Recently in channel Category

Listened to XO to introduce Enterprise SIP (ESIP) to the Channel today. This offering is very targeted. Enterprise SIP is designed for multi-location customers such as Retail and Restaurant chains that are looking to get rid of PRI's.  

ESIP will be for high capacity connections with the minimum connection of 10MB at the hub (or HQ) for aggregated voice traffic. 

Essentially it is a SIP trunk (at 10MB) that will take all of the local and long distance traffic - inbound and outbound - from the branch offices across an MPLS (or other private network) through one or two hub circuits. 

Here's how it works.

You connect all of the offices together via a private network or MPLS architecture. Then you port all of the numbers to the SIP Trunking of XO's Enterprise SIP Service. The trunk will plug into an IP-PBX or an SBC and handle all of the voice traffic on the company network. All inbound and outbound voice traffic will utilize the ESIP Trunk.

A 10MB pipe will handle about 100 G.711 call streams (more or less). That means about 500 to 1000 extensions depending on the phone usage of the employees.

XO will even give Virtual-NXX numbers off this trunk. Although toll bypass is not allowed. 

The thing that surprised me the most was how specific the offering is. It's isn't for everyone. It was designed with a very particular market segment in mind - namely retail and restaurant chains.

The ESIP offering is designed to terminate on a Session Border Controller, IP-PBX or a Fax Server. 

Need to UPDATE that this is my take-away from the call. XO has many VoIP products and they want to match up the best solution for each customer. The ESIP is specifically for Multi-Location, MPLS-enabled customers. Not many companies need or can afford a Session Border Controller, so to me that is an indicator of the type of Enterprise that this offering i sdesigned for.

I received an email yesterday through my website contact form. From Dennis  asking me if I was a direct agent for Paetec. (I'm not; I sub through Microcorp). I reply that I am a sub-agent and ask why. His reply: "Because I'm an agent for PaeTec and I'd like to talk to you about our sub-agent program."

I explain I already am a sub-agent. His response: "I understand that and am interested in your commission structure. I'll cal anyway if you don't mind."

The fact is I did mind. I hate this crap in our industry. I email him that I think poaching agents is not very nice and that as a founding member of an agent association, TCA, I feel that integrity and ethics are an important foundation of The Channel. His reply: "For the record, I was not poaching other people's agents, I happen to see you web site and noticed the PaeTec representation so i thought I'd introduce myself. Besides that, I didn't know it was unethical to solicit other peoples agents; I thought that was what most would consider the free market system. Thanks your your input anyway; I was going to give you a lead for fiber but under the circumstances, I suspect you are well set in that area as well."

He teaches Technology Management at a local college and has been in the business many years.  It irks me. 

What's was going to be his pitch? I'll give you two more points if you move your business over? Does he think that I have no integrity? Does he think that my relationship with my Master Agent is based solely on commission points? 

The TCA spent some of 2009 composing a Code of Ethics for Agents which included the following:

• Honesty and Integrity are the foundation of an Agent.
• Agents should educated on the solutions that they propose to customers.
• Agents should always have the best interest of the customers at heart.
• Agents shouldn't churn Master Agencies.
• Every dealing of an agent - whether with a customer, prospect, carrier, master agent, vendor or other agent - should be performed with the utmost of respect and integrity.

Yesterday was a big day for The Channel. Two separate acquisitions occurred with both takeover companies expressing interest in the Channel of the company being bought.

First, we have GTT buying WBS Connect. WBSC is just a reseller of Transit and Transport with about $28M in revenue. It was bought for about $1.8M in cash and notes plus $600K in stock. A spreadout payment over 18 months. WBS Connect had 900 customers  (ARPU calculated at $2600 per month). Lots of hype about POP's and lit buildings touched but at the end of the day WBS Connect was just a reseller pushing IP pricing lower (i.e., in my experience, they sold on price. Get your best deal and I will beat it by $1/MB). If that's the sales approach, what value is that? I won't rant here. I'll let it speak for itself.

Second, ILEC Windstream (formerly Alltel combined with Valor) bought Nuvox. Nuvox was a combo of FDN, NewSouth and Nuvox. Apparently, Nuvox had $180M in debt with 90,000 customers bringing in $500M in revenue (ARPU of about $500 per month). Windstream will issue stock valued at $183M and pay $280 million in cash for $500M in revenue and access to business cutomers outside its footprint. With cellular assets an ILEC like Windstream would be swimming in the EarthLink pool: declining revenue from a declining customer base. The only way to attract new customers is to go outside its own region - or buy a cellular company or a cable outfit (both of which cost way more than $500M).

Nuvox pays out between 12 and 18 points to its Channel agents. Many people call me wondering how they do that when they sell PRI's in many markets for $400. I have no idea. One thing that stands out is that the $95M loan in 2006 grew to $180M in 2009, some it from its FDN acquisition in 2007, but how much because they sell underwater? Nuvox burned through nearly $500M in VC funding as well. 

It sounds funny but on the same day the two companies famous for driving the price of telecom down are acquired - and the Channel is given as a reason. Is this just a bunch of order-takers or is the state of the economy the reason that price is the main object (instead of value and reliability)?

Atlanta based Telecom Master Agency announced at their Annual One-on-One event that they would be providing Commission Insurance. The details are coming (Brad Miehl said in November), but it looks like Evergreen may get a new look. Is this more Master Agency 2.0 innovation? Looking out for the agent more than ever.

UPDATE:

We at MicroCorp want to make sure there is no artificial ceiling in the amount of carrier business you entrust under our care and management. You should have complete confidence that you are going to be paid no matter if you are placing your first order or your one thousandth order with us. The scale of your business with MicroCorp should not matter and it is up to us to remove any risk as your base continues to grow. Even if this risk is highly unlikely to ever even occur.

Therefore starting today, we will be launching our Commission Assurance Program™. MicroCorp will be the first and only Master Agency that gives our channel the legal protection and ownership of their MicroCorp commissions in the unlikely event the company experienced any type of financial distress that puts your income stream at risk. In other words, if MicroCorp went out of business, the Commission Assurance Program™ would kick in and your revenue stream would be protected. Therefore, by having this program in place, we effectively eliminate the need of you having to diversify your revenue outside of MicroCorp simply to mitigate this type of risk.

Effectively, agent commissions are insured against loss. Nice. I have to call my Channel Manager Van Wender now to sign up for this program.

All the talk about Hosted VoIP being on the rise, blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile, Paetec is on LinkedIn "hiring PBX (Telephone Equipment) Sales Reps for our Raleigh, Nashville, Memphis Offices." For the Allworx product line, I would imagine.

KeaneTel, a Master Agency, is advertising Training on ShoreTel IP PBX Sales. "This is the first of four Training Webinars on ShoreTel by KeaneTel."

All the talk about Hosted PBX and yet premise based PBX sales still seem to be doing alright.

Could be all the FUD. Could be the weekly outages. (Yesterday, it was reported on listservs that Level3 and Cogent had an outage. Level3's outage in Atlanta seemed to even affect VoIP.)

Outages seem to get a lot more press today, but if people are in The Cloud for apps, email, VoIP, data, etc. AND the Internet Access is down, well, you have to consider that. Redundant links - for everyone including the user.

Bandwidth.com just disbanded their agent channel. Other VoIP providers have done that as well.  And I hear some complaints about the cable company indirect channel programs.

The problem isn't the Agent Channel. The problem is the Channel Program design. 

You have to design a program that will work, folks.  You have to train your agents on the benefits, how it works, how it will be implemented, and how to sell it. You have to have a USP or marketing message that the salesperson can grasp and re-use. 

You can blame the agents, but most times companies don't spell out who the target prospect is and how that prospect will benefit. VoIP is not a replacement service. And you VoIP companies have over 1000 competitors all saying the same thing. It's like trying to differentiate between CLEC integrated T1's.

There's is also the whole compensation issue. Maybe you aren't paying enough to make it worthwhile for the agent. Again a VoIP sale is longer than a TDM sales and there are inter-operability and implementation issues to deal with, especially for PBX replacement.

There's a bias towards having a direct sales team in telecom. That bias is due to the huge expense - the office space, desks, laptops, utilities, cell phones, benefits, salaries and management structure. If you examined your direct team the same way you examine your indirect channel, you'd likely fire that division as well. Personally, I would put up Agents against AE's any day. I can pick 5 and outsell your direct team all day, any day - with less churn.

By the way, did you examine the channel sales process? How hard was it to get a quote or a sales engineer or a contract? What was the time from contract to install to commission check? All this will play into it. You look at AT&T's Channel sales process and it's just too freaking painful. 

In Internet Marketing, you can analyze the sales process to find out where the hurdles are, where the shoppers drop out. Is there a process in place to figure out the sales hurdles in the physical world? Do you track any of it?

I've been in the VoIP space since 2004, so many companies have imploded; not delivered; messed up; changed things again and again. With this kind of history, it gets more challenging to find agents willing to bet their business on it.

I'm in Atlanta speaking at the Microcorp One-on-One event about Trends in 2010. The three trends that I see for agents are the following: Applications, Quality of Service (QOS), and Mobile Broadband (MBB). But they are kind of inter-dependent. Ubiquious broadband leads to innovative uses and applications. Applications like on smartphones lead to a greater need for mobile broadband networks.

Mobile Broadband is growing. Smartphones are replacing cellular handsets. Social networks are moving to mobile devices so people can Facebook and Tweet. RIM's Blackberry brought us mobile email, but it is a standard on many phones now. Netbooks and data cards are presenting the US cellular companies with some fits. They like the additional revenue, but have to keep dropping billions on the network backhaul and capacity upgrades. (And another $45B+ on the upgrade to LTE/4G).

All this means that there are new uses for the mobile broadband, like the Kindle. Sprint's Wispernet allows Amazon to instantly download books, magazines, newspapers and blogs to Kindle devices. Machine-to-machine devices can utilize the cellular data network to provide connectivity for ATM machines, security cameras, and a host of other devices that need to communicate with a NOC or remote server.

All of this is a cycle of applications driving network usage. Ubiquious broadband driving more apps. It's one reason that the FCC needs to maintain open network and Net Neutrality guidelines in place.

Applications - like email, databases, office suites, CRM - are creating a demand for managed services, such as an outsourced IT department. In addition, businesses are looking at the Cloud - moving applications to a data center for redundancy, security, and availability - as a way to save money and stop worrying about the IT department. With applications being delivered in the Cloud or by way of SAAS or even Virtualization, Agents have a chance to offer more than just Internet Access or WAN circuits, like private line. Agents can sell Layer 2 to Layer 7 - pipe to apps. It's a way to get deeper into accounts. It's a way to offer a complete solution. It's a way to deliver on the label of Trusted Advisor.

Applications are driving sales. Voice and email are just the primary apps. Business critical data is also driving mobile broadband. Ubiquious broadband is allowing for innovative ways of accessing data. The problem becomes reliable access to the data. That's where Quality of Service comes in. QOS on the WAN is what is needed to access data reliably and quickly. The MPLS trigger is the Class of Service reliability and prioritization of data over the network. This is paramount for businesses running a truly converged network with video, database, VoIP, email and Internet riding the same pipes. WAN Optimization is selling due to the cost containment and the performance enhancement. Big bang for the buck.

So the agents can sell mobile broadband, applications via Virtualization or SAAS, and add QOS to the WAN to provide reliable access to these business critical data.

I've been trying to order Dry Fiber out of the AT&T Southeast FCC Tariff # 1 for over a month.

The Service Inquiry used to be manual paper - now it is a system called NSS. No idea how to access that system. 

I tried to order it through the Channel. It is not on the commission schedule so my Channel Manager wrote me, "We need to concentrate on products we get paid for, dry fiber is not one of those products."  So nevermind helping the customer.  Or sell product and bring in some revenue. Or that the customer has a huge spend with AT&T already. (Or that I just need an SI done - nothing more).

Product Management indicated that AT&T is no longer offering the Dry Fiber product. "The product was removed once the merger between AT&T & Bellsouth took place." But that is erroneous as the following filings will prove.

BellSouth filed to discontinue Dry Fiber service in July 2007 (see letter PDF here). Then AT&T filed with the FCC to withdraw its Section 63.71 application seeking to discontinue its provision of Dry Fiber service in Jan. 2008 (see letter PDF here). It currently is written into the FCC Tariff # 1 as 4-strand fiber transport (see PDF Tariff here).

Next it's over to the CLEC side of the house where the Wholesale account rep says that she only handles UNE. The other Wholesale rep handles FCC tariff items, but not a word out of her yet. 

My big problem is that this service is listed in the tariff. It shouldn't be that hard to order service. 

Next step for the client is a phone call. Either to call a telecom attorney (either Kris Twomey or Jonathan Marashlian); or to call the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau (202) 418-1500.

SUTUS sells an Office-in-the-box solution for small business. For 25 and under employees, the Sutus Business Central 200 is a file server, email server, router, wireless access point, and phone system. The BC200 has gotten an upgrade. 

• New User Interface: enhanced Flex technology supports seamless installation, management and use of the Business Central 200, onsite and/or remotely.
• Enhanced Desktop Install Tools: enables the set-up of desktops, VPN clients and mail clients in a matter of minutes.
• Enhanced Network Interoperability: the appliance now can seamlessly co-exist within a customer's legacy local area networks; including active directory, hosted exchange, and existing internet routers.
• VoIP Interoperability: ITSP partners added to the VoIP interop menu now include Bandwidth.com, Airespring, Excel and XO Communications.

It's the telephony upgrade that caught my eye: Call park / retrieve and directed pick-up. Older key systems use call park and most Hosted PBX systems cannot emulate that feature. (Aastra has a PBX that can). Other features include:

• Overhead and handset paging
• Open / closed call flows
• Enhanced directory
• Ability to manage Polycom handsets through user interface

SUTUS is distributed by ScanSource and NETX.

ADTRAN announced that it has teamed with telecom master agent, Telecom Brokerage, Inc. (TBI), to help channel partners drive revenue growth and become more competitive in the Small and Medium Enterprise market. (If you aren't a Cisco VAR, you need a hardware partner). 

When an agent can combine ADTRAN's industry-leading WAN solutions, including multiservice routers and managed switches, with TBI's partnerships with leading national and regional telecom service providers, agents can benefit from a complete solution; greater account knowledge and control; and generate an additional revenue stream.