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A Very Specific Target

November 11, 2009

Listened to XO to introduce Enterprise SIP (ESIP) to the Channel today. This offering is very targeted. Enterprise SIP is designed for multi-location customers such as Retail and Restaurant chains that are looking to get rid of PRI's.

ESIP will be for high capacity connections with the minimum connection of 10MB at the hub (or HQ) for aggregated voice traffic.

Essentially it is a SIP trunk (at 10MB) that will take all of the local and long distance traffic - inbound and outbound - from the branch offices across an MPLS (or other private network) through one or two hub circuits.

Here's how it works.

You connect all of the offices together via a private network or MPLS architecture. Then you port all of the numbers to the SIP Trunking of XO's Enterprise SIP Service. The trunk will plug into an IP-PBX or an SBC and handle all of the voice traffic on the company network.

Posted in channel, sip trunking, voip, xo

IS MPLS HIPAA Compliant?

November 9, 2009

Speaking with Peter Davis, Partner Channel Manager in the Southeast for XO, about MPLS and HIPAA. XO recently held a webinar describing how their MPLS Solution can enable healthcare organizations to be HIPAA compliant.

The wording here is important. Transport is neither compliant or not.

Posted in VAR, agents, backup, compliance, data center, privacy, xo

SUTUS Does an Upgrade

September 10, 2009

SUTUS sells an Office-in-the-box solution for small business. For 25 and under employees, the Sutus Business Central 200 is a file server, email server, router, wireless access point, and phone system. The BC200 has gotten an upgrade.

New User Interface: enhanced Flex technology supports seamless installation, management and use of the Business Central 200, onsite and/or remotely.
Enhanced Desktop Install Tools: enables the set-up of desktops, VPN clients and mail clients in a matter of minutes.
Enhanced Network Interoperability: the appliance now can seamlessly co-exist within a customer's legacy local area networks; including active directory, hosted exchange, and existing internet routers.
VoIP Interoperability: ITSP partners added to the VoIP interop menu now include Bandwidth.com, Airespring, Excel and XO Communications.

It's the telephony upgrade that caught my eye: Call park / retrieve and directed pick-up. Older key systems use call park and most Hosted PBX systems cannot emulate that feature. (Aastra has a PBX that can).

Posted in channel, smb, technology, telecommunications, voip, wi-fi, xo

The UC Conversation Continues with XO

June 19, 2009

Tech Data's Senior Product Sales Champion for UC was at the event last night. I spent a few minutes chatting with him about his position, but couldn't really get a definition of UC out of him. Polycom and tele-presence are what he pushes - to me that's not really UC. HD Voice?

Posted in CLEC, PBX, broadsoft, sip trunking, technology, tele-presence, telecommunications, unified communications, voip, xo

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

JobVent

November 10, 2008

By accident, I ran across JobVent today. On first examination, it's just one more Web 2.0 forum for employees to complain about their bosses. AT&T has 5 companies - 4 are rated as bad. Cbeyond and XO are on there. Verizon is on there with 6 listings - VZW gets good marks. How is your company doing?

Posted in Web 2.0, telecommunications, xo

Keynoting for ADTRAN & XO

September 25, 2008

I'll be in Ft. Lauderdale on Oct. 21 Oct. 23 to keynote a partner luncheon for ADTRAN and XO. The content is based on where the indirect channel is heading in the next couple of years and what the value proposition is for both kinds of resellers - telecom agents and hardware VAR's. How many times will I say Converged? XO is giving every attendee a copy of my book, SELLECOM.

Posted in channel, expo, xo

The Billion $ Big Deal

June 20, 2008

Over at isp-bw, we spent an evening discussing XO's future. With Icahn as the owner of 60% of the stock, 90% of the debt, and 6 board seats, he has the company and any minor shareholder over the barrel. R2 is a minority shareholder who warned Icahn via open letter that if XO files Bankruptcy, they would sue him personally for dereliction of fiduciary duty. On paper, XO looks good.

Posted in telco, xo

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