Anthony Karibian founded bOnline to make modern communication technology accessible to small businesses and change how they connect and communicate. To succeed in this vision, bOnline had to make the technology not just affordable and easy-to-use but also extremely reliable with zero downtime and backed by a high level of support. Unlike most competitors that resell BT and Broadcloud solutions, bOnline developed its own software platform from the ground up, focusing 100% on the specific needs of a small business owner.
This cannot be achieved by shrinking an enterprise solution to fit small business needs. Those solutions are too complicated and expensive as they require tech consultants to install and manage the infrastructure. Most importantly, a reliable communication infrastructure is the lifeline of a small business. They cannot survive unless they are connected to their customers. bOnline’s VoIP digital telephone solution is hosted on both Amazon’s AWS and Google’s Cloud to ensure the highest levels of redundancy, resulting in just 8 minutes of downtime throughout all of 2024. It’s challenging enough for small business heroes to run a business, and the last thing they need is to worry about getting disconnected from their customers and prospects. This is where bOnline stands out from the competition.
A Vision for Simplicity and Affordability
The founder of bOnline, Anthony Karibian, has a rich background in telecommunications and technology, and it was on the back of this experience that he recognized the gap in the market for an easy-to-use and feature-rich digital solution that addressed the pain points of today’s small businesses. Having previously founded XLN Telecoms and Euroffice — both serving similar small business markets — Karibian understood the market through and through and saw that many small businesses were overburdened by complex and over-priced communication systems that didn’t just cost them productivity but came with too many hidden costs. He had the expertise and firsthand market experience that drove him to found bOnline.
Having a deep understanding of the market dynamics, he had the foresight to launch with an existing Cisco Broadsoft solution to fully understand the gaps of the market-leading solution while developing an improved solution in-house that would address all the pain points. It was clear from the outset that the solution had to be far easier to use, with a simple dashboard to give the small business owner full control of their digital phone system. And whilst Broadsoft took 48 hours to provision an account, Karibian knew that small business owners would want to select their number and set up everything within minutes. bOnline succeeded in reducing full activation and setup from 2 days to 2 minutes.
Turning the Idea Into Reality
Karibian set out to create a full-scale business communication service that business owners could set up themselves without relying on IT experts or having technicians come in for assessments. This “Zero-touch” vision was planned from the outset with a self-sign-up and self-serve portal design to make it easy for any small business owner to use without the need for an IT expert. The challenge was to make a relatively complex operation (ie, activating a digital phone line) a simple form-filling exercise that lasted no more than 2 minutes. For the customer, all the technical complexity and integrations, including technical jargon, would become invisible.
Making the system easy to use was more challenging, taking the Product team over 12 months with 5 data analytics sources to fine-tune and simplify everything so that a small business owner could control everything from setting up greetings, business hours, and call diverts with a few clicks. On top of all this investment, the other challenge was to keep the technology affordable and pricing flexible so customers could scale their packages as their business needs changed. Thus, the vision of bOnline was a cloud-based solution that came with easy-to-set-up and simple-to-use VoIP phone systems bundled with reliable broadband access.
If there’s one thing that sets bOnline apart from other service providers, it has to be its simplicity without compromising its advanced features. From the moment business owners set it up, it is easy to use without any support or training. Everything is done via cloud, so there are no installations or equipment costs, no hardware/software compatibility issues, and nothing that requires experts to jump in. Despite that, bOnline comes with excellent customer service and onboarding sessions that are just a phone call away should any assistance be needed. Once set up, business owners can easily keep tabs on their communications system via bOnline’s easy-to-use portal without requiring any specialized knowledge.
bOnline’s Growth and Success
Ever since it first launched, bOnline has been gaining recognition among the business community and industry experts in the UK. In a little over a decade of operation, bOnline has won a combined 30+ awards while also garnering excellent reviews on Trustpilot and thousands on Google.
bOnline’s business model is customer-centric in its approach and execution. Most of the reviews and data available only show that its loyal customer base heaps praise over its reliability, flexible pricing and the ease with which bOnline’s communications system can be implemented and managed. bOnline also provides more advanced features for growing businesses that require call recording and AI features or advanced analytics providing crucial customer insights and even integration with CRM systems. It is a powerful, customer-centric system that is tailored to the needs of 50,000 small businesses.
A Focus on Affordability and Scalability
bOnline’s flexible pricing model comes with subscriptions that allow businesses to keep control over their costs and to pay only for what they need. bOnline offers a solution that is made for small businesses, unlike most providers that sell a one-size-fits-all enterprise solution with unnecessary and complex tools that require expensive installation and running costs. Such flexibility allows businesses to scale up or down based on their needs at the moment, which makes it easier for them to manage and budget for their costs.
Despite the ease of use with which bOnline’s systems can be set up and managed, bOnline does offer excellent onboarding and customer service as well. Based on the reviews available online, it is one of the hallmarks of their business model. It’s “Zero-touch” self-sign-up and self-serve portal allows bOnline to eliminate all overheads and provide amazing customer support without overcharging for it.
Recognition and Future Growth
bOnline was named the Best Provider by the Comms Council UK in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, which shows the impact it has had in just over a decade of its operations. It has also won over 30 other Industry awards with its new platform. With plans to introduce new features and make enhancements to existing products, bOnline is aware of the needs of its customers and remains focused on continuing its vision statement of offering a reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use communication infrastructure to all small businesses.
Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.
