HIPCOM was established in 2005 as a pioneering wholesale cloud comms provider and successfully negotiated those early bumps in the hosted road. Now, the company has smoothed a pathway for partners to offer an alternative platform to MS Lync.
As a hosted provider from the outset HIPCOM braved the technological storms, overcame the early challenges and developed a magic touch that empowers partners to provide an alternative path to Microsoft with a true enterprise voice feature set unveiled at its inaugural partner event in London last month. According to Robert Murdoch, Sales Director, these developments mark the next chapter in HIPCOM's history and a new era for partners who take advantage of the company's open platform. The firm provides two voice paths, namely traditional (MobileOffice), MS UC (BYON Lync) and the just launched UCOffice path. "Resellers and customers can choose the right path to meet their needs, or all of them if appropriate," said Murdoch.
Paul Aabryn, Strategy Director and co-founder, outlined plans for the new OpenCloud comms platform which forms the basis for UCOffice Desktop, a new application that brings benefits such as IM, presence, voicemail, drag and drop collaboration, a soft client for HD voice and a useful toolbar that provides easy access to these new UC capabilities. The mobile component is also a big driver with BYOD and smartphones at the forefront of HIPCOM's thinking. In line with these trends the company also unveiled its mobility solution, UCOffice Smartphone, which boasts similar features to its Desktop counterpart along with collaboration and personal conferencing while its easy use of browser technology is particularly notable.
HIPCOM's customers include Tier 1 carriers, ISPs and lines and minutes resellers. The company now serves 5,000 businesses via its partner network and boasts a churn rate of less than one per cent. It's single open platform is designed for multiple markets that are ripe for hosted PBX and SIP trunking solutions. And under the banners of UCBusiness (a corporate messaging tool) and UCTeam (which combines elements of the UCOffice Desktop and Smartphone applications), supported by new bundled pricing options and extra sales incentives, HIPCOM expects to see its subscriber numbers double again in 2013, continuing last year's growth pattern.
"Our alternative to MS Lync is a huge launch for us," stated Aabryn, who also told the 80-plus delegates that Lync is not yet confidently perceived as a replacement for enterprise voice. "Voice is key to enterprise UC solutions. We need to push this point hard," he added.
Mike Wilkinson, Senior Director Global Solutions Marketing at BroadSoft, outlined trends in hosted that play into the hands of resellers. "Hosted is not just about winning big deals," he said. "It's a market trend that moves away from CPE, driven by UC and customer demand for integrated fixed and mobile telephony and a familiar application to access voice, video, messaging and web collaboration. A strong mobility component is a key requirement for end users looking for the benefits of hosted."
In a masterstroke of strategic planning the acquisition last year of the intellectual property of Atreus Systems, a supplier of VoIP and advanced IP service provisioning software, provides HIPCOM partners with a competitive edge, claims the firm. "Service orchestration is essential and not a nice-to-have," added James Brind, Technical Director and co-founder. "With the IPR we are the masters of our own destiny. Atreus was developed from the ground up to grease the wheels of our alternative technology. We are putting resellers in a position to capitalise on the market shift to hosted communications."
Although crucial to HIPCOM's go-to-market strategy and a significant stand-out factor for partners, the automated delivery of hosted services is just part of the bigger picture. More widely, HIPCOM has established a new product release roadmap and rebuilt its partner portal from the ground up as a more user friendly tool based on a simple dashboard that offers, among various enhancements, the contextual return of search results on a single page, one click navigation and the visual representation of services and devices.
Due for release in September the portal will also offer enterprises a self-management capability, giving them greater control and visibility over their cloud-based services. "We wanted to deliver an environment where partners can choose the products they want and self-determine how they go to market," added Brind. "We focused on the user experience and engaging more closely with customers via the portal."
The menu of products and services is set to whet appetites further with news of a restructured product roadmap that will see new launches served up in the third month of every quarter. This month does not disappoint with the roll out of UCOffice Desktop, UCOffice Smartphone, among other new components of the expanding kit bag. Nor is that all, to motivate the market HIPCOM's points-based incentive scheme becomes more attractive with double points allocated to all UC add-ons in Q3. The ultimate prize is a trip to New York for 30 top performing partners. HIPCOM's expanded professional services arm ensures that the scheme is available to all resellers. "The partner enablement team includes a nationwide network of installers and trainers who will support our partners," added Brind.•