Virtual Office Resource

The agent channel should carefully evaluate both the product and the provider when selecting the right cloud-based unified communication (UC) solution to offer their clients. A 2015 Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) survey of 1,786 North American IT decision makers shows that 35 percent of surveyed businesses have already deployed telephony solutions in the cloud and another 59 percent will move their telephony solutions to the cloud by the end of 2018. These businesses are turning to cost-effective cloud phone systems to supplement limited in-house IT staff in addition to providing the ubiquitous and seamless connectivity the workforce is demanding – all possible with the advanced features and capabilities of UC.

Understanding the IT pain points of 21st century businesses, NTConnections, a full-service business technology company based in the D.C. metro area, searched for both an affordable and intuitive UC solution to offer clients that was easy to recommend and support. Shortly after finding Broadview Networks’ 100 percent, cloud-based UC solution OfficeSuite UC™, NTConnections employees began using the advanced UC system themselves. Finding the advanced features, simplicity and integration into key applications essential to their productivity, they immediately began offering OfficeSuite UC™ to their clients moving to a UC system to help them reduce training costs, boost user satisfaction and drive a high ROI.

“Broadview’s OfficeSuite UC is a very intuitive product that is easy to implement, easy-to-navigate and user friendly; allowing the average end user to become more productive with just a few clicks of a button” said Greg Hebron, director of Sales Operations, NTConnections.

Hebron went on to explain, “Broadview’s OfficeSuite UC solution offers simplicity and streamlined implementation for our clients, coupled with an impressive portfolio of offerings to choose from by a single provider making it a clear and easy choice for NTConnections to partner with them. Add to that Broadview’s service reliability, it just makes it easy for us to promote, especially to clients with high uptime requirements.”

As the number of organizations considering the switch to cloud UC grows, the rapidly evolving market has become inundated with multiple providers and solutions offering similar capabilities. NTConnections believes that the quality of service and support provided to agents through solution providers is an important factor in selecting which provider to offer clients. Having a dedicated support team in place makes an agent’s job easier and allows them to spend more time focusing on selling the product instead of having to supply constant technological support and maintenance. “Nothing in telecom is perfect. It's about how providers respond when things go wrong that makes a provider strong,” stated Hebron.

With the technology advancement of cloud phone systems, combined with a more conservative IT investment culture, agents should look to work with providers that offer helpful onboarding and training and customer support capabilities to ensure greater user adoption and client’s overall satisfaction. Additionally, agents should look for a provider that offers an online community as a resource center for their client’s administrators, employees and IT teams to receive instant assistance and live conversation.

Additionally, cloud-based phone systems that provide features for customers, partners and project managers to collaborate more effectively through direct connections allow for the system to be deployed faster, relieving the burden on the partner who can spend the time on more strategic tasks. In return, clients can immediately realize the return on their investment with increased efficiency from day one and less money spent upfront on training, expensive hardware to install and maintain or expertise to service.

While the UC market continues to grow as businesses increasingly move their communications and collaboration solutions to the cloud, agents should be looking to have their clients adopt cost-effective cloud-based UC solutions with intuitive user interfaces and valuable customer support that promises to aid in the adoption and utilization.