Open a new revenue stream in the fast-growing, lucrative hosted PBX and cloud UC market, and own your customers
The market for hosted PBX services has surged in recent years. While the transition to hosted or cloud-based services was already well underway, the pandemic and sudden switch to remote working put that transition into overdrive. As a matter of survival, many businesses moved from on-site telephone systems to accessible and always-on hosted PBX or cloud-based unified communications (UC) service – practically overnight.
It was a leap of faith for many companies that had relied on legacy on-premises phone systems for years or even decades. Switching to cloud telephony solutions, which are hosted off-site in a service provider’s data center, provided key benefits for enterprises and small to medium businesses (SMBs) alike, including:
- Instant Redundancy: Cloud-based services have inherent reliability, redundancy and disaster recovery. Communications continue during outages, with automatic failover to redundant servers at the provider’s data centers.
- WFH and WFA: Employees can work from home (WFH) or anywhere (WFA), provided they have internet access. Apps on their computers and mobile devices facilitate phone service, instant messaging, video conferencing, file sharing and more. This expanded geographical reach opens up access to talent.
- Always Current: New features are updated and installed automatically with hosted services, so your technology is never outdated.
- OPEX Advantages: Hosted solutions also eliminate the up-front capital spend on system equipment and the ongoing cost of IT personnel to maintain and operate it. You pay a simple, predictable per-user monthly fee for service. Most finance executives value this transition from the capital expenditure (CAPEX) model to an operation expenditure (OPEX) model.
- Instant Scalability: Seats can be added and removed instantly, delivering significant benefits to seasonal businesses and eliminating the guesswork and up-front expense of trying to “future-proof” your equipment purchases.
It’s Not Too Late to Sell White-Label Cloud Communications Solutions
If you think the market is saturated and missed your opportunity to get in on the action, think again.
Data from Synergy Research Group shows that the installed base of on-premises PBX users is diminishing in favor of hosted PBX and UCaaS solutions. But it’s a reasonably slow go at only half a percentage point per quarter. And, despite extraordinary growth in UCaaS adoption (a whopping 46 percent increase between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021), UCaaS still represents a relatively small portion of the overall PBX market, and it’s projected to grow at a 23 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2028.
UCaaS adoption continues to grow across all market segments. From 2019 through 2025, organizations deploying cloud telephony will more than double, from about 20 percent of overall telephony users to 50 percent, according to Gartner’s 2021 Critical Capabilities for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide report.
Plus, Microsoft Teams has experienced a meteoric growth rate over the last few years. The Teams telephony market is forecasted to reach nearly 40 million users by 2027, according to research conducted by Cavell Group in 2023. Over 70% of companies using Microsoft Teams as their phone system choose direct routing to facilitate calls. White-label direct routing has enormous margin potential for MSPs aligned with Microsoft.
In both cases, the revenue opportunity is compelling.
Expand Your Pipeline with White-Label Hosted PBX Services
In fact, not only did you not miss out on the opportunity, but now is the ideal time for you to help your clients make that transition to cloud communications. As a managed service provider (MSP), hosted PBX presents a lucrative opportunity to expand your service offerings and grow your pipeline.
Your strategy should be two-fold:
- Capture your fair share of the remaining market still looking to transition to a hosted PBX or cloud-based UC service.
- Offer your hosted PBX and cloud-based UC services to business customers who may have hastily selected an online telephony service during the pandemic. They may be dissatisfied with reliability, security, scalability, functionality, pricing (or any combination of these factors).
How to Get Started Selling Hosted PBX and UCaaS
Historically, there have been two approaches to selling Hosted PBX and UCaaS services:
- Option one is to develop the service yourself, which includes securing hardware, software, networking agreements and all the other operational costs associated with becoming a public utility.
- The other option is to sell the services of existing providers and earn commissions on the residual revenue from those sales. The problem with the second “agent” model is you don’t own your customers, which significantly reduces the value of your business.
There’s a better way. You can partner with a wholesale provider.
These third parties act as “wholesalers” or white-label VoIP providers, deliver hosted solutions for PBX/telephony, UCaaS, contact center, mobility, collaboration, SIP trunking and even direct routing for Microsoft Teams through a private-label VoIP or white-label VoIP program. When an MSP like yours becomes a white-label VoIP reseller, you can deliver white-label PBX, UCaaS and other white-label cloud services under your own brand. And, importantly, you own your customers.
But not just any wholesale provider.
The most significant advantage to partnering with a wholesaler is owning your customers without having to front the operations necessary to deliver service. You can define your service plans and subscription bundles based on regional market economics, local competition, and bundles with any other services your MSP offers.
5 Facts MSPs Need to Know Before Choosing a White Label VoIP Provider
As an MSP, this is the time to offer hosted PBX services or direct routing for Microsoft Teams to your clients as they transition to cloud communications.
You’ve decided to join a white-label VoIP reseller program, but which one?
There are many benefits to partnering with a cloud software service provider that delivers hosted PBX/telephony and UC-related solutions through a private-label VoIP or white-label VoIP program. MSPs like yourself own the clients while delivering white-label cloud services under your own branding. There are plenty of benefits to this arrangement:
- There are no start-up costs. You leverage the provider’s telecom infrastructure, software and services, engineers and technicians.
- You can create your own service plans and subscription bundles, which you can price according to local market conditions and competition.
- You can make 50+ percent margins.
- You control the level of service to your end customers.
- Some of the best providers provide billing platforms that produce branded, professional invoices for you while ensuring proper taxation, surcharges and FCC compliance.
- Hosted PBX businesses with monthly recurring revenue are considered infrastructure and attractive acquisition targets. MSPs have sold for tens of millions of dollars on the strength of owning their UC customers.
Separating the Good White-Label Providers from the Bad
So, how do you choose the right white-label VoIP provider? What are the most critical factors to ensure maximum success in this fast-growing, lucrative hosted PBX and cloud UC market?
Of course, you’ll want to select a white-label hosted PBX and UC program that promises high gross margins, but the real key to your success goes deeper than that. You need a proven partner that delivers much more.
We’ve narrowed it down to the five most crucial factors:
- Corporate Stability: What’s the history and stability of the white-label VoIP provider you’re considering? How long has the company been in business? Does the provider have the reliability, security, backing and shared assets of an established parent telecom company? What is their staying power and are they likely to be acquired?
- Customer Ownership: Does the white-label provider offer a comprehensive partner portal that gives you full ownership and control of the customer experience end-to-end? Can you create your own service bundles and set your own pricing and margins? Do you have access to all the go-to-market materials and quoting tools you need, and can you professionally customize these under your branding?
- Support Levels: Look for a provider that is 100 percent committed to the channel and fully invested in a mutually successful relationship with no conflicts between partners and internal sales teams. Does the provider have in-house, experienced telecom professionals across sales, technical and marketing areas who are available and ready to assist with planning, launching and selling your cloud services?
- Billing Services: Make sure the provider takes the burden of billing off your back. A good supplier partner will deliver a private-label billing solution that generates, brands and sends monthly invoices to your customers. Plus, they’ll ensure proper taxes and fees are applied per regional requirements.
- Technology & Network: It’s imperative to check out the provider’s hosted services portfolio and network reliability and coverage. You need the latest PBX, UCaaS, mobility and collaborative solutions and integrations. In addition, you want to make sure they have a competent Microsoft Teams calling enablement strategy to help you retain revenue. And since the UCaaS battleground is a war of collaborative features, your partner should actively add functionality that meets customer demands and arms you with cutting-edge, innovative, scalable technologies. What about the core switching that underpins services? Is it based on carrier-grade telecommunications software and hardware, with georedundant data centers and a guaranteed high level of service? If you’re delivering technology services under your own brand, you need a top-tier technology partner that delivers 99.999% uptime.
Reinvent Checks All of Those Boxes
Reinvent Telecom, a market leader in white-label cloud communications solutions, checks these boxes above and more. We are:
- Backed by a 27-year-old, debt-free, privately-owned incumbent telecom provider with a carrier-grade IP network, georedundant data centers, nationwide coverage and 99.999% network uptime.
- Fully supportive of you and your business. You are the owner; you control the customer experience.
- Led and staffed by telecom professionals and network engineers with decades of experience.
- Committed to your success, with a comprehensive partner portal, sales and technical training and easy-to-manage private-label billing services.
- Backed by industry-leading technology partners to deliver our carrier-class solutions.
Our portfolio of white-label hosted PBX and white-label UCaaS services, expert support team and innovative partner resources will help you become a successful next-generation cloud communications provider and excel in meeting your client’s telecom needs. Plus, you’ll earn a minimum of 50% marginson the services you sell while building tremendous equity in your organization.
Interested in Becoming a White-Label Partner?
We’d love to show you our portfolio of cloud communications services and how we can help you build your business and solve problems for your customers.
Not Ready to Become a White-Label Partner? Check Out Our CoBranded Partner Program
Gain the benefits of being a cloud communications provider while turning over regulatory compliance, taxing and remittance, and billing to Reinvent’s experts. Set your own rates, keep 100% of the profit margins, and own the customer experience when you go to market under your own brand “powered by Reinvent”.
Learn more here: https://reinventtelecom.com/partners/data-sheets/