Yesterday I mentioned that Gladstone is the new landlord for one of Expedient's data centers. Today, zColo (of the Zayo Group) "acquired MarquisNet's data-center business in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 28,000 square foot data center, located at 7185 Pollock Drive, will be the twelfth zColo Colocation facility," according to the release.
And the Channel dumping InterNAP buys Voxel for $30M. "Internap, the leader in intelligent IT Infrastructure solutions, has joined with Voxel, the "go to" partner for scaling demanding web applications to provide you significantly enhanced IT Infrastructure." It just adds some virtualization and apps to the mix, along with some revenue. InterNAP needs the revenue, since it canned its Channel last year.
I have been reading some good stuff that I want to share.
Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMC, writes about Apple hardware versus the rest of the computer/tablet business. Kindle sold 4M units in December alone. The Amazon Kindle Fire is based on Android. It adds to the Android family. Rich points out that Apple products are still expensive, but competitors are selling units due to price points.
Another post is by Dan Rayburn about the Akamai deal to buy Cotendo, but the interesting stuff was his take on AT&T and CDN.
It amazes me wonder why there is always so much speculation about AT&T but very little about VZ. sure, recently we have the "Will VZ buy Netflix?" but with AT&T it's always something - cell, wireline divestiture, CDN, International, cloud - maybe its because AT&T moves so slow. Perhaps if the company wasn't a labyrinth of silos of legacy business - SBC, LD, Ameritech, BST, etc. - it could do business more efficiently and not piss off so many people. Then again, probably not.
]]>In the telecom space, since the dawn of integrated T1's, carriers have neglected value and branding. All companies want sales and the sales team want leads, so the marketing department has to generate leads. With a limited budget, all the money gets spent on making sales. Rich Tehrani writes, "To succeed, they generally need to be consistent, reliable and trustworthy in the eyes of buyers." Trust is important in sales.
"Forrester survey reveals that B2B marketing budgets are on the rise after years of cuts. The average 6.7% increase is led by 17% increases from tech-service companies...... Lead generation was the second-leading area of investment - a focus for 15.7% of respondents... Branding was the third top investment area." [source]
"At its most basic level, lead generation provides an advertiser with a ready-made pipeline of prospective customers that should be primed to interact with their brand...... For a branded lead generation campaign there often has to be a fairly obvious "quid pro quo" to entice the consumer to submit their details, such as free sim cards, prize draws, giveaways etc. and this will of course affect the performance of a campaign," according to the e-consultancy.
A Leadformix article continues that thread with this: "If you want to do away with this disparity in expectations and results - You should define the end objective of your marketing plan, at the start of your marketing activities. ... It is important because, if your objective is Lead Generation, you must realize that a small piece of information about your solution in a very industry specific publication is going to get you more relevant leads than a mention in one of the top publications with a more generic readership profile.... The reason is simple - the source of information people trust varies to match their different needs."
It comes back to your marketing strategy, the story you are telling to your marketplace (Value), repetition and consistency to build awareness and Trust, which ultimately makes sales. On that note, listen to the podcast with TMC's Rich Tehrani that we recorded this morning about this topic.
Get even more about info about building your Brand and getting Sales: Lead Generation and Advertising Tactics For Online Communities on Monday, Oct. 17, at 2:00 PM Eastern time. Register now!
]]>Key factor for bankers: Size Matters! So does ARPU (average revenue per customer.)
Wireline consolidation is coming because there is no organic growth in our industry. The CLEC's haven't had organic growth in a while. Most buckets are flat or declining for wireline, so it's buy stuff to move the needle.
Best quote I agree with: "Paetec got tired." Back when Paetec bought Allworx, I made a comment that Paetec being public was going to be really tough - too challenging perhaps.
The multiples being paid out are 4-6x. CLEC's trade at 7x, but fiber trades at 9x. Paetec bought for 1.1x. One Comm for 0.6x
Who's buying? CLEC's and ILEC's since "Acquisitions are just about features right now." But Dell and HP might buy a UC shop."
Quinn said that UC matters. International is untouched - Asia and LATAM specifically.
"No shop in the UC game is at $100M"
Most UC sales are still under 25 users." at 33% of all UC sales. 25-50 seats is at 29% of sales.
Quinn said, "Under 25 will lose to cable." I say, Definitely. They own the network. They can give away the bandwidth. Deeper pockets. Brand recognition. "CLEC's are in trouble by cable giving away bandwidth," especially since this was the sweet spot for many CLEC's - 10-25 employees.
Also, under 25 can be bought online via packet8, Speakeasy, FreedomVoice, RingCentral. Makes a CFO wonder if a sales force is needed. (A sales force IS needed - an effective one, bringing in big ARPU).
The UC sale should be about "cutting staff", according to Quinn. (Typical banker.)
"Cbeyond has not moved the needle with cloud.... Packet8 has more market cap." Those are interesting statements.
"Other CLEC's have no strategy for cloud!"
"Organic growth is non existent!"
Valuation Drivers:
Most interesting factor: Ink to bill cycle, which relates to pre-install churn.
A very fact filled talk. You can poo-poo it if you want, but bankers have a different view. If you don't need money and don't want to sell (or buy), you can ignore this. If you want financing or want to sell, these ducks need to be in order.
The Blake Project slides on Branding.
Taking a cue from Jon Arnold, here's what I have going on at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin (a move from Los Angeles in previous years):
While I will miss the chance to hit Manhattan Beach for some beach volleyball, this will be my first time in Austin.
It's also the first time that there will be a CMO Summit at ITEXPO. My company and my pal's company, CR8 Group, in conjunction with a great team at TMC - Dave, Anna and Mike - are bringing in 2 speakers to discuss Online Branding. Rich Tehrani wrote about it today. CMO, CEO, President or VP of Marketing only. 75 execs in charge of marketing to network and learn. Apply for a ticket now!
I usually have a panel for Reseller Day or under the ITEXPO banner for VoIP, but this year I am moderating 2 panels for the Social CRM Expo. Keeping with the CMO theme of online marketing, my panels run from 2-3:45. At 2, Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing with Shawna vercher on the panel. At 3, Does Your Business Have a Social Media Strategy? Both should be pretty informative. (Wait until you see the panelists!)
Then over on the show floor, the Channel Vision Expo will be happening. Get ready for a Channel Manager Round Table!
Startup Camp is at 5PM on the 14th! That is a don't miss session.
If you will be in town, let me know - I woould love to have coffee, a drink, dinner or interview you for the blog. Email me for a time!
]]>End users looking for deployment and install answers. Maybe they need that one key answer to put a solution together.
Developers are here learning about what companies like Voxeo, ifbyphone and Twilio are doing. Startups are here for Larry Lissers Startup Camp today at 4 PM.
If you are a service provider, all the components are here. From the BSS (like GCS) to SBC (like Ingate) to hardware (like Dialogic) to add-ons (like Call Recording) to data centers to trunking carriers (like VoIP Innovations and Paetec - I rep both) to supply chain (like VoIP Supply) to product training (like B-Lynk) to marketing (like TMC with their online communities and lead generation programs).
The Channel is here with CVX Expo, where I will be speaking today at 3:15 on Net-Head.
Soup to nuts. Smart Grid. Wireless. M2M. So much more. (And the Miami Beach weather). Can't believe you're not here.
]]>TMC's Rich Tehrani joins me for a short discussion about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
For me, the significant components of SEO are picking the right keyword (as Rich explains in the podcast) and great content that is kept current. An example of that would be a webpage with a headline (and proper URL) for a popular question like What is the difference between PAAS and IAAS? (The URL should be the headline, btw). Some people ask that in the search engines. It's highly relevant with keywords and hopefully a well written answer.
We didn't get into Lead Generation too much or landing pages or blogging or online marketing strategy or online-offline integration or even social CRM. But for the nine minutes we do explain that if your business wants help with Branding or Lead Gen, TMC's online communities can certainly be effective, as I have seen with clients who have used them.
That's the first No-No. With Google Alerts, newswire, and, umm, I write for TMC which publishes all your press releases, do you really think I need you to send me a copy? (For the dense, the answer is No).
At ITEXPO East and West, Todd Keefe of FIRPR and Erik Linask of TMC work very hard to collect the requests for interviews and to schedule them with TMC's writing corps. There are usually way more requests for interviews than there are slots available. Yet every Expo we get no-shows. It happened again in LA. No word from the company as usual. This is No-No number 2. You just took a time slot from someone else. Show some respect. Do you think this disrespect will go unnoticed?
I kind of have a rule that if you piss me off, I won't ever mention your company. Unless you discover the cure for cancer.
This is an extension: don't say yes to an interview and then not do the interview.
Most PR firms have probably not read my stuff. Not even the masthead that says Icover Telecom, cable, data centers, hosting and the CLEC World. I mainly cover anything that affects the Indirect Channel. Since I started in telecom in 1999 as a telecom agent, the Channel is how I view most things. You need to know that because if the story doesn't have a CLEC or a Channel bent, I'm not that interested.
Mobile VoIP? Nope. I think it is a niche play with too many players. There's these things called unlimited plans. They are getting cheaper all the time. Why would I want to use a convoluted app to dial especially with these things called metered data plans. I'll give you if I call International a lot or if I could get HD Voice calling, but even then, ho hum. There are plenty of bloggers that write about mobile VoIP, who actually think its cool. BTW, I own a Blackberry and am not a Apple fanboy, so keep that in mind. These things are just tools to get my job done.
So know what I write about so you can tell me the angle or hook.
Often I do not know the company I am interviewing. This telecommunications industry is huge with companies merging, opening, closing. I try to keep up, but I just can't. (That's also why I just stick to my knitting; it's challenging enough to know everything in just my microcosm). It would be helpful if you could actually tell me what it is you do. A company that blew off our interview today met with me about 2 years ago. The CMO, CEO and CTO. For 30 minutes I tried to wrap my head around what they do to no avail. I'm not an idiot - depsite what some off-line commenters suggest - so if I can't grasp it in 30 minutes, how in the world will anyone else? I will say that the following year they changed their pitch to make it easier to understand but it was still vague. People need concrete. Writers and readers (and prospective customers) do not have time to figure out what you do and how it will benefit them, unless you tell them in clear, concise terms. Want an example? Hatteras Networks. See the blog post today. What do they do? Allow facilities based CLEC's to offer symmetric Ethernet to customers over copper. Pretty clear.
A cloud based provider of a voice platform for service providers is vague.
To summarize the Top 3 Way Not to Interact with a Blogger: send me press releases; be a No-Show; and be vague and have no idea what I write about.
BTW, I like interviewing company execs, even recording the interviews for podcasts, so ping me to talk telecom.
PSS: I am still trying to catch up on the interviews I did in LA, so bear with me. I was in Atlanta this week and in Phoenix next week, so November.
]]>One topic I will be presenting is 50 Ideas. Jack Brandt and I used to do this session at ISPCON called 50 Ideas in 50 Minutes. Just nuggets of collected wisdom on strategy, sales, marketing and plain old business advice. I'm sharing it here. Have a great week!
]]>