NWCC Drives its Unified Communications Strategy with Intermedia Unite

“Unite is everything we need, with a partner program that goes beyond all others.”

The Background

According to Frost & Sullivan’s Hosted IP Telephony and (Unified Communications as a Service) UCaaS Market forecast, the North American UCaaS market is expected to grow to $14.83 billion by 2023. Clayton Oswald, President of Northwest Cloud Consulting (NWCC) sees this firsthand. “There are two types of SMB customers today - one is still a bit apprehensive about implementing a robust UCaaS platform, and the other has realized that the communication and collaboration solution they’ve previously implemented can’t meet their evolving digital transformation needs,” said Oswald.

“Over the past 4-5 years, the market started to choose, and the early adopters have made a choice, it is now time for the majority to switch from on-premises to the cloud. We’re now experiencing another round of tremendous change with UCaaS,” stated Oswald.

 
 
 
 
 
Northwest Cloud Consulting

Company Profile:
Provides full spectrum of telecom and IT consulting services to SMBs

Industry: Managed Service Provider

Headquarters: West Linn, Oregon

Intermedia’s customer since: 2014

The Challenge

Oswald knew that he needed to offer both types of customers a competitive UCaaS solution that was also easy for him to sell, provision, manage, and support. However, finding one proved to be more complicated.

Oswald explained: “I’ve found working with UCaaS providers such as RingCentral and 8x8 to be cumbersome and unnecessarily time-consuming. In a fast-moving market like UCaaS, time is critical as a prospect evaluates multiple providers. Success can often be about how quickly you demonstrate an understanding of the prospect’s needs, and the speed with which you can provide a solution.” Oswald paused, and continued, “But I want these customers for a long time, so I can’t just let speed of deployment drive my recommendations.”

Oswald had a lot of previous experience selling with Intermedia, so when the company rolled out Intermedia Unite®, he knew he had to find out more. Unite is a full-featured UCaaS solution with everything NWCC’s customers need (a feature-rich and mobile phone system, video conferencing, screen sharing and file management, all integrated into one seamless experience), backed by partner-first support every step of the way. “The Intermedia Unite certification courses gave us all the information we needed to take our unfair share of this big and broad market…in just a few hours,” said Oswald.

 
 
 
 
 

The Solution

Oswald explained what keeps NWCC loyal to Intermedia: “Finding a vendor that runs a profitable cloud business with its own distribution and technology platform is a rarity. There’s real risk in selling services for a company that has never made money. Intermedia has created the whole package and is in a perfect spot to take advantage of this UCaaS shift, and I know that Intermedia will be here for us in the long run.”

Oswald shared the top five reasons why NWCC sells Intermedia Unite:

  1. Flexibility to sell under different models, on a case-by-case basis: “Intermedia allows partners to sell under their own brand or Intermedia’s. We REALLY enjoy their Private Label program. The others don’t do it. There’s great value in being able to sell under my own brand, including the ability to set my own margins. Intermedia understands that partners serve different types of customers, and with the program flexibility they offer, there’s no need to go anywhere else.”
  1. Intermedia’s VoIP Scout™ testing tool: “Customers love definitively knowing their existing network will support UCaaS, and that’s what Intermedia’s VoIP Scout does. It mitigates a lot of questions and makes the entire process smooth and easy. It also communicates a commitment to customers that we’ll be here for them both now and in the future. VoIP Scout helps us close ~80% of the deals we use it with.”
  1. Superior support: “Intermedia’s support organization is superior to any other that I’ve experienced. Their J.D. Power-certified tech support experts are available 24/7, and time and time again, Intermedia’s Partner Concierge Desk has demonstrated incredible creativity to help us close deals, and do right by our customers.”
  1. Quick and painless quoting: “With Intermedia, we can deliver a quote almost instantaneously, and something more customized within the same day. With other providers, it can take a week or more. Intermedia understands what partners need to close the deal, quickly yet thoughtfully.”
  1. Ease of product management: “Because Intermedia owns the technology behind Unite and it’s hosted in the cloud, platform changes are implemented automatically with no licensing fees or maintenance. So much can be managed and administered from the HostPilot® control panel. Customers shouldn’t even need Level 2 product support because everything just runs.”
 
 
 
 
 

Finding a vendor that runs a profitable cloud business with its own distribution and technology platform is a rarity. There’s real risk in selling services for a company that has never made money. Intermedia has created the whole package and is in a perfect spot to take advantage of this UCaaS shift, and I know that Intermedia will be here for us in the long run.

CLAYTON OSWALD,
President, Northwest Cloud Consulting

Products They Use

The Results

“I’ve found selling Intermedia Unite to be even easier than selling Cloud PBX standalone,” shared Oswald. “Not only does it have all the UCaaS features and functionality my customers need to be more productive and collaborative – all at a great price – but the majority of our customers want to manage and administer Unite on their own, and Intermedia’s intuitive control panel allows them to do just that. I can even use Unite’s AnyMeeting™ screen sharing feature to walk them through what to do. Simple as that!”

Oswald concluded: “In just the first two months, we’ve closed two large, very profitable Unite deals and have 4-5 promising proposals out right now. With Intermedia Unite’s 99.999% uptime service level agreement and expert, J.D. Power-certified 24/7 support, we spend less time supporting and more time selling!”

Intermedia Unite, VoIP Scout, SecuriSync, AnyMeeting, Intermedia AppID and HostPilot are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intermedia.net, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. J.D. Power 2017 Certified Assisted Technical Program, developed in conjunction with TSIA. Based on successful completion of an audit and exceeding a customer satisfaction benchmark for assisted support operations. For more information, visit www.jdpower.com or www.tsia.com.

 
 
 
 
 

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