Partner Case Study - Risc IT Solutions

Risc IT Solutions are Cloud experts - IT professionals and trusted advisors who help companies work smarter by providing the right solutions to their business challenges. Risc were the pioneers of Cloud Backup in the UK and have built up a strong business over the last 20 years based on trust, knowledge and experience, coupled with first-class support.

Risc were one of the first Microsoft Partners in the UK to achieve Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) Direct status. Now, Risc has 5 Microsoft Competencies, over 25,000 end-users across over 1,000 customers, and 250 IT resellers, so are well equipped to help companies across the full breadth of IT requirements.

Risc IT Solutions were already well established in the IT industry but were looking for a UC partner to enhance their product portfolio. As the UK's leading provider of Skype for Business, Wavenet was at the top of their list. 

Historically, providing voice solutions wasn’t a focus for Risc, as they preferred to leave this to their reseller channel who worked with more traditional IP Telephony providers. However, with the maturity of Skype for Business as a Unified Comms platform, Risc saw the market changing with their customers wanting a single, integrated solution for all of their communication and collaboration. With this in mind, in 2017, Risc moved all of their in-house telephony and contact centre to Wavenet’s Hosted Skype for Business platform. This allowed them to meet their own, and their customers’, needs by enabling smarter, more efficient and remote work.

Although Risc’s relationship with Wavenet started in 2017, the real acceleration of adoption from their customers came later in 2019. This was predominantly due to Microsoft’s migration of Skype to Teams, but was accentuated by companies’ desire for remote working. The need for a solution that can easily support complete flexible working has now become a requirement due to the impact of the global pandemic, so is more important than ever.

In 2019 Wavenet launched TeamsLink, an advanced direct routing telephony solution for Microsoft Teams. The platform benefits from the same bespoke portal developed in-house for Skype for Business with Wavenet, which allowed Risc and their customers to transition from the Skype platform to Teams seamlessly. 

After becoming Wavenet Wholesale's first distributor, Risc have deployed record levels of TeamsLink licences with Wavenet, repeatedly showcasing their expertise and platform knowledge. Risc's in-house skillset has enabled them to become self-sufficient, working independently, but with Wavenet’s support at every stage. This has allowed for a stronger relationship and to develop advanced sales and marketing strategies with repeatedly successful ROIs.

Risc IT Solutions are active users in the Wholesale Hub - an online resource library full of go-to-market materials and content to help support their sales and marketing communications. The Wholesale Hub has played a vital role in equipping their sales and marketing teams with collateral, knowledge and expertise to enable co-branded communications.

Following the initial pandemic lockdown in March, Risc launched a collaborative series of webinars with Wavenet, offering guidance and advice to their customers, IT resellers and companies throughout the UK who were forced to transition staff from the office to their homes. Wavenet has proudly supported the series from launch, as well as co-hosted specialist events such as Wales Tech Week and Risc's very own Microsoft Week: Wales. 

"I am incredibly excited to see our relationship with Wavenet continue to develop and give us the opportunity to provide complete Unified Comms solutions. Having worked with Wavenet, and previously VIA since 2012, I have seen the platform evolve from Lync, through Skype for Business and now Teams.

Building on Microsoft's core Teams platform, TeamsLink gives us the ability to build solutions for our partners that can replace traditional telephony, contact centre, and call recording platforms with a single product fully supported by Risc.

The team at Wavenet have always been focussed on delivering a technically innovative and completely resilient product, which has given us the confidence to take Teams to our customers knowing that we have a solid service behind us."

 - Mark Lawton, Business Development Director at Risc IT Solutions

Being heavily dependent on over the phone donations, Alzheimer’s Research had concerns about their outdated and unreliable phone system. This escalated further with reports of engaged tones and dead lines: they had no idea what calls they were losing, what it was costing, and how many donations they were missing.

In just 6 weeks, Risc IT rolled out Teams for Alzheimer's Research UK, enabling them to operate fully whilst working from home. The team have increased donations whilst operating remotely during the pandemic. 

“We recently rolled out Microsoft Teams with voice across the organisation. The technology has enabled flexibility and reliability that we simply didn’t have with previous products. In our current climate, this has ensured our entire workforce have been able to make the transition to home working with ease.

Thanks to Risc IT Solutions’ project management, including an internal communications plan and training materials, coupled with their thorough onsite training, it made the rollout of Teams seamless and ensured our employees were well informed on how best to utilise the technology.

This has enabled us to communicate and collaborate more effectively and will further enable Alzheimer’s Research UK to work towards our mission”.

- Head of IT - Alzheimer’s Research UK

Mark Lawton from Risc IT Solutions talks to Dom Loia, Head of IT at Alzheimer's Research UK about the platform, their deployment and what it has meant for their organisation.

Although Risc IT Solutions is an established Distributor partner of Wavenet Wholesale, their partner journey is well worth showcasing as it highlights the progression and growth of Risc IT Solutions as a business, MSP and industry-leading IT specialist. From initial partnership in 2012 to achieving Distributor status in 2020, this is an inspiring partner journey that Wavenet Wholesale are proud to share.

What differentiates Wavenet’s platform from other UC providers is that our TeamsLink solution is the most feature-rich Microsoft Teams platform available on the market. The Wavenet management portal gives both us and our customers complete visual control over the management of users and call flows. These are all features which are not available from Microsoft directly and are unique to Wavenet.

By partnering with Wavenet Wholesale, and working with a dedicated Account Manager, Risc IT can enhance and complement their in-house expertise on unified communications, Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams, whilst seamlessly integrating with their existing IT services.

Risc IT Solutions will continue to grow their partner base and further establish their position as industry leaders and one of the top Wavenet Wholesale Platinum Partners and Distributors. Wavenet will continue to support Risc in achieving their business goals and growth with our collaborative and unified approach. 

Wavenet’s internal development team continually roadmap improved features, bespoke functions and feature requests. Upon release, Risc IT Solutions will be rolling out advanced Power BI templates, reporting and in-depth analysis for new business in Teams. Risc will be front and centre throughout testing and deployment for end-users.