Make UC a Sales Builder

The storyline in the communications industry is convenience, which increasingly means personal preference.

Consumers today run their lives through the device they prefer. They run their entire lives through that device. They do not want to use one device for their business life, and a second device for their personal life. In the same way, businesspeople today reject the old idea that their critical business services should be defined, or limited, by their location. They don’t want access to the Internet services they need during their business day to be limited to a laptop or an office. They want to access their desktop when they’re miles from their desk.

Today, business people want unified communications. They want it all, however they define “all," from one device at the time that works for them, regardless of their physical location.

Unified communications offers a tremendous economic opportunity for SMBs and SEs. Traditionally, corporate America has enjoyed an technology-based productivity advantage beyond the reach of SMBs and SEs. The technology has changed enough that unified communications is now affordable and manageable for SMBs and SEs, and offers them a chance to profit from a productivity boost even in a low growth economy.

Channel partners can use these dynamics to build sales. But selling UC isn’t as simple as selling straight voice, for instance. The simplicity that the user demands – and that is at the heart of the value proposition – requires a level of sophistication by the service provider that must be reflected in the sales process.

Partners who want to take advantage of this immediate sales-building opportunity, as well as future-proof their business, need to understand the subtleties underlying UC.

These considerations explain why a pre-conference workshop on UC is an important part of Channel Partners Conference & Expo, March 26-29. The UC workshop is entitled “Accelerating UC Adoption and ROI," and is sponsored by Cisco, the global technology leader. The workshop will be held on Monday, March 26, from 2-4 p.m. To go to the workshop, you must be registered for the conference. Go here to register for the entire conference and, while you are registering for the conference, register for the workshop at no additional charge.

Larry Lannon is group publisher of VIRGO’s Communications Network, which includes Billing & OSS World, Channel Partners and V2M.