broadsoft

A Profitable Bundle

October 30, 2009

This PowerPoint presentation represents the outline of what my panel was going to discuss at Broadsoft Connections. We were going to make 3 points about Marketing a Profitable UC Bundle:

Does Bundling Work;
How do you sell it;
What makes a successful bundle

Does Bundling Work? It depends. Are you using a Bundle for Customer Retention or Customer Acquisition?

Posted in Marketing, apps, broadsoft, communications, sales and selling, unified communications

At Broadsoft Connections this morning, Michael Tessler spoke about it being all about apps and the Customer Experience. (Has he been reading my slides?)

One reason IP Telephony grew (according to Dell'Oro) 7% to $737M in 2Q09 is because IPT lowers the cost of the capital expenditure (CAPEX) and it also lowers the cost of maintenance and support.

As an industry we have to move away from talking cost savings to a discussion about value to the customer experience. Efficiency, Productivity, Privacy and Security will be key topics coupled with TCO and ROI studies.

The User Experience must be about usefulness, ease of use, reliable and enjoyable. (Something that most folks would not associate with telcos.)

You need to take the technology out of the way of the user.

Posted in broadsoft, voip

Off to the Phoenician

October 26, 2009

I am at the Broadsoft Connections event with 775 other folks piled into the Phoenician. Gorgeous hotel set at the foot of the mountains in Phoenix. Staff is nice and the suite is sweet.

I'm speaking tomorrow on a panel with Bell Canada, RoutIT, and KPN.

Posted in broadsoft, conferences, telecommunications

Thoughts about UC

September 25, 2009

Just some rambling thoughts on UC as I prepare for a session at Broadsoft Connections. Comments?

Posted in broadsoft, unified communications, voip

Telesphere Bought UBN

August 26, 2009

Per an FCC Announcement (below) Telesphere has bought Unity Business Network. I knew that they were in talks and I thought after Telesphere's $15M in funding that they would buy UBN up. This was kind of easy since both are Broadsoft based. Ah, finally some consolidation in the VOIP Provider space.

Released: 08/25/2009.

Posted in broadsoft, mergers, voip

UC is like a Gym Membership

August 24, 2009

Alex Doyle at Broadsoft pointed out a blog post from his company: Why is UC like a Gym Membership. The analogy is really about PBX systems - hosted versus on-premise. A gym is the hosted scenario and a Bowflex would be the on-premise version. It's the best analogy I have seen used to date. I hope you are going to ITEXPO and Broadsoft Connections, because smart folks will be at both places simplifying things for you.

Posted in PBX, broadsoft, telecommunications, unified communications, voip

The UC Conversation Continues with XO

June 19, 2009

Tech Data's Senior Product Sales Champion for UC was at the event last night. I spent a few minutes chatting with him about his position, but couldn't really get a definition of UC out of him. Polycom and tele-presence are what he pushes - to me that's not really UC. HD Voice?

Posted in CLEC, PBX, broadsoft, sip trunking, technology, tele-presence, telecommunications, unified communications, voip, xo

XO at the Tech Data Expo

June 19, 2009

I received an invite yesterday from XO to come down to the Tech Data Expo at the Don Cesar Hotel in St. Petersburg FL. ADTRAN shared the booth with XO at this event. Surprisedly, the other two carriers that distribute through Tech Data had assigned booth space, but were absent.

XO is a good fit for Tech Data. While I think the XO catalog is too large to know well - wireless, hosting, IP, VOIP, transport, collocation and more - the VAR's at Tech Data vary so much in what they do and what would complement their business that the wide selection helps - IF you can get in front of them and remind them throughout the year how they can take advantage of the additional revenue stream.

For many VAR's the advantage of XO through Tech Data is that there's no contract (especially for those VAR's already under contract with Ma or Pa Bell) and with Tech Data as the "master agency", it isn't likely you need to worry about your residual check. (And now that XO has converted their debt, it is in a good position going forward, which other debt laden CLEC's can't say).

Many VAR's are already in the PBX space and were asking about SIP. I wasn't sure if they actually grasp the concept of SIP or that they just know enough to be dangerous. The biggest difference between a PRI and a SIP Trunk is Inter-Operability.

Posted in CLEC, VAR, agents, broadsoft, channel, sip trunking, voip, xo

The Ultimate Hosted VoIP Service

April 29, 2009

What's the perfect VoIP Service?

I have seen so many VoIP Providers, I can't keep track. But that also means that the VoIP providers are not doing a very good job of Messaging, Positioning and Differentiating their offerings.

The only VoIP provider I know that has married Hosted Exchange with Broadsoft is Simple Signal. It makes sense to me because what is UM (unified messaging) but voicemail to email - everything in one box.

Google Voice does it as well. One inbox for Gmail and Google Voice.

Posted in PBX, broadsoft, im/chat, sip trunking, technology, telecommunications, unified communications, video, voip

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