Datagate integrates with the full range of Vocus wholesale voice and data products and services, spanning internet, dark networks, IP WAN, telephony (including Microsoft Teams-compliant SIP trunks) and cloud services. Vocus uses Datagate to enable its wholesale MSP partners to white label and invoice any Vocus service automatically.
“Datagate is perfect for MSPs who don’t want to invest in their own billing solution,” says Charlie Boyd, GM Sales – Wholesale at Vocus.
“Any of our wholesale partners can rate, bill and bundle telecommunications services – including VoIP, tolls, data plans and subscription services – with no capital investment required.”
“Datagate is perfect for MSPs who don’t want to invest in their own billing solution.”
– Charlie Boyd, GM Sales – Wholesale, Vocus Group New Zealand.
Excellent technical fit
Datagate easily scales to suit Vocus’s largest partners but is flexible enough to meet the needs of its smallest partners too.
“It’s an excellent technical fit,” says Charlie Boyd. “Datagate helps us to deliver on our point of difference, which is our ability to work with MSPs and help them develop their own unique services and customer offerings. We can deliver on that – for even our small MSP partners – and this makes us stand out in the market,” he says.
“Our other point of difference is that we have a massive, reliable network with a well-resourced technical team. Our scale lets us offer better pricing to our channel.”
The wholesale billing feed is raw data, not suitable for passing on to end customers. Once the MSP partner has provided consent, Datagate pulls Call Detail Records (CDRs) directly out of Vocus’s systems, deciphering and rating the data streams.
“Datagate automatically produces a nice easy to read, easy to understand invoice,” Charlie Boyd says.
In addition to billing, the CDRs provide all the information needed to offer analytics to the end customer. An optional white label Datagate end-user portal enables the MSP’s customers to view their usage data (such as analysis by cost center and usage trends) as well as their Datagate-generated invoices. The MSP can present the end customer bill as an emailed PDF, a hard copy or via the online portal. Datagate integrates with most popular accounting systems, including Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, Acumatica, ConnectWise Manage and payment gateways.
Vocus is also a white label telecommunications provider. Its wholesale partners bill under their own brands, which Datagate automates. Vocus has a self-service capability and the company is investing more in this.
“Partners are attracted by our self-service capability, they like to place their own orders for broadband, add new numbers on the SIP and do their own trouble shooting. It’s very direct. They control customer service because the end customer deals only with the MSP,” says Charlie Boyd.
Flexibility and scalability
Datagate offers many different go-to-market options for billing and re-packaging services. At the product level – such as for broadband – Vocus can offer flexibility in terms of scale, geography and access type.
“We work with you, we find a way,” Charlie Boyd says.
“You can start small and scale up. For voice services, you can use our platform or yours. We connect to Microsoft and we offer Microsoft Teams-compliant SIP trunks. We’re pre-integrated with all other carriers and we integrate with Datagate ‘out of the box.’
“When we refer a wholesale partner to a supplier, we need to feel comfortable that the supplier will look after them and do a good job,” Charlie Boyd says.
“Datagate is an excellent fit for service providers who don’t want to invest in billing, such as IT service providers offering telecoms, broadband and voice services. Vocus and Datagate work closely together for the benefit of Vocus’s partner channel. We trust Datagate. All our partners receive implementation assistance as well as ongoing support. The Datagate team make themselves available to partners, they’re helpful, they collaborate with and support our wholesale partners. Datagate works. It fills a real gap and is an excellent technical and cultural fit for Vocus.”
