Intermedia Cloud Communications, as the name says, provide intelligent cloud communications for businesses to connect wherever they are. In January 2025, Nimans forged a partnership to bring Intermedia to its partners, and UC Advanced caught up with the “IN” team (Intermedia/Nimans)
What’s IN Intermedia?
Intermedia Cloud Communications sells a range of intelligent cloud communication and collaboration solutions for businesses, including unified communications (UCaaS) with voice, video conferencing, team chat, and file sharing. They also offer contact centre solutions, business email and file sharing, and a suite of security and productivity services such as back up, which are powered by an AI-enhanced platform. All sold through Nimans in the UK. Intermedia sell purely through the channel, they do not sell direct, giving partners the opportunity to own their customer relationships with the support of Nimans.
Nothing is Out
The Intermedia solution is so flexible, that MSPs and partners can choose various routes that suit their business models. Ronald Schapendonk, Intermedia’s Director Field Marketing EMEA, enthusiastically comments, “And the way we do it is all through one portal so that partners can get the solutions easily, and they can port numbers to our platform, all that with their own branding as well, so they can resell it on their own paperwork and under their own contract.”
Intermedia’s solution for platform integration is flexible to customers’ existing set up, or their ambitions. MSPs do not need to worry about the route it will take, as Philippe du Fou, EMEA Sales Director, helpfully explains, “We can do both. We can work as a standalone, so you don’t need Microsoft Teams or Microsoft 365 to run the solutions. But if you have Microsoft Teams, we’ve got a plug-in that can integrate seamlessly to that platform. You can do more than just unified calls, you can have the Connect Centre customer experience too, all integrated into the platform. That’s quite unique in terms of a solution that’s for the channel.”
Indeed, it is a unique solution, one that is both UCaaS and CCaaS all-in-one solution, with the benefit of having it within a Microsoft Teams environment if so desired.
Elevate-ing
Andrew Cooper, Head of Sales at Nimans Connect agrees, commenting, “It’s a great platform for partners, we see Intermedia as a key part of that ecosystem. Partners can sit outside of the Microsoft ecosystem and just sell it as a UCaaS, CCaaS product. It’s really easy to engage with. All the training’s online, and there’s help and support if so desired. It’s simple, straightforward for partners to really get involved with it.
“For the partner with some Communications market experience, for example, partners registering early in the morning could be provisioning customers easily by the end of the day, as it is a straight forward self-serve provisioning system, and for partners onboarding there are lots of training materials online and how-to videos to help them on the way.”
“A benefit for partners is that Intermedia is not a heavy overhead in terms of having to really deep dive into a full-on certification process. You need to be certified, but it’s easy to do so.”
Moving onto the customer experience of Elevate, Nimans Connect staff themselves are using Elevate as their in-house system, so there can be no better endorsement of a product. Feedback is that the platform is intuitive to use, and the team are enjoying call recording, and transcripts, and the analytics side of it, in terms of summaries and other insights the integrated-AI offers when analysing calls, voice and chat.
One takeout that was pertinent, is that whether the end user is a knowledge worker, or just a general worker, the needs and features which they both desire from a system are much the same nowadays, and thus MSPs having a UCaaS and CCaaS under one roof is definitely a selling point and a value-add that partners can offer customers or all shapes and sizes.
Adding IN with no Lock
The flexibility of Intermedia cannot be understated. Partners are not fixed to licenses and ways of operating, and neither are their customers and end users.
Ronald comments, “We could have standalone licenses that are connected to Teams, or aren’t connected to Teams, for example. We could have some (customers) using full contact centre and some using home groups. So it does give you that large area of flexibility where I think you’ll find other platforms out there are a little bit more regimented in how they’re deployed. And that’s a big advantage.”
“It is simple with the licensor to ‘mix and match people’, and organisations can choose their own individuals to deploy to, and they can choose their own license. And on top of that, we also believe that if organisations don’t like the service they are also able to switch off every month, so as a company culture we believe too that we need to prove ourselves every day every month with our platform. If an organisation decides, ‘we are not utilising this service at all’, then they’re not tied into a multi-year contract so they can switch off every month. Our churn rate is very low, proving that flexibility is important to the customer.”
Flexibility is with the MSPs and resellers too. Niman’s partners decide and determine what margins they set, what pricing they set. MSPs and resellers can switch the platform on and off within 30 days if desired, if that’s what they choose to do, but, as Ronald proudly states, “typically they don’t choose to do that.”
Being IN: Channel Centric for Any Size
Philippe comments, “We’re always committed to the channel. We only sell through the channel, we’ll never sell direct.”
The Intermedia model caters to any sized organisation, as Philippe states, “if you just wanted one user, we can do that. If you wanted 6,000 users, we could also do that. That’s the beauty of the cloud. There are fixed prices per users, but Intermedia can support larger deals if needed.”
Choosing Longevity in a Consolidating Market
Andrew Cooper reflects on the broader UCaaS landscape, “I’d probably argue there are more than 120 UCaaS vendors in the UK when you add all the ones that claim to be. That market will consolidate. We always used to say this in the world of PBX – it’s vital to choose the right vendor, one with real longevity. Some PBX vendors outlasted others, and it’s the same in this world.”
He continues, “There are products out there built on an upfront investment model where returns are based on seat numbers, but some of those are starting to run out of steam. Typically, the first thing to get hit is product development. With a platform like Intermedia, you can see continual evolution – ongoing innovation around the platform. So for partners, the message is clear: choose wisely when selecting the vendor relationships you want to build your business on.”
Ronald Schapendonk agrees, tying the point back to Intermedia’s philosophy of partner and customer ownership. “That longevity comes from the strength of the relationship,” he says. “Customer ownership is at the core of Intermedia’s go-to-market strategy. Partners own the customer. With Nimans, we want to build those long-term relationships with partners, investing heavily in training and education so they are seen as trusted advisors to their customers.”
He adds, “We’re working closely with Nimans to help partners understand how to bring real value from AI to their customers – not just through features and functionality, but by focusing on real business outcomes. That’s the key change we’re seeing in the channel: the move from selling technology to delivering results. And that’s something we’re committed to achieving together with Nimans.”
