In this interview, Bart Delgado, MD of Akixi, talks to David Dungay about his company’s growth over the last year despite a turbulent political climate and big market changes.
Comms Business Magazine (CBM): Can you give us an update on Akixi and how you have fared over the last 12 months?
Bart Delgado (BD): We are still very robust and experiencing month on month growth. Our compound growth is between 3-9% per month. For us, the UK market really took off in 2017 and we had to put extra resource into managing the growth that we’ve experienced in that side of the business. The US and international sales are also on the up and we see no signs of that slowing down. It’s just so robust for us, we are definitely in the right place.
CBM: Is there any credible reason NOT to go hosted right now then?
BD: There are of course going to be good reasons to still buy tin. For example, if you have been around for 5-10 years and you are incredibly invested in Avaya across multiple sites then hosted is a big step to take. Also, If you are a big public sector organisation and are multisite then that is also a credible option. Outside of that I think hosted is really the only way to go if the right connectivity infrastructure is in place.
CBM: Avaya, they are out of Chapter 11 and are talking a big game. How do you think the re-structured company will perform?
BD: It is great Avaya have made it out of Chapter 11, lots of people will still have their jobs and that is a good thing. However, they have come out and are still spinning the cloud yarn. They aren’t really a cloud organisation. However, if you have a 300 site network across Europe and the Americas there is a good chance it is going to be an Avaya multisite network which have been built up over a number of years. If they can keep their costs down they are going to still have an incredible amount of legacy stuff out there which they can
benefit from.
Saying that, I do fancy the chances of a reseller which is pitching against an Avaya partner in every situation apart from where that customer has a huge amount invested in Avaya kit already.
Bart DelgadoCBM: We need to talk about Cisco acquiring Broadsoft, how will that play out for you?
BD: The Broadsoft product will probably be moved up to where the Cisco HCS product sits today. There are a lot of Cisco service providers and reseller partners we haven’t been able to speak to so I think it will work out well for us on that front.
Partners that are currently using both Cisco and Broadsoft in their portfolio could be a little disappointed. All of a sudden they have gone from two suppliers to one. There are a lot of people at the higher end that are in that situation. As a company it’s nice to be able to have a bit more power over your suppliers, BroadSoft’s sheer dominance in the market will negate any negotiating power of the SP’s I think.
CBM: Tell readers how Akixi are going to evolve over the coming year?
BD: We are going to be doing a lot beyond our current telephony roots. Most notably we are expanding our analytics engine to include other contact mediums. People talk about omni-Channel, we are making that a reality. Types of contact mediums will include email, social media and mobile services and more.
Akixi is also stepping into Business Intelligence. We have a Wall Board coming out which will tell you how much revenue you have in queue. We are now able to assign value to the calls waiting, or the value of abandoned calls. This is very powerful for people using our technology as money is a big motivator for employees working on commission.
Our mobile app is also about to launch, everything is going mobile and people do like to be able to see that through a mobile. This not just for managers wanting to keep an eye on things but also for people wanting their own Wall Board on their desk. They can just whip out a tablet or phone and their own analytics window is there for them.
Through one of our service providers we working on delivering the same services we do on hosted through mobile too. With Akixi on mobile you can have all the same instant statistics you can with our telephony product. That means instant reporting, you can even tell who is calling your employees, from a receptionist point of view you can tell if members of staff are on the mobile or landline. All in real time.