there is a sense of urgency about upgrading to capabilities that are less expensive and more agile and are all IP.

This leads to an interesting question for service providers looking to cash in on what is expected to be a market with double-digit growth for the next several years. The question is, “Should I be a provider or a reseller?”

For service providers looking to provide not just SMBs but enterprises of all sizes cloud-based PBX services, the short answer to the question is that the decision to be a provider or reseller is complicated and “it depends.” Indeed making the right choice and developing and implementing the right business models can be vexing.

To understand the evaluation criteria so you can make the best choice for going after the hosted PBX opportunity, you are invited to participate in an insightful webinar, Hosted PBX: Should You Be a Provider or Reseller?  To be held Thursday, August 27, 2015 02:00 PM EDT / 11:00 AM PDT, join me and Kevin Selkowitz. Director of Product Management, NetSapiens (News - Alert), as we take a deep dive into:

• The current state of the marketplace for selling Hosted PBX
• The basic differences between becoming a Hosted PBX provider vs. a reseller of a solution
• The different types of companies that would best suit being a provider vs. being a reseller
• Differences in the amount of control and flexibility with each business model
• A comparative ROI analysis of each business model
• Differences in the scalability of being a provider vs. reselling
• Real world tips and tricks from companies with experience running both types of business models

As noted, there is no denying either the size or growth of the hosted PBX market. What is a challenge is how best to maximize participation in this market.