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Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

April 2014

You are browsing the archive for April 2014.

The One Pain in the Hosted VoIP Business

April 28, 2014

After spending much of this year with Hosted VoIP companies in the US and UK, I have to say that the one pain in the their business is scale.

Scale means a couple of things, like finding talent to hire that doesn't destroy the culture (or chase away other talent). Maintaining the corporate culture is part of scale, too. Scale also involves processes in the business.

Things That May Interest You

April 24, 2014

There are a bunch of things that I want to comment on but just don't have the time. Yet they may be of interest to you. I did get to comment on the FCC's net neutrality ruling and the Cbeyond-Birch merger.

For one thing, I hope that the CBEY-Birch deal doesn't become the Fairpoint-VZ deal.

The FCC Is Useless

April 24, 2014

What is Innovation?

April 22, 2014

I hear the word bantered about a lot especially by media, C-Level execs and government types. This week it was the "Innovation Economy". well, that makes sense since the USA's only lead globally has been in innovation, but the rest of the world is catching up due to this thing called the Internet (an invention of ours, btw).

New and improved isn't really innovation.

This is How You Do Social Media!

April 21, 2014

I received a surprise package at my doorstep today from Bright House. It seems that my tweeting about the Tampa Bay Lightning and recent Bright House Networks news caught the attention of the social media team @BrightHouseCares. So they sent me a package!

The note said:

Birch Buys Cbeyond

April 21, 2014

I knew Cbeyond was looking to sell (like TWCable, "Someone buy me!"). And there was the big rumor about Megapath buying them. The execs at Cbeyond were on the losing end of the Paetec-Windstream deal. And while Cbeyond has been talking a good game about Cbeyond 2.0, it is extremely tough to make this transition and sell enough cloud to make up for T1 sales.

The Wearable Tech Futures

April 21, 2014

Amid all the noise about the growing Internet of Things market comes the announcement that Nike is disbanding its FuelBand team.

Nike and Adidas were at the Wearable Tech Expo / FAST in December. To see this announcement, speculation would be that wearable tech is not promising. I don't think that is it.

Why Pivot?

April 18, 2014

In business, a pivot is a strategy change (especially in Lean Startup processes). When you look at brick-and-mortar companies like RadioShack, Sears/K-Mart, there have been strategy changes but not really what I would call a pivot - or even a course correction. The pivot for B&N was going digital with the Nook (right or wrong it was a pivot). Plaxo pivoted (out of extinction) when it added Pulse.

Thoughts on the Industry Right Now

April 18, 2014

All the forecasts: have any of them been accurate? Or is it just a way to sell reports? If it is, let me know and I will start writing forecast reports too.

Think about this: "for 2013, Infonetics reported that the global market for VoIP services brought in $68 billion in revenue, an eight percent gain over 2012." [source].

Content Marketing is Huge

April 17, 2014

On the TCA's webinar on Marketing Your Business today, the panelists all agree that content marketing is king. Content Marketing is leveraging various platforms (blogs, social media, your websites, etc.) to attract and retain customers by creating and curating relevant and valuable content. Important word: Valuable. It has to be Valuable to the reader, your prospect!

Hosted PBX Sales Increasing

April 17, 2014

Blame some of it on the TDM-to-IP transition, but a lot of the reason that Hosted PBX sales are increasing is due to the large number of service providers offering it. Today, CoreDial tweeted, "Sales of #hostedPBX and #unified #communication services rose 13% in 2013." This is just a response to Infonetics 2014 VoIP report, in which the research firm projects that UC and VoIP (including residential) will grow to $88B globally. It is currently at $68B. That's global.

What's the Skinny on M6 and the TDM Transition?

April 11, 2014

Broadsoft acquired Genband's M6 platform in 2008. Six years later, there still isn't an upgrade path. I hear that it was declared end of life, but can't confirm that in writing.

PingTone and GLOBALINX deployed BroadWorks alongside their M6 platforms (see here and here).

5 Tips to Get Out of a Sales Slump

April 9, 2014

Lots of sales professionals go through a sales slump. Nothing is closing. Depression or Panic ensues - or worse, Desperation, that anxiety that all your prospects can smell (and run away from).

What can you do if you are in a slump?

Running Out of Salespeople

April 7, 2014

Recently, at an event a speaker said that about one-third of the salespeople would be retiring in the next couple years. I didn't really think anything of it until I was putting some slide decks together for three different sales trainings I am doing.

Then I ran into this graph from pharmaceutical sales, which shows the decline in the number of sales reps.

Five points:

ISPs and Content

April 3, 2014

Your top MSO's are also your biggest ISPs. Your top MSO's are already in the content arena with the TV stations they own (mainly sports stations, but Bright House owns news stations and Comcast owns NBCU!)

Comcast is effectively in the content gatekeeper toll booth space after the Netflix paid peering deal.

I have noticed that some newspapers are trying to put up a pay wall. I have no idea how effective it has been.

VADs, VARs and Cable: How Does That Work?

April 2, 2014

Tech Data and Ingram Micro have partnerships to sell network services. Ingram Micro has a deal with CenturyLink and TW Cable. Tech Data has deals with XO and Microcorp (a master agency).

I want to know how the TWC-Ingram deal works.

VARs Threatened by Agents

April 2, 2014

Quite the announcement: "CompTIA: 70% of VARs Concerned About Agents 'Encroaching' on Their Space".

For at least three years CompTIA has been working on partnering VARs with Agents to bring about this converged business that could manage the WAN/LAN/IT of the SME space. Does this figure mean that it failed?

My thinking is that Agents are selling more managed services than before because carriers are pushing them down the throats of their partners.

It Isn't About Quota

April 2, 2014

Quota is an ugly word. It's the weight that salespeople carry with them all the time, especially at the end of the month and the end of the quarter.

Quota is the elephant in the room between the salesperson and his manager.

Quota is the unspoken, but contracted, commitment between master agencies and carriers.

Agents Versus Brokerages

April 1, 2014

I often hear from carriers how Agents don't add value. I'm never sure what value the carriers are talking about. Agents are a sales force for you. We sell your stuff.

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