TCA

Agent Association on the Move

December 18, 2008

The Technology Channel Association, a non-profit trade association for indirect sales agents, has hired CMA Association Management to run the day-to-day functions of the association.. This announcement coincides with the launch of the Agent Committee, consisting of Emmett Tydings of AB&T Telecom; Dave Wallace of Aligned Communications; Ben Henkels of CMP; Mark Adams of Total Business Solutions Communication; and Jeff Ott of Total Carrier Solutions. TCA is working on benefits for its members possibly health insurance. Join today at tcasite.org.

If you are on LinkedIn, there is a Technology Channel Association group for members only.

Posted in TCA, agents

SMB Nation VoIP Survey

February 24, 2009

"SMB Nation is a community of over 35,000 small and medium business (SMB) technology consultants, channel partners, sponsors and resellers. With an impressive 10-year history serving as a trusted advisor and mentor to the SMB consulting and reseller channel, SMB Nation has been able to consistently reinvent itself based upon changing market conditions." SMB Nation did a VoIP survey with NGT. 260 responded (results here).

These are the services they currently provide:

Networking infrastructure (91.1%)
Mobility sales, services, support (52.7%)
VoIP-specific sales, services, support (44.2%)
Telephony sales, services, and support (35.3%)
Line of business applications (35.7%)
Database development/programming/development (32.6%)
Web hosting (27.5%)
Host e-mail (26.7%)

These are the services they will add:

VoIP sales, service, support (56.2%)
Security (36.6%)
Telephony sales, services, and support (28.1%)
Web hosting, hosted services (25.5%)

It's interesting that Telecom Agents sell circuits and very few want to sell non-telecom services, but VAR's and MSP's are marching in to take over the Agent Arena.

Posted in TCA, VAR, agents, channel, security, smb, telecommunications, voip

When the Agent Contract is Broken

March 9, 2009

At the Channel Partners Expo in Vegas last week, I helped man the booth for the newly formed Technology Channel Association, a non-profit agent association that was formed to create a community for best practices, a code of ethics, and solid training of the indirect channel.

Regrettably, the TCA received two separate pleas for help from agents. Both agents were no longer receiving commissions from a carrier.

In one case, the agent was wearing a shirt to advertise the lost commissions. The word I heard was that he had failed to meet quota for a few months.

Posted in TCA, agents, channel, commissions

Best Practices for the Channel

November 23, 2009

Currently on the LinkedIN Group for Technology Channel Association members, we are having a dialogue about two important topics: a Code of Ethics for Agents and Best Practices.

The Technology Channel Association (TCA) wants to examine the best ways to elevate the professionalism of this industry overall.

In July, the TCA held an interactive conference call titled Best Practices for Channel Managers. Agents shared their points of view on what can be done on a daily basis to ensure the best possible customer experience.

Posted in TCA, agents, channel

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

A Few Words with COLOTRAQ

December 1, 2009

Dany Bouchedid is not only the President of the Technology Channel Association, the only not-for-profit association for channel partners, but he is the CEO of COLOTRAQ. Colotraq is a sort of master agency for collocation worldwide, that has direct agreements with over 400 facilities globally. I asked Dany a few questions about colocation, since I think it is an area that some agents (channel partners) are mystified about. However, with worker mobility and the significance of always available data (reasons cloud computing, SAAS and virtualization are buzzing), colocation becomes important to businesses.

Posted in TCA, agents, channel, cloud computing, data center, disaster recovery, economy

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

What Do You Need to Know?

February 16, 2010

On a discussion today about certification training for agents under the TCA umbrella, we talked about what kind of training will it be.

Years ago, there was a CSP certification for agents that was created by Virgo (Phone+), Dale Stein of TAG, and Scott Levy. It didn't get much traction. Some think because of the money, but I think it's because agents don't want training.

How many agents think about the Industry, the Indirect Channel?

Posted in Internet, TCA, agents, channel, fiber, sales and selling, unified communications

TCA Agents Ratify Code of Ethics

March 5, 2010

The Technology Channel Association's Agent Committee has ratified the Code of Ethics. (Download a copy here). The Code of Ethics must now be approved by the Board of Trustees. The Code of Ethics is the first step in the creation of a certificate program for Agents. One of the goals of TCA is to bring to market a Certified Agent program that will bring skills, knowledge and professionalism to the Channel.

Posted in TCA, agents, channel

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