PBX

Mitel MVNO Means Money

February 5, 2010

Mitel has signed an MVNO deal (TMC video) in order to maximize on its PBX business as it relates to the mobile workforce. It's one thing to have an application that loads on some smartphones and will talk to the PBX. It's a whole other pool of thought to go make a deal with a cellco to resell their network so that your mobility piece of the PBX puzzle can be better integrated.

As expected, here's why I think this will fail:

Most MVNO agreements end in flames - ESPN, Disney, Helio, Virgin Mobile.
The cellular pie is flattening, so how much room is there for another carrier.
The current price feud between ATT and VZW means shrinking margins.
Contracts, cool phones and fulfillment.

Mitel's Mobility play will encourage more minutes of use and more MB's of data -- all of which they have to pay for (like Cbeyond does) as a metered service. This will also eat into margins.

How do you get around the fact that most people are under a contract already for cell service? Or that many folks want their iPhone (or other cool, preferred handset)?

Posted in PBX, cellular

Chasing the Points

February 3, 2010

Sometimes being an agent is embarrassing. There's the whole discussion on Phone+ about Ethics in the Channel. When I first got in the channel in 1999, I wouldn't do business in Miami, because you had to buy the business. Agents would pay up to 90% of the commissions back to the customer (or the customer's wife) to get the business.

Then there's the whole: I'm going with whoever gives me the most points.

Posted in PBX, TCA, agents, channel, commissions, sip trunking, voip

Winning the Battle for SMB VoIP

January 25, 2010

We had a "winning" panel at ITEXPO last week in Miami Beach discussing How do service providers win over the SMB space with their VoIP offerings?

You can see the slides below. It was mainly a discussion about how VoIP providers sell to small business (about the 8-15 line space) the Hosted PBX service. While some of it is cost savings, I am seeing more and more small businesses (2-99 employees) ask about call quality and service reliability instead of price. That's the smart thing. Feedback welcome.

Winning the Battle for SMB VoIPView more presentations from RAD-INFO, Inc..

Posted in PBX, VAR, sip trunking, unified communications, voip

Why You Are Going to Need The Channel

December 22, 2009

Hello, VoIP Providers. How are the sales going on your Hosted PBX? I'll bet you are selling SIP Trunking -- at a savings on regular PRI pricing, right? Nice. Lower the revenue while fixed costs increase.

Posted in PBX, VAR, agents, channel, sip trunking, voip

Why is selling Hosted PBX so hard?

December 3, 2009

Talking with VoIP Providers most are just selling SIP Trunking. Why do I say Just? Where's the value in that? PRI replacement service while shaving revenue off the customer bill is the reason that the telco industry is sinking.

Posted in PBX, sales and selling, unified communications, voip

Were There Highlights in 2009?

November 25, 2009

Ken Camp's Year in Review prompted me to write this. It's been an interesting year. SIP, UC, Cloud, Merger. That's really how I see the blur that was 2009. I attended so many conferences this year.

Posted in CLEC, FCC, PBX, TCA, TMC, agents, bandwidth, broadsoft, cloud computing, economy, saas, sip trunking, social network, telco, tele-presence, telecommunications, twitter, unified communications, voip, xo

Gary Kim: How Not to Sell Hosted VoIP

November 4, 2009

Gary Kim has an excellent blog view about How Not to Sell Hosted PBX. First, you need to sell that is Reliable, Dependable. Even before the usual pitch of: Show me your phone bill and I will save you some money. (Blah!) Give Gary's story a read.

Posted in PBX, sales and selling, voip

Another VoIP Patent

October 23, 2009

Garrett Smith blogs about a new patent that was awarded to 8x8, parent company of Packet8 (and holder of 74 patents on VoIP and communications technology). It's about the automatic connection of an IP device to an IP-PBX.

You would think that by this time all the patents covering VoIP would be done. I will say that VoIP Providers need to have an attorney examine the patent for any infringement.

Posted in PBX, voip

PBX Box Pushing

October 21, 2009

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."

Posted in CLEC, PBX, agents, channel, voip

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