The Webex Calling Opportunity for Cisco Resellers & VARs

Summary: 

If you’re locked into the Cisco world, there’s a high chance your goal is to check off as many products in the portfolio as possible.

But there’s a fine line between being able to sell everything and becoming a high-quality provider of those services.

Sure, you might have customers who know exactly what they want and don’t need your guidance. These star customers are lovely to have but don’t come along very often.

Webex Calling is one of those services that does need expertise and customers will need genuine guidance when it comes to migrating, implementing, and maintaining their Webex Calling deployments.

What is Webex Calling?

 Webex Calling is now the sole cloud phone system offering from Cisco. It offers a way for end customers to make and receive external PSTN calls (as well as on-net, internal calls).

Made up partially of Cisco's original cloud calling product and partially of the acquired BroadWorks cloud voice portfolio, Webex Calling is built on the Webex platform, which already offers a comprehensive suite of collaboration tools including meetings, messaging, webinars, event management, polling and contact center. 

There are three options for enabling external PSTN calling:

• Local Gateway: Bring your own carrier and/or trunks to Webex Calling with a Local Gateway that works with virtually any PSTN provider in the world. This offers businesses the option to leverage existing relationships with providers and utilize existing hardware.
• Cisco Calling Plans: A bundled solution for domestic and international calling that is convenient and quick to set up and manage directly through the Webex Control Hub. Available in a limited number of countries and with limited functionality and customization options.
• Cloud Connect: PSTN connectivity through Cisco Certified Calling Providers who have met high standards of service quality, reliability and support. Gives businesses the flexibility to select a provider that best meets their requirements for pricing, coverage, features etc. With Pure IP, you get availability in 50 PSTN replacement countries with other service numbers available in countries beyond those 50.

Thanks to these options, Webex Calling is now available in over 160 markets globally.

Press Coverage: Pure IP Granted Certification for Webex Calling

How can resellers profit from Webex Calling?

With 16 million Webex Calling users, there remains 68% of Webex Cloud users without Webex Calling. 

These are Webex users who may be using on-premises/hybrid Webex deployments for their phone system infrastructure.

On top of this large, untapped, and somewhat internal Webex market, there’s a huge additional portion of the telephony market not yet using cloud calling whatsoever. 

While businesses may have adopted Webex (or other collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom), for meetings and chat, external PSTN calling remains the last to be adopted in this technology portfolio.

Research by market analysts, Cavell, suggests that, by 2028, the unified communications as a service (UCaaS) market will have reached 88.3% penetration in a market worth £1.86bn.

That’s a large part for existing (and new) Webex value add resellers to tap into. What’s more, there’s still 11.7% of the market to be penetrated post-2028.

So, where’s the opportunity?

We can split the opportunity into easy wins and long-term gains:

With over 700 Webex Calling resellers globally, the solution has already proven itself within the market. 

Taking a chance on Webex Calling isn’t a gamble. It’s a calculated risk with a clear return on investment. Having reported 99.999% uptime through 2022 and 2023, it matches market reliability and provides the extremely marketable “five nines”.

More impressively, user reviews, according to TrustRadius, position Webex Calling as the highest ranking of key competitors like RingCentral, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.

When scored against criteria like:

• Would buy again
• Delivers good value
• Happy with feature set
• Lived up to marketing promotion
• Implementation went as expected

Webex Calling outscored each rival in every category.

VAR benefits of Webex Calling

There are many benefits to simply reselling Webex Calling:

• Sticky service: Businesses rely on external calling to provide customer experiences, generate revenue, and maintain relationships; moving phone system providers is not a frequent activity; users become productive with familiar interfaces.
• Extra revenue stream: Even a basic reseller agreement adds a simple-to-support revenue stream to your business.
• Professional services: Complex deployments or businesses without internal expertise need help with planning, migration, and implementation.
• Device as a service: Handsets, handsets, common area phones, and meeting room devices can be packaged for OPEX deals.
• Peripheral calling services: Providers of compliance call recording, contact center, management and monitoring, etc. provide end-to-end solutions.
• External PSTN connectivity: Webex only provides in-house PSTN calling for a limited number of countries.

How to stand out when selling Webex Calling

Where you can differentiate yourself from the 700+ existing Webex partner is providing unique PSTN connectivity.

If you have the ability to say yes to almost any customer, regardless of geographical requirements, you’re heads and shoulders above the competition proposing bit-part solutions.

Included in the opportunities for Cisco VARs table is:

Cloud Connect PSTN connectivity for countries not supported by Cisco

Webex, and Cisco in general, is associated with deployment in large enterprises. It’s not a common occurrence to see a startup or small business using Webex.

And that’s okay. It’s not the target market. The sweet spot for Webex, and Webex Calling especially, is mid-market to enterprise.

When surveyed, 65% of enterprises said they used Cisco devices. A stat which is echoed across the Webex ecosystem of partners. It partners with large customers who enjoy a larger share of the market thanks to providing Webex at the core. 

Typically, the larger an enterprise, the more services they’ll consume from a single provider. 

In fact, 61% of businesses opt for a single supplier approach as they believe it improves relationships and reduces costs. Having a fully stocked kitbag is an obvious choice when it’s the minority that settle for bit-part solutions.

The ability to leverage a geo-redundant network that provides coverage in 137 countries, and full PSTN replacement in 50, puts you ahead of every other Webex partner.

Even the most hard-to-connect locations become near-run rate deployments when you have the network backbone to support you.

What’s more, the Pure IP network is platform neutral. This means consolidating services in mixed environments is entirely possible. 

So, let’s say you need to provide PSTN connectivity for Microsoft Teams and Webex for the same customer. It’s all catered to in the Pure IP solution.

For full PSTN replacement countries, you get the following features that are usually tricky to replicate or become compliant with:

• Guaranteed caller line identity
• Emergency call features 
• Reachability to local services (like free phone numbers that are only available in region)

Learn more about reselling Webex Calling

The Pure IP solution is complemented by a range of add-on services to offer a layer of customization. 

When dealing with mid-market and enterprise businesses, no two setups are the same. So simply providing Webex Calling is rarely enough.

As a Certified Calling Provider, Pure IP has completed a rigorous certification process to ensure end-to-end compatibility with Webex Calling. This in-depth process ensures that customers receive consistently high-quality and reliable services.

As a reseller, you’re in good hands. Customers like A, B, and C, all lean on Pure IP through our network integration partners.

If you’re a Webex partner wanting to expand your portfolio and increase revenue, there’s no better opportunity than Webex Calling.

Next Steps: Find out more about Pure IP’s Webex Calling solution