Unify Partner Conference 2018 – ‘UPC18’

200 Partners Join Unify in Berlin to collaborate and grow business

Unify, the Atos brand for collaboration solutions, held its annual Unify Partner Conference recently in Berlin, bringing together more than 200 of its top channel partners from around the world to discuss new solutions, improvements to the partner program, and strategies for maximizing success. Under the theme “Together as One”, the event was structured to emphasise the importance of the trust and close teamwork between partners, customers and Unify, which leads to successful outcomes for all.

Unify has continued to make significant progress in its mission to be the partner of choice in the communications and collaboration industry. Today more than 63 percent of Unify’s product revenue is through the channel and its top 25% of partners more than doubled their business through Unify in the last year.

“Unify’s strategy continues to be ‘partner-first’, so it is of critical importance that we collaborate closely with our key partners to ensure maximum growth and success,” said Simon Skellon, Chief Sales Officer at Unify. “The Unify Partner Conference is a valuable time with our partners to share what is coming next from a solution perspective, discuss improvements to our partner program, and collaborate on how we can continue to deliver superior results with our partners.”

This year’s conference featured speakers from Unify and Atos in both a main plenary session and regional breakouts for more intimate and personal messaging and conversations. Additionally, at the heart of the event was the Community Hub, which offered an opportunity for hands on demonstrations and information from technology partners.

At the event, Unify presented ‘Our Digital Journey’ with key portfolio updates including:

• OpenScape Contact Center available as a private, managed cloud offering with expanded capacity, regional availability and self-services enhancements coming soon.
• Circuit Meeting Room to be made available as a stand alone video-conferencing service without the need for Circuit users so it’s ideal for customers who have not yet deployed Circuit.
• New Phones including CP100, a simple low-cost product and CP600E, a midrange phone with self-labeling keys
• Expanded co-innovation capabitilies with APIs to amplify collaboration within Circuit or embed into the applications customers use most
• Circuit integration with OpenScape Business, delivering full call control as a cloud hybrid alternative to the on-premise UC soluiton

Additionally, Unify shared significant commercial and channel enhancements including:

• Simplified pricing model
• Simplified service bundles
• Streamlining of CPQ tools to increase speed and throughput of quotes
• Enhanced partner technical, sales and commercial support via Partner Connect

In addition to demonstrations of Unify’s solutions, attendees also had the opportunity to interact with key technology partners including ASC, Gigaset, Jabra, Konftel, Logitech, Media5, Plantronics, Ptm Akademie and Sennheiser. These partners also generously sponsored awards for Unify’s top performing channels and prizes for onsite competitions.

At the event, Unify presented its annual awards to top partners. This year’s award winners included:

• Partner of the Year, sponsored by Media 5 – Spie Comnet
• Distributor of the Year, sponsored by Konftel – Tarsus Distribution
• Above & Beyond, sponsored by Sennheiser, for the partner that absolutely demonstrates exceptional dedication to customers and is a strong Unify advo-cate – Nextel
• Cloud Partner of the Year, sponsored by Logitech – Swisscom
• Contact Center Excellence, sponsored by Jabra – Black Box
• Innovation, sponsored by ASC, recognizing the partner who has shown great cre-ativity and ingenuity to create a unique proposition for promotion and sales of the broader Unify portfolio – Sotel Systems
• Rising Star, sponsored by PTM Akademie, recognizing the partner who has demonstrated their commitment to the Unify Partner Program by progressing through accreditation levels, engaging with Unify and achieving beyond expecta-tions – Daisy Group

Partner Comments:

“I’m pleased to say I saw a step change at this year’s UPC, said Richard Carter, Executive Director at Nycomm. “It was clear at the UK & I breakout session that the new team have a deep understanding of Channel. I firmly believe that the proven strategy they are put-ting in place will enable our enterprise sales to soar. It was also pleasing to hear such positive comments about Openscape Cloud from distributors in other regions.”

“Thank you to Unify for the interesting and stimulating content at the partner event in Berlin,” said Hendrik Otten of Deutsche Telecom. “I look forward to continuing to build our partnership and much success moving forward.”

“I have been to several UPC’s, and this is one of the best yet,” said Allan Williams, Tech-nical Director at Datasharp UK. “The presentations on the OpenScape portfolio updates, roadmaps and successes were great, and I was happy to hear about the new SSP pricing, easier order points and better license bundles to come. I look forward to the next UPC.”