Indicates rising interest in signing ShoreTel from bankrupt Avaya's channel
ShoreTel CEO Don Joos (below) was in London this week to help launch its new Connect CLOUD. IT Europa talked to him and Adrian Hipkiss, EMEA MD about running a company in transition in an industry in transition.
He recognises that 2017 is a key year for the business: “We are in acceleration mode now.” Though cloud unified comms services (UCaaS) continue to expand worldwide, the market is highly fragmented with a wide range of offerings from a variety of different providers. The market is comprised of pure-plays, network operators, cable MSOs, ISPs, system integrators, and traditional premises-based vendors. The move to cloud is unavoidable, even for those lifestyle companies who have a traditional on-premise business, he says. ShoreTel is the right size for this industry – big enough to have the resources, but still able “to let go of the past”.
What scares him is the thought of what would happen if the company stood still, but at the same time he is keen to listen to partners and customers, and not “get ahead of market demand.”
ShoreTel Connect CLOUD has been available to US customers for 15 months. The new European UC cloud services are sold through ShoreTel partners who can also offer their customers a range of professional services for more complex environments. This launch follows the introduction of cloud-based solutions as a partner managed service in the UK in 2015.
The announcement of Avaya’s bankruptcy filing is very much seen as an opportunity – “We’re getting more calls from their channel and signing some big names,” he reports.
And channels seem to be the key to this growth generally: ShoreTel has around 80 partners in UK with about 25% of them now offering cloud solution. “The business is growing, with all the hard work done, and products ready. Some 90% of ShoreTel’s hosted business is channel – and we have just launched the cloud product in UK even though has been selling it here for a while. Other European countries will follow, but we are already doing business there as well.”
“Selling cloud is different from traditional reselling,” he agrees. Digital marketing is critical, and in the drive to scale, optimal use of resources matters. Shoretel has been finding new partners among the born-in-the cloud companies who view things differently. There is a retail model with more or less fixed prices as well as the value-add, where professional services and integration make it all a higher margin proposition.
He sees the growth in this year coming from mid-market where integration plays a key role – while ShoreTel has been pulling in larger deals globally, he also sees also prospects with integrators, where it offers an API toolkit for developers for links with ERP and CRM etc. “This is small but important as it increases the win-rate.”
ShoreTel has set up focus groups in France, Spain, Germany with channels and have been bringing in ideas from US and seeing where fits, but also making local changes – for example adding multi-person video in cloud as it prepares for a drive into the mainland.
Adrian Hipkiss, EMEA VP and managing director of ShoreTel says: "The opportunity is clear. Customer needs are evolving, so ShoreTel Connect CLOUD and ShoreTel Connect Contact Center for CLOUD are welcome additions to support a wider range of customer communication requirements." But, he concludes, there are many types of customer organisation and the channel must expand its delivery model.