Partner Community Roundtable - Part Two

Introduction

Our Head of Product Marketing, James Lockhart sat down recently with several business leaders from the TelcoSwitch partner community to discuss observations and industry learnings from 2023, and consider how customer expectations and requirements will lead to changes in the telecoms industry in 2024 and beyond.

In Part One of this roundtable, we looked back at 2023. Key topics include how market conditions have driven sales growth and portfolio diversification, as well as key verticals for each business and the features and integrations that serve them.

In Part Two, we pick up the conversation as it turns towards the impact of the impending PSTN switch-off, customer expectations for the future, and projections for the evolution of VoIP and UCaaS solutions in 2024 and beyond.

Roundtable - Part Two

James Lockhart:  Andy, what have you found in the last year in terms of the PSTN switch off. Has that affected your business much?

Andy Jamieson: We, as a business, have zero ISDN's connected. Everything is SIP-based. We do have a fair number of PSTN lines but not enough for us to chase.

You need some form of power and resilience, and it seems that GSM offering is the best way for those lift lines and things like that.

Although the sales guys do talk about it as the big switch off, when we look at the stats, we're like, we've got really nothing to switch off.

James Lockhart: Jay, moving to you, have you seen any difference in the customers you’re approaching, is there a deeper level of education needed for those PSTN holdouts, so to speak?

Jay Ball: Yeah, I think we've been talking about this for many years, but some customers seem to think 2025 will just never happen.

We've got a big base of customers still on analogue, which is a concern for our board. Obviously at some point that business may drop off a cliff.

So, obviously we are targeting our account managers with upgrading those customers to SOGEA or FTTP if it is available.

Most customers at least understand what will happen when the PSTN is shut down. They understand it, and they're no longer pushing back. I think it's getting close enough now for them just to realise they have to do something about it

James Lockhart: It sounds like what you’re saying about the PSTN-switch off is that voice is not the issue. It's other products and services that they're utilising on their property?

Jay Ball: Exactly. Take Legal for example. They still use fax for example. Alarms are another area where a lot of businesses have a lot to upgrade. Most alarm companies now offer a GSM SIM card that overcomes this but it’s another education piece.

James Lockhart: John, are you seeing any difference in the customers you're approaching? Both within your existing base but also for net-new customers.

John Sutherland: I mean to be honest, with our telesales team out there, we're encountering all sorts. We actually did a lot of work to move people over to NGA networking solutions a long time ago. We. We've got quite good relationships with Talk Talk, especially on the residential side, so that wasn't a massive challenge for us.

We still come across customers reluctantly upgrading from legacy NEC systems that we still support, but generally, those that are going to move have already done so.

Some will just continue to bury their heads in the sand. Maybe they have those Capex investments that they still have in the back of their head. It may just be a reluctance based on the early days of VoIP: ‘It's unreliable’, or ‘I'm worried about relying on my broadband’. Despite the conversations we're always having about resilience and failovers, it's never good enough for some of these companies.

Eventually, they’ll have no choice, right? So it's just a case of having that diverse portfolio and having the stuff that's available at the right price point. People are used to paying whatever it is for line rental. We need to replicate that and if we can enhance that at the same time, even better.

James Lockhart: Aidan, do you have any additional thoughts on this?

Aidan McManus: We've got one large customer. It's they're an electrical wholesaler. They have got 400 branches across the UK and they are being very slow to make the change. They have still got Samsung PBXs with analogue lines.

We've we're trying to nibble away at them. But they want to go through a tender process. So trying to get around 400 sites in 12 months will be a challenge.

It’ll be interesting from a customer point of view. Delays on some exchanges for FTTP mean that some customers need to be upgraded to SOGEA, then when it is available you have to upgrade them again to FTTP to give the best service.

Then, it means you're having to have that conversation twice to say ‘actually, there's a better service available now’. That, for a customer, is going to be the hardest thing.

James Lockhart: Jay, in terms of the last few years, have you seen any difference in the sales cycle, the contract durations in relation to telecoms?

There are many VoIP and UC solutions available to buy online, with rolling 30-day contracts available. Do you find customers are aware of this? And are you seeing a difference in the sales cycle and the duration for which they're prepared to commit?

Jay Ball:  I think it depends on the client. It really is a really mixed bag. I wouldn't say there's a clear change in customer expectations.

We have the flexibility to do whatever we want on a 30-day, 3 year, a 5 year, or whatever. So really, we just make the commercials fit that.

Perhaps we'll give free installation on a 5-year deal or give free handsets on it. And generally with those elements we can encourage customers to commit to longer term contracts.

But I think people have always wanted the least contract term they could have. They just understand that if they want all the good stuff that comes with it, they just have to accept a slightly longer deal. I don't think that has changed much.

Andy Jamieson: If you're giving someone a 30-day rolling contract. It's a higher price. It’s just a trade-off for each business to consider.

Jay Ball: Exactly, and it depends on the business really. I did a quote this morning for somebody, and it was 430 users. I thought ultimately, he's probably gone to get four or five quotes, and every other offer he’ll get will be on a 3-year or 5-year term, and all about the same sort of price.

So actually, the one thing that we can do is probably give him flexibility, offer a 30-day option, to give them that flexibility, because I think that's sometimes worth more than the money side of it.

That being said, I think 5-year terms are probably the most common contract duration we provide. We'll give a price on a 3-year and a 5-year, and it'll always be a bit cheaper on a 5 year. As I said earlier, price is a huge driver at the moment. Price-conscious customers will always be focused on the lowest monthly recurring cost they can obtain, and 3-years is still quite short for a telecoms contract.

James Lockhart: John, you were nodding while Jay was speaking. Does that echo your experience?

John Sutherland: Yes, our historic model was the 30-day contract. If you don't like our service, you can walk away easily. I think we we've struggled to kind of replicate that with VoIP

We are still flexible, but it tends to be 3 and 5 years. It enables us to offer packages including service and hardware and things like that, just to kind of make sure there's a headline price for the customer.

We don't normally find it's too much of an issue. It's normally the argument between 3 and 5. I think the expectation is, is there at 3. If you got that ability to chuck in a 30-day offer, it is still useful for diversity though.

Andy Jamieson: We have some serviced offices again that prefer a 30-day rolling contract, but they know that they pay a higher premium, and that's because they have a lot of foot-fall and rotation within their user base.

They have people coming in the door and out the door all the time, and they don't want to be liable for licences for an empty office, you know, because that's key for them.

There's not usually a kickback on that, either. The customers are expecting a 3-year contract, minimum. There is an expectation there that people still have.

James Lockhart: Okay, Aidan you, you've already said hardware is important to you, which presumably means the same is true in terms of 3 and 5-year contracts being the norm for you? You bundle that in?

Aidan McManus: Yes, it's exactly that. And then with the SMEs we could offer the 30-day option if needed. But again, a lot of people don't like the outlay up front, so they'll sign for 3 years, for us that is the sweet spot.

Being able to offer a 30-day term makes us flexible, but when you offer it they'll say, “actually I’ll choose the lower monthly number.”

James Lockhart: Alright guys, I'm onto the last question. I want to talk about 2024 and things that you're expecting to see in the VoIP and UC market; things that you expect to see in 2024, maybe beyond...

Andy Jamieson: What do I see in 2024? Pretty much the same trends as this year, I think. Of course that means continued uptake for AI solutions like live-chat tools, sentiment analysis, pre-canned responses for FAQs, call and video transcriptions.

I suppose the only real thing that I’d love to see from CallSwitch One is integration into mobile devices as opposed to desktop devices.

How difficult that is I don't know. If it's just pulling up contact info, then that's easy. But if it's a bit more, you know, adding in the call logging features more commonly seen on desktop apps would be a bigger task.

I could see some value add for some of our customers though. Allowing employees to become ‘mobile agents’ for instance.

James Lockhart: That's really interesting. In our content and roadmap for 2024, you’ll see that we think the blurring of UCaaS and CCaaS is going to continue. So seeing those kinds of contact centre requirements from a broader range of customers in terms of agent roles, reporting and wallboards and so on. Smaller businesses having more complex needs. I could see having mobile integration into CRMs as something that fits that trend for sure.

Andy Jamieson: There's a big uptake in custom reporting for our customers, and not just CSV file downloads. They want reports that are visual and customisable.

Although Microsoft makes it readily available through PowerBI, businesses still need someone who's clever enough to make it work. The first UC provider to have something plug and play in their solution would have a great value-add.

James Lockhart: Aiden, 2024 and beyond? What are you expecting to see from VoIP providers like us?

Aidan McManus: Omnichannel, using multiple external applications for communication. So the likes of web chat, SMS, WhatsApp being more easily accessible to make it a more rounded solution.

Customers expect to be able to communicate with businesses using the tools that they use today to communicate. For instance, my customers want to use WhatsApp, they don't want to use my App right, they want to be able to communicate.

James Lockhart: Jay, coming to you, I’ve seen you nodding your head there but is there anything additional you’d like to add?

Jay Ball: For us, integrations have become more important this year and I think that will continue in 2024, which echoes what the guys were saying

People just want to integrate everything their businesses rely on, and they want proper integration where it's not just a screen pop. It's logging the call, storing recordings inside the CRM. Proper, powerful CRM integration.

Also, customers really just expect that as part of the solution without additional costs or bolt-ons. And I think the more you could do around other channels, SMS, for example, or WhatsApp integration, web chat, trying to keep all channels coming into one inbox, the better the overall solution will perform.

I just haven't seen much innovation in the telecoms world, around products, for the last couple of years. Anyone delivering that innovation will stand out.

Additionally it will be really important to focus on user experience, modern portal designs and functionality. Of course the product functionality relies on the back-end and how it works, but ultimately, what the customer sees is the front end design so I think that's really important.

James Lockhart: That is interesting, and it's definitely been a focus for us. John, do you have any additional thoughts?

John Sutherland: I would love to see more affordable and easier to use AI-led functionality. Obviously, that is being developed by a lot of businesses so that will happen over time.

What has been a main strength of CallSwitch One for me is the fact that you're blending in the contact centre elements for the UC price. We're able to offer wallboards and other contact centre tools straight out the box.

I definitely think that being able to add speech analytics and sentiment analysis at a more affordable level without having to purchase a separate platform would be powerful

James Lockhart: Well, that is all we have time for. Thank you all for your insights, it has been a pleasure to host this chat with you all. It’s been great to hear so many different ideas and experiences, but what we’ve all agreed on is that the industry is still continuing to grow and evolve at pace!

On behalf of the team, wishing you all the best for the new year and hoping to continue our partnership in 2024 and beyond!

To learn more about how CallSwitch One can support managed service providers of IT and telecommunications, check out our partnership opportunities, or read more of our reseller-focused blogs.