jive communications award write up

2017 North American Hosted IP Telephony and UCaaS

Customer Service Leadership Award

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2017 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact ................................................... 4

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 8

Significance of Customer Service Leadership ................................................................. 9

Understanding Customer Service Leadership ................................................................. 9

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................. 10

Best Practice Award Analysis for Jive Communications .................................................. 10

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................. 10

Quality of Customer Service ................................................................................ 11

Customer Impact ............................................................................................... 11

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 12

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 13

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 14

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 14

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 14



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

Businesses around the world are rapidly moving their communications and information

technologies (IT) to the cloud. A 2017 global Frost & Sullivan survey of 1,934 IT decision

makers and influencers revealed that cloud communications solutions are used by 80 to

95 percent of organizations across industries. Among cloud adopters, 64 percent have

already moved all or part of their telephony services to the cloud and another 31 percent

plan to do so in the next two years. Top drivers for cloud communications adoption among

respondents include greater flexibility at times of downsizing or rapid growth (38 percent)

and access to advanced features/capabilities (37 percent). Frost & Sullivan expects the

global hosted IP telephony and unified communications as a service (UCaaS) market, an

important segment within the broader cloud communications space, to experience robust

annual growth rates of 20 to 30 percent in terms of both installed users and revenue over

the next decade.

Cloud migration is, however, a daunting task. Developing a cloud strategy is rated as one

of top 3 challenges by 24 percent of IT decision makers around the world. Various factors

restrain some businesses from making the move to cloud. UCaaS penetration beyond

early adopters entails greater scrutiny with regard to service quality and reliability. Almost

half (49 percent) of cloud non-users state security as their primary concern, whereas 46

percent state that they prefer to maintain full control of their IT and communications

infrastructure. When selecting a cloud provider, 45 percent of respondents rank security

as one of their top criteria and 40 percent rank reliability among the most important

factors. Businesses also acknowledge that UCaaS solutions differ in terms of features,

price, underlying technology and architecture.

Although frequently overlooked in purchasing decisions, provider customer service and

support capabilities play a critical role in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Most hosted IP

telephony and UCaaS providers continue to experience high customer churn due to poor

service availability and/or inadequate provider support throughout the solution lifecycle—

from design and implementation, to customer onboarding and ongoing solution

management.

As competition intensifies, providers are ramping up their service and customer support

capabilities. To improve customer satisfaction and retention, providers are deploying

distributed, geographically-redundant architectures that ensure greater service availability

and also help improve voice quality. Forward-thinking providers are also placing a strong

focus on the customer experience and are enhancing their solution implementation and

lifecycle management capabilities, including more streamlined sales and provisioning

processes, a more holistic and custom-tailored approach to customer technology needs

and business objectives, and a broader team effort within the provider organization to

ensure successful deployments.



Providers that more strongly focus on customer value have invested in technologies,

processes and people to deliver superior customer service and support. They are well

positioned to capitalize on growing business demand for reliable and secure cloud

communications solutions and a long-term relationship with a trusted service provider.

Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact

Jive stands out among UCaaS competitors with its exceptional attention to the overall

customer experience. It ensures greater customer satisfaction through a robust network

architecture, excellent customer lifecycle management, compelling communications and

collaboration solutions, and a sustainable business strategy.

Robust Network Architecture

Service availability is the top concern for businesses with respect to voice and other real-

time communications services. However, few UCaaS providers have built their networks to

significantly reduce the possibility of service downtime. Often, UCaaS services are

delivered from a single primary data center with a second data center serving as a back-

up. True cloud architectures are typically more distributed and extensible than hosted

solutions that often mimic the legacy telecom architectural model. As businesses look to

combine the flexibility and cost efficiencies of public broadband connections with the

numerous benefits of cloud communications, the robustness of the cloud architecture and

the UCaaS provider’s ability to effectively control service quality and reliability become of

paramount importance.

Jive’s cloud architecture features dynamic routing, load balancing, self-healing, and

distributed computing that allow the service provider to deliver greater quality while

maintaining competitive service prices. As a company born in the cloud, Jive has no legacy

telecom assets and services to contend with, which has allowed it to be more flexible and

more innovative in building a highly extensible, geo-redundant architecture to better serve

evolving customer needs. With services delivered out of several data centers in North

America— Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Monterrey, New York, Salt Lake City, and

Seattle—and two additional data centers in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and London (UK), Jive

ensures there is no single point of failure and greatly minimizes the possibility of

disruptive downtime that can significantly impact customer productivity and sales. The

distributed architecture allows Jive to handle device registration and storage closer to the

customer edge and thus realize cost savings, which it passes on to its customers. This

network design also benefits mobile users who can connect to a data center relatively

close to their current physical location and thus receive more persistent, reliable and

higher-quality access to their business communications.

Private connections among Jive data centers further enhance the network’s stability.

Multiple peering arrangements with call origination and termination carriers also help

ensure greater service reliability and more cost-effective call handling. Internet–based



diagnostic tools allow Jive to better monitor service quality and more proactively resolve

service issues.

Jive reports network availability of more than 99.99 percent, which is higher than many of

its competitors’ service availability and clearly demonstrates the value of its highly

distributed architecture. It also demonstrates Jive’s commitment to service quality and

customer satisfaction. The provider’s continued investment in network reliability is likely

to positively impact its ability to deliver top-quality services in the future.

Excellent Customer Lifecycle Management

Customer expectations of their UCaaS providers are constantly rising. Businesses require

exceptional service from the initial consultations, to implementation, to ongoing

troubleshooting and service updates/upgrades. As the market becomes increasingly

competitive, providers are looking to enhancing various aspects of their customer lifecycle

management capabilities. Few UCaaS providers, however, truly stand out with a holistic

approach to customer needs.

Jive places a particularly strong emphasis on solution design and customer onboarding. It

assigns dedicated project managers to all new accounts, regardless of business size. While

many of its competitors provide extensive implementation support only to businesses of a

minimum size (i.e., several dozen users), Jive provides all of its customers with the

needed attention to ensure deployment success.

Jive’s entire workforce is trained and encouraged to support customers throughout the

duration of their service with the provider. All teams within Jive’s organization are

empowered and cross-trained to quickly and more effectively address various customer

issues. Jive prides itself on short hold times for incoming customer calls, which it aims to

keep under 15 seconds, with actual hold time on some days down to zero seconds. Jive

closely monitors social media and service provider review sites to track customer concerns

and other feedback. Dedicated staff resolves potential issues using the customers’ medium

and communications modality of choice (e.g., social media, email, etc.).

Jive’s executive management, which includes three founders, consistently stresses the

importance of delivering a stellar customer experience. It provides compelling incentives

and rewards to company staff to ensure their commitment to customer service excellence.

Each year Jive sets a company net promoter score (NPS) target and encourages everyone

in the organization to be a customer service representative and help achieve this goal. To

boost employee drive to deliver superior customer service, Jive management launched a

particularly compelling program in 2017: if the company reaches its NPS goal all company

employees and their families will receive a free trip to Hawaii.

The results of Jive’s exceptional focus on customer service and support are evidenced by

its NPS of 68, which significantly exceeds the industry average of 27.83 (per G2 Crowd).

Jive also claims one of the lowest churn rates in the industry and reports that user



expansion within existing customers is more than offsetting any user or customer losses.

Also significant is the fact that more than half of Jive’s customers have participated in the

provider’s referral programs, recommending Jive to other businesses. Jive proudly shares

on its website customer reviews from various sources (G2 Crowd, GetApp, My VoIP

Provider, etc.). Customers praise Jive’s features as well as the professionalism and service

excellence dedication of its staff.

Compelling Business Communications and Collaboration Solutions

Customer satisfaction in the rapidly evolving UCaaS market is highly dependent upon the

provider’s feature set, service packaging and pricing, and technology roadmap. Businesses

of any size and industry require effective communications and collaboration tools to

withstand growing competition in their respective markets. Most businesses do not require

a full suite of UC applications for all of their users, but do need different features for

various users. Many businesses start small, with a limited set of UC features, but look to

expand their use of more advanced tools as their needs evolve. The cloud delivery model

allows businesses greater flexibility than premises-based solutions to adjust their

communications and collaboration functionality based on evolving requirements.

Most UCaaS providers offer broad feature sets, but packaging and pricing differ among

competitors. Jive delivers superior price/performance value with its competitively priced,

all-inclusive feature bundles. This approach greatly simplifies the customer purchase and

ownership experiences. Businesses can gradually expand their feature sets as they

acknowledge the need for different or additional communications and collaboration tools

throughout their lifecycle journeys.

With prices ranging from $19.95 for deployments of 50+ users to $29.95 for deployments

of one to four users, Jive bundles compare strongly against other available solutions. Each

bundle is comprised of an extensive set of core business voice features as well as more

unique features such as call reporting, call recording, analytics, voicemail to email, fax to

email, presence, user and admin web portals and more. Further, Jive mobile, desktop and

web apps provide users with access to their communications tools on any device and

network.

Jive also offers certain advanced solutions a-la-carte. Jive Video is a full-fledged video

conferencing solution for businesses requiring advanced visual collaboration. Jive Contact

Center provides businesses with an inexpensive customer care solution. Through a

partnership with InContact, it also offers a multi-channel contact center option.

Jive’s cloud architecture, home-grown UCaaS platform and software-based solutions

enable the provider to innovate rapidly and scale cost-effectively. The Jive platform is

based on open industry standards and therefore facilitates integration with other

standards-based SIP components and applications. Unlike many of its UCaaS competitors

using third-party platforms, Jive’s platform ownership allows it greater flexibility to

address evolving customer needs.



Jive also leverages advanced, contemporary software development processes. The company

uses a Scrum methodology based on Agile principles which includes rapid iteration and

continuous integration, whereas the vast majority of telecom vendors and service providers

use static/proprietary firmware and waterfall development processes. Cascading releases

enable more frequent functionality updates allowing Jive to stay at the forefront of

technology innovation.

Jive’s services are easy to set up and provision. Jive phones are shipped ready to plug and

play with no additional configuration required. For most small customers Jive provides a

“soft install”. Jive visually builds the PBX software for the customer using web share tools.

For large customers, installation is often provided by Jive channel partners.

Jive provides numerous engineering services to customers for free. It provides both off-the-

shelf and custom integration with third-party platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft

Outlook, Zendesk and others, including vertical-specific applications (e.g., dental and

medical software).

It’s clear that Jive remains committed to delivering compelling UCaaS solutions to

businesses through further feature enhancements and integrations with third-party

software.

Business Stability

Provider financial challenges can be highly disruptive to customers. As the market

increasingly consolidates and provider mergers and acquisitions continually re-shape the

competitive landscape, businesses grow ever-more concerned about the future of their

partnerships with their UCaaS providers.

Jive has demonstrated considerable effectiveness in strategy execution and business

management that has resulted in rapid growth and profitability with limited external

financing. Since its inception, the company has consistently reported above-industry-

average growth rates, boosted by organic expansion as well as several acquisitions. A

combination of direct and indirect sales helps extend the provider’s customer reach. Jive

currently employs a direct sales force serving SMB, commercial enterprise and public

sector (K12, higher education, and government) along with several other vertical-specific

account reps focused on hospitality, food services, e-tailing, and so on. Jive has also

focused on expanding its channel network in order to ensure broader geographic reach

and better customer service. Channel partners include telecom agents, managed telecom

service providers as well as master distributors. Jive also operates a successful referral

program for customers and strategic partners, which allows them to recommend and refer

Jive to their associates.

Jive targets both small businesses and large organizations, including the public sector,

which gives it a broad addressable market. Jive employs vertical strategies (e.g., specific

industry certifications and custom integration with vertical apps) that create unique



capabilities to help businesses in different industries. Jive reports particularly strong

traction in education and the public sector as well as among national franchises where

customers appreciate its robust functionality, compelling pricing and platform agility that

enable flexible integrations and customization.

As the US market matures, US-based providers need to explore growth opportunities in

additional countries and regions. Its efforts toward gradual international expansion will

enable Jive to better serve businesses with presence in multiple countries as well as

capitalize on a larger addressable market.

Conclusion

Jive excels in the UCaaS market with a strong focus on the customer experience. Its

distributed cloud architecture, holistic approach to supporting customer needs and service

delivery, compelling solution bundles and effective business strategy has propelled Jive to

become one of the leading providers in the North American UCaaS market.

With its strong overall performance, Jive has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Customer

Service Leadership Award.



Significance of Customer Service Leadership

Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon customers purchasing from a

company and then making the decision to return time and again. The service experience

is, therefore, a critical component of a company’s efforts to retain customers over the long

term. Through successful retention, companies enhance their brand, increase demand for

their products, and differentiate themselves from the competition.

Understanding Customer Service Leadership

Customer Service Leadership is defined and measured by two macro-level categories:

Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact. These two sides work together to

make customers feel valued and confident in their products’ quality and long shelf life.

This dual satisfaction translates into repeat purchases and a high lifetime of customer

value.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Customer Service Leadership Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently

evaluated two key factors—Quality of Customer Service and Customer Impact—according

to the criteria identified below.

Quality of Customer Service

Criterion 1: Empowerment

Criterion 2: Leverage of Customer Feedback

Criterion 3: Speed/Timeliness

Criterion 4: Frictionless Interaction

Criterion 5: Technological Investment

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Best Practices Award Analysis for Jive

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation.

Ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Quality of Customer Service and

Customer Impact (i.e., These are the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking

criteria; the definitions for each criterion are provided beneath the scorecard.). The

research team confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity

analysis, which confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not

lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key

participants as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Customer Service Leadership


Customer Impact

Average Rating

Jive 10.0 9.8 9.9

Competitor 2 10.0 9.6 9.8

Competitor 3 9.7 9.6 9.7


Criterion 1: Empowerment

Requirement: Service providers are encouraged to take independent, informed, and

creative approaches to issue resolution.

Criterion 2: Leverage of Customer Feedback

Requirement: Customer opinions are continually solicited and monitored, leading to direct

changes to product features or the service model.

Criterion 3: Speed/Timeliness

Requirement: Issues are resolved within a time frame satisfactory to the customer and

the provider.

Criterion 4: Frictionless Interaction

Requirement: Service providers deftly avoid customer conflict by maintaining a friendly,

professional demeanor at all times.

Criterion 5: Technological Investment

Requirement: Investment in best-in-class technologies enhance customer knowledge,

accelerate issue resolution, and/or improve the customer experience.

Customer Impact

Criterion 1: Price/Performance Value

Requirement: Products or services offer the best value for the price, compared to similar

offerings in the market.

Criterion 2: Customer Purchase Experience

Requirement: Customers feel they are buying the most optimal solution that addresses

both their unique needs and their unique constraints.

Criterion 3: Customer Ownership Experience

Requirement: Customers are proud to own the company’s product or service and have a

positive experience throughout the life of the product or service.



Criterion 4: Customer Service Experience

Requirement: Customer service is accessible, fast, stress-free, and of high quality.

Criterion 5: Brand Equity

Requirement: Customers have a positive view of the brand and exhibit high brand loyalty.

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

High

Low

Low High

Customer Impact


Jive

Competitor 2

Competitor 3



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan analysts follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and

assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the

Awards are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify Award recipient candidates from around the globe

• Conduct in-depth industry research

• Identify emerging sectors • Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

• Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

• Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

• Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning of all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

• Confirm best-practice criteria • Examine eligibility of all candidates

• Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4

Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

• Brainstorm ranking options • Invite multiple perspectives on candidates’ performance

• Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5

Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

• Share findings • Strengthen cases for candidate eligibility

• Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized Award candidates

6

Conduct global industry review

Build consensus on Award candidates’ eligibility

• Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

• Pressure-test fit with criteria • Confirm inclusion of all eligible candidates

Final list of eligible Award candidates, representing success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official Award consideration materials

• Perform final performance benchmarking activities

• Write nominations • Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice Award recipient

• Review analysis with panel • Build consensus • Select recipient

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform Award recipient of Award recognition

• Present Award to the CEO • Inspire the organization for continued success

• Celebrate the recipient’s performance

Announcement of Award and plan for how recipient can use the Award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company is able to share Award news with stakeholders and customers

• Coordinate media outreach • Design a marketing plan • Assess Award’s role in future strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s Award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these

research disciplines into the 360-degree

research methodology provides an

evaluation platform for benchmarking

industry participants and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

About Frost & Sullivan

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and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

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please visit http://www.frost.com.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN

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jive communications award write up

Data & Analytics