Brightlink Grows Cloud PBX via Stitchtel Acquisition

Brightlink, a provider of voice, messaging, analytics and cloud-based solutions, has acquired Stitchtel Communications, adding more than 30 new enterprise and SMB customers across retail, restaurants and education verticals.

The acquisition is part of Brightlink’s focus on continued growth of its cloud PBX solution within its communications cloud suite of offerings. Financial details of the purchase weren’t disclosed.

Brightlink’s Rob Chen

Rob Chen, Brightlink’s CEO, tells Channel Partners this acquisition enhances his company’s ability to jointly sell communications cloud applications with its distribution partners by increasing Brightlink’s sales and service capacity.

“Brightlink’s go-to-market strategy today includes an ecosystem of both sell-through and sell-with partners,” he said. “For larger enterprises [that] require a more sophisticated and holistic solution-selling approach, Brightlink will typically work with a partner to jointly sell Brightlink solutions. A good example of this is Protel, a distribution partner on the West Coast that specializes in cloud PBX offerings, who together with Brightlink has helped expand the reach of Brightlink’s offerings to enterprises in industries ranging from travel to consumer electronics.”

A recent Brightlink survey of more than 300 SMBs highlights the accelerating market opportunity for cloud PBX and other communications applications. The cloud PBX category is both under-penetrated and undergoing growing adoption, with 45 percent of SMBs indicating that they have adopted a solution and 30 percent indicating that they are likely to do so in the next year, the company said. That’s higher than the expressed purchase interest from the same respondents in technologies like customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation.

“Brightlink’s competitive advantage is in delivering a holistic and integrated value proposition for communications that includes cloud applications with proven network services capabilities that have been fully bundled and integrated via a robust CPaaS platform,” Chen said. “Brightlink delivers a comprehensive solution across communication channels – [for example], PBXCloud for voice and MessageView for messaging – that is also easily co-branded and delivered through partners.”

Stitchtel was in the early stages of building a partner community and John Royal, its former CEO, now will play a key role in supporting partner development efforts at Brightlink as vice president of enterprise sales, Chen said.

“For Stitchtel customers, the move to Brightlink will mean greater access to a more comprehensive set of communications capabilities and solutions, as well as more extensive resources to ensure the highest levels of service and quality,” he said.

Brightlink is focused on extending its business and product capabilities across all layers of the communications technology stack, from network services to the CPaaS platform, and cloud applications, Chen said.

“I am excited for Stitchtel customers join[ing] the Brightlink family,” Royal said. “The businesses share a strong belief in the power of communications. Additionally, both companies have a similar service ethic and customer orientation. By joining the Brightlink family, I am confident the Stitchtel customers will be able to benefit from a broader set of resources, as well as have access to a product road map that will enable their continued success.”