Vonage's Unique Offerings

Vonage is a pioneer in voice over IP, with a focus on unified communications, contact center, and AI. They own the entire technology stack, allowing for customized solutions and a unique customer experience. Advisers leverage Vonage’s unified platform for success, and there’s a discussion about Vonage’s use of AI in their portfolio, with plans for further innovation. Vonage plays a role in providing expertise and support for advisers and their customers, encouraging engagement for mutual success.

Introduction to Vonage

Some people call this provider the OG. Others call them the go. Either way, they’re your go to. Founded in two thousand and one, Vonage has pioneered the voice over IP space. You fast forward to today to twenty twenty four, and they’re a multiyear Gartner Magic Quadrant leader trusted by Telarus advisors and the world’s leading brands around the globe. I got my good friend Akhil here with me today. Akhil, you ready to shine the spotlight on Vonage?

Let’s go, Tim. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Alright, buddy. You know, look. There’s lots that you guys do that make you really unique in the market. Give us a couple of things that really set you apart from the competitors and also make you stand out, not only in the Telarus advisor minds, but with customers as you navigate, you know, from prospect to full implementation. I mean, you’re just doing a fabulous job out there.

Yeah. No. Look. There’s there’s obviously a lot going on in this space right now. Ton happening in the unified communications world, ton happening in the contact center space, a ton happening in the AI space.

And what really is unique about Vonage is we have the the vision early on in our, life cycle to where we actually started really building a lot of these products from the ground up, bringing together companies in into the overall portfolio early on in in our in our lifespan. So today, where we stand and really what sets us apart from the others in the space is that we own the entire technology stack. Right? We own our own unified communications platform.

We own our own contact center platform, our own API platform. And what that gives us is the ability now to provide this really unique customer experience and user experience. They don’t have to pivot the multiple applications. They they don’t have to piecemeal different solutions together.

So it just makes a much more easier solution for organizations to adopt and and and utilize as well. So I think that really sets us apart in this space. So we bring together now this complete portfolio of communication solutions for organizations, whereas others in the space typically have to put different, you know, options together. We actually have the ability to do that.

And then, oh, by the way, customize things for organizations because we know there isn’t a one size that fits all. So we really can go in there and really put together something unique for our customers and and for our partners.

The Value of the Unified Platform

Yeah. For sure. That full stack, you know, all the pieces to the puzzle together versus trying to piece them all together from different disparate parts definitely helps you stand out. Talk to us about how advisers are leveraging that platform, this unified platform, and really seeing success, especially in today’s market. You know, we’re we’re post pandemic.

A lot of market conditions are a bit changed, but we’re still having tremendous success around the world with you guys. Talk to us a little bit about that.

Yeah. I think that the big thing is, you know, really, when when advisors are going in and having a overall business conversation with their customers, right, we’re able to come in there alongside them and help these organizations gain the appropriate advantages they need in this in this economy, in this current marketplace. Right? We are obviously in a in a environment where customer experience is number one.

Yeah. That is really what sets one brand apart from the other. So all almost every organization in today’s time and age is focused on getting the best customer experience for their customers. Right?

By the by providing the solutions we provide, we’re able to help them accomplish that, one, by obviously making it simple and easy for them to adopt it internally.

Two, leverage the portfolio and the visibility that we could provide by integrating into core CRMs, integrating the core applications, business applications that organizations have. Lot of companies during the COVID time, as you mentioned, Tim, went through this shadow IT purchasing, right, where they’re buying different solutions just to patch the holes so they can they can survive through the pandemic. Well but then now they’re they have this Frankenstein of different solutions that they they put together. Right? So we’re coming there helping clean that all up, simplify that experience for them, and they can provide them a solution that really allows them to get to the next phase of their of their communications era as well.

Yeah.

We see that in real time, this patchwork quilt that your team is able to come in with the adviser shoulder to shoulder, meet the client wherever they’re at in their current process, and help them get where they wanna go organizationally, with whatever opportunity they have or whatever business outcome they’re trying to create, and you’re doing it by reducing friction through the process because you’re not Exactly.

Maximizing AI in the Portfolio

You’re you’re you’re blowing apart these disparate parts and unifying everything. You know? I I like to see the the way you guys do it as sort of this consolidate, optimize, contain model, right, where you really bring things together in a in a unified approach. Look.

We can’t turn on a TV or our smartphones without seeing AI. It’s all over, some of your marketing materials now. Let’s, touch on AI real quick. How’s, how’s Vonage maximizing AI in your portfolio and with customers, today?

And then maybe give us a glimpse on under the hood what’s on the roadmap.

Yeah. Look. AI, as you said, right, it’s everywhere. Everyone’s talking about it.

I think ever since the chat DBT element came to Yeah, man.

Us as consumers, it’s become something that’s mainstream. You know? The kids are talking about it, obviously. So where we we actually have been developing, we had our own AI platform, and we’ve been developing on it for the last five plus years. Right? So this is not the first time, that, you know, we have, you know, started talking about AI. And And it’s actually become more infused now and more prevalent within our core application.

So if you’re using if you’re a unified communication user, for example, AI is already infused in there to which Yes.

Joining your meetings as your copilot, taking your notes, providing next best action, doing that kind of, you know, stuff within within the tool. You know, within the contact center space, it’s a huge element because, obviously, we’re looking at optimizing the agent experience, optimizing the customer experience, reducing turnover, all the key metrics that a contact center is obviously looking at. And AI is helping from that perspective by providing self-service options, by being able to automate some of those mundane tasks that an agent would normally have to interact with, and then also providing the ability for the visibility.

So now you can the agent, the supervisor, the appropriate business users can now look at the the the information in real time and be able to use that data to be able to provide either next best action to the agent, to be able to provide a much more superior experience, to be more proactive in in reaching out to their customers and providing a much more proactive branch. So there’s a lot of things you’re seeing from that perspective, and we definitely are continue to enhance and and and and innovate on that front. You’ll see more of AI now, you know, and into elements such as, you know, large language models where we’re integrating into our into our platform.

So if you’re a chat GPD open AI user, you can actually integrate that and use that to basically accelerate the learning because, obviously, there’s a learning curve that the AI bot or any kind of AI solution is gonna have. Right? You can feed the data, but it still needs to learn and get to a point where it has, you know, the enough information. So we can we can certainly help you have our own large language model, but you can also bring in an outside large language model to accelerate it so that if you can’t find the information in the repository that you’ve given, it can go outside, look for that data.

And we’re forgiven it certain guidelines.

Hallucinations, eliminates some of those false responses that you would get from an AI solution. So there’s a lot happening in that front. We have an entire team dedicated to AI itself, and you’ll see some cool exciting new products being launched that can be purchased stand alone. So as a as a adviser, they don’t have to purchase our UCNCC platform in order to to take advantage of our our AI platform. They could start off by just using the AI platform, plugging it into some of the core components within their business, and then expand from there with our UCCC as well.

Accessibility of AI Solutions

That’s great. It’s another example of you being a market leader and also doubling down on what I just said, which is you can meet a client wherever they are in their road map and then pull all those things together as their business evolves or as the need evolves or the opportunity arises in their current stack. They come out of contract or business needs come into play, you just jump right in and help them navigate the next steps. Speaking of helping people navigate next steps, I think, our our time’s coming to a close here, so I wanna wrap it up strong.

Advice for Advisors

You and I get a chance to travel all over the country. We meet with top performing advisors, whether they’re high potential, they’re scaling their business, or they’re high performing. They’ve been at it for years. What’s a thing or two that you see maybe the one thing that you see that you wish that everyone would just replicate? They’d be so much more successful if they just did this.

Is there one Yeah.

You know, that’s yeah. I would say that, you know, the one thing that I’ve seen and you’re right. We we we get we get to go travel and see, you know, meet, our advisers all over the world. But one thing that I’ve seen the most successful advisers do is that they are not shy about asking for assistance early on in the process.

Right? Bringing in the resources early on, not just from, you know, the resources that that you obviously provide with Telarus, but also from the suppliers as well, bringing in our subject matter experts. Let us be your your adviser and really help you through the journey. Right?

Because there’s things that we’ve seen from all the journeys that we’ve been on that we can certainly help. Yeah. But also the expertise that that our team has as we’re building and developing. And the feedback that we get from the field allows us to go take things back and do things.

So I would say the the one thing if an adviser needs to be successful, do not wait till the very end to bring us in. Bring us in early on. Let us be your advocate. Let us be your, let’s go shoulder to shoulder together and go out there and help, you know, design and create solutions for our customers out there.

Couldn’t agree more. Early and often. Right? Get ahead of it. You don’t need to be a know it all. You just need to know who to call.

And your world class team at Vonage should be on everyone’s bat phone when it comes to contact center, UCaaS, this communication platform as a service world.

You guys are are leading the way. You’re trailblazers.

We appreciate you. Our advisors appreciate you. Telarus advisors, if you don’t have a relationship with Vonage, make sure that you reach out to your Telarus team, and we’ll connect you. We’ll help you build the relationship.

So you’ll have that that speed dial number that you need to call early and often. Get these guys engaged in your opportunities. You guys can win together. Akhil, thanks as always.

Thanks for your time today. Really appreciate you. Looking forward to great things in the future.