At ITEXPO, the editorial team was tasked with many assignments, but perhaps the most gratifying of all the items that appears on our collective "to-do" list is rewarding deserving companies with the best of show awards.
One particular award seems to have raised a bit of a "stink" in the blogosphere.
At the most recent ITEXPO, Interactive Intelligence was awarded a best of show award in the SMB category, which on the surface may seem like an odd thing to do, considering the company's Enterprise Interaction Center solution is geared to companies that employ at a minimum 100 people.
There is no question that the solution deserves praise and in fact Interactive Intelligence has received much acclaim for their products over the years.
Perhaps, the issue at hand is really one of proper designation.
While small and medium business, or SMB, generally implies companies on the smaller end of the spectrum, we often tend to forget the "M" or mid-size group of businesses.
Most accepted definitions of SMB center around the following breakdown:
· 0-10 employees = SOHO
· 10-50 employees = Small business
· 50-250 employees = Medium business
· 250 and up = large enterprise.
Depending on revenues, some analysts extend the medium sized group out to 500 employees.
So it's clear that Interactive Intelligence serves the M in SMB with their EIC product.
On the application that Interactive Intelligence submitted for best of show as well as on their Web site, the company claims their solution offers support for:
...100 to 15,000 users with a single all-software, SIP-based IP PBX application suite that easily integrates with your existing business applications.
They also claim:
The all-in-one EIC platform is built to give your mid-sized business a total IP PBX solution for multi-channel communications, business processes, contact center operations, and optimum performance from your employees, all to offer superior service for your customers.
Still, with the growing acceptance (rightly or wrongly) of SMB being defined with a focus on the small, I can understand the confusion associated with awarding a vendor that primarily serves large enterprise and contact center customers with a plaque reading SMB. However until such time as we come up with a category that specifically addresses the M in SMB, this label will have to apply.
The reaction simply underscores the importance of the various TMC award programs and the fact that people do ascribe value to being named an award winner.
Congratulations again to all the award winners and I look forward to seeing you all in Los Angeles, CA from October 27-29 when we once again will award the best of show awards, at the next ITEXPO.
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