Cloudli expects the unified brand will drive channel growth by making it easier to market and sell one branded solution rather than two.
Elinor Johansen, CMO and Head of Sales at Cloudli
Montreal-based Cloudli Communications, which provides voice, data and messaging solutions sold primarily through MSP and agent channels, has announced that it has fully unified its brand with ConnectMeVoice to be entirely around Cloudli. The company says that the unification will have significant implications for enhanced partner support, particularly on the marketing front.
Cloudli had acquired New Jersey-based ConnectMeVoice and its own portfolio of hosted VoIP, unified communications as a service [UCaaS] and contact center as a service [CCaaS] solutions in June 2022. A key purpose of the deal was to both expand the Cloudli portfolio and strengthens their North American presence as a whole, since almost all of ConnectMeVoice’s market presence at that time was in the U.S., while Cloudli was stronger in Canada than in the U.S.
“What we have done with this branding change is have everything now falling under Cloudli,” said Elinor Johansen, CMO and Head of Sales at Cloudli. “A key benefit of that is that it allows our sales management and marketing teams to provide support. While the products are the same as before, they now only have one brand to support instead of two.”
Johansen said that the changes will include more customizable marketing campaigns.
“The key difference is by streamlining the brands, we can provide more marketing campaigns and more types of marketing campaigns, with a greater diversity of types available to partners,” she stated. “We can be more proactive with out of the box campaigns as well as those with some customizable aspects to them. That way, the partners can design exactly what they need.
“We had that before,” Johansen said. “But with the single brand, we can now supercharge those efforts.”
Partners will also have MDF [market development funds] which have not been uncommon in this sector, but they have been for Cloudli.
“MDF is a new initiative for us,” Johansen noted. “In the last two years with COVID, MDF has also changed a lot. Before, it was based much more on in-person events. As we come back to baseline, we will be supporting those kinds of events. Those in-person events are one aspect of the program, and we are also considering conferences and webinars.”
Cloudli’s MDF will be project-based.
“It’s based on the quality of the proposal – whether someone is brand new or established is less important,” Johansen said. “We are looking to use MDF funds to support partners with growth initiatives in place,
“MSPs will have different requirements for what they want to use it for,” Johansen added. “The goal is for it to be partner led.”
On the sales front, partners will also continue to work with dedicated channel managers to help them fine-tune business strategies for acquiring new revenue streams and attaining competitive margins.
“There will still be the same channel managers as before, and the same partner success teams partners have been used to,” Johansen said. “The resources will be enhanced, however.”
Johansen emphasized that the vast majority of clients are supported through MSP and agent partner channel on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.
“Cloudli is more committed to the channel ecosystem than ever before,” she said. “In 2024. You will see us double down on the channel. We brought in Rick Boyd last year as Vice President of Sales and Business Communications. With him on the team, you will see a continued augmentation of our channel.”
While these changes will strengthen Cloudi’s channel in both Canada and the U.S., the company is emphasizing how U.S. operations will be particularly strengthened.
“ConnectMeVoice went to market mainly in the U.S., so that’s why we are mainly talking about the U.S.” here,” Johansen indicated. “The commitment to the channel will be across the board, however. The key takeaway is that we are committed to the partner channel and driving success for our partners as they grow their brand, both agent and MSP partners.”
Cloudli also announced that with the brand unification complete, Scott Seltzer, who had been CEO of ConnectMeVoice at the time of acquisition, and who had stayed on as General Manager of ConnectMeVoice, after will be retiring from the company at the end of November.
“This was always the plan,” Johansen said. “We are thankful for his vision and guidance over the last 18 months, in demonstrating what a partner-centric organization should look like.”
