Coffee with Craig and James Episode 159: IntelePeer's Aqeel Shahid

Speaker A: Hey, loyal casties. While listening to this episode of Coffee with Craig and James, do us a solid. Subscribe to us on SoundCloud, follow us on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find us. Thanks.

Speaker B: And here we go.

Speaker A: Let me let our loyal castings in on a little insider baseball.

Speaker B: Today's podcast, we're interviewing King Charles, leads the English Channel.

Speaker A: Maybe one day we'll actually drink coffee on this podcast.

Speaker B: You are about to enter the ecosystem.

Speaker A: Uh, carry on, James. Carry on. All right, uh, it's time for another edition of the Channel Futures podcast Copy with Craig and James. I'm the editorial director of Channel Futures, Craig Galbraith joining me as always, our scene, your news editor, Mr. Anderson. Mr. James Anderson. James, it is very pleasant to see you here in the first week of September.

Speaker B: Craig, this, um, this September came up pretty fast. I mean, do you feel like it came up pretty fast?

Speaker A: It does, it does. And then as Green Day would say, wake me up when September ends.

Speaker B: Oh, man, I just kind of.

Speaker A: That was interesting to me because you were talking about, uh, September sneaking up on us and now, uh, I don't know if September is a sleepy month or what's going on, but for me, we got football. It's my favorite. Yeah, Favorite month of the year. So you and I. Yeah, I mean,

Speaker B: I think for the Green Day, uh, songwriter, uh, he's is more of a nihilism issue then.

Speaker A: Oh, really?

Speaker B: Then, uh, football thing.

Speaker A: I'd like to, um. At this point, I've got a surprise for you, James. I'd now like to welcome into the podcast Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day. Billy Joe.

Speaker B: Hey, man, I don't think you'd be offended by the nihilism thing I just said. You know, I honestly, I was trying to remember his name, but I couldn't remember it. That sounds right.

Speaker A: Yeah. So, uh, yeah, so September, it did, as you mentioned, it's, it's gotten here fast. Uh, we've got some, some things coming up here in September that we'll talk about a little later in the podcast. But let's start by uh, having you tell me how your Labor Day weekend went. Because as we discussed before we started recording, we each took a five day weekend. You on the front end and me sort of on the back end. And in that Venn diagram, we overlapped in what? I think, uh, three days there. Time off. So what did you do? Double oil Cassidy's. I'm sure they are ready to hear about it.

Speaker B: Thanks, Craig. First thing I did was I, I packed up and I flew out To Spokane, Washington. Oh, I live in Tacoma, Washington, so more uh, western side of Washington. Spokane's more eastern. And I saw my family, my sister just moved out there with my brother in law and nephews. So just getting in that precious family time, Craig, you know, family, you guys gotta see family, you know, so that was, that was my thing. And then I went to uh, when I got back, I went and saw my, the family that is in western Washington and spent the weekend with them. So very, very, very nice, Craig.

Speaker A: But you had, how many days did you have in Spokane?

Speaker B: Three. Three days.

Speaker A: Three and then a couple days, uh, at the end. Uh, yeah. Well that's, that's very nice. How was it? How was the weather? Still hot up there?

Speaker B: It was a little hot, but um, you know, it didn't bother me. Didn't bother me. Wasn't too bad. We're, we're out of the woods here, Craig, with this really rough August weather. August was a rough month for heat.

Speaker A: September in the northwest, that's uh, it's one of the nicest, nicest months of the year. Absolutely.

Speaker B: Yeah. Soak it up, Soak it up. What's, uh, new in your life, Craig? What's. What, what did you do for your weekend?

Speaker A: What did I do? Well, I'm, to be honest with you James, I'm trying to, uh, just between you and the loyal Casties, trying to drop a few lbs. Not a lot. I'm a, you know, I'm not a huge individual. Tall, but you know, relatively slender. But you know, as you is different people put on weight in different places. Right. So I was watching my, my gut a little bit. It was like, I gotta, I gotta drop like 10. I'm gonna drop 10. And part of this motivation is because I was talking to our buddy, uh, Kevin, uh, Kevin Morris, former, uh, podcaster for those who have only been with the Craig and James podcast for what, five years? It was a Craig and Kevin podcast, uh, before that. And uh, I'm going to go back and visit him this uh, fall and go to a football game. And I said to myself, when he told me he had like gotten down to like a fighting weight, like down to his college weight, I was like, I can't have this guy showing me up. So I set a goal for myself to lose 10. Uh, by the time I go back there, it's off to a pretty good start. So I got, I got a few weeks to go yet, but I think I'm gonna, I'm gonna make it. If I don't go, go Too crazy. But so that's kind of my thing. Labor Day weekend was great. Uh, leading. That was sort of all lead in to tell you that. Got in a ton of exercise over the last few days. I hit the gym a few times, uh, got in a ton of neighborhood walks with my wife. So, uh, it was good. It was a productive, healthy feeling. Labor Day weekend, uh, here on mine. Then the temps are cooling down a little bit up here, uh, as well, so it's good deal.

Speaker B: Craig, my man, nice work out there. Nice work. Kevmo is inspiring. You know, that guy sets a high standard. So, you know, those competitive juices are great. You know, run. Run your own race, man. Um, and I was gonna say to your earlier, it's. It's a long awaited pun, but like you said, you said you want to drop a few lbs, and I was gonna say, I think your Seahawks dropped a few lbs recently. Oh. And, uh, you know, that's pretty good. They probably, uh, you know, cut a few lbs, signed a few lbs, maybe got some CBS or some. Or some, uh, NTs, you know, DTs. DEs.

Speaker A: Nice football. I like it when you bring it back to football and the, uh, different initials for the positions. Yeah, well done. Uh, man, I'm sorry I rambled on so long that your. Your comparison came later than you'd hoped.

Speaker B: Oh, no, I'm. So if that was me subconsciously, like, trying to m. Excoriate you for talking too much, please don't, because we need. We need your stories, Craig. We need your stories. It's okay.

Speaker A: Well, it is a podcast, right? We got to talk. We can't have. So as long as we're. You brought that up. I'm curious your Lions, how optimistic. I know last year ended in. In disappointment when you probably thought you were potentially super bowl bound, but how are you feeling going into this year?

Speaker B: Oh, I feel good. I think they'll field a good team. I think it just comes down to how healthy they are at the. At the outset of the playoffs. And I, I do think they'll make the playoffs. I think they have very stiff competition. I foresee, um, an 11 to 12 win season, uh, perhaps not winning the division, but I don't think that necessarily detracts, uh, from their super bowl hopes, I think.

Speaker A: Do you see? Is this Green Bay's year? Are they going to win that division? Is that what you're thinking or what?

Speaker B: Um, I could. I could see it. I could see it. Um, and I, I think this Micah Parsons signing is. It impacts Green Bay maybe in a Positive way. Maybe he's a total locker room cancer. Who knows? But, um, I think Green Bay is a lot better.

Speaker A: On that note, James, I'd like to welcome into the podcast Micah Parsons.

Speaker B: Sorry, man. I guess he could see it. That's. You've got amazing connections.

Speaker A: I know. So many connections. His video, like, Billy Joe's video, it's just not working. I don't. I don't know why. I, I, I can see him. I can see him, but it's not coming through on the podcast, so. Sorry about that.

Speaker B: Well, it's a beautiful habit you're teaching me, Craig, in that, you know, whenever you, you know the saying they have, if you don't have something nice about someone to say, don't say it.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah.

Speaker B: Yours is more like, if you don't have something nice about someone to say, pretend they're. They're like your guest on a podcast

Speaker A: and James with it. That's it. Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: All right. Uh, well, we're looking forward to all that coming, uh, up, uh. Oh, my Seahawks. You're probably gonna. Thinking, yeah, I'm. They could go either way. They could, like, win the division or they could win, like, five games this year. So, I don't know. I'm going without any really high expectations, and we'll. We'll see what happens.

Speaker B: Well, I'm sorry I didn't ask you, um, but I am bullish. I think Sam Darnold will have a nice season. Um, we're seeing Cooper cup really low in these fantasy rankings, and it's shocking to me. I think Cooper cup is going to have a career. Not a career year, but he's gonna have a very good year, I think.

Speaker A: Yeah, well, I'm disappointed to hear you say that, because my opponent in week one of the, uh, our little fantasy football league that we're both in, uh, has Cooper cup on his team. Last checked, he had.

Speaker B: I predict his. His first week will be pretty lousy.

Speaker A: Oh, okay, good. He. Last time I checked, he had him in his first bench spot, but I could, I could see that him elevating him up. So we. We'll see what happens. All right. News, um, of the day or news of the week? I guess last, uh, week we were off. We didn't have a podcast last week, so we've got quite a few options that we can discuss. You, uh, want to kick things off? What, what do you follow?

Speaker B: Um, well, I did a story today, um, that was based on a report by our friend and colleague Devan Adams, who works for. Works for Omdia and also collaborates with Canalis, the two research firms, um, at our company. And, um, he did a story about si, delivered telco services. SI standing for system integrator. Some people say systems integrator, I say system integrator.

Speaker A: Other, um, people say Sports Illustrated.

Speaker B: Sport. And I say Sport Illustrated. Yeah.

Speaker A: Yes. Okay, carry on, carry on.

Speaker B: Now, uh, they're forecasting, um, uh, uh, increase in growth, uh, for the amount of telco services revenue that system integrators are fulfilling. And so it went and explored that today in a story, um, just examining, uh, where is this growth happening? What does it mean for the other partners, particularly the agents in the audience? Um, if you're an agent and you are interested in, uh, telco services, uh, our SI is a friend or a foe. So. And the answer was that they could be a friend right now. Um, they could be more of a foe in the future. What about you, Craig?

Speaker A: Very cool topic. Um, in fact, since you said you're working on that today, it will be posted by the time we, um, post this podcast. Um, but I look forward to reading that. I can't comment a lot on. On it a lot because I haven't seen the article yet. You're kind of throwing that out there. You're like Johnny on the spot. Uh, you're talking about timely topics. I like it.

Speaker B: Thank you, Craig. I wrote the whole thing and then I was gonna stress about putting in the, uh, the tags, but then I realized my editor was going to be on a podcast with me. So. Yeah, I'm gonna send that.

Speaker A: Gotta be careful. You can't rush that stuff. No, can't rush that stuff. Gotta be careful of facing the wrath of that, ah, unnamed editor. No, maybe. Maybe Micah or Billy Joe would have a thought, ah, about that. If they had been.

Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure they would have some fodder to throw at us. No doubt. What about your story, Craig?

Speaker A: Um, well, I think it's worth bringing up that, uh, our esteemed contributing editor, Christine Horton, uh, attended the VMware Explore event last week. And of course it's every year now. It's got quite the different flavor, uh, since broadcom has acquired VMware. Look at that. Seems like we've been talking about that for years, but it got finalized last year. Right. So this is like, I don't think it's the first, um, VMware Explorer with Broadcom, but maybe the first one where they've really integrated everything, you know, it wasn't already being planned. Um, anyway, it continues to be you know, somewhat controversial but at the same time the changes they're implementing, uh, within the VMware Partner Program or the Broadcom Partner Program that incorporates much of VMware Cloud foundation and the former VMware partners, um, I, I think we're getting used to some of these changes so there's not a big shock when these things happen. So um, one thing in particular is that the VMware cloud service provider program, uh, which is focused on the new VCF or VMware Cloud foundation version 9.0 is going to be pretty exclusive. And that's the direction that they've been going here. They're looking for what the partner channel leader for Broadcom called them true CSPs, uh, you know, agree with it or not. They're looking for the real cream of the crop, uh, with the majority of their focus on VMware. Uh, now that's part of course the Broadcom Advantage Partner program, James, which uh, included its own overall updates last week. Probably the biggest thing of note, the company is moving to all post sales services being entirely handled by its partner community. So that's probably a fairly welcome development. Uh, Broadcom itself won't be delivering these services anymore. It feels the, this strengthens the profitability for partners who are more nimble, agile and able to deliver those services a little faster. And overall uh, the message was that Broadcom is really focusing on this shift to a quote value based measurement, uh, in part because it's been criticized in the past for being uh, a little too transactional in nature. Um, there's going to be a points based system that focuses more on partner capabilities rather than volume of sales. So again this overall theme, sort of focusing on a more select group of partners, which is a direction they've been going now for many months and uh, pulling, pulling the herd a little bit and, and focusing on those partners who they think uh, can, can do the best. So you know we're seeing that with some other companies but that's been a uh, real highlight for broadcom/vmware here in the past year.

Speaker B: Well as an outside observer I think that's really fascinating. We want to, apparently they want to recognize more partners that do different parts of the value chain but we want less and we only want true cloud services providers. Now uh, as an outsider, maybe I'm just conflating those stories but uh, you know, so they're gonna need to prove that that's not just them kind um, of following uh, industry trends and saying that they value um, that they, that they value partner value.

Speaker A: So partner, partner value, partner friendly, channel only some of those, um, those terms that are. Or partner first, partner first. One of my favorite ones. It's really kind of nebulous. I don't really know what that means.

Speaker B: These people are out of control, Craig. These people. These people shouldn't be allowed to use adjectives or, uh, adverbs.

Speaker A: It wouldn't be a channel without some buzz. Buzzwords, though. Uh, let's face it, I mean, this podcast, we could almost go full circle. And I think one of the very first podcasts I did with Kevin was talking about channel buzzwords. I mean, it was probably one of the first 10. We kind of made fun of a lot of those buzzwords, and some of those buzzwords are still around, uh, still worth making, uh, fun of. And then we have some new, uh, buzzwords which have taken the place of those retired ones. So there always be buzzwords.

Speaker B: Indeed. The buzzwords you will always have.

Speaker A: All right, James, speaking of buzz, a lot of buzz around our interview today. Why don't you set this up for Sakil Shahid with, uh, Intel Appear. Uh, partners in our audience will know him from some other stocks on the channel as well. Talk to us about what our loyal casties can expect.

Speaker B: Yeah, a great friend of the channel and Akil Shahid. And he, he has, um, been around at most recently, I think, Vonage, and, And, um, here he is at Intel Appear. That's is, um, a. You know, we'll leave it to them to kind of define where they stand. I would think of them as a CPAAS company. Um, that is really leaning into the agent, the AI agent side of things. So maybe that's, that's changing how they identify themselves. But, I mean, I'm going to ask them. Craig. You know, years ago, people were talking about cpass being this big thing in the channel. It was like CPAs, UCAs and CCAs and the CPAs. Craig kind of disappeared from that conversation. And, um, it might be back now in, in a way.

Speaker A: Well, since so many companies are touting themselves now as platform companies, it would make sense that that term has returned a little bit. But, uh, yeah, that's. I'll be interested to, to hear that discussion. Find out. Is Platform back? Is cpass back? Did it ever go away? So many questions.

Speaker B: Did it ever go away? It's a great question, Greg.

Speaker A: So many questions that we're going to ask Akil right now.

Speaker B: All right, folks, we welcome to the show Akil Shahid, uh, who is the channel chief and Senior Vice President of Channels and Alliances at Intellipeer. Akhil. Welcome.

Speaker C: Thanks for having me, James. Appreciate it.

Speaker A: Good to have you. Absolutely. So, Akhil, tell us what, what's new since you took the helm of channel sales there at intellipeer? It hasn't been that long, I don't think. Right. Is there some sort of unique signature you're. You're putting on the program at this point?

Speaker C: Yeah, you look. You know, I, uh, I started here. Now it's been almost eight months. So. Yeah, time flies, I guess, when you're having fun. So it's, it's been, it's been a little bit, uh, a little bit of time. But, you know, since I've taken over, there's been a lot of things that we've been doing over the channel on the channel side here in Telepheer. Right. Traditionally, you know, a lot of the stuff that that Intellipure sold was through the channel. We went through the. We basically marketed for the channel, worked the channel, but it was just the standard motions of just working through, you know, direct partners, working through direct relationships. Right. So we've, we've come, I took over. We've got a really deepened relationship with a lot of our, our TSDs getting in deeper in the ecosystem, making sure that we're aligned with the, with the right technology advisors and really making sure that they understand exactly where we fit, how they can engage with us, how they can work with us. So that's, That's a big thing that we, we were able to accomplish. The other thing is really kind of deal eliminating, uh, any, any potential conflicts that exist between the direct and channel. Really kind of, you know, uh, making sure that the teams are closely aligned so removing any friction, you know, creating kind of a more synergistic environment between both the direct sellers and the channel teams to make sure that they can work collectively together without having to worry about, you know, channel that direct, try to take the deal direct or in any way and making sure that both partners and the, uh, direct sellers were, uh, compensated accordingly. So that's another big element that we were able to put in place as well. And the third thing is coming up with additional route to markets. Right. You know, we certainly continue, uh, going down with our channel motions to work with our, with our channel partners and our TSDs, but then looking at other alternate route to market, such as our ISV partnerships, our VARs, our, you know, all our GSI partnerships to really continue to expand our overall distribution route to markets beyond just the channel side. So those are the elements that we've been kind of working on over the last seven, eight months. So, and like I said, it's been, it's been busy. It's been a lot happening in the AI space in general and really kind of working towards the enablement education and really getting the word out, uh, to all our partners in the field.

Speaker B: Great. Um, to go back on sort of what you said about removing any, any sort of remaining friction with the direct sales team, um, the examples there of any changes you made that kind of um, uh, improved on that.

Speaker C: Yeah, a couple things at one what we've done is, you know, now the channel managers and the, and all the, the partner development managers within our team are primarily focused on lead generation. Right? They're, they're acting as a quarterbacks. They're quarterbacking and finding opportunities that come from our, from our channel team members and from our partners. And then they align the appropriate sellers on the back end to work those deals. So the channel managers themselves are not in the deal themselves, running the deal, selling the deal, trying to take the deal across the finish line. Every deal that comes in now has a direct seller on it. Right? The direct sellers obviously are subject matter experts. They're, they're the best at what they do. They're good at selling, positioning the product, good at articulating the information, bringing the right resources from a solutions, uh, engineering perspective, product perspective, you know, to those, to those calls. So we've kind of eliminated, just eliminated that entire process where this, that now the, the partner development managers 100% just lead generation arms and the sellers are selling arms. Right. And they work collectively together to go out there and win. One cannot succeed without the other. So no longer are they both trying to sell their. One is finding, one is closing and then we, we go out there and accomplish that. So that's, that's huge. And that has, that has really helped eliminate any of the conflict. And then same thing from a, from a cop perspective as well. Made sure the sellers don't have to ever worry about, hey, if I bring a partner on the deal, I'll have to give up comp or I'll have to worry about any kind of reduction in commission of any sort. Right. None of that stuff. The partners kept your partners paid, you know, with all the standard spiffs and all our standard, you know, commissions and the internal teams that will all are also taken care of as well. So we've eliminated any of that commission friction as well.

Speaker B: So I love hearing um, what, what channel leaders, how they talk about the way they structure, like what the role of a channel manager is. Because I feel like, I hear, I hear different strategies. You know, I feel like some channel managers feel like they gotta actually do more on the sale and they actually gotta be helping close that sale. What I'm curious what you see in the marketplace, if it, you see it skewing one way or another way?

Speaker C: Yeah, good question. And you know, I'm starting to see a, uh, shift happen. Right. Because again, you cannot be an effective channel manager if you're so focused on the sale as opposed to developing the channel, the actual partner. Right. And so you're starting to see the shift happen to where now channel managers are becoming more of Sherpas, just like the, just like your advisors and partners are. They're coming there to really be that subject matter expert to enable, understand the challenges that are being faced by the partner, understand exactly what their overall business goals are and work towards you. Uh, know how we can align with their business goals by providing them the resources, the tools, all the items they need to be successful in accomplishing these goals. And yes, closing a deal is important at some point. Obviously that's how we all make money. But that isn't the focus of what the channel manager should be doing anymore. And that's what you see that happen more often now. By being the true advocate, by truly understanding the challenges faced by the partner and truly being the person to help them navigate through all those challenges, you're becoming a much more effective channel manager. And leave the selling to the sellers. Let the sellers do what they're good at, like, like I said. And I think that's, that's really helping the channel managers be more effective for their partners in the field.

Speaker A: You know, Akilah, you talked about expanding routes to market. That's something I think we're hearing from a lot of companies these days. Um, is that more of a part of the technology becoming more complicated? We're seeing more partner types working together. What, what's the, what's the main reason for that?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's all the bulb that you just mentioned, Craig. I mean, yes, the technology, especially in the field that we're in. Right. We're obviously in the agentic AI, conversational AI space. Everyone's talking about AI these days, but have no idea how to even start that journey. Right. And so you're finding, finding your ISV partners, bar partners, all those folks that are out there outside your traditional route to markets. It's a way to at least get in the door and start these conversations because they're already today having some sort of conversation with the customer. Think of a software uh, vendor or ISP company today. They're typically in an organization providing some sort of a software solution to an organization today and they have a gap uh, when it comes to AI. Right. They can either go build it themselves which takes a lot of resources, a lot of motions and a ah, much longer Runway or they can partner with an organization like intellipeer where we can come in and plug those holes and allow them to want, keep their customers stickier and allow for them to provide a more comprehensive solution for the end user. And two for us allows us to really come in now into those opportunities where they already have an established relationship, they already have the mind share and help supplement their offering and allow us to uh, provide what we're good at. So we're starting to see more of those motions happen. Hence why you see this kind of shift happening towards the other alternate route markets as well.

Speaker B: We do a lot of stories about new roles in the channel and we're just seeing this VP SVP of channels and alliances role like so many hirings on that. Like, like maybe it was a uh, SVP of channel that was like the top person in, in indirect but, but now there's like come this, this person that overlays that, that's channels and alliances and it just seems like alliances is just such a, such a point of emphasis these days.

Speaker C: Yeah, like I said, I mean just because there's a lot of these alliance partners, could they come in very, in different shape or forms like I said, I gave you example of a software vendor. They could be strategic partners, it could be vertical specific partners as well. So if you're going like for example we do a lot in the healthcare space, right? In the healthcare space you have all this EMR EHR applications are uh, our patient management system applications that are being used right within that ecosystem. Those alliance strategic alliances now you know, are something that allow for us to kind of build those inroads from an integration perspective. So we are integrated within those applications but then also beyond that into a co sell, resell, you know a joint cell motion into some of these, into these customers that these EMR EHR patient management systems already have established relationships with. That's where this alliance team comes into play because they are now playing a similar playbook, but a different playbook in a way because they're managing these relationships now and selling through these partners as opposed to with these partners. So that's kind of a different motion that they're doing, but they are in the deals. And then especially with a new technology like AI, ah, that's the fastest way to get out there and really diversify the different route to markets as well.

Speaker A: Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the technology. And you brought up AI. You know, it seemed like it wasn't too long ago that uh, the TSDs were talking about, you know, CPAs, UCAs, CCAs as these really large growth areas. And I know CPAS was a big, uh, uh, Intellipa was a big proponent of CPAs. Uh, while it seems like a little bit like UCAS and CCAS really took off, it seemed like advisors have only kind of recently wrapped their hands around how to sell CPAs. I'm wondering if you agree with that. And, and does IntelliPeer still see CPaaS as a core element of what it goes to market with?

Speaker C: Yeah, a great, great, great question. And you're right, I mean cpas is, was one of those technologies that lagged a little bit in the, in the channel space just because, you know, a lot of partners did not know how to monetize, how to sell, how to basically have the conversations. Right. And, and now I think a lot of the companies have started to productize their solutions to be able to allow for partners to sell and recognize revenue. So that's why you're starting to see that go up a little bit. And yeah, you know, we, we, we're, we're still, you know, big player in the ccas, sorry, in the CPAS place. Uh, because, you know, the legacy obviously of what IntelliPeer has always done has been in the, in this, in the SIP services, CPAS services. Right. We were one of the largest voice carriers in, in the network. And so uh, we have maintained that same element of our core, uh, components from a network perspective, from a cpass perspective, and moved it into the AI offering now. So that now leveraging cpass, we can provide a much more easier, uh, way for partners and customers to digest the AI solution. Right. So it's a low code, no code, type of a setup now where they can use that AI hub to basically create their AI journeys to be able to go ahead and leverage the different modes of communication, whether it's voice, whether it's chat, whether it's video and so on, so forth, and be able to take and not only receive, but also output that information from an AI perspective leveraging these different modes. So that's the CPAS element that's still a part of our legacy and we're still continuing to build upon it. But now layering in AI can provide some much more comprehensive solution because now it's making it simple and easy for partners to digest, customers to use and recognize roi, recognize the revenues that they're looking for as well.

Speaker B: You had mentioned um, alignment earlier like finding, working with your TSDs to um, to find uh, the particular advisors that, that are good fits. Um, what, what would you say are some of the common use cases among this um, technology advisor community where you are seeing partners having a lot of success uh, selling your platform?

Speaker C: Yeah, great question. I mean so really where we're seeing is, you know, advisors that have made the pivot away from just being a telco shop, right? From just uh, slinging circuits, I guess, to providing more of a comprehensive solution for end user. The ones that are the perfect type of partners for the solutions we're providing. Right. Because you're essentially in the. Selling a AI solution requires for you to, for as an advisor to really understand the business outcome the organization is really trying to achieve. Right? Not just trying to insert a specific product in the solution, so really trying to understand the objectives of the organization that they're trying to consult with and then using that as a means to basically find the right solutions uh, that are equipped to deliver that end result. And the organizations that again the advisors that have that mindset, that have that sales approach that are approaching that methodology of uh, providing business outcomes are successful are the right type of advisors for us. Right. In the space, in the overall, you know, uh, UCAS ECA space. Right. Those are the advisors that we're going in. So especially specifically to us, for example, we're seeing a ton of success in the health care vertical. That's one of the verticals we're seeing. You know, we're closing uh, at about 80%, you know, close rate right now in that space. And the reason why again is because this is there's obviously the, the macroeconomical environment that's faced by that specific vertical vertical itself. There's a lot of pressures being put, you know, in on that vertical as far as number of aging patients that are, that are basically going, going to see their, their physicians, the shortages that, that, that specific vertical is being faced with from a talent perspective. So they're looking at technologies like AI to really come and help augment what they're doing. So again, understanding the landscape, understanding the challenges that are being faced by that specific vertical and being able to take our solution and being able to help that specific Vertical accomplished their goals of being able to be more friendly and be able to answer the calls that are coming in from their patients into their, into their organizations. Being able to do basic things like you know, scheduling appointment reminders, prescription refills, things that we take for granted. But being able to but today normally requires a live person to answer that can be automated. It's a great use case that we can go out there and really help with. Right. Um, and then there's also examples of where we're able to come in for make collections and from a billing perspective to be able to help collect on some of the revenue. Because the other thing that a lot of these healthcare organizations and providers are basically dealing with is they just don't have the bandwidth to collect on past you, you know, bills. And so they usually go 90, 120, 20 day delinquent. And so by us being able to come in there and be able to provide a more automated fashion of being able to go out there and make now, you know, an outbound call from the system on behalf of the organization and collect on that revenue is huge. And we've had several examples where we've been able to do that and collected, you know, a ton of money that been passed to you because of some of these outreach efforts that we've been able to do.

Speaker A: Yeah, James, it seems like we had a conversation not too long ago on the podcast on that same vein and we, we asked how it was to have AI doing some of that collecting and they were, they were pretty happy about it if I recall.

Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. And we've found that you know, people are more likely to talk to an AI agent when they're past you than a live person. I don't know if it's more about the fact that they're embarrassed, like oh my God, I'm past you, so I don't want to talk. I'm ashamed. Versus uh, a bot is not judging you in any way. It'll basically allow you to, to take your payment and off you go on to the next. So we've seen like, you know like, like a huge, huge uh, amount of uh, of uh, people. The mech rates are much higher and this example I was talking about, you know, they had almost $10 million now sending receivables and we were able to with just, with just going live in six weeks, collect almost $2 million in payments. Uh, and they had uh, like you know, with these accounts that were 90 day delinquent. So just, just that, that's how quickly we were Able to, to make that happen.

Speaker A: I bet that's it 100% because they probably think okay, the next call is going to be from a human and then so yeah, exactly, let me just

Speaker C: take care of it now. So I don't ever deal with, deal with it. I can't exactly.

Speaker A: That's how I would think anyway. Hey uh, Akil, we talked about alliances uh before and that being in part of your ah title. Um, we're seeing a lot of announcements now related to strategic alliances from a lot of companies and sort of getting back to this whole discussion of ecosystem. Uh, why do you think there is so much activity there with the CX and the CPAS providers like yourself?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think, I think a lot of that's happening is because there tends to be. Well one, the technology is evolving so rapidly right now. And so for organizations that have certain gaps in their overall product portfolios. Right. Um, like I mentioned earlier, they can either go try to go build it on their own and they just don't have enough Runway to make that to actually get it done in a timely fashion to be able to go make an impact because by the time they're done building it they're already behind. Someone else is already you know, leapfrogged ahead with some newer technology. And so that tends to be the challenge a lot of the CPAAS and CCAS players and in general I guess is being faced right now. So these are strategic alliances are really allowing for these organizations to plug the holes right where they see gaps from a product perspective and being able to white label, resell co sell together and be able to go to market faster, quicker as opposed to trying to build on their own. Right. They stick to their core competencies on what they're good at and then allow for others that have you know, these one off point solutions plug into the, into their ecosystem and be able to, to deliver solutions that way. Um, it obviously makes that customer stickier as well because then now rather than having to rip multiple solutions they just have, you know they will have, they'll just have one solution that they'll have to deal with. It also makes it easier from a buying perspective too. So they don't have to deal with multiple buyers, they just deal with, they just deal with one vendor. So there's a lot of, a lot of innate buying, you know, perspectives as well that, that gets simplified because of that motion as well.

Speaker B: That's fair. I um, wanted to go back to this, you know, kind of the use cases you talked about more in terms, more in terms of the ideal partner profile of the, the partner that um, is consultative, Consultative, consultative, uh, who um, understands the business cases and so on, so forth, you know, And I'm just curious if you had to put it in a ballpark, like, ballpark estimate, like what kind of subset of this TA community are we really looking at? I mean, is this like 30, 40 of folks are able to do that or what do you think?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think, I think it has evolved over the last couple of years. Right. If you asked me this question two years ago, I would say probably 20, 30 of people are actually ready for, ready for that level of conversation. It has evolved because that buying journey, the buyer, the buyer has evolved, right? How they're buying, how they're researching, how they're finding information. So then, you know, T has had to evolve accordingly. So today I'd say it's more like a 40% ish, you know, uh, TA community that's available today that has that mindset of being more consultative as opposed to, hey, what, what do you need? I got you. Here's my portfolio of different things. I do. What do, what do you want? What do you need? Right? And they sell that solution and on they go to the next and vers going in there and cultivating continue to grow. Right. So I think that shift is happening. Uh, do I want it happening faster? Absolutely, we all do. Right. But it's uh, I think I see some of these, what I call next gen partners that are coming into this ecosystem, right. That were maybe former software sales folks or folks that understand this ecosystem, that are now stepping in, that understand how to go about running these sales motions. They are grasping it. Right. Right out of the gates. Right. So that's all they've, they're ever used to selling as opposed to, like I said, the legacy telco folks that they typically like, hey, let's, let's, let's see if we can save you some money. Right. And so it isn't just about cost savings anymore, it's about increasing the value and bringing the roi, allowing them to get to that next phase of their organization and to be competitive in this space. Because honestly, if they don't look at a solution of this, sort of, they're being left behind.

Speaker B: So that's good stuff. Thanks for, for delving into that. Um, and I think you'd mentioned that there were, I don't know if you'd mentioned that there was an expansion into adding more VARs or just um, what's that been like? Has there been anything interesting or surprising that you've. You found in that, um, expansion.

Speaker C: Yeah. Ah, you know, look, um, what was interesting, especially in the VAR community specifically, right. The typical VAR would you. So used to selling widgets, they used selling boxes, hardware. Right. So getting them to shift their mindset away from selling equipment to now selling software, dealing with recurring revenue versus one time payment has been a little bit of a, you know, a, uh, learning experience for us. Right. And even for them too. So we've been spending a lot of time, you know, enabling and educating and really getting out in the trenches. And again, really where we're seeing success with bars has been, you know, essentially holding their hand through the sales process. Let's go, let's go find a deal. Let's go sell it together. Right. Not asking you to do anything other than just get, get us in front of the right people and let's show you how to go hunt. Let's show you how to go, go find and run these opportunities from start to finish. That way they get a taste of the success and hopefully that would allow us, for us then to spread that success to others within the organization. And, and that's. It's been slower than what we were expected, as I said. But that's because there's an evolution that they're having to make as an organization away from the traditional boxes versus software.

Speaker B: That's good to know.

Speaker A: Very cool. Very cool. Well, Akhil, thanks for your time today on the Coffee with Craig and James podcast. Been a great conversation. Finding out a little bit more about intel appear. Of course. James and I have watched your career a little bit. Congratulations on your current position and, and your progression through the industry and uh, again, thanks for your time.

Speaker C: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Speaker B: It's a good talk. Thank you.

Speaker A: All right, James, do you feel like you got your questions answered? The whole CPAS platform, did it ever go away? Did it, was it here the whole time? Are you satisfied, Craig?

Speaker B: I, I am satisfied. And uh, you know, you just kind of ask the questions need to ask and, and, and what you don't have. You. Sometimes you just leave that up to the loving hand of mystery.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. No. Akil is a good guy. I thought, uh, it was great to learn more about what's happening over there in Telepeer and uh, of course wish them best of luck going forward. Looks like they've got a real niche they can, uh, continue to carve out in the channel.

Speaker B: I think so, Craig. I think they've, um, they put a very heavy investment into the channel. In the last two years. And, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's, um, it's good to see companies that continue to be bullish on it.

Speaker A: 100%. 100%. All right, what are we going to talk about here, James? A little bit. Maybe fill our loyal Cassies in on a little personnel, uh, issue that's, uh, coming down the pipe.

Speaker B: Uh, yeah.

Speaker A: You think that would be a good idea?

Speaker B: I think people are curious people, People ask us a lot of questions offline. You know, lots of people are kind of respectful and they, you know, they want us to kind of figure out how to announce what we gotta announce, what we gotta announce, but kind, um, of sticking to, sticking to personnel. Craig, what's. What's kind of new in, in your world here?

Speaker A: What's new in my world? Well, I am going to unfortunately be leaving the business. Um, so the biggest sad note of that, uh, to me is that this podcast as we know it will be coming to an end next week. Uh, we will, however, have a. I don't know, what are we going to dub it? Sort of a farewell Greatest Hits podcast. I think you and I will share some, our favorite. Some of our favorite moments from the podcast. Now, I can't say it's going to be like one of those 80s clip shows. You know, they used to do this and this is before you're born. Sorry about it, but, you know, I got to get in my generational gap things. Ah, while I can. Um, pulling a bunch of clips from all those old podcasts would, like, take me forever. So we're just gonna reminisce about them and people will have to take our word for it that, um, we had these experiences. Maybe we could point them to those podcasts. But indeed, my last, last, uh, day here with Channel futures will be September 15th. Uh, moving on to other, uh, pastures we will see. I won't say yet that they're greener because, uh, I have loved doing the, uh, podcast with you and spending, uh, uh, so many years, uh, working together with you. But again, we'll get into some of that real schmaltzy M stuff in our, Our next podcast, our final one. But, uh, yeah, it's uh, coming to an end here after 17 years. But it's been a, it's been a fantastic run. I've loved, loved, uh, every minute of it and particularly, uh, the people I've worked with and you being right at the top of the list. So, so that's, that's the deal.

Speaker B: Thanks, Craig, for sharing. Yeah, everyone, Craig's been my, he didn't like it when I say he's my boss, but he's been my boss for 10, 10 great years here. And it's, it's, it's, it's really sad. And um, there's more I'd say that, I'd say as far as, um, you know, other changes. You know, I'm, I'm staying here, um, you know, and I'm, I'm waiting on some, you know, more details of what, uh, what the structure and what the website is going to look like going forward. Maybe, maybe, maybe hit me up offline and I can, I can try to try to update folks individually. You know, don't really know. Don't really know what all to share at this point. Other than that, uh, we'll be here kind of continuing to provide um, coverage of uh, channel.

Speaker A: So, But Craig's gonna, it's gonna be, it'll be interesting to watch from afar and I'm, you know, I can always hit you up for any of the uh, juicy stuff. I'm sure after, after I am gone.

Speaker B: Uh, it's always juicy with you, Craig. I don't know what that means.

Speaker A: More details to come. Um, as they say, stay tuned. Uh, so again next week, probably publishing on like the 11th or 12th of September, the final episode of Coffee with Craig and James. But James, I would like to, uh, put a trademark on that name, Coffee the Coffee podcast. I'm sure that would be easy to do like with the patent U.S. uh, patent office. And uh, perhaps someday we will reunite. Yeah, we're doing a coffee podcast again. Maybe it'll be about. Who knows what topic it'll be about. It could be channel, could be sports, it could be nursery rhymes. Who knows? Muppets. Muppets. Now that's what we should do. Podcasts, A weekly podcast.

Speaker B: It'd be good for us to have to be part of a fandom, Craig, and to really rock that. But if you're up for it, you know, I like the sound of it, Craig, we'll discuss.

Speaker A: Another thing worth discussing is that you can check out the archive huh, Of Coffee with Craig and James by going just about anywhere you get your podcast. Of course you could go to SoundCloud, uh, and subscribe there. Apple Podcasts. Yes, I'm encouraging you to subscribe even after we've said we only have one more. But hey, we don't want you to miss that one but. Or either.

Speaker B: It's a learned habit.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker C: Vimeo.

Speaker A: Um, dot com is where we do these things on Vimeo Video and then, uh, we put them together, don't we, James? We got the SoundCloud audio and we got the Vimeo video. I like saying that. Vimeo Video, uh, in one spot. And where is that, James?

Speaker B: Our flagship news site.

Speaker A: Oh, that's a good one. That was a good delivery. This time he's talking about channel futures. Thank you so much for joining us. We will catch you again for one more the finale of Coffee with Craig and James next week.

Speaker B: The mystery ever deepens,

Speaker A: Sam.