Channel partners need to specialise their offerings in order to deliver the most value to their customers and win more business, according to Steve Osler, co-founder of Wildix. He also said they need to maximise their full unified communications (UC) capabilities to continue to meet their customers’ ever-changing needs.
Rather than trying to satisfy everyone’s needs, Osler said that companies need to focus on their particular niche and target audience.
“When companies focus in on delivering value-added specialist solutions and target specific customers, they win 90 per cent of the deals,” said Osler. “But when they simply approach any type of customer, they win just five per cent, and that’s always on price.”
Osler founded his first business, Intellicode, a systems integrator and software developer, in 1998. Then in May 2005, he formed Wildix with his brother Dmitri Osler. The company’s first product development was a VoIP PBX and it has since expanded into providing UC solutions.
Deciding to be a 100 per cent channel company, Osler launched a recruitment partnership programme in his home country, Italy, before branching out into France, Germany, the UK and US Since launching an office in Coventry in 2017, the UK market has been a big focus for the company.
Wildix has also grown steadily. The company achieved year-on-year annual recurring revenue of more than 36 per cent and reached 1 million paid users on its UCaaS platform in 2023. It also reported a 30 per cent year-on-year increase in EBITDA margins over the same period.
UC commoditisation
Throughout his career, Osler has navigated developments across the Channel. A key trend that Osler has observed in the market in recent years is the commoditisation of UC. That’s why he decided to build more vertical solutions to increase customer value, with the launch of two core offerings in the last two years: UC for sales (x-bees) and UC for retail (x-hoppers).
“The first solution is deeply integrated with Salesforce to empower sales teams and move the pipeline to close more sales,” said Osler. “The second is a vertical built on top of a vertical for retail face-to-face interactions in a shop.”
Wildix released x-hoppers in the UK in April 2024, and it has since been rolled out to the US. Olser said there are plans to extend that to other European markets in the coming months. Enabling sales assistants to improve their performance and productivity, it provides them with all the information that they need and the ability to ask any questions via a headset with AI capabilities. That way they can address customer queries quickly and efficiently. The company said this can help increase sales, while reducing retail shrink.
“The technology creates an always-on confidence in the sales assistant, enabling them to interact better with the customer,” said Osler. “At the touch of a button, they can ask any question about their products or services or the company itself to deal with customer enquiries.
“The key advantages are that it effectively halves training time for employees and increases sales and productivity. It also improves communication and security.”
The technology was last year deployed at Tenby Post Office, which had reported a £26,000 annual stock loss, mainly due to theft. By installing 29 cameras to record and analyse customers’ behaviour, and using headsets to better communicate between workers, the owners were able to halve losses. It has also been used by Holland and Barrett to improve the in-store customer experience.
Real-time communication
During his time in the Channel, Osler has seen the evolution of communication from the telephone to video conferencing. Now, he said that the focus has very much switched to real-time communication.
“When a customer wants to speak with a vendor they expect to have a real-time connection and to get an answer instantaneously,” said Osler. “That’s why UC has to be integrated with all the aspects of a business’ core systems, including enterprise resource planning, CRM and other key applications, and devices such as cameras and POSs.”
Previously, Osler said that businesses added UC to their CRM, but now the CRM is being embedded very much within their UC. That is enabling them, he said, to communicate more effectively with the end customer.
“Communication is the more important part of any interaction with a customer,” said Osler. “It’s far better to have all of the information that you need at your fingertips when having a conversation with the customer.
“The UC is fast becoming the main communication tool among businesses. It’s an invaluable resource, particularly for customer-facing employees who need to be able to deal swiftly with queries using the relevant information they have at their disposal.”
Despite all the clear advances that have been made in communication, challenges remain within the Channel, said Osler. Security has become one of the biggest overriding concerns among partners and their customers in recent years as hackers have developed ever-more sophisticated methods and the scale of attacks has intensified in both frequency and severity.
With multiple entry points and devices being used across the network, he said cybercriminals can gain access far more easily and cause greater damage, whether that’s financially, operationally and reputationally, with some businesses never recovering.
“Ten years ago, a business could keep running during a cyberattack,” said Osler. “That’s no longer the case, because everything is interconnected now.”
Moving forward, Osler expects to see business leaders place an increased focus on cybersecurity solutions. The key to ensuring full protection against an attack, he said, is to make sure every single software component and API that is integrated within a system is secure.
But it’s the integration of customer awareness applications into UC tools that Osler believes will be the area where partners can deliver the greatest value. Combined with a clearly defined specialism, they can set themselves apart in an increasingly competitive market.