The events have the past two years have opened the eyes of many businesses to the cloud – not least when it comes to customer experience.
Much of the hesitancy that businesses had regarding migrating to the cloud has dissipated, largely because they had no choice when it came to empowering agents to work remotely.
But it’s important to remember that it is not just end-user businesses that have had to embrace this change.
Many channel partners had been successfully selling traditional contact centre products and were reluctant to transform when cloud-based technologies emerged, Marcie Stout, Director of UCC at US-based distributor TD SYNNEX, explained to CX Today.
TD SYNNEX has a close relationship with Five9 in the CX space which sees it bundle Five9’s offering with complementary technology, creating complete solutions that channel partners can resell to customers.
Marcie said that this ability to resell whole solutions rather than point products has been key to driving adoption among channel partners.
An equally important shift has seen vendors show a willingness to create flexible programmes for partners.
“Two years ago, there was a load more hesitancy from the channel to sell cloud,” Marcie explained.
“But more and more resellers are now opening their doors to whole solutions, rather than staying in one lane.
“When cloud migration started, it was very much a compensation issue for partners, but that isn’t the case now. Vendors have really opened up to both referral and resell models, which has helped drive transition in resellers that were set in their ways.”
Partner Convergence
Five9’s RVP of Partner Sales Casey Dunigan said that the vendor has placed a great emphasis on what he referred to as partner convergence, which removes the boundaries between referral partners, VARs and managed service providers.
The partnership between Five9 and TD SYNNEX lets partners transact via the model that works for them, with TD SYNNEX stepping in to provide services that the partner themselves cannot.
For example, a partner who could not offer day two support to a customer would typically have been designated a referral partner. This is not necessarily the case now because SYNNEX will deliver the service on the partner’s behalf.
“We’re seeing referral partners wanting to do more resell and resellers wanting to go down the recurring revenue route,” Casey said.
“We’re really able to identify whitespace in their strategy, and then plug and play with the TD SYNNEX offering.
“The emphasis is really on partner convergence and saying to partners that they don’t have to be one or the other. Many programmes today don’t have that ability”
No Longer a Race to the Bottom
The adoption of cloud-based customer experience has coincided with a shift in buyer habits.
Price is, of course, still important – but customers are now placing a greater emphasis on the quality of their interactions with suppliers.
The consumption-based nature of cloud technology means that the most sophisticated customer experience technology is no longer out of reach for smaller businesses.
Casey said that partners must be aware of this and make sure they give their clients the technology that will help them stand out.
“We’re starting to see partners focus less on rack and stack and more on business outcomes.
“They’re seeing that, in a global economy, customers can choose to do business with any company they want; they’ll pay more if a company treats them well.
“This means we’re getting away from a race to the bottom and having to focus more on investment in CX to differentiate from other businesses.”
Looking Forward
The move to the cloud may be at its fastest pace yet, but TD SYNNEX’s Marcie said that one of the biggest challenges for partners remains customer hesitancy.
Many businesses will insist on a lengthy migration path which will require partners to provide continuous education and support. This is where TD SYNNEX can step in and provide professional services for the duration of the migration.
From a Five9 perspective, Casey expects the vendor’s channel business to boom as more partners look to embrace the cloud.
He said that many resellers have started to take the cloud more seriously because their traditional on-prem vendors have taken tentative steps into the new world. This inevitably encourages partners to assess what other technology is in the market. He explains:
“They’ve dipped their toe into some of the cloud CC solutions and realised that they’re often just a different payment structure”
“If they’re going down that path, they need to evaluate other suppliers, so we’ve partners that had been hesitant to partner with Five9 now understanding that cloud is the future.
“They want to build a practice around Five9, and we’re able to show them the financials not only around recurring revenue but also around optimising professional services.
“If you’d asked this six months ago, it may have been very different, but now we’re evaluating so many partners and looking at who we co-invest in.”
