The Unified Communications industry has changed significantly for the last 25 years. Now, as we are post-pandemic, we are at a crossroads with the market today. Michael Tessler will highlight today’s challenges and what the Service Provider community can do to potentially stay ahead in the market.

1. Michael Tessler
Managing Partner at True North Advisory
REINVENTING THE FUTURE OF UNIFIED
COMMUNICATIONS

2. BROADSOFT THROUGH THE YEARS
Founded
BroadSoft
First
BroadSoft
Connections
BroadSoft
Launched
IPO
Cisco
Acquires
BroadSoft
1998 2004 2010 2018

3. UCAAS OVER THE YEARS
The Promise of
UC Becomes a
Reality
UC Becomes a
Business
The Early Years
1998 - 2008 2008 - 2018 2018 – Present

4. MIKE’S TOP 5 UCAAS
MARKET
OBSERVATIONS
• Big Kids
• Full Suite
• Remote Work
• It’s Mobile Stupid
• No Greenfield

5. HIGH
PENETRATION
RATES
MORE
COMPETITION
LOWERING
PRICES

7. Strategy Product
Engineering
and Operations
Marketing
and GTM
Sales Financial
TRUE NORTH
STRATEGIC REVIEW PROCESS

8. Compete on Price Compete on Brand Compete on Features
STRATEGIC CHOICES

9. FOCUS ON FEATURES
CHANGING THE GAME
Become a Next
Generation
Service Provider
Hyper Focus
on a Vertical
Focus on Customer
Experience
Squeeze More
Value

10. Remote Workers
Cloud Services Enterprise Sites
Salesforce, AWS,
Microsoft, etc.
Headquarters,
satellite offices,
Non carpeted
spaces, etc.
Work at home,
work on the road,
work at customer
site, etc.
Access and Connectivity
Networking and Security
Applications
Resell if necessary
Work with everything and
resell a few
Managed IT
NEXT GENERATION SERVICE PROVIDER
Safe and secure always on networking

11. HYPER FOCUS ON A VERTICAL
● Integrates telephony with an appointment book and
the tools to manage customer appointments
● Provides a complete solution that supports trade
businesses (plumbers, electricians, etc) with a telephony
add-on
● Full stack solution from one vendor

12. ● Add a digital channel to any voice communication
● Can be used to add a secure and compliant way to
collect credit card information
App
Browser
FOCUS ON CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
● Capture lost calls and identify the lost basket of
business
● Makes call insights available to the small business

13. SQUEEZE MORE VALUE
● Increase adoption through tailored skills
● Usage based feedback helps users advance to next skill
level
● Enterprise wide reporting assists with change
management
● Understand the communication style of your colleagues
● Adjust how to best communicate 1:1 and within a group
● Assessment completed within minutes

14. Maverick
Communicating with Michael
● Open to practical and constructive ideas. Likes to ask
questions and challenge assumptions.
● Prefers to stay on track and talk about the pertinent issues.
Wants to know what needs to be done and who is going to
do it.
● Not easily swayed by sales presentations. Doesn't respond
well to ultimatums or an authoritarian attitude.
● Likes for people to get to the point quickly. Expects people
to show up to meetings prepared.

15. RETAIL FOCUSED MSP
Customer Engagement
& EV Charging
Customer Wifi
Credit Card
Payment Processing
IoT Temp Sensors
Connectivity
Retail Analytics with
Facial Recognition
Security
Installed Edge
Compute
Digital Signage
UCaaS Calling +
Insights

16. Re-evaluate strategy
and go-forward plan
UC market has entered
a mature phase
Emerging technology
companies adding value
SUMMARY
2
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