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

agents

TCA Adds MegaPath and Star2Star

August 2, 2010

The Technology Channel Association (TCA) announced the addition of two new carrier members in July: MegaPath Inc. and Star2Star Communications LLC. TCA was launched in August 2008 as a non-profit trade association for channel organizations selling any technology solutions.TCA membership is open to both agents and vendors.

As vendor members, MegaPath and Star2Star will collaborate with TCA on the development of industrywide standards and best practices.

Ethics of the Rolodex

July 29, 2010

What happens when a channel manager leaves a Master Agent or a Carrier? 
Who's Rolodex is it? That database of contact info is a valuable asset.
What happens if the channel manager takes that database and all that information with them? Is that stealing?

There's been a much talk at agent events about ethics and I have 2 examples where it just seems this should be illegal.

One was a channel manager (CM) I had with a CLEC. To be honest, he wasn't that good of a channel manager.





Just Pointing It Out (part 644)

July 20, 2010

We have a lot of good writers at TMC.  A lot of content gets produced here. So much info in fact that it's impossible to read it all. Thankfully TMC is SEO-ed to the max, which our advertisers, channel partners and readers love. 

Paula Bernier wrote in the May issue of the Internet Telephony magazine about a couple of news items. I wanted to comment on them here.

One is the Intelysis is one of the bigger master agents in the US.



Not Exactly the Way to Sell SIP

July 20, 2010

XO announced a SIP Savings Estimator Tool in order to help sell their SIP offerings. I understand why they do this: Bell-heads only know how to sell on price.

In my head, why bother? Just keep selling PRI - SIP to the customer premise then PRI signaling into the box. It's what all the CLEC's are doing.

Too Many Terms (Mini Glossary)

July 16, 2010

I use a lot of terms in my writing. I figured I would explain a few of them today, since someone asked nicely.

Agent is a member of the Indirect Channel. Also called a channel partner.

Things are Round and Round

July 15, 2010

As one door closes, right? Well, WISPA is putting together a deal with DirecTV so that it's mainly residential wireless ISP base can grab some cash switching people from cable TV and Internet to fixed wireless internet access and satellite TV - kind of a cut the cable promotion. 

It used to be that independent ISP's had to worry mainly about the ILEC, but in the residential (consumer) market, the worry is cable - Comcast, Cox, TWC, BrightHouse, CableVision and Charter.

The funny thing is that some of the MSO's are collapsing their wholesale division. Just like the ILEC's, the MSO's don't really want someone else to own the customer. So even as Charter opens up its wholesale cable modem program to FISPA members, I have to wonder how long it will be in existence.

Channel Partners Expo in Boston in 2008 when the cable guys were all lined up on a panel handing out crumbs of info about their newly developed channel program, all anyone wanted to know was how much commission and would there be an added spiff.





So You Want Agents to Sell Your Stuff

July 14, 2010

Many companies come to me for Channel Consulting. Either they have an Indirect sales channel that isn't working or they want to start using that free sales team called the indirect agent.

The Indirect Sales Channel has appeal because they don't have a recurring cost until they sell something. No salary, benefits, office furniture, lease, car allowance, cell phone, utilities, etc.

However, you do have to have Channel Management and Support. 

You also have to choose your agents carefully. Having hundreds of agents is expensive to manage and Pareto's Rule applies everywhere.





How to SELLECOM SAAS

July 1, 2010

Is 4G a Game Changer?

July 1, 2010

Lots of buzz around 4G - and Sprint and Clearwire certainly need that buzz to reach tweet level. But is it a game changer

Just my opinion but 3G is ho-hum. I haven't noticed that much speed off by EVDO card or Blackberry.

What Makes a Good Master Agent?

June 29, 2010

The Technology Channel Association (TCA) hosted a conference call today about What Makes a Good Master Agent.

The main factor is of course money. Commissions. Collecting them. Mediating commission disputes.

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