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Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

channel

Agents May Not Like This

July 9, 2014

Verizon's re-launch of its channel (after quite a few starts and stops) came with a new channel chief, Janet Schijns. In an interview in CP magazine, she makes some points for the channel.

The buying patterns are changing. So many components of this simple statement.

Selling Storage in a Free For All Market

June 25, 2014

I say consumer storage market because for small business with less than 15 employees, consumer apps are used. Earlier this week, Microsoft offered 1TB of storage on OneDrive to Office365 customers. (Thx Pete Davis for the heads-up.)

Today, at I/O, Google brings out the big guns -- unlimited storage for $10 per month and Office editing.

TBI Adds Voxox, MicroCorp Adds Alteva

June 20, 2014

I have written before about how crowded the Hosted Voice sector is. Apparently, that was a signal for master agencies to add more VoIP players.

Voxox signed up with TBI, who recently signed 8x8 to an extensive portfolio of service providers with VoIP offerings - like West IP, Cbeyond, CenturyLink and XO. I'm not sure how many VoIP players signed with TBI, but my guess would be 20.

Technology Channel Association Changes Taking Place

June 13, 2014

The TCA (Technology Channel Association), a non-profit trade association for channel partners that I helped found in 2008, has made a few announcements.

TCA President Jeff Ponts writes, "We have expanded our relationship with Cloud Partners, and have signed strategic relationships with CompTIA, and the Baptie Group to meet our goals." The main goal of TCA is education of the channel - all segments of the channel.

"The cornerstone of the TCA has always been the Certified Telecom Professional (CTP) exam. It was rolled out in 2010 and is now on its third revision to meet our industry's expanding role in supporting our members.

TelePartner Training

June 12, 2014

Vendor Buys Its Platinum Partner

June 9, 2014

"Vertical Communications, a provider of business communications software, announced that it has merged with Fulton Communications, a national systems integrator of voice, data and video communications technologies and one of the Inc. 5000 "fastest growing companies in North America."" Fulton is a Vertical Diamond Partner, who has sold more Vertical solutions over the past two years than any other channel partner."

"The new combined company will offer business customers vendor-direct communications technology solutions, including cloud and premise-based enterprise telephony, unified communications, and vertical-market voice applications, as well as a local presence for direct sales, support and professional services in major markets across the United States." [press release]

One Master Agent thought this was notable since the software company is looking for more direct sales (rather than rely on the channel). Many of the Master Agencies are in fact running a direct sales force in the background behind their prominent indirect sales model.

Easing into Cloud Services

June 5, 2014

The UC Install Opprtunity

May 19, 2014

When I talk to UC provider (or Hosted VoIP providers) that sell nationally, the biggest challenge is the customer install. There are a couple of national installers including Endeavor. The feedback I hear is that the current choices are not good. just because you can spell ROUTER doesn't mean you can configure one or find one was just one anecdote.

The Hosted VoIP Crowded Picture

May 8, 2014

Microcorp just signed up 8x8 as a vendor. By my count, that is the 20th service provider that offers Hosted VoIP of some kind. 20.

Some are Broadsoft based; some are Metaswitch based; and some are home brewed versions (Asterisk/Freeswitch/whatever).

Running Out of Salespeople

April 7, 2014

Recently, at an event a speaker said that about one-third of the salespeople would be retiring in the next couple years. I didn't really think anything of it until I was putting some slide decks together for three different sales trainings I am doing.

Then I ran into this graph from pharmaceutical sales, which shows the decline in the number of sales reps.

Five points:

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