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The Market Impact of Cisco's BroadSoft Acquisition: Page 5 of 7

 

Cisco Plus BroadSoft: Benefits and Opportunities for Channel Partners

In discussions with several BroadSoft partners, not one has expressed any angst over Cisco acquiring BroadSoft; to the contrary, these BroadSoft partners see the acquisition replete with new opportunity. The acquisition also gives existing Cisco partners new opportunities. Some of these opportunities are explored below.

 

Opportunities for BroadSoft Service Providers:

  • BroadSoft service providers will gain access to sell cloud solutions to organizations who have deployed the approximately 100 million Cisco on-premises telephony seats.
  • Given that each of these end user organizations already has a Cisco partner, it's likely that a number of existing Cisco partners will choose to partner with an existing BroadSoft service provider partner to sell cloud-based telephony services.
  • BroadSoft service providers will benefit from selling the much broader portfolio of Cisco products, including Webex Teams, Webex Meetings, and Webex Devices, as well as Cisco video, Cisco phones, network switches and routers, security solutions, etc.

    Two additional key partner benefits result from Cisco owning BroadSoft and manufacturing BroadWorks compatible phones: 1) If the partner sells a Cisco phone, the traditional "middle phone configuration step" will be able to be eliminated, saving the partner approximately $4 per phone installed. 2) Because many service providers also use Cisco routers and switches, these providers will now have analytics and QoS capabilities end-to-end from the phone endpoint through the network and into the service provider core BroadWorks switch. This will give unprecedented call analytics with possibilities for delivering an extraordinarily high quality of service.

  • Cisco has a global channel support ecosystem for delivery and fulfillment that BroadSoft channel partners can now leverage. This will be particularly useful in deals with multinational and multi-regional enterprises.
  • BroadSoft had good brand recognition, but only among service providers. Most end users have not heard of BroadSoft. Cisco is 400 times larger than BroadSoft in terms of revenue, and it has excellent brand awareness across all market segments. The strength of the Cisco brand and backing will give existing BroadSoft service providers tremendous impetus.
  • Although BroadSoft service providers have always been able to use Cisco networking technology to optimize their BroadWorks and UC-One deployments, the fact that they are now Cisco partners as well will allow them to take fuller and more rapid advantage of new Cisco networking capabilities, including software-defined networking (SDN), self-organizing networking (SON), and Cisco's new 5G mobile integration technology.

Opportunities for Existing Cisco Partners:

  • Cisco partners selling HCS can now expand beyond the very large organizations and sell UC-One into the SMB market. As a dedicated instance, HCS was not economical in deployments smaller than about 250 seats; however, multitenant BroadWorks is economical to service even very small customers. Cisco partners can stand up their own BroadWorks cloud to accompany their existing HCS cloud, they can resell a BroadSoft partner's offering, or they can resell BroadCloud or Webex Calling services hosted directly by Cisco.
  • Cisco partners now have an elegant path for migrating organizations from their on-premises deployments to the cloud via a Cisco-BroadSoft hybrid intermediary step. End users can keep their existing call control and migrate immediately to agile cloud solutions for collaboration (Webex Meetings and Teams) and for contact center (Customer Journey Platform). New opportunities for Cisco partners are to immediately start selling CJP for cloud-based contact center capabilities and to sell Webex Calling cloud telephony to branch offices or small groups of end users. This hybrid capability, along with Flex Plan licensing, allows customers to migrate seamlessly to the cloud at their own pace -- something that was significantly harder with HCS.
  • BroadSoft has over 600 service provider partners, all of whom know how to sell cloud-based services. Cisco has approximately 130 HCS partners in 68 countries. The acquisition adds nearly 500 new partners who can inform existing Cisco partners on how to effectively sell cloud calling solutions. It's also highly probable that some of the BroadSoft partners may end up being acquired by some of the larger Cisco partners.
  • BroadSoft partners are all over the world, and existing Cisco partners now have a way to provide cloud-based solutions to their multinational customers by partnering with BroadSoft service providers in nearly any geography.
  • Just as BroadSoft partners have an extended portfolio to sell, existing Cisco partners can also bundle a much broader array of products and services for their end user markets. Many customers will want some combination of the on-premises telephony and video endpoint capabilities Cisco has traditionally sold along with elements of the BroadSoft cloud offering. Customers may want cloud telephony for some users or locations and may also want cloud-based contact center. New bundles can be created that provide a broader array of possibilities that should fit nearly any customer's needs -- whether the customer prefers on-premises, cloud, or a hybrid of both.
  • We referenced Cisco partners reselling BroadCloud services above, but call it out specifically here because BroadCloud/Webex Calling will allow Cisco partners to quickly ramp up to selling a turnkey BroadSoft cloud-based solution to their customers. In time, these partners may choose to stand up their own BroadWorks servers. The key idea is that just as Cisco partners now sell Webex, hosted by Cisco, selling BroadCloud/Webex Calling and Customer Journey Platform (which are now also both hosted by Cisco), gives the partner an immediate opportunity to capitalize on the benefits of the BroadSoft acquisition.