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Powered by BroadSoft
At Connections, BroadSoft provided an update on the "Powered by BroadSoft" program it launched at last year's event. One of the issues BroadSoft has had is that it's well-known in the service provider community, but beyond that, hardly any enterprises have heard the company's name -- even though BroadSoft is one of the pioneers in hosted communications solutions. Through the Powered by BroadSoft program, BroadSoft has aimed to raise brand awareness among enterprises while generating more partner sales. To date, 116 partners are taking advantage of this program.
As part of the program, partners receive collateral customized with their logos and colors and done in the local language (English, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, so far). They also have access to digital assets such as "how to" videos describing BroadSoft's products, product sheets and other tools for organizations to learn about that particular partner's services. These digital assets are housed in BroadSoft-built microsites, which are Web portals that receive automatic updates from BroadSoft. Once the digital marketing program and the partner are ready, the partner will launch a campaign and send out links to the microsite via email, SMS, social media, and other outreach methods. Alternatively, BroadSoft can launch and run the campaign on the partner's behalf.
In 2018, Powered by BroadSoft will expand to include onboarding and adoption initiatives.
Powered by BroadSoft is an excellent idea and a good move that helps enterprises looking for a robust and reliable solution find one in a BroadSoft partner. When the program becomes "Powered by Cisco BroadSoft," perhaps it will be an even more powerful attractant.
BroadCloud: Unlocking Capabilities for Multinational Customers
One of the difficulties facing any hosted communications offering is its geographical footprint. This is particularly true for BroadSoft partners, most of whom host the BroadSoft software themselves. Once an enterprise customer crosses a national border, this model breaks down quickly.
Some BroadSoft partners have addressed this issue by standing up BroadSoft software servers in multiple geographies. Examples include Verizon's Enterprise business, Orange, Vodafone, and Masergy.
BroadSoft is opening up the multinational market by creating data centers in multiple geographies and deploying its own software. As mentioned earlier, this BroadSoft-hosted service is called BroadCloud. Any BroadSoft partner can take advantage of BroadCloud. Thus, BroadSoft partners are able to serve multinational customers through BroadCloud data centers and provide a seamless experience, including a consistent dialing plan across the entire organization. BroadCloud data centers are available in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Australia. BroadSoft intends to launch eight more BroadCloud sites in 2018.
Acquisition Reaction
While pondering the implications of the pending acquisition by Cisco, I've been curious as to what BroadSoft partners think of the news. One regional Bell operating company (RBOC) I spoke with greeted the news with some enthusiasm, stating that the acquisition would be great, and likely very positive for BroadSoft and for this partner. This RBOC also sells Cisco HCS, so Cisco owning the BroadSoft offering would have little impact on the company.
Another partner I spoke with -- a business with about $680 million in revenue -- only sells BroadSoft, plus a variety of ancillary products and services. It has no Cisco offering; for switching, it sells Juniper gear. Like the RBOC, this regional BroadSoft partner is comfortable with the acquisition news. The acquisition won't really affect its business much, and the acquisition may allow expansion or partnership with Cisco CUCM on-premises resellers that need a cloud-based communications offer in their portfolios.
My overall sense is that the BroadSoft partner community is not overly concerned with the acquisition. From a purely speculative perspective, I do suspect Cisco may cull some small BroadSoft partners that can't or won't meet Cisco certification requirements, which will certainly come. These partners may become more like agents/master agents, reselling Cisco BroadSoft's BroadCloud hosted service instead of hosting the BroadSoft software themselves.
In a Connections session I spoke at, I asked the BroadSoft partners in attendance that also sold Cisco HCS about selling HCS into the small business market. They generally agreed that HCS just doesn't scale well to the sub-100 user market, so BroadSoft's offering is far more cost competitive in serving smaller customers. However, as one goes upmarket, Cisco's offering becomes more price competitive. In addition, Cisco's routing and switching pervasiveness within midsized and large companies brings about the perception that a Cisco-branded hosted communications solution is a better offering than one from BroadSoft.
A Sense of Farewell
Michael Tessler, BroadSoft CEO, closed BroadSoft Connections 2017 with an air of nostalgia and a sense of a nearing a journey's end -- at least for himself. He thanked the BroadSoft partners and invited all BroadSoft employees in the audience to join him on stage for a sort of group hug and round of applause.
No one knows if there will be a Connections 2018 given the pending acquisition. Michael and his founding partner and company CTO, Scott Hoffpauir, have made tremendous contributions to our industry over the 19 years BroadSoft has been in existence. I salute them and wish them well in any new ventures or adventures!
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