Calix Announces SmartBiz, the 9th Managed Service—Moving Service Providers From Connectivity to Transformational Productivity With Small Business Subscribers

Calix SmartBiz delivers a broadband solution purpose-built to address what North America’s 34 million small businesses need—productivity, management, cellular backup, automation, advanced networking, security, and business insights—leveraging the same Calix platform that nearly a thousand service providers rely on to serve their residential subscribers today

Today at ConneXions 2022, Calix Inc. (NYSE: CALX) announced the ninth in its rapidly expanding portfolio of managed services, SmartBiz™. This offering leverages the existing Calix platforms and systems—including Calix Intelligent Access EDGE™, Calix Revenue EDGE™, Revenue EDGE Systems, and Calix Cloud^®—that broadband service providers (BSPs) already use for residential service delivery. There are a combined 34 million small businesses across the United States and Canada. Seamless and scalable, SmartBiz enables BSPs to go to market with a solution that serves the business productivity needs of these businesses while saving on operational expenses (OPEX). It will also enable BSPs to drive new revenue, differentiate from competitors, and add tremendous value to this market. Small businesses with between five and 30 employees are the commercial lifeblood of small and rural communities—agriculture, retail, restaurants, and services ranging from auto repair to medical testing. These businesses are hamstrung by existing broadband service plans that do not serve their specific needs. Enterprise products built for medium and large businesses are complex and not built as a managed service for the BSP. Residential services repackaged for small businesses do not include the necessary productivity services small businesses need to succeed.

The SmartBiz integrated solution fulfills the needs of small business subscribers and allows BSPs to deliver these critical business services cost effectively and at scale as a managed service. SmartBiz delivers competitive advantages for BSPs with a solution that enables them to differentiate in their respective markets and transition from selling connectivity services to providing small business productivity applications.

• Service providers can drive new revenue while keeping OPEX low thanks to existing integrations to Calix platforms. Broadband providers that have already deployed Calix managed services to their residential and small business customers can quickly level up and easily deliver the SmartBiz managed service with small business productivity applications. Broadband providers can leverage the Calix industry-leading portfolio of Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E systems—GigaSpire® and GigaPro™—already in use by thousands of small businesses for voice, video, and managed Wi-Fi services.

• SmartBiz delivers a differentiated solution repeatable for nearly all small businesses. SmartBiz features advanced, simple-to-use Wi-Fi and LAN networking for business applications, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, employees, and customers. SmartBiz delivers increased productivity through POS and staff access control, and business insights and increased customer loyalty through a brandable customer portal. Additionally, SmartBiz gives the business owner cellular backup, a cybersecurity firewall, and content filtering normally available only in larger enterprise-grade solutions.

• Calix Marketing Cloud enables BSPs to deliver targeted marketing campaigns to increase take rate. Calix Marketing Cloud^® (Marketing Cloud) is the industry’s most powerful real-time behavioral analytics engine. With Marketing Cloud, BSPs can identify and target customers with compelling messages through industry-lauded Calix Market Activation sales enablement materials. Branded, highly targeted marketing campaigns—email, social media, video, and more—drive take rates with content that is unmatched in the industry.

“We are excited by the opportunity to deliver managed services designed for the small business and managed by Nex-Tech,” said Jimmy Todd, chief executive officer and general manager at Nex-Tech. “Nex-Tech has been successfully selling this vision with our managed service offering in the medium and large business market for years. The new SmartBiz managed service strikes the perfect balance and the ability to bundle an offering to the small business market which may need more than just phone and internet access. SmartBiz delivers the business automation and productivity applications that these small businesses need. And it keeps the cost down with a managed service that scales with the efficiency of residential services. We can’t wait to better address this market segment with services and business productivity these businesses demand.”

Calix-partnered BSPs launching SmartBiz are supported every step of the way with Calix Services. Enablement services for SmartBiz are key elements to the overall offering. Award-winning Premier Customer Success and Smart Start for Managed Services help BSPs rapidly plan and execute their go-to-market rollout, align organizations, and launch and grow SmartBiz services to their small business customers. Calix BSP customers also have access to the enablement workshops and Calix Education Services training courses designed to help network engineering, operations, field installation, and customer support teams successfully deploy new managed services.

“Calix BSP partners have made it very clear that the small business market needs to be transformed,” said Michael Weening, president and chief executive officer of Calix. “They need to move from complex, high OPEX, low margin IT solutions to a full business managed service—one that enables the BSP to use the same support teams, field technicians, and operations teams that already deliver incredible residential managed service experiences. Calix delivers that transformative solution with SmartBiz. That’s the power of Calix’s unique end-to-end platforms. Now even the smallest service provider can offer incredible secure services to small businesses by leveraging their existing teams. Most important, this is just the start. We will expand the managed service well beyond Wi-Fi and security services. The power of the platform is that we can integrate the best solutions in the marketplace and make them available for the BSP to offer the small business, thereby transforming the BSP into a fully managed solution provider. Solutions such as marketing analytics, foot traffic analysis, and inventory management become accessible to the small business through the community-centric BSP for the first time. This is the start of a transformation of the small business market that enables even the smallest BSP to be the giant of small and medium businesses in their community.”

SmartBiz is the ninth managed service from Calix. Today, at its annual innovation and customer success conference, Calix ConneXions 2022, the company also announced SmartTown™, Arlo Security, and HomeOfficeIQ managed services. This week, Calix ConneXions attendees can explore SmartBiz on Main Street in “Frankie’s Café” at the Innovation Showcase and Expo at the Wynn Las Vegas through October 18.

Discover how the power of SmartBiz unlocks lucrative new markets, grows revenue, and creates value.

About Calix

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX)—Calix cloud and software platforms enable service providers of all types and sizes to innovate and transform. Our customers utilize the real-time data and insights from Calix platforms to simplify their businesses and deliver experiences that excite their subscribers. The resulting growth in subscriber acquisition, loyalty, and revenue creates more value for their businesses and communities. This is the Calix mission: To enable broadband service providers of all sizes to simplify, excite, and grow.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based upon management’s current expectations and are inherently uncertain. Forward-looking statements are based upon information available to us as of the date of this release, and we assume no obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance after the date of this release, except as required by law. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from current expectations based on risks and uncertainties affecting Calix’s business. The reader is cautioned not to rely on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Additional information on potential factors that could affect Calix’s results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC and available at www.sec.gov.

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