Interview with Dom Black of Cavell on where the biggest growth opportunities for partners now lie.
1. How would you describe the current state of the cloud voice market in the UK and Benelux?
The UK and Benelux markets are among the most mature cloud communications markets in Europe, but each is at a slightly different stage of development.
The UK has one of the highest cloud adoption rates in the region and remains highly competitive. Much of the market has already completed its initial migration to cloud, meaning growth is increasingly focused on platform replacement, customer retention, and value-added services.
The Netherlands is similarly mature, with many organisations already operating cloud communications environments. As a result, differentiation is increasingly driven by service quality, integration capabilities, and customer experience rather than basic telephony functionality.
Belgium still has more growth headroom than its neighbours, particularly within larger organisations, making it an attractive market for providers and partners.
Across all three markets, the focus is gradually shifting away from first-time cloud adoption towards extracting greater value from existing deployments.
2. Has voice become undervalued by partners because cloud adoption is now considered ‘standard’?
In some cases, yes. As cloud voice has become mainstream, parts of the market have begun treating it as a commodity rather than a strategic business service.
This is particularly evident where partners focus primarily on licence resale. As pricing pressures increase and communications capabilities become more embedded within broader platforms, it becomes harder to differentiate on voice alone.
However, voice itself has not become less important. If anything, its role is expanding as organisations look to combine communications with analytics, AI, customer experience, and business workflows.
The partners seeing the greatest success are those treating voice as part of a wider managed service proposition rather than a standalone product. They are using communications as a foundation for delivering additional services that create measurable business value and strengthen customer relationships.
3. What are the real-world operational and financial impacts when voice services go down?
Voice remains critical business infrastructure. While communications technology has evolved significantly, organisations still rely on voice for customer interactions, internal collaboration, revenue generation, and business continuity.
When services become unavailable, the impact can be immediate. Customer service operations can be disrupted, sales activity can slow, and critical business processes may be interrupted. In some cases, outages can also affect connected systems and applications that depend on communications infrastructure.
The importance of resilience is increasing further as businesses become more dependent on cloud-based communications following the PSTN switch-off. With fewer legacy alternatives available, organisations are placing greater emphasis on reliability, service assurance, and disaster recovery planning.
For partners, this creates a significant opportunity to deliver managed services that focus on monitoring, resilience, support, and business continuity rather than simply supplying communications technology.
4. Where do you see the biggest partner opportunities around analytics, recording, compliance, and AI-driven insights?
The strongest opportunities are emerging where communications data can be used to improve customer outcomes and business performance.
AI is attracting significant attention because it enables organisations to automate tasks, improve customer interactions, and generate new insights from conversations. At the same time, demand for analytics, call recording, and compliance solutions remains strong, particularly in regulated industries.
Many organisations are looking for practical guidance on how to implement these technologies and measure their value. This creates opportunities for partners to provide consultancy, implementation, integration, and ongoing optimisation services.
The most successful partners will be those that focus on solving business problems rather than selling individual technologies. Customers increasingly want help improving efficiency, customer experience, and compliance rather than simply deploying new features.
5. How important is ecosystem expansion becoming for partners, beyond simply deploying Teams Phone or Zoom Phone?
It is becoming increasingly important. Customers no longer view communications as a standalone technology decision; they expect it to integrate seamlessly into the applications and workflows they use every day.
As a result, providers and partners are increasingly focused on connecting communications platforms with CRM systems, customer service applications, business software, and industry-specific tools. The value increasingly comes from how well these systems work together rather than from any single platform.
This trend is particularly evident in mature markets such as the UK and Netherlands, where many organisations have already completed their initial cloud migration and are now focused on improving productivity and business outcomes.
Partners that develop strong integration capabilities and a clear understanding of customer workflows will be better positioned to differentiate and build long-term relationships.
6. What additional services or capabilities should partners be adding around those platforms to create more value?
Partners should focus on services that improve adoption, deliver measurable outcomes, and strengthen customer relationships.
AI capabilities, analytics, compliance services, call recording, and customer experience solutions are all seeing strong demand. Organisations are increasingly looking for support understanding where these technologies can deliver practical value rather than simply deploying them because they are available.
Professional services are equally important. Customers often need assistance with strategy, integration, change management, and ongoing optimisation. These areas provide opportunities for partners to move beyond transactional sales and become trusted advisors.
There is also growing demand for support around AI governance, data management, and regulatory compliance as organisations seek to balance innovation with risk management.
7. How significant is the PSTN switch-off as a catalyst for partners to revisit their voice strategy?
The PSTN switch-off remains one of the most significant market catalysts in the UK. While many organisations have already migrated, a substantial number still have legacy services, devices, and business processes that need to be addressed before the final deadline.
For partners, this creates both a short-term opportunity and a long-term strategic challenge. In the immediate term, organisations need support planning and executing migrations while ensuring business continuity.
Longer term, the switch-off accelerates the transition to an environment where virtually all business communications are cloud-based. This means future growth will increasingly come from replacing existing cloud providers, improving customer experience, and delivering additional services rather than migrating legacy systems.
Partners that use PSTN migration projects as an opportunity to build broader customer relationships will be best positioned for long-term success.
8. What should ambitious partners be doing now to ensure voice becomes a long-term growth engine?
Partners should focus on three areas: value-added services, integration expertise, and customer ownership.
The greatest growth opportunities are increasingly found in AI, analytics, customer experience, compliance, and managed services rather than core voice connectivity. Building expertise in these areas will help partners create more defensible and profitable propositions.
Partners should also invest in integration capabilities, helping customers connect communications with CRM systems, business applications, and wider workflows. This is becoming a key differentiator in mature markets.
Finally, partners should focus on owning the customer relationship through consultancy, support, optimisation, and ongoing service delivery. As communications platforms become more commoditised, long-term success will depend less on the technology itself and more on the value partners create around it.
