It has been eight months since UK-based unified communications firm Via launched in Australia, and country manager Glendon Evarts is confident that there will be plenty of growth opportunities for the company in the region.

“There is a huge opportunity in the Australian market to help partners accommodate their customers who are after unified communications, particularly because there aren’t too many options,” Evarts told Telecom Times.

According to Evarts, prior to launching in Australia, founders Edward Worthington, Alex Tebbs, and Gareth Sobocinski recognised there was a real opportunity in the market to provide Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams services with a full set of telephony and contact centre features.

“It’s where the NBN is rolling out, and internet connection is becoming less of an issue in terms of running your communications over the internet versus traditional phone lines, which presents an opportunity for unified communications out here in the cloud,” noted Evarts, while pointing out that Via also has an opportunity to serve as an alternative to other local UC providers such as Telstra.

“Unfortunately due to a recent deal between Microsoft and Telstra, if our partners didn’t develop their own direct routing to Microsoft Teams for calling and their customers wanted calling through Teams, then they had it do it through Telstra. But now our partners have the option to use us, which will give them a better margin than someone like Telstra,” Evarts said.

As part of entering the Australian market, the company has set up a local datacentre in Sydney. Via also has existing datacentres in the UK and North America. “It’s just so we can service our 20,000 customers,” Evarts said.

Evarts added there are plans to also grow the local headcount. Currently, the company has 30 staff, 75 percent of which are in development and support and – as yet – all based in the UK.