Our Head of Product Sales Specialists Akshay John took to the stage at this year's Cavell North America Summit to discuss the future of mobility in UCaaS, here's some of his thoughts on the discussion topics:
Mobile solutions and remote working have changed from an 'optional' to a 'mandatory' requirement. This extends well beyond just communications software with basic provisions such as laptops becoming a standard procurement exercise.
This has also created an expectation to support BYOD from both the perspective of the employee and employer which adds another dimension of having to deal with issues of privacy, compliancy and security.
The variances are typically feature-driven, with integrations being an additional differentiator.
The level of integration and capability to unlock value from such integrations is really where the creativity and innovation comes in. In the current eco-system landscape, the ability to identify the ‘niche’ strength of your product/solution is key to understanding when to make a decision to partner instead of develop.
eSIMs have been a game-changer in the way that they harmonise the opportunity for Unified-Mobile-Convergence. They remove a significant speedbump in user activation and pre-requisite deployment.
Furthermore eSIMs simplify adoption by creating flexibility of dual/multi-SIM identities which is key for the BYOD use case.
SP’s can not only reduce their cost of user activation and support, but also have an opportunity to offer bundled mobile-UCaaS options.
In terms of segment targeting, we have identified several sectors where mobile UC solutions will have the biggest impact:
Mobility has been at the heart of communications in the Nordics for over two decades and the region makes for one of the best use cases for technologies that are just starting to emerge globally.
(You can read more information on how the Nordics are ahead of the mobility curve here).
Positioning, messaging and understanding what resonates where are some of the things we are seeing providers struggle with a little bit.
There cannot be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach taken when selling these kinds of solutions across different geographies, since each market will be at a different point of evolution with regards to mobility.
When positioning mobility you have to look at which market it's being pitched to and where that market is in terms of their evolution and their movement away from the legacy solutions. We find that the best way to approach it is to have local partners who both understand the market and its challenges in the context of the industries involved.
This is particularly relevant since most of the technology vendors are one or two layers away from the end customer in most b2b sales models.
Selling this solution is only the first albeit the most important step.
To successfully drive adoption and best practice, there needs to be an entire framework around the GTM including functions such as Marketing, Sales, Support and Customer Success.
In this instance, the GTM will differ because this would typically be a value added approach using existing solutions that the customer may already be well acquainted with. E.g. they will know how to use Teams, and how to use a mobile phone – but what happens when they’re able to make a Teams call on their native dialler?
