VAR

IT Industry Groups Announce Membership Agreement

December 30, 2008

MSP Partners, an alliance founded by Cisco, Ingram Micro, Intel, Level Platforms and Microsoft, and supported by Autotask Corporation, EMC, HP, Kaseya and Xerox, with the active participation of over 15 other leading IT vendors, and thousands of solution providers offering managed services today announced a cooperative agreement with The ASCII Group, Inc. (ASCII), North America's oldest and most established community of independent computer integrators, solution providers and resellers. The agreement allows members of MSP Partner and ASCII to expanded access to the many benefits offered by these two major IT industry groups.

MSP Partners, with a membership base of over 3000 solution providers, provides independent vendor-supported education for solution providers delivering managed services. Their comprehensive program includes the latest market research and education, valuable insight by means of solution provider success stories, and collaborative vendor solutions, all demonstrating a path to success in managed services.

Posted in VAR, agents

A Day of Collaboration

January 13, 2009

Tech Data and Fonality Inked a distro deal.The bloggers like VAR Guy made it sound like Tech Data was going into managed services under the whole UC umbrella. It's just one more set of SKU's for Tech Data's IP PBX category.

New Edge Networks announced Voice Connect as an extension of its MPLS service to deliver VoIP to end offices with QOS. "Voice Connect services include Hosted IP PBX, SIP Trunking and enterprise class features, with a variety of service options for locations requiring only a few voice lines to supporting the needs of large corporations."

Posted in PBX, VAR, channel, telecommunications, voip

Top 5 Ways to Improve Agent Training

January 23, 2009

Agents are paddling like a duck in a pond to stay afloat. Always have been, but moreso now. Many companies are wondering how to get Agents to sell their services. (I get this daily). Here's some thoughts:

Agents spends all day just running their business and keeping customers happy.

Posted in VAR, agents, channel, sales and selling

VAR's Optimistic

January 28, 2009

"Nearly one-third of VARs (value added resellers like Cisco certified IT shops) are planning to grow their businesses in excess of 15 percent in 2009", according to CRN.

The most interesting quote was not about the importance of Managing Cash Flow or How Goal # 1 is Finding new busines, it was this quote:

"When we asked them to rank what is most critical, they said "finding new business." Note the word "finding" because these are not organizations waiting around for Microsoft or HP to send them sales leads. Growth-oriented VARs in a down economy go out and find new customers."

Good agencies have a Lead Generation system in place. But one thing Agents ask for from their vendors (carriers) is Lead Gen.

Posted in VAR, agents, channel, economy, sales and selling

6 Questions when Choosing a VoIP Provider

February 19, 2009

If you are a channel agent or a VAR or a service provider looking for a VoIP Provider to be your VoIP provider, there are 6 questions to think about:

Do you want to White Label, wholesale or a retail package?
Will you be serving consumers or businesses?
Will it be POTS replacement or Hosted PBX?
Will you be selling PBX, phones and other hardware?
Do you want to do Tier 1 support?
How will you sell it? (Or do you have a sales team?)

While many ITSP's (Internet Telephony Service Providers) can do all of it - white label, wholesale, retail, hosted PBX, analog replacement - it is difficult for each to excel at all of that. And you don't want to get half way down the road to have your vendor shift gears and the wheels fall off.

Support is key because "the blinking light" syndrome means that you will be getting calls about "how do I do that?" or "why can't I dial long distance?" So it's good to define responsibilities (and what is Tier 1 support).

Why know your market? Because most ITSP's have not designed an offering to compete against Vonage, Magic Jack or the cable companies.

Posted in PBX, VAR, agents, channel, voip

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

An Excel-lent SUTUS Bundle for SMB's

March 2, 2009

SUTUS, the maker's of the Business Central 200 office-in-a-box, have announced inter-operability with Excel SIP Trunking. The real news for the marketplace is that Excel and SUTUS (along with Polycom) are bundling a system for small business.

The Business Central 200 is developed specifically for businesses of up to 25 employees, Sutus Business Central™ comprises a wide array of advanced telephony, data and networking functions. It includes a business-class phone system, file server, email server, router, firewall, wireless access point, VPN remote access server, and automated backups. It has the ability to simultaneously support both standard phone line and VoIP connections and comes with an array of business productivity features.

Posted in PBX, VAR, agents, channel, economy, sip trunking, smb, telecommunications

IT versus PBX

April 20, 2009

If a business is moving to UC, how does the decision get made on the platform?

In many cases, the IT Administrator has some responsibility for the phone system (even if that means he calls the PBX vendor). When the IT Admin is tasked with replacing the phone system, what goes into that decision?

Certainly, if the admin is Cisco certified, he will be leaning towards a move to Cisco Call Manager. You don't get fired for buying Cisco. You also go with what you know. If the admin is an MCSE, he may lean towards an OCS solution.

Posted in PBX, VAR, telecommunications, unified communications, voip

XO at the Tech Data Expo

June 19, 2009

I received an invite yesterday from XO to come down to the Tech Data Expo at the Don Cesar Hotel in St. Petersburg FL. ADTRAN shared the booth with XO at this event. Surprisedly, the other two carriers that distribute through Tech Data had assigned booth space, but were absent.

XO is a good fit for Tech Data. While I think the XO catalog is too large to know well - wireless, hosting, IP, VOIP, transport, collocation and more - the VAR's at Tech Data vary so much in what they do and what would complement their business that the wide selection helps - IF you can get in front of them and remind them throughout the year how they can take advantage of the additional revenue stream.

For many VAR's the advantage of XO through Tech Data is that there's no contract (especially for those VAR's already under contract with Ma or Pa Bell) and with Tech Data as the "master agency", it isn't likely you need to worry about your residual check. (And now that XO has converted their debt, it is in a good position going forward, which other debt laden CLEC's can't say).

Many VAR's are already in the PBX space and were asking about SIP. I wasn't sure if they actually grasp the concept of SIP or that they just know enough to be dangerous. The biggest difference between a PRI and a SIP Trunk is Inter-Operability.

Posted in CLEC, VAR, agents, broadsoft, channel, sip trunking, voip, xo

The Stimulus Spend is Opportunity

July 23, 2009

I talk with many CLEC's and ISP's that are looking at the BTOP and BIP programs to see if there is opportunity for them. As I said in the podcast with Occam Networks, most of the funds are earmarked for companies already collecting USF funds. Why do I think that? Because it is a safe bet and politics is about safe bets.

I'm attending Tech Data's Technology Solutions Tour. This morning started with TD SVP Pete Peterson discussing how to translate the stimulus spending into technology opportunity.

Posted in VAR, agents, broadband, channel, cloud computing, economy, technology

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next

On Rad's Radar?

VAR