VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 03 | PAGES 44 | MAY 2022 | RS

“WE WILL CONTINUE

TO STRENGTHEN OUR SERVICES IN AREAS LIKE CLOUD, SAAS, IAAS, ALONG WITH ENHANCING OUR NETWORK AND SALES

REACH TO COVER AS MUCH SMB FOOTPRINT AS POSSIBLE.”

JOYJEET BOSE, SR. VICE PRESIDENT, TATA TELESERVICES

products.

Similarly, partnerships between software providers will acquire more importance, as a close relationship is required for tight integration of disparate application functions.

What’s Trending Now

A closer look at the collaboration market reveals some key mega trends that will go on to define the industry in the days ahead.

First, as businesses come to grips with the realities of a hybrid workforce, the demand for secure collaboration platforms that provide end-to-end data security from device to device, in transit, at rest, and when stored will continue to grow. Second, employee well-being and inclusivity will be a priority. It presents vendors with a unique opportunity to embed inclusion into their collaboration platforms, marked by well-being and ensuring every voice is heard and valued.

Third, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality will make their way into collaboration tools. It will make digital interactions more engaging and the experience more immersive.

Virtual meetings over video conferencing platforms will slowly shift to the usage of AR headsets and immersive 3D photorealistic holograms. For example, Cisco’s Webex has been updated with over 1000 new features and a selection of new devices to give users an uninterrupted, immersive, and intelligent experience whether they’re at home, at work, or on the go.

“Our AI-powered gestures capture body language and let participants interact more naturally. We have also introduced AI-powered Noise removal and speech enhancement technology,” informs Zia.

Driving Benefits to Partners

Collaboration techs should provide the platform to connect with external partners, customers, and vendors through seamless and high-impact communication. Those have been benefitting clients as well as partners alike.

“Our innovations represent our commitment to helping our customers and partners achieve their highest potential as they move from the old remote work world to the new hybrid work world. Through a combination of hardware and software, we create tools that connect people, teams, ideas, and workflows with a single click, gesture, or simply our voice,” says Zia

Zia further adds, “Most importantly, we understand that to be successful in the era of hybrid work, organizations need to make sure their solutions are flexible, inclusive, supportive, secure, and easily managed on the backend by IT, and the allnew Webex is all about simplicity.”

“We assist SME businesses in crafting sales pitches for their clients, as well as educating engineers and obtaining certification. We assist in the creation of solutions that meet the project’s needs. POC/Demo is another important area where we contribute to business growth,” says Bindra.

“TTBS has teamed up with Zoom Video Communications to offer an intuitive, scalable, and secure communications solution to enterprises and individual customers. We have leveraged Zoom’s robust and secure platform to address the growing collaboration requirements of Enterprises for seamless unified communications. We offer Zoom’s world-class communications platform on our high-capacity network. These services include Zoom Meetings, Zoom Webinars among others to businesses across industry segments particularly education, healthcare, BFSI enabling them to collaborate effectively within their teams and partners in India and globally,” says Bose.

“Also, in order to address the continuous shift in modern workplace, where employees expect more openness, collaboration and flexibility in how they stay connected, we offer a host of plug and play collaboration solutions, such as web conferencing solutions, hosted IVR, and international bridging services,” Bose adds.

“We are continuing this momentum and helping the automobile manufacturer - Maruti Suzuki augment their offerings and reach a broader customer base across India. Maruti customers can come to their website and request a virtual tour of the showroom and the car they wish to explore from the comfort of their homes. It allows them to have a rich audio-video interaction with the ability to share the screen and co-create the car customizations through the 3D rendering of the cars,” adds Zia.

Strategic Association with Partners

Striking strategic association with the partners, collaboration players are changing the collaboration landscape. “In the modern channel ecosystem with the strategic association of partners, we serve our customers as a solution provider where we offer a large pool of comprehensive portfolios that help us to advance on our digital transformation journey,” says Bindra.

“We aim to be at the forefront of technology evolution, where we continuously innovate. Our go-to-market closely surrounds our four main transformation pillars: IT, Security, Digital and Workforce. It is also our mission to provide support to our partners to join us in this journey,” he adds.

Differentiating With Technology

Clear, easy to understand, user-friendly End-User

“SOCIAL AND COLLABORATION TOOLS

WENT FROM A ‘NICE TO HAVE’ TO A ‘MUST HAVE’ WITHIN A MATTER OF WEEKS. THE PANDEMIC BENT THE LONG-TERM CURVE OF THE SOCIAL SOFTWARE AND COLLABORATION MARKET UPWARD, WITH

DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH PROJECTED THROUGH 2022.”

CRAIG ROTH, RESEARCH VICE PRESIDENT, GARTNER

Interface is pivotal for the success of any Collaboration Solution. Collaboration Solution vendors are trying to bring product differentiation onto the table to ensure greater traction for channel partners.

Minhaj Zia, Director for Collaboration Sales, Cisco India & SAARC, says, “I believe our biggest differentiator is, firstly, flexibility. Webex is adaptable for any workstyle, role, or device, so you can choose when, where, and how you work. Webex’s People Insights feature aligns with the goals people set personally for their meetings, work-life integration, connections, and focus time, helping people work smarter and combat burnout. Secondly, it is inclusive – our vision with Webex is to empower digital workers on the planet to participate equally in a global economy, regardless of their geography or language preference or personality type, or tech proficiency level. Eliminating language barriers is key to enabling a truly global, hybrid workforce. Through our real-time translation feature, Webex customers can preview translations from Hindi into 100+ languages. Thirdly, it is secure by design and private by default to defend against threats no matter where you’re working. Our Webex portfolio is at the center of our customers’ strategies for securely empowering teams and increasing productivity.

Fourthly, Webex simplifies communications via robust calling, meeting, and messaging features integrated into the apps we frequently use. It integrates with hundreds of industry-leading apps and tools so you can get more done seamlessly without toggling between applications. Lastly, our capabilities for virtual event execution can support up to 100,000 participants, coupled with the industry’s first audience engagement solution that can make meetings more engaging in the form of polling, quizzes, etc.”

“We have introduced ‘Customer Experience Platform (CEP)’ industry’s first highly engaging, innovative, and integrated platform to bring the product experience closer to the customers, based on their availability and comfort anytime anywhere. Customer Experience Portal lets customers understand and experience how our products and solutions can enable them to build digital capabilities. It serves as a one-stop digital guide for customers to better experience TTBS products and make speedy and informed decisions,” says Bose from Tata Teleservices.

“Channel partner network has been an important contributor to our business growth. We have, perhaps, the largest channel network which is available at hand to meet the requirements of our customers in over 60 cities across the country. We have the right mix of partners who address various industrial segments. We have pure telecom partners, system integrators, data security experts, software selling partners and even non-ICT partners who have better reach across industry segments,” he informs.

“Ingram Micro India e-commerce has many facets to it – the first one is the IMEcom B2B selfservice portal for our partners, where we offer a huge range of technology products with the ease of doing business, partners can log in to the portal and check the product details, availability and pricing on a real-time basis and place their orders. Over 13,000 partners are already onboarded on this portal purchasing directly from this portal. It eliminates a need to conduct business through physical mode or email for order placement, Query handling, all operational support about Delivery Status Information, Account statements Order status, etc.,” says Bindra.

Overcoming Hurdles

While the collaboration tech industry is witnessing an encouraging growth phase, there are also certain factors that are impacting the growth of the sector. Apart from other factors, cannibalization of revenue has also emerged as a major challenge for the industry.

“Yes, Cannibalization can be a challenge in the modern world, for impacting the growth of the Collaboration tech sector. Market cannibalization can occur when a new product is similar to an existing product, and both share the same customer base. But as long as one provides differentiation to the solutions, there is room for growth. Collaboration Tech sectors focusing on disruptive technologies or nascent markets do better in the form of joint ventures or smart investments, as such forms insulate experimental activities from complex processes or resource cannibalization that can occur when larger firms evaluate risky ventures based on their existing core business,” says Bindra.

Bindra further adds, “Moving to new business models requires a cultural change that makes innovation the focus of the business strategy. Concerns on cannibalization of existing businesses need to be addressed by concentrating on overall consumer demand.”

“Fragmented communication and the resultant loss of productivity are problems most enterprises are facing with extended periods of remote working and time away from the office. Work-fromanywhere and flexible working are becoming commonplace and simple yet powerful solutions like, unified video conferencing solutions are now

an integral part to support the hybrid culture of mobility and collaboration for today’s anytime, anywhere and any device workforce,” says Bose.

Bose further adds, “Most of the modern businesses that are successfully moving their operations on the digital side are embracing asset light models which are affordable and highly flexible. And one solution does not fit everyone. Each business has specific requirements, and we offer them bespoke solutions which can be integrated easily in their existing infra. This presents us with tremendous opportunity to offer our solutions to the burgeoning market of SMBS and Start-Ups across their entire value-chains.”

Upskilling Partners

Collaboration Solutions business is highly techintensive. Therefore upskilling partners becomes pivotal for vendors when it comes to tapping into the market opportunities.

“Ingram Micro intended to provide a path to increased expertise and a broader core focus, as well as the background required to maximize full solution implementation. Ingram Micro offers industry-leading vendor training to meet every business need. We provide streamlined and convenient training options aligned with key vendors, but also work directly with solution providers to map business and individual professional development strategies that deliver a competitive edge,” says Bindra.

Joydeep Bose of Tata Teleservices says, “Emerging technologies provide a competitive advantage by opening up new revenue streams and reshaping business strategy, but they also function as a catalyst in increasing industry skill gaps. Companies that invest in adaptable teams get a competitive advantage by being able to turn more quickly. Learning management systems are an efficient technique to improve transferable skills and introduce new technical concepts through training- boost visibility and reduce friction.”

“We continue to enhance our channel partner network in every part of the addressable market. We are continually empowering and upskilling our partners under our ‘Certified Solution Partner’ program which is at par with industry certification to enhance their capabilities as an ICT solution provider. This is significant because it provides them with opportunities to learn new skills and earn credentials, especially as they reskill and upskill more frequently to address the customers’ demands in the competitive market,” Bose adds.

“Through our Professional Services we provide top training courses from 65+ Industry Leaders to fit every business need on your schedule with our training and education services. We also conducting monthly Webinars for Enterprise, Cloud Partners and end customers, and run Partner Incentive Programs for partners to win exciting rewards apart from supporting lead generation activities. For Elite Partners, we have Pinnacle Program. We also provide Proactive Credit support to meet large deal execution and manage business peak cycles,” says Bindra.

Expanding Channel Footprints

In order to gain a lion’s share of the market pie, collaboration players are leaving no stone unturned whether it’s about expansion of channel footprints or planning or making major investments in terms of channel expansions or product development.

“We have grown to be a one-stop digital solution provider for businesses in domestic market with our most comprehensive suite of enterprise grade solutions that are flexible, easy to deploy, and are available in an asset/capex light model --say in a plug n play mode,” says Bose. “We are continually investing in developing all our partners as a digital solution provider for SMB segment. We have a large fibre network of around 1,25,000 route kms that runs through the length and breadth of the country. We have connected perhaps the highest number of business clusters, over 1 lakh buildings which house the businesses we serve, and this number is increasing daily. All our Channel partners and large field team, leverage these connected buildings, interact with the customers directly, make them aware of our services and generate demand that then translates into an order that is fulfilled and serviced efficiently.”

“We will continue to strengthen services in the areas of Cloud, SaaS, IaaS and while at the same time enhancing our network and sales reach to cover as much SMB footprint as possible,” affirms Bose.

“We plan to expand the portfolio and work with a variety of brands to bring them on board in the areas of business adjacencies, which we will continue to accomplish as part of the business development project. We’re working hard to develop the company while also generating new long-term revenue streams,” says Bindra of Ingram Micro.

Minhaj Zia, Director for Collaboration Sales, Cisco India & SAARC, says, “Successfully leading customers through a digital transformation requires that partners continually transform themselves by investing in emerging technologies and expertise that reinforce their status as a trusted digital advisor. No matter how customers evolve or how the market landscape changes, we are committed to supporting our partners to meet their customer needs through training and certification programs.”

“We have our Partner Experience Platform (PXP), Cisco’s first digital platform designed for partners for all the resources they need to perform and transform. PXP gives our partners easy access to critical insights and helps them be agile and add value to their customer relationships. All in one place, from tracking their performance, incentives and gaining a deeper knowledge of their customer to other events, training, support options, and connecting with subject matter experts. At Cisco, we believe our partner ecosystem is our biggest asset. We want to give our partners more freedom to differentiate and transform across the dimensions of their Cisco business,” adds Zia.

Conclusion

As the pandemic has orchestrated and the lingering demands of a Hybrid workforce have resounded, building a collaborative environment fit for the next-gen workforce is the only way going forward for organizations. Improving collaboration efforts can be as simple as providing employees with a private room for brainstorming. Or, it could also be as complex as using augmented reality for project visualization. However, using new communication platforms and technologies to unify distributed teams would be the norm, going ahead.

To sum up, companies that can make the most out of their collaborative efforts would stay ahead in the game in fulfilling the evolving needs of their Hybrid workforce.