WPP is one of the largest advertising and marketing firms in the world. They are a conglomerate of a number of acquisitions of agencies globally. WPP was hit with a ransonware hack that disabled its network (see HERE and HERE). It shut them down.
No one think it will happen to them, but the ease at which hackers are able to assault ANY computer or Internet-connected device makes EVERYONE susceptible. This gets exacerbated by 4 things that are easy but users are too lazy to do: (1) have a strong password policy; (2) update operating systems as well as anti-virus software and RUN it weekly; (3) back-up data; and (4) stop opening attachments!
You should be on top of your customers today pushing those 3 things: password policy; Managed IT or at the least anti-virus software; and cloud backup. Go make some money while this is still fresh. Or go help your customers so they aren't helpless tomorrow!
BTW, this would qualify as Disaster Recovery
]]>The products that have been launched recently sit in big buckets titled IOT, Cyber-Security, Managed Services, SD-WAN and of course UC (UCaaS, UCC, WCC).
Rich Tehrani has a nice read about AI and analytics transforming companies like Vodafone.
COLOTRAQ has a new IT Risk/Cyber-security Assessment and Planning Service. They even brought in some talent to delivery it in Victor Zamora.
MetTel launched a single SIM for IOT. One VAR I spoke with said that they are going to run with this to the end-user because it is a niche that is almost without competition.
Level3 consistently emails me about selling cyber-security, especially their DDoS Mitigation service.
EarthLink is still around? They launched a secure public Wi-Fi connections with Norton WiFi Privacy (basically VPN). Considering how often businesses use Starbucks, hotel, airport and other public wi-fi, this should be a no-brainer sale.
Panterra rolled out Streams, an ode to Slack, but integrated into a secure, encrypted full unified comms platform.
VZW has One Talk, one of the few mobile UC plays out there.
When TelePacific re-branded as TPx, the highlighted products were managed IT, security, UCaaS and SD-WAN.
Aryaka just rolled out a clientless SD-WAN: "SmartACCESS - the first-to-market SD-WAN for remote access, with built-in dynamic CDN." In the US, Content Delivery Networks are how a majority of users get their Netflix chill on.
Verizon announced that they are selling more MPLS due to SD-WAN. CenturyLink has said that SD-WAN is not a quick fix. So there is a lot of room for expertise and advising in these projects still.
AT&T says that enterprise clients want a hybrid solution to managed services. (Nothing new here). Some of the services will be outsourced to the likes of AT&T and some will remain in-house. That is the way it is for cloud as well - HYBRID, according to an Evolve IP survey. Private for mission-critical, Public (AWS, Azure, SaaS) for mass market stuff and VPS for DevOps. Pulling that together requires some expert help. Is that you?
All of these vendors are just waiting for Channel Partners to pickup the ball and run with it.
It will take more than the Twitter approach to launch. Twitter put there platform out there and waited to see what people would do with it. Years later, Twitter still has no idea what the business case or financial model is. Don't be Twitter!
It isn't about just throwing your toy into the yard so someone will stumble along to play with it.
We want to be spoon fed who IS buying it; why are they buying it; etc. (As I have written about ad nauseum.) It is all about the Stories! Ignoring this means that we will leave that toy alone on the ground over there.
I understand that channel partners have to innovate, change, transition, etc.
With network revenues steadily declining and telecom being a broken mess, partners spend all day selling bandwidth at lower rates - and lower commissions - and then having to navigate the many layers of Dante's Hell that is a carrier today to get it installed (and then fixed - yes I am talking to you ACC Business and GTT!)
In the midst of this mess, on-going consolidation and the accompanying musical chairs is making a partner's job harder, not easier.
Much of these products require new knowledge and some training. That is not time that is always available to partners. I know, Go Make Some Time before you become Extinct. You see, we'll have time when we are extinct.
Besides compelling stories, buyer profiles and the WHY, we will also need new sales skills. Selling dial-tone or network is replacement. Selling Cyber-Security or AI requires a different sales approach.
MSPs understand how to sell managed IT but some VARs do not. (Hence why they are still VARs!)
While many of these products allow a Partner to enter a green field with little competition, maybe the business model for the partner has to be demonstrated as well.
And maybe instead of launching more services, you figure out how to deliver on the ones you have. If you can't deliver the easy stuff (Network), I will never give you a shot at the complex!
Just some food for thought while you wait on the Channel.
]]>On an agent webinar this morning, Windstream is beating the SD-WAN drum. I understand that SD-WAN is a boon to retail, restaurants, branch offices and rural locations. Not every business wants to pay over $500 for a pipe. They want to pay what they were paying for T1s. SD-WAN will be a boon for broadband providers - satellite, 4G/LTE, fixed wireless, DSL and cable modem. It swings the WAN back to IP-VPN. Is that a great idea in the age of Hacking?
There are other benefits for SD-WAN: ease of management; faster deployment; analytics; transparency; failover/redundancy; but the bell that most CIOs rang at the WAN Summit in NYC was cost savings.
We are going to see a bunch of locations move from dedicated Internet (DIA or MIS) to broadband. From a commission standpoint that will suck. From a vendor standpoint that will be a pain. However, if partners layer on SD-WAN from a provider plus two broadband providers, we might be able to keep the MRR close. This will become the standard configuration for many business locations.
That is the drum that is beating.
As an RLEC (rural ILEC), revenue streams heavily favored consumer services. The RLECs had USF and TDM transitions occur to shake up their business models. Also, cable starting eating their lunch. DSL didn't cut it. The RLECs had to spend to beef up the network for both better broadband and Telco TV. They just did it too late. Now they have to chase the business markets with HPBX, SD-WAN, cloud services and anything else to bring revenue in and margin back.
CLEC margins on resold network are thin. UC isn't killing it, for anyone. Managed services is where the margin is. SD-WAN is just another technology that needs to be deployed for the customer and managed (like managed router or a monitored Internet pipe).
That is why the drum is beating.
Viptela puts it nicely, "In today's fiercely competitive digital-driven marketplace, enterprises must remove complexity from the WAN. WANs need to be easier to manage, cost-efficient, more agile and available, and better aligned with an organization's computer and business needs. The SD-WAN is quickly becoming an essential component of enterprise digital transformation."
This makes it sound like WAN is complex. It isn't really. MPLS is not that hard or complicated. It is easier than IP-VPN and more secure. (Or at least it is for me.) With many network operators connected to cloud platforms (like AWS, Rackspace and Azure), adding a direct connection to a WAN is simple. (Or if the customer has a data center presence,he can tap into the cloud via a peering fabric.) There are ways to architect a secure, manageable WAN.
Partners will be selling SD-WAN, the flavor of the year. I just wish they had not all been calling it SD-WAN and had actually incorporated it into a branded service offering. That could have led to differentiation and some targeting so it doesn't become a commodity so fast. (Oops! Too late.)
]]>In the SpiceWorks IT Buyer guide, "IT pros at small companies are often both the business and IT decision makers." And no one reads your brochures. Interesting that IT buyers don't trust social media.
A CompTIA SMB study "identified the "sweet spot" of the SMB market to be companies with 10 to 99 employees. Those companies represent a 20% slice of the overall market. But it's a big slice in terms of sheer numbers: 1.8 million businesses fit the sweet spot description."
Another interesting point from CompTIA's study: "CompTIA breaks down the SMB market into three subcategories, the largest of which is "budget conscious" companies that represent 78% of the estimated nine million U.S. small businesses. Herbert said much of what that segment spends on IT boils down to break/fix services and other items such as web design."
"Healthcare IT professionals believe their data is safer in the cloud than on premises according to a survey released by Evolve IP." [source] They mean private cloud though. "Other key results of the survey showed that, on average, healthcare organizations have between two and three services (2.75 average) in the cloud." If you want to sell to healthcare, UCaaS, data backup and retrieval and hosted email (Exchange, Office365, whatever).
Bonus material from my friend at MOJO Marketing, whose CEO spoke at MSP World: Anatomy of a Wildly Successful Digital Marketing Campaign.
]]>In this podcast, I speak with TelePacific's SVP Ken Bisnoff on why TelePacific is re-branding. The CLEC of old is gone. Telecom is shifting to be more than voice and Internet. TelePacific has transitioned to a Managed Services Carrier with its acquisition of DSCI. TelePacific is not the same company it was even 5 years ago. It is now a Tier 1 CSP for Microsoft. There is a SOC (security operations center) in St. Louis. The lines of business have changed. Now the name will too.
One point made during the podcast to note: the providers are shifting, but Agents need to shift too.
If you cannot see the flash player, you can download the mp3 or listen on Soundcloud.
]]>Just as they are getting acquired by Windstream, EarthLink finally gets its stuff together. ELNK announced that in six months they have deployed SD-WAN functionality to about 1700 offices for 41 customers. That is pretty impressive but the technology (SD-WAN) is best deployed at small offices, rural and branch locations. It is where the tech gets the best ROI.
FYI... SD-WAN, like WebRTC, is a technology NOT a product. Stop trying to sell the tech!!!
IPO's are on the horizon. Fuze got another bag of VC cash and hired a CEO to take them to the public land. I hear that Star2Sar is thinking the same thing.
Speaking of cashing out, my client, Hunt Telecom in Louisiana, got acquired by CS&L aka Uniti Fiber. Congrats to Jason, Kevin, Robert and Troy!!!
LUMOS Networks got grabbed by investment firm EQT for $950 million cash.
One weird acquisition: Atlassian spent $425 million on task management provider, Trello. Altassian owns Hipchat (a Slack competitor) and JIRA. It seems like a good combo.
A head scratcher: Fonality got bought by Netfortis. Asterisk and Genband.
ARRIS is buying Ruckus from Brocade because "Every carrier will need to be in wireless."
TelePacific is coming into 2017 with its acquisition of UC provider DSCI. They will be re-branding the new nationwide managed services provider at the Vegas CP show. Yesterday at a partner event, TelePacific CEO Dick Jalkut told the room that they had spent $500K on ITx and UCx demo centers around the country as well as building out a SOC (security operations center) in St. Louis. Any current TelePacific partner can visit the SOC. You might want to ask if they will pick up the airfare. TelePacific isn't giving up on network - it is what made them the regional giant that they are - but all bets for the future of the company lie with the strategic products - like security, managed IT, Office365 and a Broadsoft UCaaS offering - that DSCI strengthens with their own experience and products in those areas..
OTT UCaaS provider, Panterra, has inked another distribution deal; this time with VoIP Supply.
]]>Microsoft has been far behind AWS but then they started later too. This study shows that AWS has 45% share of public cloud infrastructure market -- more than Microsoft, Google, IBM combined.
Amazon launched a conferencing service called Chime.aws. They launched it with Vonage Business. Why? Unless the old Nexmo service is the back-end for the WebRTC voice and video and screen share. Vonage has 4 platforms - consumer VoIP; Vocalocity small biz; Broadsoft and Nexmo. I think they would have conferencing covered.
Amazon offers VPS and Hosting too. They also are a sales agent for Frontier and Comcast.
ABRY Partners owns StackPath which acquired Highwinds, a Florida based CDN company. StackPath will now offer secure CDN on top of firewall and DDoS mitigation services.
Dell announced that is unifying the Dell and EMC partner programs. Dell used partner feedback to make it simple, predictable and profitable. It is the best of both programs, says Dell. "It Preserves best of legacy Dell and EMC programs to reward partners who sell the full portfolio, including services, grow their business and win net new customers." One characteristic: "One deal registration program and a Zero Tolerance policy for deal conflicts."
Datto has acquired OpenMesh to further its pivot to be a premiere partner for MSPs. "The Open Mesh wireless access point and ethernet switching technologies will join the existing Datto Networking Appliance to create the Datto Networking line of products, optimized for small-to-medium sized businesses and delivered exclusively through Datto's global network of Managed Service Provider partners." I guess it will compete with Ruckus, Meraki (Cisco) and ADTRAn's managed wi-fi solutions.
In an interesting vertical move, "Evolve IP has partnered with Nimble Storage to provide healthcare organizations with on-premises Nimble Storage flash arrays, supported by HIPAA-compliant and HITRUST-audited hybrid cloud, cloud backup and disaster recovery solutions from Evolve IP." [channelvision]
]]>Wood corrected that Velocloud decided not to sell direct but to use a variety of service providers as sales partners. These partners could be VARs or MSPs or LECs. Many providers formerly known as CLECs, like TelePacific, Mettel, EarthLink and Global Capacity, have chosen VeloCloud. So has AT&T.
Wood says each provider is rolling out SD-WAN by adding Velocloud to its own network sauce. Personally, I don't think that helps the SD-WAN term gain definition, but we'll see.
ITSPs (VoIP Providers) are also rolling out SD-WAN. Some are using Velocloud (Vonage and Mitel); others are using other vendors including SimpleWAN. It improves call quality measurably.
In the case of Vonage, they are using Velocloud technology to leave a box on-site to perform MOS scoring and monitor the call quality in the first month. Then Vonage can go back to the customer to say that the Internet performance is the issue and with SmartWAN (Vonage brand name) the call quality will improve starting now. (The white SDN box is already on-site doing monitoring and testing. Now it just gets turned up and billing begins.)
Quality + Transparency + Monitoring is what Velocloud is offering. Analytics will come later.
Velocloud has 600 customers through 150 partners, but not all providers are past the pilot stage, so Wood tells me it is more than 4 deals per partner.
Wood said that EarthLink is spinning the SD-WAN story different with its SD-WAN Concierge service.
The story of SD-WAN has to be more than spun. It needs clarity of value and differentiation. Wood pointed out that Cisco has moved into the space (iWAN) as a vendor to LECs and as a provider. Also, WAN Optimization specialists like Riverbed are spinning into the space - but without really evolving.
The benefits of SD-WAN extend from simple WAN management to zero touch provisioning to SaaS/App Performance. In between, there are features for remediation, leveraging economical broadband, and mu;ti-path/best link path determination (packet traffic cop). The MOS scoring agent is what the ITSPs like. The features don't change; it is all about how the provider packages the software (Velocloud or Broadsoft). The new year will bring more buzz and more spin. Stay tuned.
]]>AT&T with its DirecTV buy and its grab for TW is basically following Comcast's playbook. Comcast bought NBCU, is becoming an MVNO (cellular reseller) and has a $6B Comcast Business division that is going to chase enterprise (much to the dismay of CenturyLink and Windstream).
Verizon is busy selling off wireline assets and buying up as much spectrum as its AMEX card will allow in a heavy bet that 5G and IOT will solve all of their revenue and cable issues. In a move bizarre move, VZ bought up AOL and Yahoo as content plays. This playbook is solely Lowell C. McAdam's.
Frontier, Fairpoint, CenturyLink and Windstream are RLECs looking to get out from under a heavy debt burden without cellular assets and without a content play. Each has its own playbook.
Windstream buying EarthLink almost makes sense especially at a $1.1 Billion all stock deal. (This move doesn't hurt the channel since both providers were pro-channel.)
CenturyLink buying Level3 is not only surprising; it is disheartening. Level3 has its problems certainly. Yet its management understood the business it was in and what it took to win business. For a partner, that is a plus.
To fuel that $34B deal (total value of stock, debt, etc), CenturyLink is selling its data center business (Qwest and Savvis) for $2.1B to a coalition of PE firms headed by the former CEO of Terremark. This coalition is also buying 4 cyber-security firms to build a global cyber security business. Partners are curious if they will still get paid on deals already sold. And what the future holds here.
FPL getting acquired by Crown Castle also makes partners worry about commissions, since CC doesn't have a channel and doesn't retail its fiber.
The CLEC industry is practically gone now. After nearly one trillion in investment money dating back to 1996 or so, most of the CLECs we have come to know and sell are pretty much gone.
What does that leave the Channel? IOT, Cloud, UCaaS, SD-WAN, security - basically selling managed services. Network is going to be tough to sell and make a living on as prices continue to erode. SD-WAN for the win!!!
Network is easy to sell and there is demand for it. You really can't say that for any other product in the portfolio.
Data center is still alive and well. Long live colocation!
]]>Krebs experienced an IOT botnet attack earlier this month. An ISP client was under two DDoS attacks in August.
These attacks are increasing in frequency -- and are not going away. This will be normal business soon.
Email and iPhone hacks are in the news.
What are you doing to protect your clients?
Quite a few data centers offer a DDoS Mitigation service. (So does Level3).
There are a number of managed security service offerings - from firewall to IDS to UTM* - available from a number of providers.
In a time when bandwidth pricing is decreasing -- and customers want to spend less -- someone needs to bring up the topic of security and redundancy. Why not you?
*Intrusion Detection Service and Unified Threat Management
]]>It wasn't UCaaS after UCaaS after UCaaS. It was broken up. UCaaS/VoIP is still big - and there are still too many vendors for not enough sales - but it didn't seem like every booth. At the CSNG event, it was wall to wall VoIP. It looked like the starting line for the Great Race, with teams in their matching colored shirts from almost every VoIP provider - DSCI, Panterra, Jive, Fusion, Momentum, Net2Phone, Nextiva, Vonage, Star2Star and a few others.
TelePacific is closer to finishing its merger with DSCI, which will be good for all partners as this CLEC pops out onto the national scene as a Managed Services Carrier. TelePacific will have a new line of managed services launched soon in conjunction with DSCI. SD-WAN will just be one of the new services that partners can sell nationally.
SD-WAN is making a ripple. Verizon brought the full team to its hot dog and beer session on SD-WAN. Very competent people explaining the different ways that VZ can deploy managed SD-WAN either from Cisco or from Viptela.
Ecessa is excited about the opportunities that the channel is bringing them. Both Ecessa and Aryaka told me that right now it is about education - both to the customer and to the partner - about what SD-WAN is and what it can do for the networks and productivity of the customer.
Polycom wasn't prominent at the show, but neither was Yealink. A few UCaaS providers told me that more and more UCaaS seats are beings old without phones. Jabra and Plantronics are picking up business. (I wonder if ScanSource distributes those lines of headsets?)
Level3 is still going through integration issues according to two different partners.To be expected I would imagine as they try to merge networks with TWTC and add SDN.
Quite a few carriers spent more than a little time explaining that they WERE indeed embracing the channel.
IOT was talked about, but I still don't get how channel partners will make money at it. Verizon went from $455M last year to $800M this year in IOT revenues, which is a blip in their coffers.
A lot of talk about the ScanSource/Intelisys deal. The X4/Sandler merger didn't even get to spend a week on anyone's mind. Everyone is wondering if this will be a trend. There has to be at least two deals in the pipeline right now. We'll see.
Not much else to say. Safe travels.
]]>Hacks and Ransonware are becoming common. The Enterprise CIO knows this. Security keeps him up at night. Finding the skill set for cyber-security is difficult. Finding the budget is even harder.
You would think that budget for security would be easy, but it isn't. The risk assessment is that they would rather risk the game of cat and mouse cyber-warfare.
At ChannelCon security is prevalent. So many vendors, so few partners jumping on that bandwagon. To sell it, you have to understand it - and the risks, the benefits and more.
You also have to pick a vendor or 2.That is a time commitment and a learning curve.
At some point, someone will sell a multi-vendor solution of managed security; deliver it well; and become known for it.
It isn't going to be a SKU off a VAD that someone just picks out of 5 quotes. Too many moving parts. Too many things that can go wrong that will ruin your relationship with the client.
It is just easier to keep trucking down your own road than to learn new services and how to sell them.
]]>By 2012, half were gone, swallowed up by acquisitions. [CBEY-Birch, Qwest-CLink, Paetec-WIND, L3-GX, L3-twt, Zayo-ABoveNet]. Today, with XO going to Verizon next year, there are really only a handful left. And they don't look like what a CLEC looked like 6 years ago.
Wireline Copper is in decline in large part to fiber, Google and cable, but to no small extent by the ILECs not wanting to be in that business anymore. They don't have to share fiber assets like a UNE. They do wholesale it, but since the ILECs are getting beat by the cablecos, the wholesale ILEC fiber isn't an awesome deal.
Buying wholesale from cable is resembles punching yourself in the face. They don't want to sell wholesale. I have heard this from them repeatedly. They make Verizon look like a generous wholesale partner. They will snake your customer out from under your contract. )I have heard these stories repeatedly as well.)
After you have done this for a while, you want a change. Who wouldn't? Telco is to gastroenterology what candy is to dentistry.
TelePacific has made a shift. With its acquisition of DSCI, TelePacific is taking managed services, UCaaS and SD-WAN nationwide. I have been known to say, Layer 1 or Layer 7 - either own the network or own the app. With managed services, UCaaS and SD-WAN, TPAC is betting on being a business technology partner at Layer 7 (of the OSI Model). Congrats, to one of my favorite clients (for full disclosure to my readers).
The other final pivot occurred in Atlanta, where EarthLink "acquired Boston Retail Partners, LLC ("BRP"), a highly regarded management consulting firm focused on the retail vertical. BRP's experienced consultants work with leading retailers to deliver strategic solutions that address the business and technology challenges unique to the industry." This might be the final note of the retail song that ELNK has been playing. Retail is a vertical they decided to attack and own and this might be the final piece needed.
It reminds me of CapGemini a little in that CapGemini is a consulting firm that partnered with VMWare and their AirWatch division to offer mobile desktop mixed with MDM. A consulting firm being a service provider like an MSP.
This ELNK acquisition makes me wonder if they will spin-off their network assets - Deltacom/IFN fiber, ONE Comm fiber in the northeast and New Edge Networks - to a REIT or other entity. It would make sense IF the revenue of the CLEC could stand up to scrutiny by itself. We'll see, but it is definitely a different looking CLEC. I'm not even certain that term applies to them any more.
After 28 acquisitions, Birch has a new CEO and mission for organic growth predicated on a fiber lit building strategy and Cbeyond's cloud portfolio. They still look and act like a CLEC.
Zayo is all fiber all day. Pipe, pipe, pipe. Oh, yeah we have some data center stuff from a Latisys acquisition but fiber, fiber, fiber.
And Level3 is still plugging away at its own triple play: the voice network that more than 70% of the VoIP providers rely on; a very well connected network with a top looking glass that is connected to content engines as well as enterprises, government and carriers; and fiber. The next step for Level3 is to connect their young security services department into their well-connected market. This would get them up the stack a little too.
Rumor today is that Comcast wants to buy Level3 to compete eye to eye with AT&T and VZ.
Network is the main play but no one can survive forever on just selling network - unless you have many unique routes, you run your network flawlessly and you know where the assets are. There has to be a layer beyond just pipe. That's what everyone is working on.
]]>If you have been at a master agent roadshow or conference, you know that what we will call fringe or non-mainstream vendors are looking for attention. Also, the most popular brands are looking to push new product lines. [In this picture, Dave Montgomery of Level3 is at a Microcorp road show to discuss Level's security services. Jay McClure is discussing BCN's position. MicroCorp's Chris O'Brien moderates.]
In the current SPIFF war, it is an escalation of the cost of customer acquisition (basically providers are buying market share, not mind share) for Hosted VoIP customers. It really has become a commodity now. Telarus has added UC to GeoQuote, so now the only distinction will be price. [see VoIP price comparison here]
As an aside here, UCaaS providers were already having a problem with both differentiation AND Positioning (where they fit best in the marketplace). Now any special benefits of a platform will be lost in the quoting process. Customers won't be too happy unless all they want is POTS replacement or something basic. Quoting out UCaaS like network is going to create a lot of extra work and lower closing ratios. But this way anyone can sell UCaaS like it was a PRI replacement, which it is not.
In the UC pricing comparison chart, 5 out of 6 are proprietary systems - home brewed VoIP platforms. (Nextiva is Broadsoft.) Hard to know what the feature differences will be. At least, if they were all one platform - Metaswitch, Netsapiens or Broadsoft, the price comparison would make a little more sense. Yet then you would be discounting mobility, portals, analytics and other deployment differences. It reminds me of shopping for a new smartphone last week at a Sprint store. That store didn't have a feature list for each phone, so I had to either buy it on price or rely on the salesperson (who was clueless). Not the best way to buy a business tool that you are stuck using daily for two years.
Anyway... Carriers would be wise to use SPIFFs to get partners to first notice other types of services (and hopefully sell them). Some newer services are gateway drugs for more services, more ARPU, more commissions via upsell and cross-sell. Bandwidth is a replacement product that is a transaction. Email, conferencing and backup are low churn but sticky sales that are small with seemingly low risk. However, they are the lever towards building trust and getting in the door to build an account up.
This is an edit I did on TelePacific's SPIFF flyer this month. These are some of the sticky services. These are different conversations, but they also lead to more conversations with the client. And right now you can take advantage of all the noise and hype around Microsoft. Leverage that brand and press to get meetings, get a small sale, prove yourself.
Yet getting partners to sell services like hosted email, cloud, conferencing, backup and SAAS is the struggle. I have written before why partners are reluctant to sell these services. Chief reason is that they are heads done just trying to sell enough to stay afloat. Price compression on DIA, T1, broadband and voice means that you have to sell two or three times as many deals to make the same as you did a few years ago.
This same price pressure will slow cook some master agents and quota.
I have noticed that deals under $500 are SPIFF free. Providers are pushing sales up-market. Oh, they will take deals under $500, they just won't compensate the partner the same way.
Everyone is heading up-market. It will be a bigger struggle to get attention, to change partner behavior. It might get costly too.
]]>Hosted PBX, UCaaS, and the like involve a lot more than the hardware version, because now it is a software application service delivery project. There is extension mapping to DIDs, SMS, and email addresses.
This isn't a simple implementation. This is a software deployment.
Copper was in just about every building. Occasionally there would be an issue with no available pairs, but today quote has a site survey. Many have construction costs or minimum spends for the build. Then there is the actual construction to manage. Customer site preparation, conduit, power and connectivity from the telco closet to the office suite.
It used to be easy: be like a realtor and sell some colocation. Now, VPS, IAAS, PAAS, and other virtualization means a conversion from hardware that was shipped, stacked, turned on, plugged in to a data migration and software project management.
So many moving pieces today. Much more project management involved than ever before, all while price compression also means commission decline.
If you are selling network, it got harder. Site surveys and construction projects to manage and communicate to your customer. More unpaid work for less compensation. It's understandable that you don't have the time or desire to learn the latest technology like UCaaS, Workflow, Contact Center, SAAS, AWS, SD-WAN, dynamic network, managed services and all the security products - UTM, cloud firewall, DDOS mitigation, etc.
It's only going to get more complicated. Gary Vanderchuk's keynote at a credit union industry event is titled, "You Better Figure It the Hell Out". Some really good advice even though it isn't our industry and it is an hour. He even talks about missed opportunities and what it is like being an entrepreneur and CEO.
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