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

channel

6 Questions when Choosing a VoIP Provider

February 19, 2009

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.




Commission Dinging

February 19, 2009

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?



Level3 Profits

February 16, 2009

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.

More Agents or Lift the Ones You Have?

February 11, 2009

If you are a carrier or a Master Agent, do you need more agents or do you need to give a lift to the ones you have?

There's a sales management theorem that when you use Pareto's Principle, you should spend you time with the Top 20% of your sales force not the bottom 20%. Why? Because the people bringing 80% of your sales are the ones you want to keep happy. Also, the more efficient and less bumpy you can make the sales process for them, the better for all the sales team, but especially the top dogs.

If you have a bunch of agents who signed up, what are you doing with them?



The Voice of Megapath is a Duet

February 6, 2009

It's a Party! SUTUS, Megapath and Polycom are hosting a seminar about their combined offering on Feb. 24 in San Jose. (Email me for an invite!)

What offering? Well, you know about Polycom's IP Phones, even the HD Voice models. SUTUS offers a piece of hardware that is an office-in-a-box, which is more than just an on-premise IP-PBX. 
"The functionality includes wired and wireless networking, file server, email, VoIP PBX, auto attendant, voice mail, internet router, security and access to managed services.


Sutus Delivers a Stimulus Plan of its own

January 28, 2009

Small Business wins as Sutus announces new lower pricing for  'Office in a box' technology

All-in-one Telephony and Data Communications vendor announces SOHO-grade pricing for award-winning Business Central device


January 27th, 2009, Vancouver, B.C. Sutus Inc., the company behind the Sutus Business Centralâ„¢, a unique all-in-one device that combines all the Telephony, data and networking features required to run a modern-day office, today announced pricing that dramatically reduces the TCO (total cost of ownership) for small businesses.

VAR's Optimistic

January 28, 2009

"Nearly one-third of VARs (value added resellers like Cisco certified IT shops) are planning to grow their businesses in excess of 15 percent in 2009", according to CRN.

The most interesting quote was not about the importance of Managing Cash Flow or How Goal # 1 is Finding new busines, it was this quote:

"When we asked them to rank what is most critical, they said "finding new business." Note the word "finding" because these are not organizations waiting around for Microsoft or HP to send them sales leads. Growth-oriented VARs in a down economy go out and find new customers."

Good agencies have a Lead Generation system in place. But one thing Agents ask for from their vendors (carriers) is Lead Gen.

Where is Dan Morford?

January 23, 2009

For those agents out there that attend ACC Business training at Channel Partners Expo over the years, you will notice that Dan Morford is missing this year. ACC Business let him go during their layoffs in December. The good news is that MicroCorp hired Dan Morford as Product Manager of their Insite Inventory software application. As product manager, Mr. Morford will be responsible for managing the pre-sales and post-sales support of the Insite application.

Top 5 Ways to Improve Agent Training

January 23, 2009

Agents are paddling like a duck in a pond to stay afloat. Always have been, but moreso now.  Many companies are wondering how to get Agents to sell their services. (I get this daily). Here's some thoughts:

Agents spends all day just running their business and keeping customers happy.

Is Verizon Serious About the Channel?

January 14, 2009

In my opinion, NO.  With all the information that you must provide them in order for the Verizon system to do "Segmentation", it is too cumbersome. Segmentation is the process through which they decide if the company is VZT, VZB, wholesale, carrier, etc.

If your customer is delivering a circuit to another business, the process goes up in smoke. It's resale.

Everything about dealing with Verizon is a PITA.



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