Windstream Exec: Broadview Acquisition Will Help Us Grab Share From Vonage, RingCentral, 8x8 And Cable Companies

Watch Out, UCaaS Players

Windstream plans to leverage its acquisition of Broadview Networks to grab share in the SMB market from unified communications competitors such as Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8, said Austin Herrington, senior director of product management at Windstream.

"Broadview has a unique, proprietary solution that will definitely help advance our product portfolio, improve our competitiveness in the market and our ability to provide enhanced services," said Herrington in an interview with CRN. "This transaction really directly supports our strategy to provide what we call 'competitive secure cloud applications.'"

Herrington also talks to CRN about the company's SD-WAN technology integration plan with Broadview and what channel partners from both companies can expect in the future.

Where do you expect to win more market share once the Broadview deal closes?

Very much so in the over-the-top players: RingCentral, Vonage, 8x8. We think this solution also positions us to compete with the cable companies because not only will we combine [Broadview's] world-class UCaaS [Unified Communications as a Service] offering, but we have the Windstream SD-WAN product, which really allows us to bring to market highly competitive solutions for those small-business customers.

Do you think you can take any share away from the bigger players like Avaya and Cisco?

The larger players like Avaya, Mitel, West [Corp.] and Cisco – they're a little more extreme. When we think of this segment, it's RingCentral, it's 8x8, and it's Vonage in particular. When we look at our network and the network we bring -- plus the SD-WAN capabilities and this soon-to-be-acquired UCaaS capabilities from Broadview – it positions us very well against those three. I see those three as the main ones. I'll say Vonage a couple of more times, but then as well as the cable guys at the lower end.

How will you better compete with these lower-end cable companies by leveraging Broadview?

As the market evolves and we see more and more small business looking for a complete end-to-end unified solution that can be managed from one provider, what Broadview provides Windstream is a very robust UCaaS solution in the SMB space, which we plan on combining with our SD-WAN offering.

Broadview is trialing SD-WAN as well using VeloCloud, which is the same partner that Windstream has, and we really believe when you combine the solution with [Broadview's] world-class portal – it's scalable, highly customizable, easy to use, and very inexpensive to deploy compared to traditional communications solutions and internet solutions – we feel we're going to be able to go to market against our competitors with a very cost-effective solution for our customers that offers a broad range of services.

What should Broadview and Windstream partners expect? Are there any channel program changes coming?

We will have an integration planning team that consists of leaders from both Windstream and Broadview, and they will work to determine how to best manage our programs going forward. Right now, it is business as usual until we get the approvals necessary to close the deal.

After the transaction closes, we look to be able to leverage their channel sales force and their nationwide network of agents across our expansive footprint.

Will there be any new net opportunities for partners?

Yes, we do anticipate that there will be new opportunities for all of our partners as a result of this acquisition, which we'll be able to address at the close of the acquisition. But right now we'll continue to do business as usual with our channel partners.

Broadview has a unique, proprietary solution that will definitely help advance our product portfolio, improve our competitiveness in the market and our ability to provide enhanced services.

Is Windstream doubling down on the SMB market with this acquisition?

What Broadview brings to Windstream, specifically in the SMB market, is that they have a foothold and an attractive high-growth market. They've been one of the industry's top providers of UCaaS solutions nationally in that space. This combination really strengthens our CLEC [competitive local exchange carrier] SMB business, it allows for significant margin expansion through the migration of legacy revenues to these new UCaaS-type services, and it's complementary to our strategy, which is going to drive value across the much broader Windstream SMB base.

Just how big of an market opportunity is the unified communications SMB space?

By 2020, we expect the UC market to exceed more than $40 billion and about 60 percent of those users are going to be in the SMB segment.

The Broadview acquisition will make Windstream a much stronger competitor in a very attractive high-growth marketplace. This transaction really directly supports our strategy to provide what we call 'competitive secure cloud applications' to our customers. One of the key tenets to this strategy is to ensure our cloud and voice collaboration application portfolio continues to grow and helps differentiate Windstream.

What's one solution Broadview has that you're excited to bring into Windstream?

I can't underscore enough how impressive how their customer portal experience is. The customer portal is very elegant, very intuitive, very user-friendly and they just do an exceptional job. The same talent development team they've got developed a very impressive partner portal – very easy to navigate and use and convenient for the partner.

What should partners be pumped about with this acquisition?

As the UCaaS space evolves, and applications and needs evolve for SMBs, having our own development team gives us more responsiveness and more control in exactly what we offer and how we offer it. The proprietary platform that Broadview has built and designed -- and there's a certain amount of agility that comes with it -- that's exciting in itself.