Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter

On Rad's Radar?

| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

September 2011

You are browsing the archive for September 2011.
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Conferencing is on the Rise?

September 30, 2011

Analysts often talk about predictions and trends in the marketplace. It seems except for voice, everything is on the rise: Cloud, VoIP, SAAS, mobile, social media and, yes, even conferencing.

What is driving conferencing?

The economy has something to do with it.

Posted in TCA, agents, channel, conferencing, economy, sales and selling
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The Future of Media

September 30, 2011

The buzz is that email is dead. Oh, voice is dying also. And if you believe all the hype, sell your airline stocks since video conferencing and tele-presence will replace travel.

"A company's corporate website is the top source of new sales leads--second only to personal connections and referrals, and more than seven times more effective than social media, according to a 2011 Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study released today by marketing technology company Demandbase and online business network Focus, according to an article in the Tech Journal South.

Posted in communications, email, im/chat, organizations, social network, telecommunications
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There's Disruption Everywhere

September 28, 2011

As folks move to VoIP and cell, the PSTN has to come down. Meanwhile, since fees are lower on VoIP and cell servcies, 911 centers can't afford to operate. As we move away from regulation - especially in Florida - phone calls stop being connected. Call termination issues increase.

Posted in cableco, cellular, economy, voip, wireline
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Generating Leads Versus Branding

September 28, 2011

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.

Posted in Marketing, TMC, sales and selling, voip
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Data Centers Make the Big Time

September 27, 2011

When USA Today starts talking about data centers, the sector has hit the big time. The USA today ran a piece about the secret rooms that run the Internet. You'd think they were talking about the NSA rooms that read every single piece of email.

QTS Atlanta Metro Data Center is the second largest data center in the world with 990,000 square feet of total space (of which 300k sf is raised floor space) and its own on-site Georgia Power substation.

Posted in cloud computing, colocation, compliance, data center, security
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Why is a Brand Important?

September 23, 2011

I had another conversation today about the declining revenues of the hyper-competitive sector of IT and telecom. Why is it a commodity? Mainly, a lack of differentiation.

The idea of branding is that your value statement gets out to the marketplace. If you tell the story about what your value is, what your company values are, you are building a brand.

The problem that a lot of telecom and IT companies have is that they don't have a brand.



Posted in Marketing, voip
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The Latest in VoIP Updates

September 19, 2011

There is just so many press releases. I'd say news but much of it is not new (that is to say innovative) or really news worthy other than as tidbits of info to keep up on the sector.

Metaswitch got into the SBC market, because their clients didn't want to buy the market leader, Acme Packet. Level3 jumped into the SBC market with a new service: Managed SBC.

Posted in apps, broadsoft, cloud computing, conferencing, hosted uc, im/chat, mergers, startup, technology, telecommunications, unified communications, voip
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Tech Data Becomes a Master

September 19, 2011

Tech Data announced a joint venture with Brightstar called ActivateIT, branded as TDMobility. In this case, TD will become a master agent for its VARs to offer not just cellular service from the likes of Sprint, ATT and T-Mobile, but M2M, devices and the works.

It will be interesting to see how TD transforms from hardware distributor, which has a very different financial model, to a cloud provider and a master agent.

The Master Agent has to deal with telcos. Cellcos are notorious for commission issues, moreso than other carriers.



Posted in VAR, cellular, channel, cloud computing, wireless
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The Banker Speaks

September 16, 2011

At Cloud Communications Summit at ITEXPO this week in Austin, Q Advisors a luncheon keynote. Q Advisors has been involved in quite a few M&A transactions this year with Cloud Comm companies. Micheal Quinn was the speaker. He said a lot of stuff that I have been saying (so I naturally liked the guy, even though he is a banker.)

Posted in CLEC, TMC, hosted uc, mergers, unified communications, wireline
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The 1st CMO Summit

September 14, 2011

Posted in Marketing, TMC, social network
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Why Attend ITEXPO?

September 14, 2011

Posted in Add category, TMC, conferences, expo
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I Think I'm Allergic to Power Point

September 13, 2011

Using slides with the Guy Kawasaki method of presentation - big font, just keywords versus reading me the word document that you call a slide.

Even in a keynote, the speaker (a senior VP) read the slides in between commercials. I hope you don't present this way to bankers and VC's.

I get the fear of speaking part, but if you tell a story in place of stuffing tons of data or tidbits into the preso, the audience will be very appreciative.

Posted in Marketing, cloud computing, expo
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Lessons in the Cloud

September 12, 2011

One of the great lessons in the Cloud is how do you sell it?It all comes down to the messaging (marketing or story you are telling) and the sales approach (or technique).

Sitting with Jeff Uphues  of Cbeyond Cloud today at ITEXPO, we spoke about the lessons that Cbeyond has learned about selling cloud services.

Cbeyond has 800 direct sales and about 2000 channel partners, who are taking their Cloud Services to the marketplace – not just in their 16 markets but nationwide. (Cloud can go anywhere there’s decent Internet access.)



Posted in CLEC, Marketing, PBX, agents, apps, backup, channel, cloud computing, sales and selling
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Point1 Joins Pac-West

September 12, 2011

Posted in mergers, voip
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Access Reform. Now, Please.

September 12, 2011

So the FCC could be court ordered to finally resolve the Special Access Reform issue that has been unresolved since 2002! Special access are the circuits that CLEC's purchase straight from the tariff - basically at retail pricing. With so many circuits no longer in the tariff (see AT&T on Metro ethernet and many other services), CLEC and other service providers have to pay more for access than if they bought a bundled service. For example, 10 MB of Metro ethernet transport is now $1270 on a 3 year contract when it was $684 before August 1, 2011; yet a 10MB EaMIS (Internet access via metro ethernet) is under $1000 on a 3 year term.

Posted in CLEC, FCC, Internet, ethernet, telco, wireline
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A Couple of M&A Items

September 9, 2011

It seems that Apple put in a bid for Dropbox for $800M (for $100M in revenue). But Dropbox decided to get another round of funds and think IPO instead. [BusinessInsider]

Cablevision will resell Sprint wireless service through its Optimum Business unit. Quad play for SMB.

Posted in broadsoft, cellular, cloud computing, conferencing, fiber, hosted uc, mergers, smb, unified communications, wireless, wireline
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What To Do in Austin Next Week

September 6, 2011

Next week is the first time the ITEXPO West will be in Austin, TX. It's my first time in Austin (or Texas for that matter).

Once again, ITEXPO will be the home to a lot of great content. This time I am moderating two panels under the Social CRM Expo. Top 10 Tips for Online Marketing on Wed. at 2 PM with Shawan Vercher, Kyle Flaherty and Rusty Shelton.

Posted in TMC, cloud computing, communications, expo, hosted uc, sales and selling, social network
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Why I Am Skipping Connections

September 6, 2011

Next week I will be in Austin for ITEXPO from Sunday till Thursday. It starts the fall conference caravan. There are so many conferences in October it is crazy: TelcoTV, COMPTEL, WISPA, FISPA, MUMS, Broadsoft Connections, Metaswitch User Forum, STC and a cloud thingy or two. I can't wait for November!

Posted in PBX, broadsoft, channel, conferences, expo, hosted uc
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Blockbuster Still Chasing Netflix

September 6, 2011

There's a lesson to be learned from Blockbuster. Blockbuster was the last standing national chain of video rental shops. It was purchased by DISH Network out of bankruptcy. Blockbuster was an example of a company that couldn't keep up with changes in its sector - and let rivals dictate the playing field.
Posted in CLEC, apps, cloud computing, unified communications, video, voip
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Is the Transactional Agent Model Sustainable?

September 1, 2011

This was a topic in Chicago last week: Is the Transactional Agent Model dying? It isn't dying because the telecom business is such a commodity. Dumb pipes will always be a commodity. That's why managed servcies was invented.

Posted in agents, cableco, channel, commissions
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agents apps att broadband broadsoft cable cableco cellular channel partners clec cloud communications cloud computing commissions data center FCC fcc fiber financials hosted pbx internet itexpo marketing master agency mergers politics sales security sellecom selling strategy TCA telecom is broken UC unified messaging VAR voip vz vzw wireless wireline

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