Don't worry this isn't a political rant; it is a marketing one. Many of the lost jobs in America are due to technology. No one really mentions that. I saw this tweet today:
The VoIP industry makes a couple of claims that I think are ridiculous:
(1) I will save you money. I don't know how we save companies any more money. Rates are lower than ever. In this race to Zero, the industry is losing. How do the prices keep going down when the costs to deliver the services have not declined that much? Payroll, rent, Origination, Termination, colocation and Special Access have not declined that much. It seems ridiculous to me. Not to mention, there is always someone coming along who will sell it cheaper. And cheaper means less quality, less support, less customer satisfaction.
(2) You can save by firing that guy or gal. Huh? For VoIP, how many SMB accounts have a dedicated person for the PBX? What happens to the IT maintenance when you "eliminate" that IT guy? Who manages the WAN, LAN and WLAN? Oh, more managed services you can sell. You still need Digital Hands on-site in the same way that data centers offer Digital Hands service.
Most VoIP companies have no idea what benefit they provide, so being lazy, they go with Cost Savings. The LD and CLEC companies have trained the marketplace to ignore this claim. It explains why sales is such an uphill battle for Hosted VoIP. No one is listening to the tired messaging.
Forbes has this article: "Cloud Providers Pitch Cost Savings, But Enterprises Want More." "What's the big promise constantly being made about cloud computing? Cost savings, cost savings, cost savings." Tired. And wrong.
" 61% say they are already meeting their goals for achieving more flexibility in their infrastructures. Also, they like cloud as an alternative to acquiring in-house skills on their own to manage new applications."
Ah, benefits.
Look, as the audience heard during the ITEXPO keynotes: Cloud, including VoIP, is about Outcomes. It is about flexibility and mobility. Ultimately, cloud has to provide a business outcome, a business process improvement.
Cloud - computing and communications - is about UX, the user experience.
Try selling that - it is stickier. When the cablecos roll out Hosted PBX and voice in your market, they own the network; it gives them QoS; they have a brand; marketing muscle; and can beat you on price. Your message has to be about more than Price. (or you have to be in a market segment that the Duopoly doesn't want.)
Votacall did respond on twitter. see the tweets.
