Recently in agents Category

At the Channel Partners Expo in Vegas last week, I helped man the booth for the newly formed Technology Channel Association, a non-profit agent association that was formed to create a community for best practices, a code of ethics, and solid training of the indirect channel.

Regrettably, the TCA received two separate pleas for help from agents. Both agents were no longer receiving commissions from a carrier.

In one case, the agent was wearing a shirt to advertise the lost commissions. The word I heard was that he had failed to meet quota for a few months. The contract allows for the carrier to discontinue payment for missed quota; almost like you stopped being an agent so we don't have to pay it any more.

I don't know if the agent was warned prior to the checks stopping. Is it a sad state? Absolutely. Is there anything the TCA can do about it? Possibly. We did dialogue with the carrier about the situation and encouraged a resolution.

As a fledgling non-profit with 100 agents, funded at this time only by the dues of our vendors, the TCA is not in a position to take up a dispute like this. This falls under contract law. As far as I can tell, arbitration is not included in my agent agreements, so I don't see how the TCA - or any organization - could help with this kind of dispute.

I realize that agents are hampered by carrier agreements that are heavily weighted in favor of the carrier. (Believe me, I have been on the receiving end of BellSouth not paying me my commissions to the tune of six figures, so I understand the frustration and pain). I also realize that agents that use a master agency don't even get to see the contracts that they are compensated under, which leaves even less room for resolution.  It certainly seems like a good time to change these things. To do that we need the strength of numbers - 100 won't do.

I'm kind of disappointed in the Channel, because the first year of dues was free if you signed up for the TCA at the show. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. But even the two agents with disputes did not join. How does the TCA achieve critical mass if the very agents that want help won't join?

This was in my email inbox today:

Airband has decided to move in a direction which doesn't require Channel Managers. In this economy, tough decisions have to be made, in an effort to reduce SG&A expenses I will no longer be employed with Airband. Airband has an awesome product, granted it appears Airband is on the "bleeding edge" of the WiMAX space. They are attempting to get the processes in place to make the bleeding edge comment disappear. I am sure you will be contacted and served possibly by Direct Sales. I trust you will give them assistance in learning how we, Agents, conduct business.

Correction written here. (It was just a re-alignment of the channel).

Starting in April, any accounts that fall out of contract will no longer receive a commission from Embarq. So you will need to stay on top of your contract re-casting.

It's a PITA because not every carrier pays for re-casts. But ILEC's are funny and this one will be CenturyTel soon, so who knows what that will lead to.

You should be using CRM any way to track your sales activity as well as when contracts renew. (I have gotten really lax at this myself).

Want a free CRM? Zoho has up to 3 users free, plus Zoho Business is free too. Let me know if you are giving it a shot.

 When you attend the Channel Partners Expo in Vegas, you have to bring your A game. (Rich Tehrani who is doing Channel Partners and CompTel is in a whole other league!)  There are meetings from morning till evening. Parties and dinners. Gambling and shows. It puts your legs to the test, especially when Starbucks at the Rio is so full its SRO (standing room only). (The leg to the left was primed for Vegas).

Lots of standing yesterday for the Agent Peer Networking session. Phone+'s editor, Khali Henderson, got us started off with a form of speed dating for 30 minutes or so before moving the approximately 150 agents to discussion tables. Interestingly, our table on Hiring attracted six people. Agents are curious about hiring sales folks. None more so than Jeff Mencek from ConnecTel in Pittsburgh who even has the budget for two salaried sales people.

The one thing I hope agents took from that event: Find one person in your situation that you can call monthly and talk about your Wins, your Woes and your Actions. That way you have a sounding board and aren't so insulated in your world. You get to see what another agent's world looks like monthly. It will help you out immensely.

I had a great conversation with Mark Jacobsen who is just starting out as an agent offering CRM, FreedomIQ Hosted PBX, and Google Apps with Integration and support. I know that next year he will be in Vegas talking about how he is killing it. Managed Services is the way to go. Folks want ease of use; less hassle; don't want to figure out the tech stuff; and want to focus on their prime business and family. Take that hassle away and you can make money.

I did forget to mention to agents that the last day for a free year of membership in TCA (the non-profit agent association called Technology Channel Association) is today. TCA now offers health insurance to its members. What are you waiting for?  (It's almost time to give those legs a rest for a 5 hour flight).

SUTUS, the maker's of the Business Central 200 office-in-a-box, have announced inter-operability with Excel SIP Trunking.  The real news for the marketplace is that Excel and SUTUS (along with Polycom) are bundling a system for small business.

The Business Central 200 is developed specifically for businesses of up to 25 employees, Sutus Business Central™ comprises a wide array of advanced telephony, data and networking functions. It includes a business-class phone system, file server, email server, router, firewall, wireless access point, VPN remote access server, and automated backups. It has the ability to simultaneously support both standard phone line and VoIP connections and comes with an array of business productivity features. Now VARs can get the office-in-a-box at almost no cost with a SIP bundle from Excel.

The interoperability allows resellers to provide their small business customers with a guaranteed low cost, reliable and full-featured IT and telephony bundle that is unmatched in the market.  It also allows the channel to better service small businesses due to the Business Central's advanced built-in remote support features. Tech support that would previously have required a truck roll can now be handled remotely by basic support staff.

Steve Weltner, Director Product Development at Excel, is excited about Excel's new SIPpbx Equipment Upgrade Program. He comments, "affordability is a non-factor as the device ends up being virtually free."

"With economic tough times facing everyone there has never been a time where pricing and simplicity have been more important," said Shawn Chute Executive Vice President of Sutus, "Excel and Sutus have come together to deliver on both these fronts, providing the small business customer and the channel that services them with an affordable, comprehensive and straight forward communications and IT bundle. One price, one solution, one contact point, we have made it as simple as it can be to subscribe to a fully integrated solution."

For resellers interested in this Sutus Excel program please contact Sutus at www.sutus.com or 778-371-5286. You may also contact Steve Weltner Director of Marketing at Excel at 972-910-1763.

The first SAAS vendor I remember seeing at Channel Partners was nGenX, a subsidiary  of Lightwave Group. nGenX was offering Microsoft Office on-demand as a white label product for agents to sell for commission.

Next up for agents and VARs is GreenAppx.

With branded SaaS marketplaces, telecom agents and VARs can help small to mid-size customers eliminate capital expenditures and licensing agreements. SMBs can access critical business applications such as Microsoft Hosted Exchange Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, GoodLink Mobile Email, McAfee Security, WebEx Conferencing, and IBM Data Back Up and Recovery. In addition to hosting and network infrastructure, GreenAppX manages all transactions, application licensing, and software updates.[thomasnet]

Lots of ways to add streams of income to your traditional telecom catalog. More agents should be selling data storage/back-up/email archiving, it's like AFLAC for your business.

"SMB Nation is a community of over 35,000 small and medium business (SMB) technology consultants, channel partners, sponsors and resellers. With an impressive 10-year history serving as a trusted advisor and mentor to the SMB consulting and  reseller channel, SMB Nation has been able to consistently reinvent itself based upon changing market conditions." SMB Nation did a VoIP survey with NGT. 260 responded (results here).

These are the services they currently provide:

• Networking infrastructure (91.1%)
• Mobility sales, services, support (52.7%)
• VoIP-specific sales, services, support (44.2%)
• Telephony sales, services, and support (35.3%)
• Line of business applications (35.7%)
• Database development/programming/development (32.6%)
• Web hosting (27.5%)
• Host e-mail (26.7%)

These are the services they will add:

• VoIP sales, service, support (56.2%)
• Security (36.6%)
• Telephony sales, services, and support (28.1%)
• Web hosting, hosted services (25.5%)

It's interesting that Telecom Agents sell circuits and very few want to sell non-telecom services, but VAR's and MSP's are marching in to take over the Agent Arena.

If you are a channel agent or a VAR or a service provider looking for a VoIP Provider to be your VoIP provider, there are 6 questions to think about:

1. Do you want to White Label, wholesale or a retail package?
2. Will you be serving consumers or businesses?
3. Will it be POTS replacement or Hosted PBX?
4. Will you be selling PBX, phones and other hardware?
5. Do you want to do Tier 1 support?
6. How will you sell it? (Or do you have a sales team?)

While many ITSP's (Internet Telephony Service Providers) can do all of it - white label, wholesale, retail, hosted PBX, analog replacement - it is difficult for each to excel at all of that. And you don't want to get half way down the road to have your vendor shift gears and the wheels fall off.

Support is key because "the blinking light" syndrome means that you will be getting calls about "how do I do that?" or "why can't I dial long distance?" So it's good to define responsibilities (and what is Tier 1 support).

Why know your market? Because most ITSP's have not designed an offering to compete against Vonage, Magic Jack or the cable companies. (And besides B2B is way more profitable).

The last question is real: How will you sell it? If you have 100 clients, only 10-20% are going to convert without some type of sales effort. And that doesn't amount to many lines for all of the effort that both you and your vendor will be expending to get this partnership moving forward.

I have seen far too many ITSP's bring on numerous agents/resellers/VAR's/partners, only to see lots of start up activity that never converts to enough sales activity to account for the effort.

Should an agent's commission get dinged when the carrier issues a credit over an outage or SLA issue? I have two cases of this happening right now.

In good faith, I sold a circuit that the carrier gave me permission to sell. But on a performance issue - months post-sale - the carriers ding my commission when they have to issue a credit for SLA violations.

Do they do this to their direct people? Unlikely.

Here's the other issue: because these sales were made through a Master Agent, I don't even know how the contract reads between the Master Agency and the Carrier. Nor can I take the carrier to court without taking the Master Agency to court (and destroying that relationship along with the revenue stream).

It was bad enough when I had to act as collections for carriers. If the carrier  wasn't getting paid by the customer, I would get dinged and then pinged to go collect the money. The carriers have a collections process and departments for this. It just seems like more and more is heaped on the indirect agent with less and less money. (Let's not even talk about the risk increasing as reward decreases).

Is anyone else having this issue? Please let me know.

L3 released 4Q08 numbers last week. Remember at Christmas, rumors swirled about a possible bankruptcy. Now it rings up a profit.

Level 3 Communications has recorded its first quarterly profit in six years for the fourth quarter of 2008. The operator reported a $44M profit for the three months to 31 December; although it also reported lower revenue at $1.05 billion for the quarter than it did for the same period in 2007. Level 3 had a $290M net loss for the full year but this was considerably less than the $1.1B loss incurred in 2007. Full year 2008 revenue was $4.3B [about the same as 2007][.telegeographyg]

Even when you hit some numbers, The Street kicks your ass. But when you say, "For 2009, the company said it expects continued revenue weakness over the short term but is also working to cut costs" in Forbes, your stock is taking a hit.

Full disclosure: I rep for 20+ carriers and Level3 happens to be my biggest carrier. Pricing pressures are driving rates down on everything from Transit to Transport. Not everywhere mind you, but in the top 10 Metro areas, where L3 competes with Cogent, HE, and NTT/Verio, it is pressured to lower rates.

XO competes with it in many markets because XO has IRU's on L3's cable, so about 60% of where L3 is, there's XO. Surprisedly, pricing pressure is also coming from Qwest on longhaul routes, especially on Waves. (I rep for XO and Qwest as well, but not Cogent, HE or Verio). But the real competition comes from its own Resellers, like WBS Connect. Lately, Scott's company has gone underwater to take a deal from me, I mean, from L3 directly. I don't know where all this ends but I do expect HE, Cogent, WBS and others to start seeing more bad debt and late payments. The people who fight for price the most are also usually (not always) the ones who pay late. We'll keep watching.