On Rad's Radar? - technology Archives

Why is Telecom So Old?

2013-02-11T04:21:07Z

Saw this picture on twitter. It made me think about the lack of innovation from the telcos.

For example. cellular and DSL technologies were discovered by Bell Labs in the 1960s, but didn't to market until decades later. And it usually wasn't by AT&T -- it was from a market disruptor. Think Covad for business DSL; Yipes for Ethernet; and Vonage for VoIP.

The ILECs launched Centrex but only recently started to offer IP Centrex - or Hosted PBX as we call it today, despite Broadsoft's second customer rolling it out in Tampa in 2003.

In most cases, the innovation is in the devices. Handsets add all of the coolness to cellular service. Wireless AP's add the utility to broadband modems.

Just food for thought.

We Start the Year With Mergers

2013-01-02T17:54:03Z

Two Tampa companies merge "to create a Hybrid SuperVAR" (whatever that is). Vology acquired Bayshore Technologies. Vology is a hardware reseller. Bayshore Tech is systems integrator and will provide professional services for the combined company.

AVIS is acquiring ZipCar because (1) the economy is slowing and car-sharing seems like a bright spot, especially for the number ; and (2) Zipcar was a great entrepreneurial idea but a poor public company idea. Hertz is acquiring Dollar/Thrifty and Enterprise owns Alamo. This move will capitalize on the gradual decline of car ownership, especially in metro areas. Zipcar's technology will allow Avis to get rid of more people to be replaced by kiosks (like Alamo has). The VC's - including Steve Case's Revolution LLC which made $96M on this deal - are happy. Next up at the plate: Cars2Go, Flexcar, City Car and Car Share.

the third merger:

Imation buys storage systems provider Nexsan for $120 million. Storage is huge. Are you getting your piece of the pie by selling data storage??

HP has truly lost its way. Meg Whitman is right up there with Sprint's Hesse in CEO thinking. HP suing GM over executives that went to work at GM. Follow up litigation over R&D with this announcement: HP threatens to axe units that fail to meet targets. That will certainly motivate employees - NOT! HP used to be an innovation center. Now it just keeps throwing away assets. Poor management and an even poorer board of directors. Why isn't The Law Firm of Wohl & Fruchter looking into this level of fiduciary negligence by corporate managers?

The Changing VAR World

2012-10-16T01:44:04Z

Opening evening at UBM's BoB Conference was a panel discussion about the change in the VAR and MSP community. This is a collection of tweets about the panel discussion #bob12.

Social Media (SM) , mobility, are cloud - threats to some, opportunities to some - both to many.

"Behave like a three-year old: fall down, learn something, try again."

How do you scale marketing and lower customer acquisition costs in cloud?

The Channel is hiring sales <-- luv to know where they are finding them.

Amazon has $1bill cloud biz and not even 5 people on the street.

Amazon, folks, offers just 2 services in self-serve fashion.

RainKing, Salesforce, radian6 (social media), data mining to understand clients better.

Vendors need scale, but the channel needs customer intimacy (and the channel needs to build its own brand).

Manufacturers do not like the channel. Channel Partners are not enamored with the the manufacturers either.

Biggest Issue: Mainly vendors don't understand what the channel does. Manufacturers/vendors do not like that channel partners are not exclusive and offer choice to the marketplace. [Telecom vendors are the same way!]

@UBMChannel: Number 1 trouble w/ vendors: they don't understand solution provider business and value. "We are not just vehicles to end customers" #BoB12

@UBMChannel: Marketing has changed as businesses do. Moving from finding customers to how do customers find you? #BoB12

Overall, even as the marketplace is changing, manufacturers are slow to change. Vendors still want the channel to just get them customers, push their products and get out of the way. The Channel now wants to build a brand, retain customers, increase wallet share, and sell managed services (some of which will be their own). Unfortunately, there isn't a huge ROI on that strategy for vendors. In Telecom as well.

A final point by the panel revolved around Gartner pushing the Cloud Services Broker model on VAR's. The panel thought that was a ridiculously low margin business - basically, transactional. It is likely going to become what the VAD (value added distributors like Ingram and Tech Data) will become in some sense.

Here's the flipside to that. Right now VAR's have accounts with both Ingram and Tech Data (and likely at least one other distributor like SYNNEX, D&H, CDW, Insight). When looking for hardware, VAR checks to see who has it in stock, at which distribution center, and for how much. When things switch to cloud services, it is unlikely that VAR's will have accounts at all 3 because they are not going to manage SAAS accounts across multiple vendors like they do now. It will be about going with 1 or 2 plus having their own.

The panel noted that we are in the midst of a change in the VAR business to a completely new organization - structure, personnel, skills, compensation, financing, marketing, sales and metrics will all be different when it is all done.

Sales is changing. Not only what is sold, but to who - IT is not the only buyer in an Enterprise any more. IT doesn't own the desktop anymore due to consumerization of IT. CMO and CFO buy differently from CIO. Can IT sales people sell to buyers other than IT?

Plus sales isn't about low hanging fruit anymore. It's about harvesting the whole tree. Acquiring customers is getting harder and more expensive. Retaining customers will be huge. Acquiring customers is different now. CLIENTS FIND YOU NOW, via blogs, social media, SEO, PPC. Are you involved in that???

The three panelists are making money now on Help Desk, End user Compute Space (which can include VDI) and in Global Managed Services (including help desk).

The New Job Marketplace

2012-10-16T00:25:47Z

Jobvite has a slide deck about the future of work. Bigger companies are not creating the same amount of jobs - or the same kind of jobs. Technology replaced a lot of workers, even some salespeople.

The 3 C's - Consolidation, Cloud, (global) Competition - are eliminating jobs by the tens of thousands - ask CenturyLink, Verizon, Cisco, HP.

Think about Apple with its 43,000 employees. It has created how many jobs in its ecosystem, though? For iOS developers, Apple accessories, iPhone repair and factory workers in China.

Many jobs today weren't even around ten years ago. Think SEO, social media and even RubyonRails programmers.

Technology is replacing some jobs and creating others.

More and more people are turning freelance. How do I know? Personal experience. Quite a few folks laid off in Tampa Bay turned to freelance work. vCoder, PeoplePerHour, guru.com, eLance, etsy and so many other sites that are marketplaces for people to sell their skills. I'm not saying that is a reason for the low unemployment numbers, but I know quite a few folks that had to hang a shingle to eat. Add to that more anecdotal evidence in my talk on Advice for Freelancers at BarCamp Tampa Bay on Saturday. Quite a few in the audience are just starting to go freelance from a W-2 employment.

TechCrunch has an article about the new jobs in the new economy. So the Internet (and the technology surrounding it) disrupts newspapers, magazines, book publishing, music, movies, and more, but we didn't think that it would also disrupt hiring, jobs, and how people make a living as well?

ITEXPO West Wrap-Up

2012-10-08T16:03:35Z

I'm home from ITEXPO West in Austin. It was another great show for me. The folks at TMC did another wonderful job putting it together.

Jaime H. juggled my press room meeting schedule on Tuesday, despite my last minute schedule changes. 8x8, Hostway, snom, Centerbeam and others were all able to sit down with me. (Sometimes that isn't always joyful for the marketing/PR folks.) I'm always happy if I can have one or 2 good conversations out of these meetings - and I did.

The sessions were mainly full. I noticed a couple of things: people were not leaving the session rooms but staying for session after session - and they were not just doing that to use a power plug. Most people were not on their devices during sessions, which is unique.

In my Cloud Services Broker Panel, I asked all the attendees why they were there. All said to Learn.

I think our industry is in a lot of turmoil caused by too much cloud hype and consolidation.

The economy, the change, the cloud, and the consolidation makes everyone stressed and fearful of losing their job, when there isn't likely another available (at least immediately).

The marketing machine has ballooned the hype on cloud to ridiculous proportions. The term doesn't mean much to anyone - customers, prospects, vendors, service providers, employees.

With access revenues flat, apps and cloud services are the only way for many service providers to gain revenue. The CLEC industry HAS to be successful in selling cloud services to survive.

Every show has a lot of cloud - so many titles, headlines, banners, etc. It is worse than VoIP was a few years ago. The noise level is deafening - and boring. The industry has to fix this fast.

Startup Camp Comms was enjoyable. Watching Tampa's own startup, Phonism, pitch was exciting. RingDNA won the popular vote though.

I have to say that the keynotes were very good. I have remarked in the past about the commercialized quality of the keynotes, but this time the keynotes were interesting, tweet-worthy, and informative. Thanks to Shortel's CEO Peter Blackmore, IBM's Mike Riegel, and Siemen's CMO Chris Hummel.

Most significant sound byte: "joy of use" is an expectation not a nice to have @hummel_chris."

It is not about the technology or the marketing buzz. It is about Outcomes and UX (user experience). Without outcomes and UX, cloud is just a clumsy way to push technology on a user. That won't last. they won't use it. Then they will stop paying for it. Then you have a lot of CAPEX tied up in dust.

IBM used a Tire Store as a case study. A tire store. You can't get any less tech than that. If a tire store worries about the UX, then shouldn't tech/telecom companies???

Personal note: I either need new shoes or more exercise because my back and feet hurt from walking around the show floor, the halls, the podium and downtown Austin. The parties were mobbed, but I was in bed before midnight most nights. (It's about Outcomes :).

We go to these conferences to learn, to mingle, to network. (That's one reason I organize a dinner at each event.) This show definitely delivers on those attributes.

What did you think?

Want to learn more? Read my tweets or search #itexpo

Brad Thor's Black List

2012-09-04T18:30:26Z

I like spy novels. Since James Bond, I have been reading spy novels from Ludlum, Lustbader and Jack Higgins. The new breed of authors in this gnre are very good - Barry Eisler, Vince Flynn, Daniel Silva, Brian Haig, Randy Wayne White and David Hagberg. When I was reading Richard Clarke's novels, it was said that sometimes you get more truth in fiction than non-fiction. Sometimes I don't know where the fiction ends. This is certainly true in Brad Thor's latest book, Black List.

Thor has a list of books and articles that point to Total Surveillance on his website. After 9/11, the US starting giving away liberty in the pursuit of security theater - and we as Americans stopped questioning our government. Everything has been turned into two things: It is in the interest of National Security or Aren't you a Patriot?

Thor drops a remark about the US being in a permanently renewed state of emergency since 9/11. (I can't confirm it.) Then the comment about why no one questions GPS in all devices despite the fact that the DoD (Dept. of Defense) owns the GPS system. We even give up privacy and freedom for convenience. OnStar is lojack, cell phone and GPS in one -- tracked by your car! Google has a profile on every user, predicting your every move. And.... Google voice = Free voiceprint recognition for NSA. Facebook tracks you even when you log off!

Every Breath You Take, Every Move You Make - 14 New Ways That The Government Is Watching You. I won't be sleeping this week. This stuff terrifies me, because the people in DC scare me. They are dim, not doing their job, and owned by the very people they are supposed to protect citizens from. Oh, and Power Hungry! Because who is watching the NSA?

The RNC 2012 in Tampa was just another chance for DHS (Homeland Security) to try out its latest toys as well as its power in making protestors irrelevant. Let's not forget about the drones, being launched from 63 sites.

What does this have to do with telecom? Well, a couple of things, including the Kill Switch, cell phones and the digital splitters.

The whole AT&T was tapped by the NSA never received the outrage I thought it would. Citizens have turned into sheople. In fact, one might say that the lost war on drugs, the crappy education system, the increased poverty, and even the use of social gaming (using gay marriage to deflect from real issues for example) - are all just ways to keep the masses under control. Tapping the Internet backbone at core POP's certainly helps the NSA and the Total Information Awareness project collect every website, tweet, email, and like you send over the TCP/IP. Then you get the power structure of AT&T, Facebook and Google to collect even more data per individual and hand it over.

Here is the funny part of the book - oh, wait, not funny, frightening - at any time, with all that data, you can be labeled a terrorist and poof! gone. No rights under the Patriot Act and other edicts. They can kill you without a trial.

One thing that the Powers That Be learned from Arab Spring is that they need a Kill Switch for the Internet. Too much free thought on those inter-tubes. Open communication can give way to resistance. The Congress Critters would gladly sign that bill just for some more dough to run for re-election, since most of them know nothing about the Internet (except for Weiner's weiner).

The PTB even have the Cell phone companies profiling, logging and tracking your every move through that smartphone with GPS and a hundred leaky apps! It has become a revenue stream for the cellcos - they charge per wiretap! [Remember AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile were using CarrierIQ?]

Prediction engines are almost to the point of turning the US into the Minority Report! - closer and closer to thought police. I'm going to finish Brad Thor's book and figure out how to diminish my online footprint.

Ask yourself this: Why does an FBI agent's laptop have 12 million Apple ID's on it?

Can You Beat the iPad?

2012-08-16T18:47:49Z

As tablet after tablet fail to make it - I am talking to you HP, Blackberry Playbook, Dell Streak, MOTO Xoom, Asus and even Creative - does it make it even harder for another one to launch?

We have three new ones coming out: the Google Nexus 7, Lenovo Thinkpad 2 and Microsost Smooth.

Google Nexus 7 is making the most buzz. It has sleek design and a gret starting price of $199. This is a straight consumer play, but I find it interesting that it will be the remote for Google's TV bundle on Kansas City Google fiberhood.

Lenovo is trying to be smart about positioning there win8 tablet. "Multi-user login for doctors, sales reps and lawyers." It is wise to target a vertical, especially if you can bundle in apps. If Lenovo can partner with professional office management software makers, like NaviNet, med3000, ADP's AdvancedMD, or a host of others.

Microsoft ties into its Live stuff. What about an Android tablet attached to Google Drive, especially for the small businesses that have gone to Google Apps?

,p>Matching hardware and software is something that Avaya tried but I do not know to what success. However, our industry has stranded a lot of hardware that either didn't live up to the hype or was under-utilized (like IP Phones that are mini-computers capable of running xlm apps.)

NEC has a docking station for the iPad to turn it into a phone working with its IP-PBX. Tom Keating writes how the Microsoft Surface might be a threat to IP desk phones. That's one way to skin a cat, but when I think about Apple and all its apps, I don't think making it an IP phone will make it a winner for 2 reasons: (1) most companies have money tied up in desk phones; (2) as Rich Tehrani commented to me, who would leave their tablet on a dock in the cubicle? It would disappear. (Need a GPS app to track it, I guess.)

When Level3 sales purchased iPads it was to improve sa;es presentations and expedite the sales process by having quoting and contracting on hand. That's the type of thing that Lenovo and Microsoft need to start thinking about. Tie it to business applications and verticals, not as another consumer toy, since the iPad is now being seen as both.

Rich Tehrani makes a case that Apple is the luxe and top of the market, so everyone else will need to sell for less or being freaking awesome and different. The Nexus, Amazon Kindle Fire, and the Microsoft Surface are all cheaper. It must be tied to business productivity. Isn't that the lesson we tell salespeople trying to sell cloud? It isn't about price; it is about productivity.

Just saw this article about the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 for $499. I don't know Samsung's strategy here. Going head-to-head with Apple at the same price point seems like a losing strategy -- and I am not even an Apple fanboy. Plus at $499, you can buy a nice laptop. At $499 in Apple land you can but, well, not much. An iPod, and iPhone and an iPad. No Macs in that range. I also thing Apple users like cool gadgets, be part of the club and tend toward liking visual presentation at its best. The rest of us just want function.

Cloud Outages

2012-07-31T20:46:21Z

I have seen this headline a couple of times in the last month: Cloud Customers at the Mercy of Providers! It's just ridiculous. We left a five-nine world a while ago. Redundancy does not fix everything. And to put it into perspective, to run redundancy on your own Hosted Exchange server would be expensive from a labor and hardware standpoint. It would also be complex and not automatic.

Even when youtry to build in redundancy (like Netflix did by utilizing different sectors of AWS), it sometimes fails. We have seen outages this year by Google, Yahoo, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, twitter, Rackspace, Salesforce and probably others I am unaware of. I don't think this will slow down cloud adoption. People choose cloud for reasons that have nothing to do with redundancy. Cloud is financially efficient (as Savvis puts it), flexible, and available from any authorized and enabled device. It also removes a required skill set off the books. In other words, businesses can focus on their own business and not on tech or IT. In addition, the remote/virtual/mobile workforce grows every year, driving more cloud adoption. There is no going back.

Think about doing it yourself. You would need the following:

data center room or NOC;
generator that has to be tested and maintained;
battery backup - tested, maintained and environmentally sound;
servers, switches, routers, fiber-channel, power channels;
duplicate gear;
fire suppression system;
compliance certificates;
licensing for any software;
client software or apps for every O/S - mobile and desk;
Internet capacity for remote access;
redundant Internet pipe;
VPN or other security device with RADIUS for access authorization;
staff that knows how to handle all of this stuff, 24x7;
power usage;
air conditioning;

The CAPEX would be large (which is one reason buyers choose cloud) and the labor costs - hiring, retaining, training, benefits, etc. - would be high - and in some cases scarce. And despite the outlay of capital - human and otherwise - there is no guarantee that you can keep it up 99.99% of the time - which means about 1 hour of downtime per year.

I'm not defending the outages, just saying that this will be expected behavior, just like dropped cellphone calls and faxes that required three or more retries.

Various Tidbits

2012-07-11T16:40:49Z

Two of my pals work at Counterpath. It went on NASDAQ today. Congrats! "CounterPath Corporation (OTCBB: CPAH) (TSX-V: CCV), an award-winning provider of desktop and mobile VoIP software products and solutions, today announced that its common stock will commence trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market on July 11, 2012. The stock will continue to trade under the symbol "CPAH" on the NASDAQ Capital Market and under the symbol "CCV" on the TSX Venture Exchange." Counterpath is a Vancouver, BC, Canada, company. Big VoIP/tech hub there.

CenturyLink wants more than the 30% of the $300M USF reform fund called Connect America. In fact, they want to overbuild on existing WISP's with that money. WISPA Opposes the new federal Subsidies for CenturyLink. Personally, I don't think that any LEC or MSO should receive federal funds. If we had the best broadband in the world, I would say okay - that's worth the money. We don't. They spend more than $300M in lobbbying per year!! Spend that money on broadband. Plus there are small businesses called Wireless ISP's already in that market that C-Link is going to spend tax dollars to put out of business! That's the Corporate Way!

MegaPath has the largest Ethernet over Copper footprint in the US. There are 600 Central Offices with ADTRAN Total Access 5000 gear to provide facilities-based EoC up to 20 MB.

Data Centers are growing. That was actually a headline yesterday. No kidding!

Health Care: What HIPAA Means for Data Centers. My understanding is that transport isn't a worry - and there is no such thing as HIPAA compliant transport! It is all about the storage, security and handling of the medical records - physical or electronic. That also means data centers have to be secure and tracking visitors, in case one gets access to a storage device. BTW, it is HIPAA, not HIPPA. How can you even say you are compliant if you get the acronymn wrong?!

Dell Voice is offered in Canada as a competitor to Vonage Mobile. Dell Voice is now on Blackberry, just in time for their corporate jet auction.

XO introduces a purple logo and a new XO Partner Program.

I remember all the WinTel articles about the Intel-Microsoft alliance dominating tech in the 90s. Today, not so much.

Voice Carrier wasn't thinking when it named itself. Branding rule number 1: if they can't find you in search, you don't exist. Didn't you learn anything from Xerox or Kleenex?

"Today services like Dropbox give people access to their work anywhere, any time, on any device, and users love it. (52% of our survey respondents said Dropbox is used in their organizations. Only 12% of IT departments are supporting it.)" How Mobile Consumer Devices Drive Cloud Applications in Enterprise IT.

Are you like a dog with a bone about anything?

A Moment About Phones

2012-07-03T14:13:59Z

Tom Keating wrote a review of Panasonic's Android IP phone, model KX-UT670. It has HD Voice, speaker phone and integration with IP cameras. Tom reminds me that it's the "major IP phone vendors like Aastra, Cisco, Polycom, ShoreTel, snom, and others all use their own proprietary, relatively closed operating systems," while NEC and Panasonic are rolling out unique phones.

NEC has the Android phone that CloudTC showcased a couple of years ago. NEC also has a tablet docking station that allows your tablet to become a phone! (One of my pals said that unless it locks that tablet will disappear when the owner gets a cup of coffee.) NEC has a significant problem on the web though. No Google juice at all. I could not find anything about these 2 phones. I could barely find a website for NEC IP Phones (which they term IP terminals, the SIP terminals are just Polycom).

Of course, Grandstream has Android phones too. The Grandstream GXP2200 even features Skype, Google Voice, Microsoft LYNC as well as Android 2.3.

I often ask why the 1000+ VoiP Providers don't take advantage of the IP Phone. It is a computer that sits at the user's desk all day, capable of a bunch of nifty programming. That would be a great way to differentiator yourself. It is going to be Integration that separates the commodity from the premium.

No Special Sauce

2012-05-21T21:04:07Z

There is no special sauce.

Everyone has the same technology (or will 5 minutes after you market yours).

It was never about the technology.

It has always been about the Customer Experience!

(What do you think churn is all about? They don't like you and will leave for a few dollars off. It's the CX - the customer experience - that retains them.)

That means you have to stop talking about the technology now.

Dell Gets WYSE

2012-04-02T16:30:19Z

Dell announced that it is acquiring WYSE today. WYSE is known for its dummy terminals, particularly for POS (point-of-sale). WYSE also has gotten into desktop virtualization - not that strong a leap. Wyse has shipped more than 20 million units and has over 180 patents, according to the press release. This acquisition "extends Dell's desktop virtualization capabilities and drives attachment of enterprise solutions, including servers, networking, storage and services."

The other piece is that WYSE has 3000 partners. Too bad a CLEC didn't think to buy it just for that new channel.

Dell is an interesting company because while it is known for hardware - PC's, tablets, gadgets and servers - Dell is making the move to cloud.

__PLACEHOLDER__

Going back to December 2010 when "Dell announces the acquisition of the cloud-based medical archiving leader InSite One to help healthcare organizations simplify retention of healthcare data." The PR says, "Additionally, like Dell's recent acquisition of Boomi, this acquisition builds on our strategy to help customers take advantage of the economics and scalability of the cloud in the way that best fits the requirements of their industry and the needs of their business." So while Dell chases the Cloud, it seems to be doing it in a hardware-services model. In other words, VAR's are used to selling hardware and wrapping one service around it. Dell is still doing it. InSite One was image archiving for medical - basically, managed storage.

Storage - like InSite One, Compellent and EqualLogic.

Networking: Force10 Networks and SonicWall. Both also spill over into Security in the managed security segment, which falls in with Dell's SecureWorks and KACE divisions. Security is supposed to be a big game to be in. Dell is buying into that space. I wonder how many VAR's it picked up with Force10 and SonicWall... 1000?

Next, AppAssure backup and recovery was an obvious move to become more of a managed services provider -- or to empower its VAR's to become MSP's. That might be the strategy: empower its VAR's to become MSP's all through Dell services (and hardware).

This puts Dell directly in competition with the VAD's - Ingram, Tech Data and SYNNEX. Who will get the attention of the VAR?

And to tie that strategy of a VAR becoming an MSP is the announcement that Dell Offers Partners 'Cloud Services & Solutions Certification'. That ties the MSP bow up.

What is the Market Expecting?

2012-04-01T17:46:30Z

Tuesday I was in Vegas at the Channel Partners Conference mainly for the TCA events. At the TCA Channel Chief Summit, Tiffani Bova of Gartner and Rauline Ochs of IPED Market Bridge Alliance presented research. The take away for me was in perspective.

No one buys the way most service providers sell. That's why we are always searching for Consultative Sales Professionals. Because the whole industry sells what they want - and it is followed up by a series of me-too.

Just because one CLEC is selling Managed Security does not mean that the marketplace wants it or will buy it or that it will want it delivered that exact way. It also doesn't mean that the next eight CLEC's or service providers need to market that same offering.

The market is consuming technology differently. It enters the business via the consumer. About 70% of devices are owned by the consumer in the business environment. Only about 30% are paid for by the business. That means support for devices either isn't available or is imposed on the IT staff by the employees. That's a confusing (and expensive) way to handle it. Don't you agree?

Most of what Bova and Ochs presented had to do with mobility and Cloud. Mobility is a huge problem for most CLEC's as the model for cellular sales is unprofitable - whether they sign a wholesale, agent or MVNO contract - the margin on cellular is thin to none.

And what is prompting Cloud? Two things: ubiquitous broadband and a mobile workforce.

Ubiquitous is really hyperbole because even with 3G, 4G and wi-fi, you can't get bandwidth everywhere and even when it is available it is shoddy (like at tech conference hotels).

Mobile workforce means a couple of things. One that more businesses have accepted remote workers - whether at home locally, across the country or across the globe. The economic downturn (and all the consolidation) has translated into businesses having less workers but expecting more work. This means working at home, while on the road, etc. Hence, not just email, but the application data has to be available from any authorized, connected device. That is the beauty of Cloud.

Cloud changes the way business is done.

Read that again, because that means it has to be sold that way.

It's easier to sell email, because everyone has email and it is almost a requirement. Selling unified messaging gets more complicated. Unified Communications and Collaboration is just too complex of a sale, of an explanation, of an implementation, of a deployment. That's where the service providers want to go, but they neglect the challenge of the sale. There is a lack of the story, the sales triggers, the value proposition, the WHY, and of course the on-boarding.

One thing Bova pointed out was that VDI (virtual desktop) sales have grown in EMEA (Africa and Mid-East) while have stagnated in North America. One reason: VAR's have too big a quota with HP or Dell to take a 500 desktop refresh to VDI instead of selling 500 desktops. Not just the quota for the discount, but to sustain Gold level service. It's the same with Cisco, Microsoft, etc. VAR's will keep selling what they sell for 2 reasons: First, to maintain the current level of vendor support to continue to service current clients in the manner that is expected (or even contracted). Second, making the changes to shift business to an MSP or all service model is complicated and expensive. Bova suggested firing clients and employees to create the business you will need in 5 years, but that's easy to say from a consulting seat. Not so easy from a business owner perspective.

When EarthLink told its channel partners in Tampa that it only wanted Multi-Site multi-access opportunities, it didn't come right out and say that it would stop selling T1's, but that was the underlying message. (And ELNK did tell me that 1GB and 10GB private line, even ON-net, was not what they wanted to sell.) That's one way to start planning for where you want to be. Say no while being specific about what you are looking to offer.

As a whole I don't think the service providers have any idea what buyers are buying or why. Just because you WANT to sell MPLS with security or Hosted UC&C or whatever, doesn't mean that prospects will actually BUY it (that way).

When does something become a commodity? When the customer buys it directly online.

For non-commodity services, you need a well trained sales force that understands the brand, the value proposition, and the target. As an industry we aren't there yet.

I'm going to leave you with that.

Coming soon two posts: (1) Master Agents are like Pharma Reps. (2) Tech Data versus Master Agents.

What Else Are You Going to Sell?

2012-03-04T23:44:40Z

TDM is running out of runway. Agents have already switched to selling Ethernet, MPLS and SIP Trunking. What else can they be selling?

Back-up, like Conferencing, is a cash cow that Agents just don't sell. From archiving email per federal regulations to backing up laptops, smartphones, databases, customer records, billing and more "in the Cloud", online backup service isn't much different from Google (see Chrome ad) or Apple iCloud. Access to everything you need through an authorized device attached to the Internet is the beauty to Cloud services, but backing up data is vital to business continuity. How long can a business run without billing records or a customer database? Not very long. Think how flummoxed you are when you lose your contacts in your smartphone. Imagine that contact list was your business. That's why backup is important (to your customers). VAR's are already selling different versions of online backup: their own; a white-label from Remote Backup, DriveHQ or LiveDrive; and a resell of Carbonite (who is hugging Agents right now) or Intronis (who loves the Channel) or Anxient or many others. There are some like SugarSync or Mozy that backup your smartphone and your laptop to the same account.

Managed Security - most of the CLEC's (XO, EarthLink, Netwolves, Integra, Cbeyond), the RBOCs and the ILEC's (Windstream and CenturyLink) offer some type of security offering, usually Managed Firewall, IDS (Intrusion Detection Service) and Network Monitoring. As more data moves to the web (Cloud), security will become even more significant, in the form of email and application security, encryption, event and log management, and mobile device management. For example, Reflexion provides hosted email security, archiving and encryption services exclusively through the channel.

Hosting and email services - everyone has a website or blog; everyone has email. Why shouldn't you be offering those services too? XO started out as Concentric Network, a hosting company. This was Cloud before it was called that. XO sells Hosted Exchange and website hosting. Megapath just rolled out the Microsoft suite. Intercall offers Live365. It isn't big dollars, but it is a place to get your feet wet in Cloud and apps.

Managed IT - remote monitoring of servers and desktops - is a VAR service powered by software like Autotask, Connectwise, Kaseya and GFI MAX. As businesses are essentially dependent upon computers and technology to do business, managed IT services become an option when skilled technical support staff are too expensive, churned or unavailable.

A step past, Managed IT is the remote desktop - aka Desktop-as-a-service (a term I dislike) and VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure). In 1999, Wyse terminals were going to replace desktops for efficiency. It didn't happen (except in the POS space.) Now we are trying it again. MSP's offer this service - with a big fat helping of bandwidth. There are big names in this space, including Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft. There are also a number of providers, like IIS Group, who provide VDI through the channel. Navisite, which TWC owns, just chose Desktone as its DaaS partner.

Next to DaaS is HaaS, or Hardware as a Service. Don't ask me how this is different or how it isn't just leasing. Ask Chartec.

There are issues with selling cloud services - like the service provider's (SP's) financial position; redundancy and resiliency of the SP's architecture; SP's ability to scale in terms of on-boarding new customers properly and scaling tech support for end users; the end users' experiences as cloud services will change some business environmental factors; and licensing issues.

That being said, Agents should be surveying their current customers about the needs outlined here. Why? To get a bigger share of the customer's wallet.

Another way to look at it is: the customer is going to shop these services like he shops T1's, broadband, and voice. He might as well pay you to shop them for him, like he does for the telecom stuff. Get in there!

If you liked this, you might like this blog post too:

What about selling Cloud

One addition, I interviewed VAR Dynamics (local boys from Tampa) at ITEXPO. VAR Dynamics is a private-label Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud business apps provider selling exclusively through channels. Apps include Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint, Zimbra, BlackBerry BES, email encryption, email archiving and more. There will be cross-over in what a provider sells. Just as VAR Dynamics sells the Microsoft software and email security, CLEC's that you are already familiar with - like XO and Cbeyond - offer a variety of services to sell deep into your customers.

Privacy versus Security

2012-01-25T20:51:22Z

"Concerned about privacy? Maybe you should be concerned about the economy instead. That was the subtext of a keynote speech by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, at a technology conference in the heart of Europe." [Benton]

Not to get political, but privacy is a ship that has sailed. Google, Facebook and other sites track online activities. Credit card companies and Paypal can track both offline and online activities. CarrierIQ software on cell phones is able to see every keystroke. GPS tracking on devices, including your TomTom. Cellphone and Internet logging by ISP's for government agencies track you.

I'm not suggesting we just give up on privacy. I am suggesting that we take the advice of Sandberg and start focusing on the important stuff. Maybe Security is the Important stuff.

When Wikipedia went dark in the face of SOPA and PIPA bills, it caused many supporters in DC to publicly back away. Privately, however, they will back TransPacific Partnership, ACTA and other bills. Why? Hollywood and content companies want it. Just another example of industry influence over voters or common sense in DC.

In the midst of the privacy talk, why isn't there more talk about security? The latest breach at Zappos affected 24 million. Laptops and cellphones are lost daily. Experts agree that mobile threats and breaches are inevitable. We don't need more rules or laws, we have plenty now, including HIPAA and PCI DSS. We need enforcement and monitoring - or really big fines.

There are simple methods for security available, it might be time to do so. "

""I am angry. There are real problems facing the world, and we, as a society, are not doing enough to address them in the right ways, not the ways we know are possible. The old way isn't working, and we know it." This is the opening paragraph to a new ChangeThis manifesto titled Shift & Reset by Brian Reich. "What might be possible if we were really committed, as individuals and as a society?"

From another ChangeThis manifesto, "The real business opportunity is to become more relevant and meaningful to customers in ways that create sales."