Many Telecoms Resellers who install and maintain PABXs (telephone systems) rely on the upfront profit generated from companies purchasing their equipment, whereas cloud based services are all OPEX based monthly service fees. These upfront margins generated from equipment sales help pay their staff and sales commission and without them it is hard to incentivise their sales people with very low month on month service fees.

However, Telecoms Resellers recognise that capital equipment purchases are on the decline as CAPEX budgets are cut (both in the public and private sectors). Resellers also realise that Cloud based software and telecoms services are expanding quickly and want to move to a more future proof business model.

Hybrid Cloud Communication Services can offer a potential answer because these types of solutions work with and complement the existing telecoms equipment supply model but also provide a way to move the reseller business over to a service revenue model in incremental steps rather than a big leap.

It’s also great news for the end customers who will see their initial PBX capital investments future-proofed, capabilities extended and allows them to expand their phone systems without requiring further capital investment.

An example of a Hybrid Cloud Communication Service is Outsourcery’siP PBX Overlay product which works by delivering new Unified Communication capabilities from the cloud – such as Click to Call, SIP Trunking, Presence, Instant Messaging, Desktop sharing, call recording and Video Conferencing all in one package.

It does all of this without having to change the PBX in any way – companies still use their same desk phones and phone system but now have the ability to improve productivity and expand their phone system by adding additional IP Phone extensions to the same site or different locations as required – all under the same extension group. This not only expands the capacity of their phone systems without requiring any new line or extension cards but also gives greater resilience.

For the reseller, the incremental service revenues generated from selling these new Unified Communication services will soon start to build up and eventually overtake the cash generated from the CAPEX sales allowing a far smoother transition to the cloud.