Author transcript
Hello and welcome to UC today. My name is Christopher Carey and today I'm joined by Will my managing director of Gamma Business Channel. We're going to be discussing the market shifts facing channel partners, where the most credible growth opportunities are emerging, and what attendees can expect from Gammaverse 2026. So will uh thank you for joining me again. Um looking at Gammaverse, it is it's it's framed around a market that is changing quickly. From your conversations with partners, what has changed the most in the past year? Uh looking at like customer expectations or buying um behavior?
Yeah, it's a great question. I guess yeah there's a series of of of changes we're seeing in the market and I think it's fair to say that they logically flow one from the other. So the the first thing is kind of customer expectations end userme buyers expectations are changing. They're increasingly exposed to more and more interesting and exciting technology. They see what's happening in in the consumer space and they're looking to adopt that as always into their businesses and looking to adopt that you know increasingly into the the mid-market as they're educated by the the broader technology players and broader technology market on what's available and essentially yeah that is driven by uh AI more than anything you know you can't move now always for for an AI conversation but I think what that exposes and and and it's starting to mature in terms of the conversation is people are are rapidly understanding that they want to buy outcomes. They because of of of AI and the role that it plays and how it sits at the heart of so many different technologies. It's really really important for customers to to say actually I I need you to help me achieve this in my business. Not I want to buy that product please or that product please or that product please. Because it's the integration of these products, the way in which they they uh they interact and operate that's becoming increasingly important. And so what we're seeing is firstly the end user customer with much more of that outcome focus. Okay, what do I actually want to achieve in my business and can I find a partnership with an organization that can help me do that? So that then reaches the the next logical kind of shift which is yeah the the the channel is changing because they're adapting to this new customer who's operating in a different way who's saying I don't want to buy that point solution. I want you to engage with me on a broader technology conversation. And so the channel are adapting to that. their their their sales motions are different, their GTM is different, their their the whole economics is fundamentally kind of shifting uh to adapt to this end user demand. And then lastly, the sort of channel economics are changing and so gamma's changing and adapting as well and making sure that we're providing the right support, the right products, the right portfolio and the the right um uh kind of growth support essentially to ensure that all of our channel partners across the UK can take advantage of those opportunities that are presented and deliver great technology into into their customers.
That's a good point. And then looking at Gammaverse 2026, the agenda is direct about the risks of relying on legacy revenue. Where are partners most exposed if they do not adapt?
I mean, legacy revenue is one thing. The real danger is legacy thinking and and that's very much what we tend to to talk about, you know, in internally and and and with our partners. Legacy revenue can be great. It gives you an established relationship in the customer with a proven uh hopefully technology and and solution that's already adding value in a in in a business. And so legacy revenue can be fantastic. It's the the legacy thinking that causes the danger. So it's the identifying the critical point like most things in life it's all about timing when it's right to have that conversation with the customer to say you're on technology a you know you you're you're you're working um perfectly happily but we think there's this next generation technology that will deliver you yeah greater efficiency so I can save you money it'll give you uh perhaps help you deliver a better customer experience it'll enable you to be more productive as an organization we can identify these cost savings or these these efficiency improvements or kind of customer experience improvements that can lead to more revenue. It's getting that timing of the conversation right and not getting left in legacy thinking building on your legacy revenue opportunity and installed base is is yeah just fantastic. What a wonderful position to be in where you've got an engaged group of customers using your technology that you can build on and help them shape that that future uh destination and that outcome they're trying to buy. So, I'd say the difference isn't isn't about legacy revenue and reliance. It's about legacy thinking.
And I mean there's no shortage of technology being offered to partners. We have AI, CX, security, connectivity and managed services. But how should a partner decide what is a genuine opportunity for their business?
I think uh as I tend to end up saying the same thing on a lot of these kind of discussions, but it goes back to yeah core principle of mine which is listening. Yeah. listening to your customer base, understanding where they see the challenges, where they see the opportunities, and and making sure you've got that really strong link between the conversations taking place with your customers and the decisions being made about your portfolio. What we're hearing a lot at the moment is customers talking about in using the word practical. Everybody gets the kind of crazy use cases of AI and the Yeah, you read the stories, you think, wow, wouldn't that be amazing if that's my business? A lot of the time people aren't in that position. They've got maybe legacy technology. They've got a team of people who want to operate in a certain way. And so the conversation is about tell me practically how I can adopt technology that will change outcomes in my business and enable my business to to to harness the benefit of some of this stuff. And so that's the conversation we're having. And it's all about identifying the practical listening to your customers and being able to apply that into into the business. So I think the answer is as always listen to your customers be practical about the solutions you can you can put on the table and show them the pathway to the vision as to where they want to get to. You know sell the dream but make sure they understand that that dream is a series of steps and a journey that they're going to have to invest time in strategic thinking into and collaboration and partnership into with uh with a with a a reseller or an MSP to get to. Uh it all comes back to the conversation.
It's a good point. And uh looking at I mean how AI and CX are going to be featured at the event, where do you see a realistic commercial opportunity for the channel today and like where do you think the market may be getting ahead of itself?
Um I think it touched on it a little bit there with the with the practicality. I think the first thing is look at your base. And the first message I I'd kind of share is yeah turn on capability that already exists. Um you know if we look at uh our webex product for example Webex for gamma yeah every one of the of the seats that we ship has huge AI capability within it and I think it's about making sure that the customer is able to capture real practical value from the technology that we've already got. look at the overlay options. We have things like AI concierge and other products that can add real value around the CX or the the AI space. So firstly look at your installed base and work out how you can just turn on on turn on technology and and AI particularly that will add value. And in the examples that I've just given there with with AI capability in in WebEx for gamma, it doesn't cost anymore. we you've already paid for it and and the beauty of it is you're you're yeah I think now in subscriptionbased technology in the in the market that we operate in you're buying into a road map and a future with a a vendor partner like Gamma and and and Cisco and you're saying essentially I want my organization to travel at the same speed in technology terms as this partnership that I've created with a reseller or an MSP partner their chosen vendor and and and partner Gamma, Cisco, uh, or or whoever. And I think the thing that's so exciting at the moment is the speed that that Cisco is operating at and the the journey you can deliver your customer, you know, simultaneous language translation, sentiment analysis. Um, you know, when you transfer a call now, yeah, if you've just downloaded your heart to somebody in an organization saying, "Please help me." And you've said these these 15 things that are really winding you up and they give you the the worst answer in the world, which is, "I'm really sorry. I need to transfer you." all of that information you've just downloaded goes with the call transfer and lands with a new person so they haven't you haven't got to say it again. It's little things like that that that really add the add the value in the conversation and and really enable you to to do it. I think yeah the ability to um also start fresh conversations with customers and say we get you've been using yeah perhaps legacy UKcast products in the market for some time and there's all sorts of AI bolt-ons people are offering you looking at at what we're able to offer with WebEx we're able to talk to a customer about one license fee no token economics involved in this you're not going to be worrying the entire time through the month how much AI have I used it's just included in the license fee which is such a strong proposition at the moment as so many people are kind of starting to think about billshock and I want to use more AI but I can't. The beauty of the WebEx for gamma proposition is all of that AI sits at the heart of it. All of the capability that that kind of gets really people people really excited but without that fear of the the kind of token bill shock there. Was there another part of your question that I haven't answered there? I'm conscious that I I rambled for a while.
No, I think you covered it quite well. But moving on to where how Gamma helps partners. Um I mean in practical terms, what does meaningful support look like beyond access to a portfolio?
Yeah, support. Yeah, access to a portfolio. Here's a portal uh is uh is never the answer you want as a channel partner, is it? I I I think um as always, it comes back to to people and their ability to add real value and the conversations you have. Again, going back to my point from earlier, we've seen uh a real shift uh recently and we're investing significantly more in the specialist side of our business. So, we've got real deep product specialists who understand the technology at a at a very very deep level or even facets of a technology. You know, we've got specialists within specialists who have maybe advanced AI or CX understanding within a within a portfolio. We're seeing that investment being more and more critical because yeah, the technology perhaps is more complex. There is a a better story that that that we can tell. So, we've put a lot of investment into that area to make sure that those specialist teams can go out alongside our business development managers and and have the right conversations with sales teams about training, about understanding, about getting access to the playbooks and the conversations to have increasingly about data. uh because I touched on the importance of timing earlier. Data typically is the key to timing because it can tell you if you use it correctly when to have the conversation and having the conversation at the right time usually leads for to a dramatically different outcome to having the conversation at a wrong time at the wrong time. So I think you know that combination of really deep specialist knowledge on product I think the the the the kind of the datadriven conversation and making sure that there's really practical uh ways in which we can help you take a conversation to a partner take to an end user take a proposition and then the last thing is again referencing back yeah the the the listening part of the conversation all of our BDMs and all of our sales team yeah really work hard to make sure that they understand the journey that the partner is And the question they ask is how can we play a meaningful role in that journey and help you grow your business ideally faster. And so that wraps the strategy around the partner that says okay this is where you need the support or the help or the investment or the resource that will help you execute your business strategy because every single one of our partners has a different strategy and a different way of thinking about the market and a unique value that they add. And we need to make sure that we seamlessly dovetail into that partner strategy and make sure we're adding real genuine practical value in helping them execute and win and grow their business.
And then looking at the looking at the event itself, the there's a breakout program uh that's going to cover cyber essentials connectivity, UKcast value added services, migration, public sector frameworks. What does that range tell us about where partner growth is coming from?
Now, I think um this is a perfect example maybe of what I just said about specialist, you know, it's the first time we'll have run a session like this and these are where we get into the real deep dive. This is where we we get that specialist knowledge across and we we help partners understand something at a much deeper level. So, it's a perfect example of of of what I was just saying and I think yes, it does it shows yeah there's that that public sector opportunity where we've got one partner that maybe that's incredibly meaningful to them. We've got connectivity sessions. We've got cyber essential sessions. And it comes back to the partner specialism enables them to dig really really deep into a proposition to spend that time at Gamma Gammaverse with our specialist teams with our our our sort of technology teams in Gamma Labs who are developing this with our vendor partners who are going to be there and and and spending time in the uh the kind of the product expo area. It's all of those conversations where the real value of the event comes. I'd love to think that people turn up to listen to me talk on the main stage, but I'm uh yeah, I'm I'm not that naive. There there's hopefully a few a few really good bits happening on the main stage. And we've got two phenomenal speakers this year. Uh well, we've got lots of phenomenal speakers, but we've got two two people coming from from outside the organization who I think are going to be amazing. Rory Sutherland who I I could just watch all day long uh talking about innovation and creativity and creative thinking and thinking differently which I think is so key to the market at the moment. And then our very own Matt Barnett is going to be talking to Jill Scott uh Lioness who's going to be talking about her experiences and sharing you know her her uh her kind of view and what what uh what's going on uh in the world and her experiences and huge successes with the Lionesses. So I think that'll be two absolutely outstanding bits of the day as well.
I think that brings us nicely on to the next question which is the uh the winner's playbook. So this promises practical uh commercial guidance. What makes that guidance genuinely useful rather than the same kind of generic messaging the channel has heard many times before?
I I think uh you touched on it earlier. Yeah. There's the um the product overview where we're going to talk about our technology road maps and we're going to tell you all the crazy exciting things we're doing with AI and the amazing stuff that Cisco are delivering and Ericen Ipex are delivering and and all of our our partners and all of the investment we're making. What this session is about is about making it real and making it practical. And that word comes up again practical. it it's about, you know, these are the the the training sessions you can book on on Monday morning to get your team fired up and engaged and knowing how to pitch this. These are the playbooks you can access. These are the people you can talk to in our organization. And it it just comes back to that that sort of killer phrase making it real. And yeah, it is uh as you said, yeah, the usual uh yeah, here's the portal, here's the brochure, um uh kind of conversation. We try and go a hell of a lot deeper than that with our partners. And it's all about setting up the depth to the conversation, understand the partner strategy, understand where we can play a play a meaningful role in in in helping them deliver their strategy. And then this is the bit where the resources get really really specific and we can help that partner know this is the person, this is the playbook, this is the webinar training session or this is the uh the the kind of specialist meeting I want to book and and we see that as a critical part of the day.
And then just one final question for a partner deciding whether to take a day away from the business to attend Gammaverse. What will they gain from the event?
Um well you can always Yeah, I guess people will say that you can always download the the event materials and all that sort of stuff and and capture some of this digitally. You can't download the room. You can't download the conversations. You can't download that those those little nuggets of wisdom that I've always got from attending every single event I've gone to over the years. you know, you sometimes get more nuggets than others, but but definitely my experience of Gammaverse because of the breadth of of channel partners of we bring, you know, a huge cross-section of our team along, it's the conversations that happen in the room, the ideas that are sparked and uh yeah, it's also just a fantastic day. Yeah. to get to hear from somebody like Rory Sutherland, to get to hear from Jill Scott, and to get to hear from some of the the passionate technologists we've got operating in our business about what they think is going to be really shaping the future of the channel, the future of voice, the future of the technology market. I think it's a a a cracking way to spend your day. One of my favorite days in the year, and I can't wait to see our partner community there.
Sounds like it's going to be a great event. Uh Will, thank you very much for joining me today. If people want to find out more, what's the best way to get in touch?
Um, I would hit hit our website or uh speak to any of the the Gamma BDMs, go to our LinkedIn page, just yeah, make connection in all the usual ways. We'd love to uh see you there. So, gamma.co.uk and that's your signpost. Or if you can find me online, yeah, contact me because I'd love to speak to you.
Great. Thanks again, Will. If you like this video, please give us a like and a share on social media and we'll see you next time. I've been Christopher Carey for UC today. Thanks for watching.
