The End of UCaaS Point Solutions?

The CoreDial platform update promotes an “all-in-one” vision of cloud communications.

The Pennsylvania-based vendor this week announced version 7.0 of its CoreNexa offering. The platform integrates voice, video, messaging and collaboration. That includes a softphone that has several modern features — video meetings, virtual rooms and simultaneous screen sharing. Presenters can also engage in a private video sidebar conversation with other conference participants.

CEO Alan Rihm said many businesses adopted point solutions for video conferencing and collaboration when COVID-19 hit. But this movement, Rhim said, stemmed more from haste than from true demand.

CoreDial’s Alan Rihm

“Now that businesses and their workforce have learned to adapt and be agile, they are looking for a better solution for seamless communications, collaboration and employee engagement. CoreNexa 7.0 is not only optimized to solve for the challenges of today’s modern workforce, but to also provide a highly scalable and exciting path for long-term success with video and collaboration,” Rhim said. “The CoreNexa 7.0 platform also represents a huge leap forward for our channel partners, who can now deliver tightly integrated communications and collaboration technology that translates into superior employee engagement, customer experiences and productivity across the entire company.”

Channel partners will exclusively sell the offering. CoreDial works with approximately 900 of them.

“We expect that CoreNexa 7.0 will be quickly embraced by partners who are looking to succeed in this fast-moving marketplace. Instead of trying to sell siloed, single-purpose technology like so many of their competitors, our partners can now deliver a wide range of high-quality, margin-rich services from a unified interface,” Rhim said.

Partner Perspective

Blueline Telecom holds an exclusive unified communications and contact center partnership with CoreDial. Blueline has been using a beta version of the 7.0 update for its own team. As a result, the Florida-based partner gives a demo of the product whenever it meets virtually with a customer.

“Being familiar with the system as we are now, we can go to our clients knowing we have a strong offering that will help them ease into more seamless collaboration. And if a solution is seamless and easy-to-use, it’s going to be a better fit for that company, because it will lead to greater adoption,” Blueline CEO Scott Williams said.

Blueline Telecom’s Scott Williams

Williams said the update offers deeper functionality than other platforms and imitates the “dynamic form” of a physical office. In addition, CoreDial includes a free version included with every seat. Williams said the free version will help customers see the value.

“I don’t see any challenges at all in selling it,” Williams said. “It’s just going to be getting people to use it.”

Williams said partners need to ensure that their UCaaS solution fits the needs of the customer. And in Williams’ case, he said he feels confident about selling the latest version of CoreNexa.

“Whenever you’re selling UCaaS, you want to make sure you’re the right fit. Because if you’re not the right fit, you won’t have a long-term customer,” he said.

CoreDial in March launched its new CoreNexa Microsoft Teams Integrator, which put the company’s calling features on the Microsoft Teams platform.