How You Can Add Value in a "Post-PBX" World

Well, sooner or later, that term is going to enter your lexicon, as well as that of your customers. You'd better get with the program now, because if you start hearing about a "post-PBX" world first from them, it might be too late for your business. In our circles, we've been hearing about and anticipating a post-PBX world for some time, and it was a wake-up call theme at Enterprise Connect last week.

So, how will this impact the channel? This is very much to be determined, and depends on your book of business. Clearly, if your business and your customers are both telecom-centric, there will be direct implications. Your comfort zone may be to stay the course and continue selling the vendors that have built the business, but you may not be serving the long term needs of your customers. For businesses that are happy with their IP PBX and like voice just the way it is, there's not much to talk about. Fair enough, and this may be easy business to support, but you know there's no upside beyond the service contracts.

However, for customers who want more and have crossed the chasm to deploy UC, the post-PBX discussion will just be a matter of time. This is where you'll really have to earn the business, and very likely require some new competencies, not just for technology, but also in developing a new value proposition. Whether they ask about a world without the PBX or you tell them about it, you need to have a plan to get them there. This may simply involve moving off the PBX and running all voice over the desktop and mobile devices, but it could also lead to a total shift from being premise-based to the cloud. The latter is a bigger leap, but it's happening now and will only accelerate.

Of course, the latter scenario represents two major transitions - drop the PBX and move up to the cloud - and more than ever, these customers will need your help. To the extent you want to stay on the right side of the innovation curve and grow the business, you're going to need to get fully up to speed on Web services and mobile applications - not just for them to absorb the PBX traffic, but for the bigger picture around how these modes of voice will integrate with UC.

I see this as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reinvent your business, and the huge knowledge gap favors integrators and VARs who are prepared to upgrade their expertise. Businesses - especially SMBs - rely on channels to make the right investments, and decisions around UC have more far-reaching implications than moving from TDM to VoIP. If you're willing and able to address that knowledge gap, you can add substantial value that should translate into a loyal customer base for years to come.

By now, you must have a sense that new business models will be needed as well, especially if the PBX goes away. In that scenario, you'll lose the hardware-based revenue streams and capital purchases, but will replace that with recurring licensing revenues. Again, because the perceived value of your expertise is high, you are in a position to play an active role in customizing new services and applications for UC, along with which come healthy margins. As an aside, for customers who want to move away from the PBX, you may also find yourself in the used equipment business. By providing a secondary market for these customers, you add another layer of value to the relationship.

I don't advocate the opposite scenario, which would be to view this opportunity as a threat. The easiest response to a threat of this nature would be to drop prices or simply ignore it. Neither will get you very far, especially given how quickly things are changing with UC. Before long, you'll be in same "fat dumb pipe" bucket that operators face who aren't proactive in protecting their business. We can't all be leaders, but as UC emerges from early adopter status, there is lots of room still for channels to be proactive and create new value for their customers.