After three decades in the channel Oak has positioned itself as the prominent provider of call logging and call recording solutions for resellers serving SME customers, but the company is now expanding into the mid-market with what Joint CEO Philip Reynolds describes as 'the big one'.
In October Oak will be unveiling version two of its Evolve solution to resellers across the UK which Reynolds believes represents the zenith of Oak's £1 million software development programme. "This is the biggest software launch in Oak's 30 year history," he said. "We have never been more focused and more excited about any product we've developed, even more than our multi-award winning RecordX.
"I have been writing call management software since 1985, but this one's a bit special. All of my knowledge gained from writing software used by millions of end users across the globe combined with my son David's in depth technical skills has created something that will have an impact on the telecoms world for many years to come. This is the big one."
Reynolds says Evolve is a new real-time product using the latest technologies in all areas. "It has a fully web-based and mobile front-end and a sophisticated back-end that sits on a Windows platform," he explained. "It can process millions of calls instantly with its advanced database indexing and it uses a range of CTI connections for real-time call handling and recording. It's secure and uses a powerful policy system to manage access to all parts of Evolve. Yet it still remains user-friendly due in part to having dedicated user experience designers as part of the Evolve development team. With a team approaching ten developers on Evolve we also see further rapid development to meet all future needs of our reseller partners."
Having served the SME reseller market for so long the 'Evolution' into the mid-market and contact centre business sectors could be seen as risky, but Reynolds says Oak is simply responding to channel change. "It's all been driven by the fact that we sell through resellers and resellers have been predominantly SME which is no longer the case," said Reynolds.
"Switch manufacturers now offer solutions that don't stop at 20, 50 or 100 extensions but expand to 500 to 1,000 extensions and beyond on the same platform. The knowledge and skill set needed to sell and support the 50 extension solution has now become transferable to much larger opportunities. We want to highlight that our solutions are also expandable in the same way, not just that they can record or report on larger or more sophisticated solutions, but that they have been enhanced to cater for the new demands."
Reynolds believes channel partners may still regard Oak and its solutions as SME centric, and while Oak will continue to serve this sector he is keen to widen reseller thinking about his company's solutions. "Of course we want to continue to be perceived as SME because having a large number of small sales every month is a great business model, but we want to highlight that the regular mid-market opportunities can also now be fully addressed by Oak," he stated.
Oak's Evolve solution started life as a complex call centre management solution for the Avaya IP Office. "It's positioning was almost self-determined," commented Reynolds. "We've taken that to the next level by adding not just call centre functionality but more sophisticated options for real-time business functionality. It was initially designed to address the needs of the call centre market, but it quickly became apparent that it could also handle larger more complex real-time business opportunities.
"In version 2.0 we've added advanced real-time call recording functionality, drill down cradle-to-grave reporting, a powerful dashboard, a real-time wallboard and real-time fraud detection. In essence, we've added advanced functionality to address the business market."
Oak is planning a UK-wide roadshow to launch Evolve 2.0 to current partners and, Reynolds hopes, new resellers targeting the contact centre and mid-sized business sectors. "We always aim to upskill our current partners as well as look for other partners who might be vertical market focused," he commented. "We're planning a roadshow across the UK to promote both the Evolve Business Edition as well as the Call Centre Edition. This will give all our reseller partners the chance to see the product first hand. If we can attract a few new resellers along the way that would be great."
Reynolds says individual Oak account managers and specialist technical support people will be on hand to assist both the Oak sales team and its resellers in driving the more complex mid-market opportunities which he believes are growing fast.
"We see a growing demand for larger bespoke call recording solutions which is a perfect fit for Evolve 2.0 and our resellers," he added. "If an end user opportunity needs speech analytics, quality management, multi-platform playback, mobile access, enhanced security, scalability, PCI compliance and a state of the art user experience then Evolve meets these demands and more.
"The call centre and real-time reporting functionality will also present our resellers with high value sales opportunities. End users are looking for solutions that integrate with their business and they are prepared to pay top prices to get them. A fully integrated business solution saves so much time, and allows a business to attract and process more sales and provide a better service to its customers. The return on investment is always assured."