You’ve made every effort to stay on top of managed cloud services. Naturally, you are looking at vendors as potential resources in becoming the forward-looking MSPs that your customers can bank upon.
While you’re prepared to filter through the flood of vendors out there, here are a couple of things that come as precursors. With these key factors to consider when choosing a UCaaS vendor, you can make a winning partnership.
Reliability
We’ve heard “communication is key” so many times that we often ignore it. With partners, however, you need prompt replies to any problem and situation. Even with valid reasoning, it can hurt your brand image in front of your customers if you cannot fix a problem quickly or guarantee continuous uptime.
Cost Control
The vendor should help you control your margins. Be clear on the internal rate of return or IRR. Sit down with your vendor and estimate every aspect of the IRR. This exercise will give everyone a clear number, and it will also show how prepared your vendor is.
Resources
As a simple rule of thumb, if you don’t understand the literature, your customers won’t either. Look through the vendor’s site for resources. They should be clearly highlighted. A good vendor will have mixed-media resources that you can use to understand, market, or sell the vendor’s cloud services. Besides, your vendor must also provide all the necessary tools to help increase your selling efficiency.
Transparency
If your chosen public cloud provider is unwilling to share the numbers with you, even your commission becomes questionable. If all stakeholders have a clear idea about the revenue generated, the partnership can work efficiently. The vendor should have provisions for reporting in place and should be easy to do business with.
Security
Customers sharing data online want their data to be secure. Does your vendor have encryption and DoD certification? Do they have the right architecture in place? These are all valid questions you should ask while choosing a UCaaS vendor to ensure you and your end customers are in good hands.
Customer Service
Your vendor’s customer service reflects your customer service. This might be direct or through your customer service department that relies on answers from your vendor. In both cases, you should have the assurance that your customer is not at a loss. Ensure that your partner understands the MSP space clearly and has the necessary capabilities to offer quick access to support through phone, chat, or email if there are severe issues with the cloud service.
Flexibility
There’s one last question to keep in mind: is the offering the right fit for you? A good vendor offers different partner programs and partnership options depending on your portfolio. With partnership programs, you can cement a strong relationship with your vendor and access special partner benefits. For instance, with UniVoIP’s white-label partner program, you can sell powerful UCaaS & Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams solutions under your brand.
Your Success Depends on the Right Cloud Service Vendor
Choosing a UCaaS vendor can be challenging, but it’s better than hopping vendors and disrupting your client’s operations. The right vendor can simplify operations for both you and your customers. While this checklist simplifies vendor selection, you must go beyond the list and talk to your prospective vendors to ensure the right fit.
UniVoIP is a global cloud communications provider guaranteeing customer satisfaction with a churn rate as low as 0.25%. Visit our Channel Partners program page to learn more.
