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Sangoma Highest in PBX Customer Satisfaction for 2020Sangoma Highest in PBX Customer Satisfaction for 2020

Customers also like Xorcom and Dialpad PBXs, according to a new survey by the Eastern Management Group.

John Malone

May 10, 2020

4 Min Read
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In the Eastern Management Group’s new 2020 PBX study, Sangoma ranked highest in customer satisfaction out of 33 unified communications providers evaluated. Xorcom and Dialpad also turned in blue-ribbon performances.

 

In its latest annual global satisfaction research, the Eastern Management Group collected data from thousands of IT manager customers. Each rated their company's unified communications provider on 12 measurements covering product, vendor experience, and customer delight. The findings are in our "2020 Premises and Hosted PBX Customer Satisfaction" report.

 

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Sangoma’s Strong Satisfaction Scores

Customers rate Sangoma the best of 33 vendors in the customer satisfaction measurements of technology and product, purchase experience, installation, and overall satisfaction. When asked if they would recommend Sangoma to a friend, customers gave Sangoma the highest rating — four out of four stars.

 

Sangoma UC Portfolio

Sangoma has a broad communications portfolio, including UC, VoIP phones, session border controllers, communications platform as a service, and SIP trunking. The UC lineup consists of on-prem, cloud, and virtualized systems, under the Switchvox banner.

 

  • UCaaS — Switchvox Cloud is a fully-featured UC solution designed for SMBs. Premium features, including presence, messaging, conferencing, and mobility, are included with a basic package, all for about $20 per seat. This low price per seat compares handsomely in Eastern Management Group price models that show premium features from many well-known UCaaS vendors can add $6 per month more, or about 30%, to the price per seat. Here, Sangoma seems to be at an advantage.

  • Premises — The Switchvox UC Phone System includes the same features listed for the cloud version, again at no additional cost. Applications like collaboration, mobility, chat, video chat, quick dial, status, and presence, are free.

Sangoma UC systems are not just for SMBs, which the Eastern Management Group classifies as systems up to 300 seats. Our survey shows that 16% of all Sangoma system purchases are made by customers with more than 300 seats, and most of them — 10 of the 16% — exceed 500 seats.

 

Eastern Management Group’s survey shows both premises PBX and cloud each account for substantial numbers of Sangoma’s UC deployments.

 

Our research shows Sangoma UC systems are well distributed across the 20 vertical markets we track. A large number are in healthcare, retail, education, finance, professional services, personal services, and government.

 

Behind the Curtain

Acquisitions play an essential role at Sangoma. The addition of Digium, VoIP Supply, VoIP Innovations, and other companies has added depth to the business.

 

Financially, Sangoma performs well. Annual revenue for FY 2019 was $109 million, 91% higher than the prior year, according to the company’s annual report. Gross margins exceeded 60% of revenue for the year, and EBITDA was $12 million.

 

Sangoma’s R&D expenditure, exceeding 17% of revenue, has likely been a contributor to Sangoma’s customer satisfaction measurement scores. Sangoma is a growing company that, in our satisfaction survey, gets deserved customer recognition.

 

Rounding Out Top 3

As noted above, Xorcom and Dialpad also faired well in our customer satisfaction research.

 

This is not the first year Xorcom has been at the top of more than one customer satisfaction measurement in the Eastern Management Group’s yearly survey. In 2020, Xorcom rated number one in support, moving up from the number two spot last year. Training could be part of the reason Xorcom scores well here. All you need to do is review the syllabus of Xorcom’s 35 section free course on the “Basics of CompletePBX 5” to see the company’s exceptionalism at work.

 

Like Sangoma, Xorcom receives the four star maximum for our Recommend-To-A-Friend rating. Xorcom customers include brands like 3M, Verifone, and many hotels like Hilton.

 

Xorcom’s total satisfaction scores earned the company a spot in Eastern Management Group’s top five PBX vendors for 2020.

 

As for Dialpad, out of 33 competitors in the study, it rated number one for innovation, as well as for value. In each category, Dialpad received four stars out of a possible four.

 

Innovation and value can be seen intersecting on Dialpad’s website home page. The company’s website boasts that if COVID-19 is disrupting your business, Dialpad will help and here’s how: Dialpad Talk Pro and UberConference Business are free to help keep customers connected. That’s compelling innovation and value.

 

Look under the hood of Dialpad’s technology, and it’s full of AI tools. AI will coach a customer’s salesforce and contact center agents. Dialpad calls these applications dialpadSell and dialpadSupport. I haven’t seen this type of tool available elsewhere.

 

Final Thoughts

Despite the growth of PBX competition, Eastern Management Group’s 2020 customer satisfaction measurement scores, for all vendors combined, improved by four percent over 2019. It’s a remarkable achievement for a capable group of providers.

 

Eastern Management Group research in this post is from our “2020 Premises and Hosted PBX Customer Satisfaction” and "Worldwide Hosted PBX Market 2019-2025" reports. For more information on these studies and reports, please contact our analyst team or John Malone directly at 212-738-9402 Ext. 2201 or [email protected].

About the Author

John Malone

John Malone is the President and CEO of The Eastern Management Group. He heads one of the world's premier communications industry research companies. He is also the author of three books.

In addition to Eastern Management, he founded two other software and database management companies. He has served on the board of directors of numerous publicly traded, and private technology companies.

At The Eastern Management Group, he has managed thousands of the company's research assignments for major technology businesses and service providers worldwide.

John Malone is a former executive with AT&T. While there he developed the first call center.

He has advised Members and Staff of The US House of Representatives, US Senate, Department of Justice, FCC, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, State Legislatures, State Regulatory Commissions and the European Commission. He has testified extensively before the US Congress, state legislatures, and regulatory agencies on technology matters. His research and analysis of telecommunications and Internet policy have been presented at the Cato Institute and FreedomWorks.

His insights and views have been frequently reported in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week. Fortune magazine called John Malone the leading analyst in the industry.

John Malone has served on the Board of Directors of American Fiber Systems acquired by Zayo, Valere Power acquired by Eltek Energy, In Motion Technology acquired by Sierra Wireless, Phaethon Communications acquired by TeraXion, Applied Digital Access acquired by Dynatech, VINA Technologies acquired by Larscom, and Larscom acquired by Verilink. He also served on the University of Dayton Alumni Board of Directors. He holds a BS and MBA from the University of Dayton.