Wildix has delivered a ‘go to war’ message to its growing army of European partners saying the big brand vendors are out to steal their customers.
At the company’s inaugural UCC Summit in Barcelona, last year, CEO Steve Osler branded them ‘The Walking Dead’. This year, at the same venue, they were portrayed as vampires, ready to suck the life out of reseller businesses.
The outspoken Italian does not pull any punches and has become something of an evangelist for the channel. His opening keynote was again highly uncharitable to competitive Cloud and UC providers.
“Every year thousands of companies are forced to close their doors due to competition from global brands that bypass installers and bring Cloud offerings directly to end users. You should declare war on these vampire vendors. They are the enemy, stealing your customers and sucking the life out of your business,” he said.
“They are taking the land away from where you are growing your crops for the future. They are humiliating you and exploiting you and turning you into nothing but agents. They will never let you grow because you are useless to them. You are only useful if you’re bringing customers into them. They have no interest in growing an ecosystem.”
Osler and his brother Dimitri have built a global powerhouse of followers and now have Wildix Certified Partners in 135 countries across the planet committed to the browser-based telephony and UC products developed within the so-called ‘Blue Ecosystem’.
And their aggressive marketing over the last three years has paid off; there are now 895,801 Wildix users worldwide and the company enjoyed a 32% growth spurt in business in 2019, exclusively through channel partners.
Success has been particularly strong in the UK, with 70 partners now onboarded. The maturity of UK resellers familiar with offering Opex ‘As a Service’ solutions was underlined by the appearance on stage of two partners happy to extol the virtues of the Wildix approach.
“In a year we have doubled the seats going through Wildix and profits are going in the right direction,” said Depak Doll, Sales Manager at Exeter based Taurus Clearer Communications.
Martin Jupp, Sales Director at Romsey reseller Elementel, added: “After partnering with Wildix we have doubled in size and profits have increased by 30 per cent. For us, it’s about being different and providing a complete solution.”
Osler said partners must avoid falling into the commodity market and transform into MSPs and said those that don’t will die out. And he urged them to leverage the strength of the Wildix ecosystem to compete against the big brand vendors.
“You cannot stay ahead with similar product features and you cannot compete on price. If customers look for a cheaper price, walk away; they are not good customers. You must focus on helping customers reach their business goals and you must discover their business value. It’s not about the money you will make, it’s about the money your customer will make because of the solutions you bring to them that answer their problems and create value.
“The vampires cannot compete with the number of people working for the Wildix channel across the world. Our strategy is a mix of technology, cutting edge As-a-Service offerings and support from a worldwide network of professionals committed to forming strong partnerships.”
New or enhanced products announced at the Summit included:
• Wizyconf, a touch screen, interactive video conference solution which Wildix claims can be up and running in 30 seconds
• A new collaboration mobile app with group chat, compatible with IoS and Android devices.
• Video conferencing on iPhones directly through the Safari browser
• Kite, a new WebRTC solution allowing website visitors to call, video call, screen share, send documents and engage with selected agents
• CRM integration with ZoHo, Salesforce, Zendex, Freshdesk, SAP Business One and Sage
• A new WorkForce office desk phone for daily work activities, showing presence via BLF keys
• New headsets with LEDs to show call status, avoiding unwanted interruptions.