Dan Bassett heads up the Devices & Infrastructure division at Nuvias UC, while also overseeing Nuvias UC’s UK sales team. A few months on from TechTalks, UC Advanced caught up with Dan to gain further insight into how Nuvias UC continues to support and empower its partners.
Q: How are you leveraging vendors and their technology, to best serve partners?
Dan: At Nuvias UC, staying ahead of market trends is at the core of our strategy – not just to keep ourselves relevant but more importantly, to ensure our partners are always one step ahead in meeting customer demands.
We continuously evaluate and onboard vendors whose technology addresses both current and emerging needs in the UC space. While there is a steady demand for essential solutions like video conferencing platforms and volume headsets, we go further by identifying and supporting specialist hardware vendors that align with future requirements.
For example, we distribute Algo, a vendor that might appear niche compared to others but serves a critical compliance-driven need. Considering evolving legal requirements around mass communication in buildings and public events, we recognised a responsibility to enable our partners to meet these regulations through reliable solutions.
Ultimately, our approach is not just about providing access to technology, it’s about anticipating shifts in regulation, customer behaviour and infrastructure needs and equipping our partners with the tools to address them proactively.
Q: How big is your portfolio?
Dan: In the devices and infrastructure space, we currently work with 11 carefully selected vendors, each chosen to deliver specific value to our partners and to complement both our software and services division and our customers’ modern UC ecosystems.
From Neat, Yealink, and HP | Poly – renowned for their sleek, high-performance video conferencing systems – to our deep roots in the service provider space, and TP-Link’s reputation for robust, reliable networking, our vendor portfolio is built to deliver comprehensive, end-to-end solutions.
Q:Do you provide free information, advice, quotations, training, returns?
Dan: Across each division – Devices & Infrastructure, Software and Services – we’ve built a structured approach to vendor and partner support.
Each division has a dedicated Business Development Manager (BDM) who supports running the day-to-day relationship with the vendors whilst also driving net new business across the team
Our Segment Account Managers acts as the primary relationship owner for our partners, delivering ongoing commercial and logistical support to drive growth and collaboration.
Our Internal Sales Account Managers responsible for managing day-to-day business operations, providing frontline support, and assisting with administrative tasks as needed to ensure smooth execution.
A Technical Solutions Expert is available for in-depth support, such as technical deep-dives and tailored solution-building.
This structure allows us to provide end-to-end support, whether a partner needs a quote, general advice, a detailed product consultation or deployment support.
Q: Licensing for hardware, and integrating hardware with software; how adept is your team?
Dan: Our specialist model means that when a partner engages with us, they’re not just speaking to a generalist but someone who truly understands their specific area of need.
If an opportunity for upsell arises – whether that’s hardware attach or a software licensing uplift – the initial point of contact will seamlessly hand over to the most relevant Business Development Manager (BDM). This ensures the partner receives accurate guidance, tailored advice and commercially sound recommendations from someone who lives and breathes that solution area.
It’s about creating an experience that integrates licensing, hardware, and services in a way that’s smooth, scalable and truly valuable to the partner and their customer.
Q: Do you have market insights, and share with partners and/or use for steering partners?
Dan: We’ve found that one of the most effective ways to share knowledge with our partners is through our quarterly roundtable events.
Each session is built around a timely and relevant market theme, for example, our July event focused on ‘Navigating Verticals.’ We carefully select vendors who are specialists in the chosen area and invite partners with aligned interests.
The event is hosted by a paid industry analyst, who shares valuable market insights, which would usually cost a partner money. This gives partners a rare opportunity to access strategic intelligence in a collaborative and informal environment.
These roundtables serve as a forum for open dialogue, where vendors and partners can explore market opportunities, share real-world experiences and discuss emerging threats. It’s not just about knowledge-sharing, it’s about building relationships and uncovering new business potential.
Q: Demonstrations and partner days – tell us more.
Dan: We love a good partner day! Many of our vendors have incredible experience centres and we make it a priority to ensure our partners benefit from them. These environments offer a first-hand look at the technology in action, helping partners better understand how solutions can fit into their customers’ environments.
But it’s more than just the educational aspect. Partner days also provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen relationships between vendors, partners and our team.
We’re always happy to take time away from day-to-day to facilitate these sessions – whether that means bringing partners into a vendor’s space, or vice versa.
This article first appeared in UC Advanced magazine issue#20.
