News in the Channel - January 2023

UC&C

Better together Audio visual and communications are continuing to converge post-pandemic and customers are increasingly demanding integrated solutions, which means there are opportunities for businesses on both sides to get into a new market and provide what customers are demanding.

were in general slower to react, but they are starting to get involved saying ‘we need to take on AV I can’t be a communications specialist anymore, I need to be able to do it all or I can’t provide the solutions for my customers, and I run the risk of losing my customer base.’ “The opportunity is there for channel partners provided they are prepared to learn new technologies, be innovative and invest, not necessarily money but time and learning in new technologies and industries. Those that have done that have already started to see the benefits and those that haven’t have started to feel the pain for that.” Companies in the AV sector are likely to have to learn new ways of working too. “The communications industry has been based on ‘as a service’ for a long time – you paid for your phone line per seat or handset based on how many people are in your office,” explains Wayne. “We are now seeing some channel partners adopting that model into things like meeting rooms, where your meeting room is x amount per seat and that is wrapped into your call centre piece. A Microsoft or platform licence has always been per user so the convergence from that point of view is becoming

When the COVID pandemic hit nearly three years ago, it changed the way many people do business virtually overnight. Suddenly, videoconferencing was a vital part of many people’s working day as people could no longer meet face-to-face. It also served to hasten the convergence of the audio visual (AV) and communications sectors and, while lockdowns are now a memory, convergence of these is only accelerating. “IT, communications and AV have been converging at an ever- increasing pace for the past four to five years if not longer,” says Wayne Lampard from I3. “What COVID did with working from home and the rapid change in the way most people communicate at work expedited that. “Convergence was always expected in the industry, just not quite as quickly as what has happened in the past couple of years.” Opportunities for growth Of course, this presents opportunities for manufacturers and resellers, which the more proactive companies have already taken advantage of. “Resellers in the AV space were quite quick to jump in and work more with communication partners,” says Wayne. “Communication companies

Wayne Lampard i3

It depends if business leaders are prepared to invest the time in reeducating their employees “ ”

i3-technologies.com

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