It has been a few years since I wrote about CommPartners and I am surprised at how much their business has transformed. The company is one of the few CLECs who seem to have figured out a business model that works.

 

CommPartners is a CLEC focusing on business customers and the company also sells access to their network on a wholesale basis. They have some impressive customers and as is all too frequently the case I can’t share the list with you due to confidentiality agreements. Suffice it to say it is a group of carrier’s carriers and consumer VoIP providers you may even be using at home.

 

In a conversation recently with David Clark the CEO and Co-Founder of the company and Mark Peterson the VP of Sales & Marketing I got a chance to get up to speed on what the company is up to lately.

 

A few years back as the company built out their network they realized the future was in providing applications but they knew the market was not quite there yet. So this was the impetus to become a wholesale provider. The company built what they call a “robust transport network” and also purchased a VoIP applications platform from Broadsoft.

 

In addition, CommPartners is working with Transera to provide next-gen contact center services to customers. As David says, the power of Transera’s technology really comes through when it is embedded in a network. You are able to integrate the ACD queue status with the network in a manner in which you can create next-gen applications to provide enhanced customer service.

 

For example a customer can go online and specify when they want to be called back within a few minute window. Since the queue is linked in with the application, it is relatively seamless to provide such functionality.

 

In addition to the service provider channel, CommPartners also sells their service through resellers/interconnects.

 

The company is also working with Linksys One to provide enhanced applications. Since the CPE equipment is from the same company as the equipment in the backoffice, David explains his company can provide advanced applications quite easily. For example a major real estate chain is using CommPartners service and sees it as a competitive differentiator enabling the company to leapfrog larger real estate companies.

 

David says it is relatively easy to add a security application to the IP network allowing a video camera to be set up over IP and when triggered, it can send the feed to the service provider and the IP phones within the real estate office. This is a great feature in a business which has lots of women who work late and come in early David says.

 

Mark and David say business is good and they are looking to expand their dealer base and customer base. The company seems very hungry as witnessed by a customer who suggested he wished there was a way to see how long customers are in voicemail before their voicemails are checked. CommPartners took the challenge and wrote an application to handle this query. David says this is the sort of thing the company does to keep its customers for life.

 

To be honest, telecom service providers are not typically known for their flexibility. Generally this is because they are so big. Here is a company with a national footprint and the flexibility of a start-up. As the hosted communications market continues to expand CommPartners seems perfectly positioned to take advantage of the growth of this burgeoning market.