David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
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May 2009

You are browsing the archive for May 2009.

Pricing Integrity and Discounting Part II

May 29, 2009

The prospect is requiring another round of discounts. This time it will affect your bottom line. You'll cover your cost but that's about it. You are concerned about your cash flow so you are seriously considering acquiescing to this demand to get the business and meet payroll one more month.

Pricing Integrity and Discounting

May 27, 2009

In my short time at Broadvox, I have seen more requests for discounts than at any other business that I have worked. One reason is the number of orders we take in each day, the other is a lack of understanding of our value proposition. Also, I suspect that because the industry is made up of so many different kinds of players, ILECs, CLECs, facilities based carriers, resellers and such, customers believe that we are willing to discount to get business.  So how do we, and I mean all of us in the IP community, maintain our pricing in the face of this kind of competition? The answer is rather simple but difficult to implement.

The Value of a VAR

May 22, 2009

It seems that not enough love is given to VARs. I want to change that. Given our wholesale legacy, it was not obvious that we should sell SIP Trunking using an indirect channel. However, as we performed an analysis of the market and the resources required to penetrate that market it became clear, indirect is the way to go.

"But why you ask?"

The Chicken or the Egg

May 20, 2009

I arrived yesterday at Interop to see walk the floors and determine if this show was ready for SIP Trunking. Eighteen months ago, we had a booth at Interop in New York City and the visibility and interest afforded SIP Trunking was bleak. We decided not to attend again until that situation changed. I was disappointed to see it has not changed yet.

Trout Stuffed with Seafood and the End of a War

May 18, 2009

Growing up in Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay one of my favorite dishes was stuffed flounder. It was too expensive for my budget so I could only order when I was on a business trip, which for me was quite often. My first job was a research assistant at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Most of my summer and a bit of the winter was spent collecting data along Virginia's coastlines.

Broadvox, More than Any Other Carrier...

May 15, 2009

Everyone wants to say he or she is the best at something. However, given the number of people and companies on the planet saying you are the best is very difficult. Consequently, when I joined Broadvox and was informed we had completed interoperability testing (IOT) with more OEMs than any other carrier, I was skeptical. How could that be?

Can it Get Any Bigger?

May 13, 2009

Last quarter was mostly bad for earnings reported by Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and others due principally to a slowdown in network equipment purchases.  A casual observer of our industry might surmise that not all was well and they would be wrong. Closer examination of the network equipment providers sales numbers shows that products related to IP communications rose quarter over quarter and year over year. That is extraordinary.

Chicken and Dumplings meet All You can Eat Broadband

May 11, 2009

It was a great weekend for food. The weather has been far from normal, very little sun and a little cooler than usual. Since it looked as though it would rain, we decided to check out the new Star Trek movie. It was awesome!

Oklahoma and Eurocentric: The Demise of the Landline

May 8, 2009

In my many weeks of writing this blog, I have received only one comment. That comment was they never expected to see Oklahoma and Eurocentric in the same sentence. Well you are going to see it again. That particular blog identified Oklahoma as having most number of homes replacing landline communications with a cell phone.

The Multi-Faceted IAD

May 6, 2009

IADs are most thought of when we need to attach a TDM PBX or Key System to a VoIP/SIP Service.  They range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand depending upon the connectivity required and desired features. The most basic functionality needed is to accept an IP or Ethernet connection and convert it into something that the PBX or Key system understands, T1, PRI, FXS, and FXO.  Additional capabilities would include QoS, multi-codec support, SIP, MGCP, and H.323 protocols. (I apologize in advance for not having the time to go through each one of the aforementioned protocols.

Vidalia Onions, Summer and Edge Devices

May 4, 2009

The weather has been very unusual in Dallas this year. The rain has been unrelenting and we have yet to have a hot spell. This gets into the psyche of some people, not me, but some people. Anyway, my wife asked for a fun meal to eat.

By the Byte or the End of the Buffet

May 1, 2009

Wednesday I was running short on time and could not finish the description of the proposed changes to bandwidth utilization pricing. At its core, it is simply a way for the cable companies to increase prices for access to higher speed bandwidth. However, the result may be to push America even further down the list of countries that have broad bandwidth coverage and up the list for the price of our bandwidth.  Many others and I believe we need to approach the deployment of broadband with the same strategic intent as we did the interstate highway system. The country will benefit for years to come if deployment is pervasive and its use ubiquitous.

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