OBT Ramps Market Momentum with Hosted Lync Launch and Reseller Recruitment
Announcement posted by OBT 28 Jun 2012
OBT, a leading Australian private cloud services provider, has launched Hosted Lync, a white label ready hosted Lync solution designed for the channel community. The Hosted Lync solution takes the rich unified communications experience that is normally associated with expensive boardrooms and makes it available to every individual desktop and mobile device.
Delivered using Microsoft Lync Server 2010 technology, OBT’s Hosted Lync combines all of an organisation’s communications into a single tool so that a team, their clients, and partners can collaborate across any workplace. Users are able to send instant messages, see where people are, and conduct voice and video conferencing from anywhere in the world - all through a consistent, familiar interface.
Providing an intuitive user experience, Hosted Lync is far more than just a cost-effective and secure way to replace PBX telephone systems. Additionally it seamlessly integrates unified communications into existing Microsoft Office applications and infrastructure.
The potential for cost savings from web and teleconferencing, a reduction in travel expenditure and increased user productivity result in a low cost of ownership for SMB and enterprise firms alike. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, Lync can pay for itself in as little as one year and yield as much as a 337% ROI over three years.*
The user-friendliness of OBT’s Hosted Lync offering and white label billing capabilities will open up significant market opportunities among channel partners who are keen to maintain an exclusive relationship with their clients, yet do not have the track record or expertise in providing a wide stack of products as part of a private cloud offering.
By partnering with the channel community, this platform is immediately deliverable to many vertical markets with a white label control panel and capability to produce “white label billing”.
Why Lync now?
According to Shane Muller, Managing Director of OBT, “It is evident the convergence of many worlds are coming together at one time. Transition of the telecommunications industry as a whole is at a crucial point with the evolution of analogue to VOIP and on-premise PBX to hosted PBX being examples of this.
“The marketplace is moving on from traditional forms of communication to rich, varied, multi-part collaborative communications. We see ourselves at the centre of that point, and a part of the overall disruption in the marketplace. Our objective is not to wait for the dust to settle, but to be agile enablers of next generation cloud productivity and Unified Communications.”
Hosted Lync empowers every single individual to be able to communicate in any way they wish – and on any device. We see it as ideal to launch this in Australia because of the way the marketplace does adopt and run with new technology.”
SME and Enterprise Target Markets
The two clear end-customer market segments targeted are channel partners that sell to the SMB market, and channel partners that service the enterprise market, with the offerings best suited for scaled service providers.
OBT’s Hosted Lync service, deployed through any of the three environments outlined below, enables a partner to deliver hosted Lync with a speed-to-market within mere weeks rather than months or years, and with comprehensive mitigated risk in the business transformation and expansion process.
OBT will engage with channel partners in a three-phased deployment models:
White Label Anywhere – can be activated immediately and is a low risk, agile business offering that supports a service provider’s rapid entry into the marketplace.
Managed Anywhere – OBT builds the hosted Lync solution for the partner in their local location on their infrastructure and continues to operate it on the partner’s behalf post-deployment.
Independence Anywhere – OBT builds and operates the solution and then transfers the infrastructure and management of the operation to the partner’s own team – if the capacity and capability to support it are in place. In this scenario the model begins as a hosted solution and shifts to a systems integration and consultative model as the partner demonstrates readiness and capacity to support it.
“We only want to recruit partners who view Lync as a strategic addition to their business and put everything behind it as opposed to those who want to just add in a cloud or UC option. In return we are dedicating technical support and expert resources to ensure mutual success. Our white label program provides training, collateral, and ultimately the ability to generate service revenues,” says Shane Muller, Managing Director, OBT.
According to Frost & Sullivan**, growth in the Australian UC Services market in 2011 was driven by strong demand for end-to-end managed services, primarily in the area of videoconferencing endpoints and hosted solutions such as voice-based applications or IP telephony.
Hosted UC services, which includes UC applications provided over a cloud-based model, is now the largest segment in the Australian market accounting for 45 per cent of all UC services revenues in 2011. The expected shift towards hosted and cloud-based models will continue to drive revenues and adoption of services in this segment, resulting in a predicted revenue contribution of 50 per cent by 2018.
According to Oscar Trimboli, Director, Microsoft Office Division Australia, “OBT’s launch of this new offering is helping meet the increasing demands of our customers for Lync services for telephony, audio and video conferencing. OBT’s white label service enables their partners to maintain and expand the relationship with their customers. This service provides a rapid way to capture the new opportunity to unify their customers’ communications.”
About OBT
Established in 1999, OBT is a pioneering and innovative private cloud service provider. Through its Anywhere Suite and flagship offering, Desktop Anywhere,
OBT delivers a customised technology infrastructure via the cloud – all for
the purpose of making business easier. With a focus on having the right people to create a framework to support its customers in each stage of their growth, OBT offers customisable services to customers, either directly or indirectly.
OBT currently delivers Australia-wide services with data centres located in Sydney and Melbourne.
OBT is a Microsoft Gold Hosting Partner and Microsoft Australia Hosting Partner of the Year 2011.
* The Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft Lync Server 2010, November 2010
** Australian Unified Communications Services Report 2011
Delivered using Microsoft Lync Server 2010 technology, OBT’s Hosted Lync combines all of an organisation’s communications into a single tool so that a team, their clients, and partners can collaborate across any workplace. Users are able to send instant messages, see where people are, and conduct voice and video conferencing from anywhere in the world - all through a consistent, familiar interface.
Providing an intuitive user experience, Hosted Lync is far more than just a cost-effective and secure way to replace PBX telephone systems. Additionally it seamlessly integrates unified communications into existing Microsoft Office applications and infrastructure.
The potential for cost savings from web and teleconferencing, a reduction in travel expenditure and increased user productivity result in a low cost of ownership for SMB and enterprise firms alike. According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact™ study, Lync can pay for itself in as little as one year and yield as much as a 337% ROI over three years.*
The user-friendliness of OBT’s Hosted Lync offering and white label billing capabilities will open up significant market opportunities among channel partners who are keen to maintain an exclusive relationship with their clients, yet do not have the track record or expertise in providing a wide stack of products as part of a private cloud offering.
By partnering with the channel community, this platform is immediately deliverable to many vertical markets with a white label control panel and capability to produce “white label billing”.
Why Lync now?
According to Shane Muller, Managing Director of OBT, “It is evident the convergence of many worlds are coming together at one time. Transition of the telecommunications industry as a whole is at a crucial point with the evolution of analogue to VOIP and on-premise PBX to hosted PBX being examples of this.
“The marketplace is moving on from traditional forms of communication to rich, varied, multi-part collaborative communications. We see ourselves at the centre of that point, and a part of the overall disruption in the marketplace. Our objective is not to wait for the dust to settle, but to be agile enablers of next generation cloud productivity and Unified Communications.”
Hosted Lync empowers every single individual to be able to communicate in any way they wish – and on any device. We see it as ideal to launch this in Australia because of the way the marketplace does adopt and run with new technology.”
SME and Enterprise Target Markets
The two clear end-customer market segments targeted are channel partners that sell to the SMB market, and channel partners that service the enterprise market, with the offerings best suited for scaled service providers.
OBT’s Hosted Lync service, deployed through any of the three environments outlined below, enables a partner to deliver hosted Lync with a speed-to-market within mere weeks rather than months or years, and with comprehensive mitigated risk in the business transformation and expansion process.
OBT will engage with channel partners in a three-phased deployment models:
White Label Anywhere – can be activated immediately and is a low risk, agile business offering that supports a service provider’s rapid entry into the marketplace.
Managed Anywhere – OBT builds the hosted Lync solution for the partner in their local location on their infrastructure and continues to operate it on the partner’s behalf post-deployment.
Independence Anywhere – OBT builds and operates the solution and then transfers the infrastructure and management of the operation to the partner’s own team – if the capacity and capability to support it are in place. In this scenario the model begins as a hosted solution and shifts to a systems integration and consultative model as the partner demonstrates readiness and capacity to support it.
“We only want to recruit partners who view Lync as a strategic addition to their business and put everything behind it as opposed to those who want to just add in a cloud or UC option. In return we are dedicating technical support and expert resources to ensure mutual success. Our white label program provides training, collateral, and ultimately the ability to generate service revenues,” says Shane Muller, Managing Director, OBT.
According to Frost & Sullivan**, growth in the Australian UC Services market in 2011 was driven by strong demand for end-to-end managed services, primarily in the area of videoconferencing endpoints and hosted solutions such as voice-based applications or IP telephony.
Hosted UC services, which includes UC applications provided over a cloud-based model, is now the largest segment in the Australian market accounting for 45 per cent of all UC services revenues in 2011. The expected shift towards hosted and cloud-based models will continue to drive revenues and adoption of services in this segment, resulting in a predicted revenue contribution of 50 per cent by 2018.
According to Oscar Trimboli, Director, Microsoft Office Division Australia, “OBT’s launch of this new offering is helping meet the increasing demands of our customers for Lync services for telephony, audio and video conferencing. OBT’s white label service enables their partners to maintain and expand the relationship with their customers. This service provides a rapid way to capture the new opportunity to unify their customers’ communications.”
About OBT
Established in 1999, OBT is a pioneering and innovative private cloud service provider. Through its Anywhere Suite and flagship offering, Desktop Anywhere,
OBT delivers a customised technology infrastructure via the cloud – all for
the purpose of making business easier. With a focus on having the right people to create a framework to support its customers in each stage of their growth, OBT offers customisable services to customers, either directly or indirectly.
OBT currently delivers Australia-wide services with data centres located in Sydney and Melbourne.
OBT is a Microsoft Gold Hosting Partner and Microsoft Australia Hosting Partner of the Year 2011.
* The Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft Lync Server 2010, November 2010
** Australian Unified Communications Services Report 2011