Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

agents

A Fun Chat with VAR Dynamics

February 1, 2012

It started out coincidentally as VAR Dynamics CEO, Tony Francisco, was on my plane this morning. And he just recently moved from Silicon Valley to Tampa Bay, where I live. He is working with Gazelle Labs and spoke at BarCamp Tampa Bay, which is an un-conference I co-organize for the last 4 years. I had to go to Miami Beach to talk to him though.

Day 1 at ITEXPO

February 1, 2012

I had a couple of good conversations today. One was with Greg Plum who has embarked on a new chapter in his career at StartMeeting.com. Plum is exciting about building the channel for this start-up conferencing company for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he believes that StartMeeting.com will be a disruptor, a serious game changer in the conference space. They offer conferencing - audio and web - like so many others, right?

Look for me in Miami Beach Next Week

January 26, 2012

Next week is ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami Beach at the convention center. I arrive around 11 AM on Tuesday for Editor's Day. There are a number of all-day events going on Tuesday like InsightPRM's Sales Management training and the Avaya seminar.

Not surprisingly, most of the buzz around the show is on Startup Camp Comms, which is Thursday at 4 PM with keynote from Sir terry Matthews, founder of MITEL. Four start-ups will be pitching as well.

I have 5 slots this time.

End Caps

January 21, 2012

This was the week that we learned that online protesting can work -- if enough people get involved and if you get the support of some powerhouse websites like Google and Wikipedia. It looks like SOPA was dropped and the vote on PIPA was delayed. (It is still alive due to Democrat lawmakers who are beholden to Hollywood like Florida Senator Bill Nelson. If he knew how to turn on his laptop by himself I could understand it, but come on!)

We don't really need any more copyright laws.

What is it with Agents and the Web?

January 16, 2012

When I skim through telecom websites, it is pretty obvious that most telecom companies - agents, masters, VAR's, carriers, ITSP's, ISP's - don't really give the web any love.

The websites are rudimentary - many without an update in the last two years. A majority are filled with marketing buzz speak that does not clearly (and concisely) tell the audience what they do or sell. Why? You have 8 seconds to load a page and tell your story before people bounce.

Thought of the Day

January 13, 2012

In what other business industry would make it so flaming difficult to give revenue to?

CenturyLink just issued Channel Rules of Engagement (part II): "CenturyLink Channel Alliance, in conjunction with the Savvis Alliances partner program, has developed Phase II of the Savvis-CenturyLink Rules of Engagement (ROE). The attached Phase II ROE document identifies six unique customer types and outlines business rules for each selling scenario." Don't ask because I am still scratching my head to understand it.

AT&T has made it incredibly difficult to sell services in the former RBOC areas - SBC, Ameritech, BellSouth, etc.

Savvis Changes Comp Plan

January 10, 2012

I just received confirmation that channel compensation for hosting under CenturyLink will no longer be residual. Savvis, which is owned by CenturyLink, took over management of the Qwest Cyber Centers.

At a time when cloud providers want agents selling, data center companies - Equinix/Switch&Data, InterNAP, now Savvis - has changed up the game on agents at a time when agents are trying to adjust to the whole cloud ecosystem. It just doesn't make sense.

Level3 2012 Channel Strategy

January 6, 2012

So here is the new strategy for the Channel for Level3.

"Late 2011 was a busy time for the Level 3 Indirect Channel. Our first priority after the acquisition closed was to determine a partner program structure that best supports our partner bases followed by the immediate need to create an organization which can provide greater resources to further enable your success.< br/>"After gathering feedback and careful consideration, we are instituting a model that will provide support at a national level for our Master Agents and a regionally focused Channel Manager strategy for our Direct and Sub Agents.< br/>"Our newly created National Partner Sales team will focus on the Level 3 Master Agents, facilitating the strategic relationship with the Master Agent as well as their sub agent base. The team will work closely with our Master Agents to reignite the sub agent community with targeted recruitment and joint sales activities.

3 Things Agents Need to Look at in 2012

December 30, 2011

It will be a busy year in 2012 as all the carriers try to synergize their mega-mergers and get their back-office in order so that we can actually place orders.

Besides selling the traditional circuits - POTS, T1, SIP, PRI - there are some interesting things for an Agent to look at in 2012.

M2M is growing. We are seeing that the 3G/4G system is creeping in everywhere - from broadband backup systems to surveillance systems to fleet management to home healthcare monitoring to security monitoring. There are an unlimited number of ways that devices and the wireless network can interact.



Agents Have to Transform in 2012 (or So I'm Told)

December 28, 2011

It seems that the channel execs - including master agents - are betting on VAR's to be the salvation for sales in the future. I can see a piece of that perspective. The tradition agent is transactional and slow to adopt new services. The VAR's are used to selling solutions - or so the view goes.

One thing that VAR's like is control.

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