Intelisys Eyes CPaaS Opportunity for Partners
The rise of no-code CPaaS solutions and AI-based digital transformation projects could pave a way for more technology advisors to sell CPaaS.
![Bob Farbak talks CPaaS at Intelisys AMP'd in Dallas Bob Farbak talks CPaaS at Intelisys AMP'd in Dallas](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blte4952c52e5e93c2e/65bc2a49ebbcff040aa35abb/Bob_Farbak_Intelisys_AMP_d_Dallas_2024.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Intelisys' Bob Farbak on stage at AMP'd in Dallas, Jan. 30, 2024.
CPaaS seemed poised for a breakout in the years leading up to the pandemic.
For example, a 2019 Channel Futures article about TBI showed that the company was seeing strong growth in unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and CCaaS, and saw CPaaS as a natural evolution. Many of the large UCaaS providers had made acquisitions of CPaaS companies as a way to hedge their bets.
Demand for UCaaS platforms surged during the work-from-home era of the pandemic. And many technology advisors pivoted their focus to CCaaS in the following years as UCaaS seat prices declined.
But CPaaS "got passed" over during that time, Farback said.
A Vonage sales leader told Channel Futures last summer that while API developers and CRM integrators have frequently signed on for the company's CPaaS offerings, technology advisors have tended to stay with UCaaS and CCaaS.
VocalPoint Consulting president Derek Roush said many partners lacked the confidence or the knowledge to talk about CPaaS with customers.
"It can be confusing because it can be (almost) whatever you want it to be. Whenever I've had conversations with enterprise contact centers with over 1,000 agents, they typically seem to lean toward not being locked into a product," Roush told Channel Futures. "I see them wanting the flexibility to build their own agent application inside of whatever CRM they're using and then using a platform such as Twilio as their CPaaS. It gives them more freedom to integrate with any application or they can write custom code to make the platform do whatever they want."
However, Roush said selling some of the existing solutions would require agents to learn more about coding and carry a conversation on such a topic.
"There are certainly some good CPaaS solutions out there today, but I think they need to help agents drive discussions around business outcomes and steer clear of the highly technical discussions. There are plenty of consulting resources that agents can tap into for the technical side of the discussion," he said.
ClearSync Solutions CEO Richard Rodriguez said technology advisors have faced an interoperability challenge with CPaaS.
"It can blend across existing platforms that a company may have, and they don’t always play nice together," Rodriguez said.
In addition, Rodriguez said customers may need convincing that they should adopt "nontraditional channels for communicating." Lastly, Rodriguez said partners struggle to identify a vendor "willing to do a meaningful POC with clients."
Farbak said these CPaaS solutions are growing more digital, making the conversations more accessible to a channel partner. In addition, increased C-suite interest in AI is growing the market opportunity for CPaaS, he said.
Moreover, suppliers in the TSD portfolio have evolved their platforms to include CPaaS. Many of these are actively competing against the behemoth Twilio, he said.
Farbak pointed to IntelePeer, which started as a SIP provider but made an acquisition into the space. It offers a no-code solution.
"CPaaS is a foundational element to customers achieving hyper-automation through Generative AI," IntelePeer senior vice president of channel sales Geoff Chretian told Channel Futures. "Our focus at IntelePeer is to use our intent study process to help our customers understand all the opportunities that exist within their business to apply our automation solutions so that they can achieve maximum ROI."
Rodriguez said ClearSync is embracing CPaaS.
"As a company we see the value of CPaaS and are focusing on it in 2024 through targeted marketing, customer events and speaking engagements and panels that we are invited to," he told Channel Futures.
TSDs and TAs are undertaking multiple technology pivots at once. Many TSDs had already established CX/CCaaS practices before generative AI became a household word. And others have been investing heavily in onboarding cybersecurity suppliers and engineers.
Do the last two or three years of the cybersecurity push offer a playbook for the investment in AI and CPaaS?
Ansley Hoke, senior vice president of marketing for Intelisys' parent company, ScanSource, said there are similar dynamics of expanding the vendor ecosystem and educating partners.
"One of the main reasons that we're in existence is to make sure that we are showcasing different offerings for our sales partners to be able to be additive, depending on what verticals they're going in, what different end users they're going to pitch and what opportunities they're trying to go after," Hoke told Channel Futures.
Farbak noted that for many partners, they needed a year and a half to become more comfortable selling cybersecurity. The same may occur with AI, he said.
"A lot of partners in the first go around will leverage our engineering resources to get in front of users, and they'll be side by side. The partners start to learn that solution and technology and get more comfortable with it," he said.
TSDs and TAs are undertaking multiple technology pivots at once. Many TSDs had already established CX/CCaaS practices before generative AI became a household word. And others have been investing heavily in onboarding cybersecurity suppliers and engineers.
Do the last two or three years of the cybersecurity push offer a playbook for the investment in AI and CPaaS?
Ansley Hoke, senior vice president of marketing for Intelisys' parent company, ScanSource, said there are similar dynamics of expanding the vendor ecosystem and educating partners.
"One of the main reasons that we're in existence is to make sure that we are showcasing different offerings for our sales partners to be able to be additive, depending on what verticals they're going in, what different end users they're going to pitch and what opportunities they're trying to go after," Hoke told Channel Futures.
Farbak noted that for many partners, they needed a year and a half to become more comfortable selling cybersecurity. The same may occur with AI, he said.
"A lot of partners in the first go around will leverage our engineering resources to get in front of users, and they'll be side by side. The partners start to learn that solution and technology and get more comfortable with it," he said.
Intelisys sales leader Bob Farbak says communications platform as a service (CPaaS) is emerging as a growth market for partners.
Farbak says increasingly mature enterprise digital transformation efforts and increased demand for AI-fueled solutions have laid a ripe foundation for CPaaS.
"I think that's going to be the next wave of revenue," Farbak said in an interview with Channel Futures at Intelisys' AMP'd summit in Dallas this week.
Farbak's comments and the AI-focused summit occurred at a time when agents are seeking ways to monetize the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Many technology services distributors (TSDs) and technology advisors (agents) have concluded that they will monetize the AI phenomenon through contact center as a service (CCaaS) and customer experience (CX) platforms. Some, including Farbak, say AI-based security solutions are growing in use cases.
But the dark horse could be CPaaS, according to Farbak.
"Our CX growth is [strong] year over year. There's still a lot of opportunity there, but we've talked about going more digital with CPaaS," he said.
According to Channel Futures' sister research firm, Omdia, CPaaS is "a suite of technologies and services that enable developers and organizations to easily integrate communications into their customer-facing platforms across multiple use cases and vertical industries."
Farbak and two partners shared the challenges partners have traditionally faced selling CPaaS and how solutions may be emerging for those problems. Read their commentary in the five slides above.
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