{"id":17564,"date":"2021-04-06T10:00:49","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=17564"},"modified":"2021-04-01T10:39:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T09:39:39","slug":"ringside-insider-interview-with-tom-reed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-tom-reed\/","title":{"rendered":"Ringside: Insider Interview with Tom Reed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How has the pandemic impacted cloud adoption? What pivotal shifts have you seen in communications over the years?<\/p>\n<p>Ringside is all about finding out answers. For this episode, we hear from Tom Reed, <span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">managing director and founder of UCAdvisor.\u00a0<\/span>Before founding UCAdvisor, Tom had several successful management and leadership roles within the telecoms and IT industry.\u00a0 All his roles focused on unified communications and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\">contact centre<\/a> products.<\/p>\n<p>Working with the likes of Mitel, RingCentral, 8&#215;8, and Gamma, Tom focused on developing and driving the adoption of cloud-based solutions. Tom has a passion for new and innovative ways of doing business and hopes to disrupt the IT procurement process. Outside of work, his hobbies include a love of tabletop gaming, electric scooters and watch collecting.<\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Can you tell us a bit about UCAdvisor?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucadvisor.com\/\">UCAdvisor<\/a> is a faster way for IT Teams to compare, shortlist and fund their next UC or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/contact-centre\/overview.html\">contact centre<\/a> project. We&#8217;re unique in our industry and incredibly proud of what we do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The platform enables users to research and compare the leading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/office\/unified-communications.html\">UC<\/a> and contact centre vendors all from a single site, turning what would traditionally be weeks (if not months) of information gathering by IT and procurement teams down into a few minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">On top of this, because we use the existing partner network to our end customers advantage, we freely fund up to 100% of any upfront costs incurred by switching providers.\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">We allow organisations to concentrate on finding the right solution for them rather than worrying about the cost of switching.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t<style>\r\n\t\t\t@media (min-width: 768px) {\r\n\t\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img {\r\n\t\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\r\n\t\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img img {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta {\r\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #001138;\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 30px;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy {\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 0 30px;\r\n\t\t\t\toverflow: hidden;\r\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy .btn-primary {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t<\/style>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp IID-cta-6a0c6eb52f9ea\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"cta\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-img\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/channel.png\" alt=\"Call to action banner\">\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-copy\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Find out about the industry's leading partner programme.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Read about the partner programme\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/partner\/overview.html\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Find out about the industry's leading partner programme.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Find out about the industry's leading partner programme. | Explore the partner hub\">Explore the partner hub<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">What&#8217;s your role at UCAdvisor, and what do you love about your job?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I&#8217;m the managing director and founder of the business, focusing mainly on strategy, UK growth, and vendor relationships. I love that we genuinely get to help companies and IT Teams get the most out of their digital transformation projects and provide a useful platform to aid them in their search. There are not many genuine win-win scenarios out there (in any capacity), and I&#8217;m incredibly grateful that we can offer one in the telecoms marketplace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">For me, this is the ideal situation to be in. I genuinely love my job and am lucky to work with really great employees, customers and partners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In what ways has business communications changed over your career?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I think adoption would be the main aspect. Things like SIP trunks and cloud PBXs were still very much on the peripherals when I started out. Now we are seeing a surge in organisations accepting and adopting the tech en masse, and it&#8217;s great to see such a shift in attitude.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">How have the events of the past 12 months impacted the way you work?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In a word. Massively! Everything from trying to keep the kids out of the home office to not realising you haven&#8217;t left your seat in five hours. It&#8217;s strange what habits you fall into when you are working in isolation. That being said, it&#8217;s been great to see more of my family, and I&#8217;m always home on time now! Moving forward, a mixture of office and home working would be a great balance.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F3dhaZRm&#038;text=It%20took%20something%20like%20COVID-19%20to%20highlight%20the%20flaws%20in%20the%20traditional%20platforms%20and%20hopefully%20means%20people%20can%20appreciate%20how%20crucial%20flexibility%20is%20nowadays.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">It took something like COVID-19 to highlight the flaws in the traditional platforms and hopefully means people can appreciate how crucial flexibility is nowadays. <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fringcentr.al%2F3dhaZRm&#038;text=It%20took%20something%20like%20COVID-19%20to%20highlight%20the%20flaws%20in%20the%20traditional%20platforms%20and%20hopefully%20means%20people%20can%20appreciate%20how%20crucial%20flexibility%20is%20nowadays.&#038;via=RingCentralUK&#038;related=RingCentralUK' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">How has the pandemic impacted cloud adoption and what do you think will happen next?<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">I can&#8217;t speak for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/solutions\/office\/call.html\">cloud<\/a> adoption as a whole, but certainly, it has been a game-changer for UC and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/office\/features\/hosted-pbx\/overview.html\">cloud PBX<\/a> adoption. Traditionally, cloud telephony and UC always sat way down the pecking order for CTOs and CFOs to digitise or transform. There was a mentality of &#8216;if it isn&#8217;t broke, why mess with it&#8217;. I think it took something like COVID-19 to highlight the flaws in the traditional platforms and hopefully means people can appreciate how crucial flexibility is nowadays.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Moving forward, it goes without saying that the industry will go from strength to strength. We will see adoption skyrocket globally. Hopefully, this shared experience will mean UC and cloud telephony stay top priority for businesses moving forward!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Find out more about Tom and UCAdvisor <a href=\"https:\/\/uk.linkedin.com\/in\/thomas-reed-45526672\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t<div class=\"uc-expo-cta-2 style-4  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"ctaButton\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"inner-container\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Become a RingCentral partner and join the industry's elite.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"button\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/partner\/overview.html\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-additional-info=\"Become a RingCentral partner and join the industry's elite.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Become a RingCentral partner and join the industry's elite. | Join us today\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener\" title=\"Join our partner programme\">Join us today<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How has the pandemic impacted cloud adoption? What pivotal shifts have you seen in communications over the years? Ringside is all about finding out answers. For this episode, we hear &hellip; <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-tom-reed\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ringside: Insider Interview with Tom Reed&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":17565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[74,122],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ringside: Insider Interview with Tom Reed | RingCentral UK Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How has the pandemic impacted cloud adoption? What pivotal shifts have you seen in communications over the years?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/ringside-insider-interview-with-tom-reed\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samantha Clayton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ringside: Insider Interview with Tom Reed | RingCentral UK Blog","description":"How has the pandemic impacted cloud adoption? 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Before joining the business, she worked in content and public relations roles. She has worked with companies in ed tech, marketing and advertising, connected home, telecoms and publishing. She has a BA in English Literature and an interest in story writing. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and live music.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/claytonsamantha\/"],"url":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/author\/samantha-clayton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17564"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}