About this episode
In this episode, host Scott Kinka sits down with Shane Cleckler, Director of Sales Engineering, and Jeff Martis, Senior Director of Product Management at Sangoma, to explore why hybrid deployments are the real differentiator in unified communications, how to meet customers where they actually are (not where vendors want them to be), and the key strategies for solving survivability and resilience without forcing migration to cloud. Whether you're rationalizing your post-pandemic collaboration spend or building a UC roadmap that actually works for your business, this conversation cuts through the noise with practical frameworks for evaluating cloud, on-premise, and hybrid options—plus why the most successful vendors are thinking like integrators again.What you will learn:Why hybrid UC deployments are a permanent "flavor" rather than a temporary stopgap measureHow to think about site survivability and network redundancy beyond just dual internet circuitsThe real-world use cases where cloud-only solutions fail (hospitals, manufacturing, schools, law firms)Why UC is about to annex adjacent domains like digital signage, video surveillance, and environmental sensorsThe consultative approach to replacing outdated RFPs with business-outcome-focused solutionsHow the industry has come full circle from product sales to integration to SaaS and back to solutions engineeringWhy simplicity beats feature bloat in collaboration tools—and why 50 features means 45 you'll never useSangoma's partner-first strategy and why they meet partners "nine-tenths of the way"About the Guests:Shane Cleckler is the Director of Sales Engineering at Sangoma, bringing over 25 years of VoIP and unified communications expertise from the Dallas area. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, Shane has been deeply embedded in the evolution of voice technology—from the days when people couldn't spell VoIP to today's integrated, cloud-native UC platforms. His philosophy centers on consultative selling: understanding business problems first, then architecting solutions that often combine multiple platforms rather than forcing customers into rigid product boxes. Outside of work, Shane is pursuing an unexpected passion: becoming a hot air balloon pilot.Jeff Martis is the Senior Director of Product Management at Sangoma, representing the Philadelphia area with nearly 25 years in telecommunications. His career spans the entire arc of the industry's transformation, and he's worked across diverse customer segments—from large dealer partners to mom-and-pop bakeries, hospitals, schools, retail chains, and manufacturing plants. Jeff's product philosophy is refreshingly contrarian: he believes the industry needs fewer features, not more, and that simplicity leads to less regret and
