CRN Exclusive: CoreDial Acquires Voice4Net; Slated To 'Double' Contact Center Margins For Partners

VoIP provider CoreDial has acquired contact center provider Voice4Net to combine UCaaS with customer engagement tools to give channel partners a more compelling sales opportunity, the company told CRN exclusively.

CoreDial, a channel-only company, said that once it integrates its own contact center technology with Voice4Net's solutions, partners can expect to earn up to a 40 percent margin on contact center sales -- that's double the 15 percent to 20 percent margin that most solution providers are earning today on the same technology.

"Voice4Net's omni-channel platform has attracted a number of customer over the years, large and small. We believe the features and functions will allow us to compete very favorably against companies like InContact, RingCentral and Vonage, through our partners," Alan Rihm, CEO of CoreDial, told CRN.

[Related: CoreDial Puts Partners In Driver's Seat With Platform Updates, BroadWorks Integration]

Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

Blue Bell, Pa.-based CoreDial was torn between building or buying customer interaction tools, but after partnering with Voice4Net, the two companies decided to combine their assets. CoreDial plans on integrating Voice4Net's Interactive voice response (IVR) and WebRTC-based contact center technology, including text, SMS mobile customer engagement, voice and call routing, into its existing cloud communications platform.

Voice4Net's contact center solutions today integrate with Salesforce.com and will soon integrate with several other industry-leading platforms, including Broadsoft, the company said.

CoreDial today has more than 800 channel partners, with 90 partners alone joining the program last quarter, according to Rihm. Voice4Net has a small channel program consisting of agent partners, which CoreDial will inherit.

Solution providers haven't had a contact center offering available through CoreDial. These partners have had to go to separate vendors for these solutions, often earning between 15 percent and 20 percent margins on this product set, typically in an agent partner model. CoreDial solution providers today earn between 50 percent and 60 percent margins on its cloud communications through its reseller partner programs. Voice4Net's contact center solutions, integrated with the CoreDial platform, is estimated to offer these MSP and reseller partners up to a 40 percent to 50 percent margin, Rihm said.

"Our platform and method of going to market helps our channel realize that kind of margin," he said.

And partners will earn monthly recurring revenue on the contact center solutions, the same model they get paid for virtually all of CoreDial's services today, he added.

"Now partners have mobile, UC, and will have contact center on top of a really robust service delivery platform. It's a complete solution," Rihm said.

In addition to selling Voice4Net's contact center integrated with CoreDial's UCaaS platform, partners will also be able to sell contact center as a stand-alone, SaaS product. Partners will have access to the contact center solutions beginning after March.

Rick McFarland, Voice4Net's CEO, is joining CoreDial as vice president of contact center solutions, reporting to CoreDial CTO Don Nawrocki. Voice4Net's staff, including its engineers, will also be joining CoreDial.