I’m at the SkySwitch annual partner event, Vectors, an event that I hold near and dear to my heart from my time as CMO and Executive Producer of the event. It was great to see so many old friends and colleagues here in Nashville. While I’ve been buzzing around, a piece of news was passed to me on-site that was very timely, especially to SkySwitch and its network of resellers.
It’s a development that caught many by surprise, as some Metaswitch customers mentioned receiving a notification today declaring the planned end-of-life of MaX UC by parent Microsoft over the next two years. To cushion the blow, they’ve pitched Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone as the alternative solution. But, in reality, this appears to really be a sign that Microsoft is making Teams and Teams Phone a direct to business customer play that’s not even thinly disguised.
Why was this timely? SkySwitch’s parent BCM One is a big reseller of Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone, Zoom, and Cisco’s Webex. The move by Microsoft puts down the road pressure on both the SkySwitch resellers and BCM One’s own sales force to work harder to keep their customers. It also means services like TeamMate’s TeamMate connector will be more valuable to those service providers, like SkySwitch, who have customers that need to connect between Teams and the ITSP as a defense against the planned Microsoft landgrab.
This pivot raises a couple of critical issues for service providers. Primarily, transitioning customers to Microsoft Teams or Teams Phone potentially opens a Pandora’s box. This strategic move by Microsoft could potentially sideline those longstanding relationships that service providers have nurtured with their customers.
In essence, Microsoft has done a 180 since their Skype acquisition, where then CEO Steve Ballmer positioned the company as the service provider’s best friend when he flew in CEOs from mobile and telecom companies the world over. By directing traffic towards Teams, Microsoft isn’t just offering a new platform but is positioning itself to forge a direct, possibly exclusive, retail relationship with users. This gambit puts service providers at risk of losing their clients to Microsoft in a long-term play, effectively having their customer base annexed by a tech giant.
Today’s announcement is a stark reminder of the volatile dynamics within the telecom industry, where big players like Microsoft are increasingly encroaching on traditional “carrier territory.”