How one partner is winning over existing and new clients with Cisco’s voice calling solution
When Cisco partner Ionize uncovered a need for a simple, end-to-end voice calling solution at one of its clients, it needed to get on-board fast with Webex Calling and, with the support of TD SYNNEX, that has very quickly led to more customer wins.
Ionize is a Cisco business partner operating from offices in Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales. It has a team of 11 and provides ICT services to its customers, who are mostly of small and mid-sized businesses, throughout the UK. It has particular specialisation in the integration of ERP and business process systems. One of its biggest customers has a contact centre in the town and with the Aberystwyth University regularly turning out a stream of tech talent, it’s a great location for the business.
TD SYNNEX has been its distribution partner of choice for a number of years. In November 2021, Ionize started working with the TD SYNNEX Cisco team to provide Webex Calling solutions to its customers. It has since moved several of its clients onto the platform and with more business in prospect, Kristian Ellmore, managing director of Ionize, is more than pleased with the progress it has been making.
It’s been a resounding success. We have placed order after order, and we still have clients queuing up for Webex Calling – and that hasn’t gone unnoticed at Cisco either
Four months later at the end of March 2022, Ionize has processed more than 20 orders for Cisco Webex Calling – for customers ranging in size from a ‘one-man band’ to its largest customer, which has 400 seats. Scalability is one of the major benefits of selling Cisco Webex, said Kristian Ellmore, and it is possible to go live very quickly if that’s what the customer needs.
Tellingly, four of those clients are brand new customers who have found Ionize through word of mouth.
Left until the last minute
The story started back in November 2021, when Ionize had a conversation with a customer – a car dealership in the south of England – that needed a new phone system. The business had been using an ISDN-based set-up and due to relocation was looking to upgrade. It had trialled a collaboration solution, with added calling functionality, but found this to be wholly unsuited to its needs. The customer really wanted a simple, streamlined, and fully integrated, end-to-end solution.
At about this time Ionize had started to take the first tentative steps on its own Webex Calling journey through TD SYNNEX. It looked like the solution might be a good fit for the car dealer. After a virtual demonstration, they quickly agreed it looked exactly right and placed the order.
It was a completely different world for us, and TD SYNNEX’s experience with Cisco and subscriptions is what got us through
But that presented Ionize with a challenge. The car dealer was relocating from its main premises and had unfortunately, left the telephony system until the last minute. Ionize needed to move fast. But they had no experience of ordering and provisioning Webex Calling or any other subscription-based solution.
Moving fast
Ionize turned to TD SYNNEX for support and from that point on, things happened fast, as Kristian Ellmore explained.
‘It was a completely different world for us, and TD SYNNEX’s experience with Cisco and subscriptions is what got us through. We did not know how to get started with the ordering process. TD SYNNEX helped us with that and with the provisioning and liaising with Cisco. And they helped us get the order placed and progressed quickly.
If we had not have had the support of TD SYNNEX, we might not have been able to take that opportunity or any of the others that have followed
‘We got the certification in 48-hours, the order was placed next day, and the solution then went live the day after. In half a week we had gone from being nowhere with Cisco Webex Calling to having a live customer. Looking back the obstacles are not that complex, but you have to know how to get around them. If we had not have had the support of TD SYNNEX, we might not have been able to take that opportunity or any of the others that have followed.’
The best possible experience
Interestingly, Ionize has not really been actively marketing Cisco Webex Calling to customers. But the word about the solution has spread fast across the business and the client base. Both employees and customers have become evangelists for Webex Calling.
‘One thing that took us by surprise is how good the product is in terms of provisioning and deployment. Cisco is very structured in the way things are done and documented, and the end result is always absolutely A1 and where you want it to be. What we have found with Webex Calling is that the provisioning, the set-up, and the customer delight was exceptional at every level. And because of that, everyone started talking about it.
It’s a huge win for everyone
‘We want our clients to have the best possible experience. We have customers with on-premises systems that don’t have voicemail, don’t have auto-attendant, don’t have call recording. All of those things come as standard [with Webex Calling], so we can say to our customers: “We can put you on that platform, save you money, and give you a better result” and of course, every opportunity we have to engage with a client, we say: “This is where you need to be”. And as soon as we put then on a trial, they say: ‘Right, we want it”. It’s a huge win for everyone.’
Extremely flexible and competitive
Kristian Ellmore is a little surprised that more businesses of every size are not using Webex Calling. As mentioned above, they have clients with only one seat, and another with 400, and while the smaller installations won’t bring in that much income, it’s from little acorns that mighty oaks are grown, he noted. ‘We are happy to take a one-man-band because we know that then we will take a PC order, a laptop order and as they grow, we grow with them. It’s the future potential.’
Cisco’s proposition is highly competitive and excellent value
This experience perhaps goes against the perception of Cisco Webex Calling as an enterprise solution. But with a low entry-level per-seat cost, Cisco’s proposition is highly competitive and excellent value.
Webex Calling is also extremely flexible. It can be configured to meet the customer’s preferences. It can be used through an app or on a notebook; but if the customer just wants to pick up the phone and make and take calls, that’s OK too. They can have telephone numbers that have a specific area code, and calls can be diverted to other lines or to mobiles.
There were other aspects of the business that Ionize also needed to take care of, such as its credit limit, and TD SYNNEX was able to help here as well, with the Cisco team initiating and co-ordinating contact with their finance and credit colleagues. Ionize has been able to increase its credit line by around 300% over the last four months. ‘They made it a completely painless experience for us’ said Kristian Ellmore.
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