With one eye focused on the future, I see it as my fiduciary obligation to advise SMB Nation peeps on opportunities that can positively impact your professional lot in life. Happy to take on this labor of love as we pride ourselves with being right there with you – carrying the bag in the trenches.
I want to give a new spin to an old conversation: data and voice.
Over a decade ago we led the charge in the early Voice over IP (VoIP) days with the Microsoft Response Point phone system. In fact – it was the last full featured book I wrote (brining my total to 20 publications). We then carried the flag for Cisco and it’s UC32x family. The basic premise was that voice and data hooked up on an online dating site and, for some, the relationship worked out. For others, it was just two good people who shouldn’t get married. Translation: combing voice and data was, at times, bewildering for SMB Nation members, MSPs, resellers, consultants, etc.
If we are anything, we’re life learners. So, we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. I assert that ten years ago (plus or minus) we were having the wrong conversation. We were so focused on IP packet-related engineering that we literally didn’t see the ocean of opportunity through the trees. But I’ll get to money makers later in this blog.
Behavioral Changes
There is a bais towards engineering in the tech field and we often laugh at folks who were liberal arts majors and artists, etc. in college. That’s great for hard core geek innovations but often results in huge misses. You know how to snow plow the road, but you might be plowing the wrong road.
Here is my point. The best conversations I’ve had recently concerning voice (for our purposes, it’s really expanded to Unified Communications (UC)) concern organizational behavior. Don’t get sucked into voice traffic latency and Quality of Service (QoS) arguments. Step back, look up through the trees and see that we are really recasting workflow with UC. The infographic (Figure 1) from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) details some surprisingly robust projections including by 2020 the mobile workforce is projected to comprise 75% of U.S. employees. That’s only 18-months away!
Figure 1: Mobility and workforce
The only way to support such a decentralized work environment are robust UC implementations. Period.
UCaaS
Here is the good news in how you can start immediately capitalizing on the UC opportunity: Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). We’ve created a solution set powered on the back-end by Intermedia for you to discover and DO the UCaaS recurring revenue motion with clients ASAP. It all starts HERE where you can raise your hand to discover more and we’ll happily help you and your portfolio expand into UC near term and be a provider/player long-term. My back of the napkin math show that the UC opportunity can increase your revenues by up to 50% by upselling existing customers and engaging new customers.
Final note: UC is an amazing way to enhance your Office 365 sites!