Calix Improves SmartBiz Selling Capabilities for BSPs

SAN JOSE, CA & LONDON-November 14, 2024-Today, Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) unveiled new opportunities for broadband service providers (BSPs) to expand their small business market with the Calix Broadband Platform. Calix customers in 27 U.S. states, Canada, and the United Kingdom have enhanced their offerings with Calix SmartBiz™, an integrated broadband solution designed to drive small business productivity with advanced security and easy network management. With support from the expanded Calix Success team and the Calix Market Activation program, BSPs have launched SmartBiz in as little as two months. Ongoing Calix investment in enablement to accelerate customer growth includes new go-to-market assets for the Market Activation program tailored to small business owners. Enhanced cloud marketing capabilities for the Calix Platform enable BSPs to identify, engage, and connect with more small businesses in their networks. Additionally, updates to the Calix Field Service App simplify and accelerate small business Wi-Fi system installations by equipping technicians with onsite data and insights.

In today's competitive broadband market, BSPs must move beyond offerings based only on speed and price to providing experiences that improve their subscribers' lives. To become true broadband experience providers, they must expand their offerings to meet all subscriber needs within their communities. In the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, 40 million small businesses are the backbone of local economies. To help those businesses thrive, SmartBiz was built as a tailored solution for the Calix Platform that enables BSPs to meet the unique needs of their business customers-not as an adaptation of residential or enterprise services. From coffee shops, banks, and bookstores to churches, lumberyards, and marinas, SmartBiz is enabling the evolution of BSP offerings from basic connectivity to comprehensive, secure, tailored solutions that don't require IT resources to manage.

Integrated for the Calix Platform, SmartBiz is simple to deploy, manage, and scale, helping BSPs differentiate in the unserved small business market. The managed service also supports community growth at a low operating expense (OPEX). Today's enhancements further accelerate BSP small business market growth with:

• Small business targeting, acquisition, and reporting features in Engagement Cloud. New insights in Calix Engagement Cloud enable BSPs to identify small businesses within their footprint and easily target specific segments to drive growth. Calix customers can also access 6,000+ customizable assets via the Electronic Content Builder, part of the Market Activation program, to leverage in multichannel marketing campaigns. This turnkey go-to-market model helps BSPs enhance their small business solution and automate precise communications to amplify the reach of even the smallest marketing teams.
  
  
• Optimized onsite experiences for small business subscribers, enabled by the Field Service App. Field technicians can now leverage cloud insights and guidance in the Field Service App to streamline Wi-Fi system installations. Thanks to best practices derived from thousands of customer workflows, broadband providers can ensure installation consistency and efficiency, regardless of technician training or background. Optimized onsite visits give field technicians more time to onboard small business owners to the CommandWorx™ app, enhancing their understanding and increasing engagement with self-serve tools.
  
  
• Evolving support from Calix Success to accelerate BSP small business market growth. All Calix customers deploying SmartBiz can access Calix Smart Start for SmartBiz, powered by the award-winning Calix Success organization. This program supports deployment, launch, and management, enabling BSPs to go to market in as little as two months-far faster than the years required to build a custom solution. Calix success managers help align stakeholders, create tailored resources and sales enablement materials, and conduct training. With guidance from Calix, DirectLink reached their small business growth targets within just weeks of deploying SmartBiz. Calix continues to enhance support for BSPs, focusing on sales acceleration.
  

"In just 10 months since launching SmartBiz, we have reached over 90 percent of our first-year subscriber goal with this solution," said Brad Wiertel, chief operating officer at Velocity Network. "Calix has enabled our team to seamlessly roll out this purpose-built managed service and easily promote its incredible capabilities within our small business markets. With SmartBiz, we can efficiently address our business subscribers' daily challenges and add even more value to our communities we serve."

"To prioritize customer experience over speed and price, BSPs must adopt the experience provider model and address every broadband need in their communities," said Matt Collins, chief commercial operations officer at Calix. "SmartBiz fills a crucial gap for BSPs serving small businesses, which have traditionally relied on piecemeal residential adaptations or scaled-down enterprise models that don't fully meet their needs. Small businesses lack enterprise-level IT resources but need stronger security than typical home setups-think of 20 people accessing your home network on a busy day. Today's platform enhancements let BSPs quickly identify, engage, and onboard more small businesses, accelerating their time to market with SmartBiz. We're proud to enable our customers as they help small businesses in their communities thrive."

Visit ConneXions @OnDemand for exclusive SmartBiz replays and watch Paige Hermes of SCTelcom explain how the managed service is helping create even more value for their communities.

Calix Legal Disclaimer
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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