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

PBX

Is Hosted PBX Like BPM?

March 29, 2010

Business Process Management was a big concept about 5 years ago. The concept revolved around integrating business processes into systems for consistent execution of routines. (Heh! I can talk marketing speak!)

Today, we have Hosted PBX coming into small and medium businesses mainly as a cost savings factor, but there are business changes that occur due to the nature of the service.

As companies move to Software-as-a-Service, Cloud services or other hosted offerings, business will change as a result.



SUTUS DEMO 2010

March 26, 2010

Hosted versus Premise

March 8, 2010

Point-CounterPoint: Hosted Voice vs. CPE is an open debate between two bloggers: Mike Graves  and Dave Michels (of PinDropSoup).

Personally, I think Dave missed the boat. Two key points: CAPEX and OPEX.

For CAPEX (capital expenditure), there are ITSP's that are offering a leasing package which includes the phones, a router, a POE switch, Internet Access, phone service and monitoring. It is financed and rolled into one monthly charge, eliminating the CAPEX scare. 

There are a number of businesses that just need the IP desk phones that they opt to purchase themselves.



Channel Partners Need a Net-Head

March 1, 2010

Arrived in Vegas for the Channel Partners Expo (in conjunction with VoIP Nation).  Seems everyone I speak with is looking for sales. We have at least as many channel agents as we have always had, so why the growing need for sales?

I think one reason is that most of the channel partners are TDM. Plug and play.

Intelliverse Reverses Course

February 26, 2010

In November, I noted that Intelliverse was shifting focus. They are actually reversing course. Intelliverse was formerly Voicecom, a voicemail platform company. It made its money from MLM type companies, like Mary Kay, who had many franchisees who needed a voicemail type account.

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)?

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.

Winning the Battle for SMB VoIP

January 25, 2010

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.

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.

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