How to drive customer value with agile solutions

The last year has seen technology road maps accelerate at a rate nobody ever could have predicted, organisations have needed to become remote, flexible, agile and secure at an unprecedented pace, that many were unprepared for. Due to current realities, the industry as a whole has delivered infrastructure enhancements and technical deployments that were years in the making, within twelve months.

Organisations who will weather the current climate best are those offering remote-working technology while continuing to be agile and working towards sustainable long-term approaches.

With remote working more prominent than ever before, there are key considerations that cannot be overlooked when deploying an all-encompassing information and communication technology.

With that being said, there is a great opportunity at present for the reseller market. The essential step to equip their product portfolios with future-proof solutions that meet the needs of the ever-evolving demands of the market is vital. These include remote working requirements so that resellers can truly revolutionise communications for their customers in desperate need of modernisation.

With a big focus on wellness, empowerment, and a people-first mentality, these priorities can easily be supported with the right approach, while at the same time ensuring business security, agility, and growth. Adapting to a disruptive strategy will be a vital step for resellers, whilst developing and reinventing your disruptive strategy will be essential to staying relevant and successful in a competitive industry.

For resellers to drive value and ensure the long-term sustainability of their customers during an ICT deployment, there are several key considerations, to name a few:

1. Environment, roles, and responsibility – Offices are standing empty with entire workforces operating remotely, this certainly changes daily roles for many employees. Mental well-being and keeping employees connected, motivated and secure is essential yet may pose a challenge for some. Fortunately, modern UC solutions can support organisations with all these elements and enable workforces to be securely and remotely connected more than ever before. ICT solutions when deployed correctly allow companies to monitor and track activity, ensuring business and employee goals are met. UC solutions allow employees to foster the flexibility of a remote environment and the work-life balance that is vital to the mental well-being of your workforce.
2. AI, training, and skills gaps – Valuable to employers now are employees with innovative and outside the box approaches. It’s no secret that the potential of Artificial Intelligence is huge, which may concern many. It’s understandable for employees to feel their jobs are at risk, but it is vital to educate and prepare for this coming change. Preparing for these changes will mean a greater focus on data science, analytics and ensuring employees get the opportunity to enhance their skill set in relevant areas.
3. Network, governance, and connectivity - Wi-Fi and open protocols on home networks present many challenges around security, delivery, and of course data sovereignty/protection. We have finally moved past the stigma of the cloud and IT departments wanting to own everything on-site, but with the right scoping and education the ability to deploy functional and secure solutions has become much easier. However, organisations need to adapt and continually innovate to stay ahead of the curve. This feeds back to earlier comments around a disruptive technology road map. Organisations that can truly adapt and develop against the new type of worker have incredible potential to revolutionise and uncover new profit streams. Administration centres in the leading ICT platforms make the protection and security an easy tick box and it’s much easier to protect data and govern permissions than ever before.

There should be a key focus on these elements when taking a holistic view of an all-encompassing ICT solution:

• Versatility
• High Security
• Reliability
• Sophistication
• Readily available and responsive
• Scalable and Evolving

Certainly, from a reseller’s perspective and what’s trending in the market, much of this can be achieved through the right partnerships. There is an increase in amalgamation in the channel community for just this reason. For resellers, aligning with the correct partners to fill gaps in their product portfolios is more important now than ever before.

Through education and a functional approach, resellers who are focused on improving the everyday workflow processes through optimisation are better placed to support customers with an offering that encompasses the elements above, with the added benefits at the client level of:

• Improved efficiency
• Integration
• Automation
• Cost reduction
• More detailed and effective oversights
• Improved communication

The simple fact is that technological opportunities haven't left us, but we need to modernise, adapt, focus and innovate. We are in a whole new world which presents an abundance of opportunities for resellers to drive value and ensure the long-term sustainability of their customers.