Visual Generation - stock.adobe.
Wildix doubles down on channel-only model
UCaaS player’s boss outlines partner ambitions as a means of offering an alternative to UC rivals
Unified communications as a service (UCaaS) supplier Wildix wants to redefine what a channel-first unified communications vendor can look like in an era dominated by Silicon Valley giants.
That was the message from its analyst day, where the Italy-founded company detailed how its 100% channel model will drive its next phase of growth across EMEA.
In doing so, it’s also positioning itself as an alternative to the high-volume, direct-selling approach of its US rivals.
“We’re not the loudest, but we’re the most consistent,” said Wildix co-founder and CEO Steve Osler.
“Our aim is not to become mass-market – that part is already done by Microsoft and Google.
“We are not looking for big numbers,” he said. “We are looking … to focus on the value of communication, to give our customers the best return, to help them to make it.”
A European alternative to Silicon Valley scale
Wildix has more than 1,000 active partners globally and over 1.2 million users, posting 33% growth year-over-year.
But unlike US rivals built on high-volume, self-service software-as-a-service (SaaS) models, Wildix contends that its strategy is to work through skilled, local managed service provider (MSP) partners across EMEA that can design and deliver business automation and communications offerings for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
That European model, said Osler, reflects a culture of adaptation and nuance often missed by US vendors. “Having been born in Europe, we learned to adapt … when the biggest competitors came to Europe, they failed to recognise the need of adaptation, and they wasted a lot of money and years trying to get all of Italy, France and Germany,” he said.
That philosophy is being executed by chief commercial officer Jason Uslan, who said Wildix is “100% behind and beside our partners, selling with them and helping them grow their businesses”.
Partners, he said, control the sales motion, pricing, billing and deployment, while Wildix provides enablement through technical and sales training, engineering support and co-selling.
That side-by-side model, he argued, is what drives faster growth and higher deal value. “Co-execution, and that ability to have a vendor and a partner side by side to the customer, we know, is a recipe for success,” said Uslan.
Expanding inclusivity with a UK agency model
To widen access to its ecosystem, Wildix is introducing an agency route in the UK – a model designed for MSPs that may not want to manage complex billing or deployment. “We were actually launching in the UK … we are launching with agency there,” said Uslan. Partners “still control the end price, but we can do the bill on their behalf”.
Osler said this isn’t a shift away from the reseller model, but an adaptation “to empower those partners to go out and still control everything”, regardless of their size or maturity.
Both executives agree that the unified communications market has become commoditised – and that partners are paying the price. “They suffer the commoditisation of the market … it’s a race to the bottom on price,” said Osler. “The first piece of revenue to be removed is the compensation … more and more players are trying to go direct and get rid of part of the channel.”
Wildix’s value proposition is to make partners the engine of differentiation, said Uslan. “Customer success is important … no bloat, no wasted money, no wasted features,” he said. “Partners want to own the customer, own that relationship, own that motion … and we give them that ability.”
Unmasking the next phase
Asked why Wildix has chosen now to “unmask” its ambitions, Osler told MicroScope: “After 20 years and having seen the company start to grow faster and more profitable over the last few years, we saw that it was overdue time to have such visibility.”
Osler added that the company’s purpose isn’t to out-shout its Silicon Valley rivals, but to outlast them through execution and trust. “We are not looking for big numbers … but to focus on the value of communication, to give our customers the best return,” he said.
