The call for hosted IP services
Hosted communications are an ideal offering in today's economic climate
Mike Webb: The current economic climate will give resellers a chance to get a competitive edge.
The tumultuous economic climate has seen end users try to lower risks and control project costs.
With this in mind, hosted communications is becoming an attractive option both to the reseller community and their
customers.
Analysts have claimed the SME market for hosted solutions is expanding. In addition to the flexibility of IP, end users also benefit from the scalable and robust features of traditional fixed lines at a lesser cost.
Despite slow adoption in its early years, which largely centred around the initial quality of service and reliability. IP hosted services have entered a new era, using multimedia switches to ensure quality, security, reliability and cost savings.
Reshaping reseller strategies
This new-found confidence means that hosted IP services have the potential to spark change in the reseller business model.
The reseller of years gone by was a product-orientated one-stop shop.
By selling managed service contracts the VAR increases the overall value proposition to customers, which allows them to benefit from predictable annuity revenues. The service also increases customer contact opportunities, allowing the reseller to build upon customer relationships.
Customers will be keen to avoid the peak in expenditure associated with the set-up of a traditional fixed-line project.
Furthermore, hosted IP services help end users overcome lengthy, high-risk implementations by delivering a
pre-packaged solution that can quickly replace legacy systems and easily facilitate the start-up of satellite operations.
This new-found confidence means that hosted IP telephony might just be the
remedy resellers need at this crucial time.
As market turmoil looks set to continue, resellers that realise the opportunities up for grabs in managed service revenues
will be in a strong position to achieve a competitive advantage.