CCaaS Provider UJET Debuts First Channel Program: Exclusive
‘For partners, the CCaaS market was growing before COVID and the only thing we've seen since then is an acceleration -- it's boom time,’ UJET tells CRN.
Contact Center as a Service upstart UJET has officially launched its first partner program, the company told CRN exclusively.
UJET specializes in secure, cloud-based contact center solutions for medium to large enterprise customers that can be easily and tightly integrated with existing CRM tools. The firm's "claim to fame" is that its smartphone-centric solutions give businesses a mobile CCaaS offering -- a high-demand feature given today's work-from-home environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Vasili Triant, chief business officer of UJET, who previously served as vice president and general manager of Cisco's contact center business.
The crowded CCaaS market has a lot of different flavors of very similar unified communications and contact center features. UJET's mobile-first approach to the contact center space, Triant said, is giving solution providers a differentiated product that will allow them to compete without having to simply drop their prices.
"For partners, the CCaaS market was growing before COVID and the only thing we've seen since then is an acceleration -- it's boom time," he said. "The only thing holding the market back before was medium-large sized customers with premise-based solutions saying 'we'll get there someday with cloud,' but now, they need the ability to go remote right now."
[Related: Coronavirus Making A Strong Case For UC&C Solutions, Says Partners]
UJET partners have the choice to white label UJET's CCaaS offerings or work with the company in a referral model in which UJET can carry the paper, Triant said.
COVID-19 has kicked up interest from businesses in solutions that can help employees work in many kinds of environments. But even before the pandemic, many enterprises were digitally transforming their businesses, said Darcey Harrison, UJET’s chief revenue officer.
"The contact center is an incredibly important piece of the [digital transformation] journey," she said.
UJET has, until now, done all of its business direct with end customers, but the CCaaS provider wants to expand its business globally and it recognizes that the channel is the best way to grow, Harrison said.
UJET in February also brought on Jennifer Savage as its director of channel development to help build out the firm's first partner program. So far, UJET has about 11 partners signed including cloud consultancy solution provider PeakView, and is engaging with 15-20 more partners, Harrison said.
"The program is scaling nicely and I think partners see something unique in us that they haven't seen with some of our competitors," she said. "It's the only company I've been with in which partners are bringing you into deals before we've even signed contracts with them."
UJET wants the channel to account for 10 percent of its business within the first year and has plans to scale the channel business by 10 percent for the first three years, Harrison said. UJET is also adding three new employees dedicated to its channel program, marketing, and operations, immediately.
The UJET channel program includes three tiers and SPIFS for its newest channel partners, the San Francisco-based company said.
UJET, which got its start in 2015, includes several global brands as its customers today, including Google Nest, Instacart, and Green Dot Corporation.