In his strongest call to action in years NTA's Channel Sales Manager Justin Blaine has urged IT and telecoms resellers without hosted telephony or SIP in their portfolio to 'wake up and smell the coffee'.
According to Blaine, ICT providers without a cloud or SIP proposition should get to grips with these technologies or 'risk being left behind with an ever-shrinking customer base and revenue stream'.
Blaine stated: "Even some of the most experienced leaders at the helm of respected and established companies may not provide hosted telephony or offer it reluctantly as a second fiddle. They still prefer to sell a PBX!"
The main objections encountered by Blaine relating to hosted and SIP adoption among a section of comms and IT resellers is that 'hosted solutions don't work as they should', or, 'it's only for small companies'.
"Another barrier to progress is the false belief that connectivity is either not fast or reliable enough to deploy a hosted solution in some geographic regions," added Blaine. "There is a fundamental lack of understanding in certain areas of the channel."
He noted that misconceptions such as these are all the more stark when considered against the backdrop of digital transformation that is redefining how businesses operate across the UK and beyond.
"We have to embrace change," urged Blaine. "The lack of knowledge within an industry that is supposed to be offering solution led advice at the point of sale is alarming. Ignoring the paradigm shift towards cloud-based technologies is nonsense because customers are already moving ahead."
Blaine concedes that the term 'digital transformation' may be an over-statement, believing that change is more akin to an evolution rather than an upending revolution.
"The first phase of this evolutionary process could simply be a case of moving businesses into a more connected environment where all communications are integrated," added Blaine.
He reiterated that cloud averse resellers should no longer operate at a knowledge level that is below the requirements of the market, and explained that NTA has taken action to educate partners via a series of free sales training courses.
"These courses are designed to up-skill resellers' sales teams and enable them to grasp new technology, eradicate the myths and realise the ever growing profit potential in this space."