CenturyLink says "The future state of enterprise IT is going to be far more complex and heterogeneous than today. CenturyLink realizes this and is today rolling out the product updated to give people more choice." C-Link launched new some new services called Bare Metal Servers, AppFog, and WordPress-as-a-Service.
Why formally learn? For one reason, our industry is transforming before our eyes with new products, services, technology, buyers and sales processes. You might need to pick up a few things to stay relevant.
For less than $300 you can take the TCA Certified Telecom Professional course and exam to learn about all things telecom and cable.
You could join CompTIA and gran some certifications in a number of areas.
There are a couple of online academies like Udemy and SkillShare, where you can learn skills like coding or how to be a freelancer or marketing. And you can teach courses on these platforms. Good way to be seen as The Expert.
Road Shows and Expos. The Wearable Tech Expo in Vegas, CP Expo in Boston and the various carrier and master agency road show are just a few of the places to learn about new tech.
For example, TelePacific holds partner events throughout its territory. (I spoke at one of them.)
Another example, "CenturyLink is going on tour to the IT community about the emerging cloud services trends that are affecting IT departments inside businesses via a multi-city tour that will feature industry analysts and the telco's customers." (You might be able to interact with buyers there, but register those deals during a bio break!)
Finally, vendors provide training. Maybe not always good training, but training nonetheless. Online and live, there are a number of opportunities to grab some education. Netwolves has some good stuff on their security offerings. Masergy has managed security training for partners. RapidScale has a cloud university.
You aren't spending your time on learning -- you are investing in your career, business and future. Best way to handle it is with an appointment for 30 minutes to an hour in your calendar every week. Or at least read 20 minutes per day- perhaps my book (available on your kindle).
"Training takes time. But it's the best lifelong investment a person can make." #gitomer
]]>Canadian and UK companies reached out for consulting in 2014. Opportunities in LATAM also peaked on the horizon. But most of the attention was right here in the USA. Looks like service providers want to be able to take advantage of the boom.
Despite a plethora of shows, it seemed like the energy at most of the shows was pretty upbeat - especially shows not in Vegas.
Shows did seem to have a problem keeping attendees corralled. For some attendees, shows are a time of respite and play as well as work. The format for shows hasn't changed much in 20 years -- maybe it is time that they do. Trade show budget dollars are at a higher premium than ever.
Being a presenter at Comptel in Dallas for Comptel TV was different. I've never done that much video before but the crew they put together was fantastic and made it easy for me. Thanks to Beka Publishing for getting me that gig.
It seemed as if carriers are easier to deal with this year than in the last couple of years. At least the ones that I dealt with - primarily ACC Business, AT&T and tw telecom.
It seems that most people have heard of Hosted PBX by now. We are passed the phase of having to explaining it from scratch. Yeah! Only took 11 years. But don't forget that you still need to educate your prospects on the on-boarding, outcomes, and why you are different than the alternatives (like BSFT, Asterisk, Avaya, premise PBX, Cisco, Lync, Mitel, et al).
It looks like mainstream marketers understand that content is king and social media can't be ignored. That didn't take long. Google's many algorithm changes probably helped push that along. When your website disappears from page 1 and 2, someone has to find an answer - and fast!
It was the year of the App. If you had a messaging app this year, you were worth a lot of moola (at least for a short while.)
Thanks to all the breaches to iCloud, retail, banks and Sony, security should become a good space to be in during 2015. But then that's only if the attitude about security changes from "it's one department's problem" to "security is everyone's business". Breaches come with a tremendously high cost - agains ask Sony, Target, TJ Maxx, Home Depot.
No natural disasters in 2014. No Sandy's or Katrina's. That's good - but that also means that the anti-global warming folks can say, "See?! It's fine." While Glacier Park in the US melts. It also means selling BR/BC will be harder since folks have a short memory.
The TCA rolled out a cable certification and Comcast required it of its agents. That's a big deal for the TCA and the channel.Many master agencies - like COLOTRAQ and Microcorp - celebrated big this year due to important milestones. COLOTRAQ hit 15! Microcorp hit 28 with a new President and a party in NOLA! TBI and Intelysis also hit milestones of commission numbers.
Women in the Channel had a big year of growth with extra events and large attendance numbers!
]]>Big mergers still in play: AT&T buying DirecTV to keep up on TV; and Comcast in a three way with Charter over TWC.
Birch bought Cbeyond. TW telecom is now a part of Level3. AT&T swallowed Cricket. Siemens Enterprise Communications re-organized a couple of times and re-branded as Unify. Zayo went public.
So many CLEC execs exited the carrier world for Master Agencies. No idea how that will pan out - as the master model is shifting as the margins shrink. Maybe those carrier guys - who came out of less than stellar companies - CAN steer a smaller ship through stormy waters.
After Softbank bought Sprint and Clearwire last year, layoffs ensued all year for Sprint. And not just at Sprint. This was an ugly year for telecom employment as jobs were sloughed off left and right.
BTW, Telstra buys Pacnet for about $700 million.
The buzz this year - especially at shows like ITEXPO and Metaswitch Forum - was SDN and NFV. CenturyLink is blazing atrail to NFV.
Windstream was in a pickle this year. Money issues, revenue declines, layoffs - oof! 70% of its revenue is based on broadband. So the CFO came up with a great idea: form a REIT. It might happen in 2015. Meanwhile, the REIT idea in the data center space is still alive and well: Equinix Board of Directors Approves REIT Conversion
One bright spot seemed to be in cellular where T-Mobile's CEO decided he had nothing to lose after being blocked at the altar twice (Sprint and AT&T). So he started to turn the cellular market upside down. Sprint joined in after Apple released the iPhone 6. The downside to the pricing war: (1) AT&T and VZW are still giants and the gap is still wide; (2) MVNO models fell apart.
Also, OTT like WhatsApp, Viper, and so many more are starting to have an effect on profit streams of cellcos. At least a little. It is what our industry is famous for - Arbitrage! Take all the margin and profit you can out of a service. We don't make the pie bigger; we steal the filling. It's why I think mobile VoIP is a boring sector and don't really write about apps. It does not add anything really innovative; it just allows folks to do the same stuff for free or less money. Like Bittorrent.
And if Hosted VoIP is so wonderful - and so many of the 2000+ providers are crushing it (just ask them! they are all doing dandy.) then why oh why does RC and S2S need more investment money to grow?
This was the year of the data breach - from Target to Sony no data was safe. What does that say to the marketplace as the industry tries to get businesses to buy cloud services? This riding in after the Snowden effect on privacy concerns about cloud services.
This is funny: "Verizon will roll out new NSA-friendly encrypted wireless voice service"
Carl Ford writes Is It Time to End the FCC? I agree with him as I have written for years. The FCC has a full docket that they will take years to decide. Their decisions are not only late to the party, but always end up in court, where the FCC loses half the time.
Muni and/or public-private networks like Google Fiber are pushing the Gigabit broadband momentum. Meanwhile, laws are being put into effect to ban muni networks. Just another example of lawmakers being beholden to Corporate America, not the people.
No idea who is going to buy all that crap on Amazon between layoffs and the dwindling middle class. Or who pays for the Walmart on every corner in America, since the each store requires $1 million in public assistance per year
USF reform, E-Rate changes, Connect America (CAF), rural broadband experiments - all kind of go together. All under the big Universal Services Fund umbrella. All changes slowly being made to spur broadband in rural communities, libraries, schools and rural healthcare. It is having a ripple effect on the business models of the RLECs, who spent a lot of time and money lobbying in DC this year.
BTW, big news in Iowa. "The Iowa Supreme Court says companies that provide phone service through the Internet must be taxed the same as traditional telephone service providers."
The channel saw a lot of activity as well in 2014. So many cloud services players banging on the door asking for partners. Cloud Cloud CLOUD!!! Quite a bit of musical chairs in the vendor channel chairs too. Master agencies had to sell direct to keep up with increasing quotas under decreasing price points. The TCA rolled out a cable certification too.
If ever there was a time for companies to do strategic planning and internal evaluation it is now. Checking your strengths and weaknesses allows you to plan, but it also allows you to steer around obstacles that may get thrown in the way.
Special Forces Assessment Thought: Challenges can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks. It's all in your perspective. via @Bob_Mayer
The bright spot: customers are buying!
"All the economics are changing, as are consumption patterns, and they're shifting faster that the mindsets of those that create and publish." - Seth Godin
]]>There are other associations for channel partners. CompTIA for IT training and certs. There is also the Cloud Services Community. Both have alliances with the TCA. I did a webinar for CSC a couple of years ago. With their re-boot last month, the website is new and they are looking for bloggers.
I am sure there are others, but these are the places I know to network online, educate yourself and get certifications. Join up. Be Active. Learn & Grow.
There is an association for master agencies that basically does volume buying. That group is the Agent Alliance. They have a new executive board.
And one plug for a webinar I am doing on 10/10/14 at Noon ET: 3 Secrets for Channel Manager Success - register here.
]]>TCA President Jeff Ponts writes, "We have expanded our relationship with Cloud Partners, and have signed strategic relationships with CompTIA, and the Baptie Group to meet our goals." The main goal of TCA is education of the channel - all segments of the channel.
"The cornerstone of the TCA has always been the Certified Telecom Professional (CTP) exam. It was rolled out in 2010 and is now on its third revision to meet our industry's expanding role in supporting our members. The next step in the program's evolution, started in 2013 when Jim Swoyer, the program manager, began working directly with the cable industry giants, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Charter to develop the latest module named the Certified Cable Professional (CCP) exam. Comcast and Time Warner Cable are so motivated to raise the bar of professionalism that they announced in February that all partners must pass the CTP/CCP to sell their services. To kick off the drive we have a coordinated contest that all Master Agents, Alliance Groups, and non vendor members of the TCA can take advantage on behalf of their Partners. Download the details here!
Two new people have been added to the board. I would like to thank both Nancy Ridge, Telecom Brokers and Evan Gillman, Transit Broker, for joining the TCA Board to carry on the good work. I'd also like to take a moment to thank Jeff Ponts, Dave Wallace and Nick Enger for not only taking over the reins from the co-founders, but blazing a trail.
And of course none of it would be possible without the support of the vendor members, including the latest one - ViaWest.
]]>One thing I keep thinking is that there are a lot of VARs, MSPs and Inter-connects throughout the country who would like some of that site survey and install revenue. Now, I know that not all of them have the skill set to perform these functions any better, but there may be an answer.
NETX USA already distributes a lot of VoIP CPE and configures phones for VoIP providers. NETX USA likely has a database of companies that buy equipment from them (many of whom are probably VARs or MSPs or Inter-Connects). This database of techs could be the answer to the nationwide installation problem.
FreedomIQ sells through a dealer channel that also does the install. Ideally, the channel partner would sell, install and support the customer. Ideally. We don't live in an ideal world.
ScanSource would be another possibility for a dealer network. I think that if the dealer bought VoIP gear from ScanSource and could pass a certificate program then that network of technicians could work too.
I'm not sure if the VADs - Tech Data or Ingram - have a dealer network that would work because these distributors sell software and hardware to anyone. VADs aren't concentrated in the VoIP vertical.
EarthLink's CMO told me that they use a group of techs that grew out of New Edge Networks for installation. But can even they be everywhere?
I have seen MegaPath trucks. The RBOCs have lots of technicians (and sub-contractors) nationally. The cablecos have technicians and sub-contractors as well. I have no idea what other carriers do - like Cbeyond.
There's always Geek Squad by Best Buy.
]]>MessageBroadcast was in and out of the channel in less than a year. I don't know how you think you will get traction and sales that fast from zero.
Press release after tweet after post about this SP or that SP signing up with a master agency. That's like saying, "Hey, look! We're on Page 2 of Google!" Or we added a dozen SKUs to Ingram's cloud brokerage service catalog! WOOT! That will get us some sales - as they wait by the phone for it to ring.
Your channel strategy has to be a lot like your direct sales strategy. The same principles apply. You wouldn't hire just anyone off the street to sell your services, right?
Then why would you want just anyone to be your channel partner?
The new strategy is to sign up the masters with the hope that the sub-agents will sell their stuff. How? Going back to the Google Page 2 scenario, you are 1 out of 80, 90 or 100+ SPs that a sub-agent can sell. How would the agent know:
If the master has 5 Hosted VoIP SPs, how do you think the agent (or channel manager of said master) decides who to quote? Sometimes they will quote them all - which is a lot of busy work for the SPs - and results in a useless funnel.
On Amazon, when you search K-Cup, there are 30,753 Results. Yeah. How do you slog through that to find what you really want to buy? You think being in a quote database is much different?
When you hire salespeople, there is an interview process and selection that takes place. We give lip service to when we go channel. More than once, an SP comes up with a channel partner criteria (or profile) that gets replaced with a mirror at a trade show because ROI at a show is determined by the number of people that can fog a mirror, not by the number of qualified partners that you find. At least in my experience.
Then after you hire salespeople, there is an on-boarding and training process, which, again, falls by the wayside in the channel.
Sales - direct or indirect - still requires:
One additional item that the Channel needs is adjacency or alignment. Does your business model (and who you target and why) align with the partner's business model? If your service is adjacent to their line of business (and has low sales friction), then it is likely they can and will sell it.
If the service is low cost - like under $200 per month - it isn't likely that a channel partner will sell it UNLESS it is a cheap replacement for something customers already have AND the sale is frictionless. And when I say frictionless, I mean no glitches, one page agreement, automated deployment, etc. (Amazon 1-click sales or Apple iStore is frictionless selling. People expect that now.) At $200 per month - even at 20 points - is $40 per month. How much time must the partner invest to make the $40? What is the likelihood that the $40 sale will adversely affect the customer relationship or derail a one thousand dollar recurring revenue sale to the same customer?
If you do have a sub-$100 item that will sell easily, may I suggest a network marketing style approach? Become the Amway of conferencing or whathaveyou.
I have worked with a lot of SPs and helped a number of channel programs, these are the basic elements. Don't treat the channel as if you are Talk Fusion (and anyone is a prospective partner and customer). Pretend as if real money is involved and choose your partners carefully (along with some planning).
Interesting note: back in the day (circa 2000) BellSouth required live classes for partners to take to get pay on a service. Want to sell Frame Relay? Take the class. Pass the exam. Get the cert. Some SPs have that today, notably Alteva. But Comcast is adding a certificate program to sell its services (a big win for the TCA).
]]>The TCA (Technology Channel Association) has had a certificate program for agents for over three years which is vendor neutral. The Certified Telecom Professional program is being revised by the TCA and its partner, Jim Swoyer. The TCA is also rolling out the first cable cert - the Certified Cable Professional.
Technology Channel Association revises the Certification Program
]]>Microsoft knew that if people became certified they would sell, install and maintain Microsoft products. They made it really easy to get an MCSE - and later easier to be an MCP. (By then, the certification was diluted). The channel was not just sales but support. Microsoft's buggy software created a whole economy.
Cisco also needed installers and support for its products. The Channel worked out perfectly for them. The certifications still are meaningful and a challenge to obtain.
In the CLEC world, the channel was used for sales, lead gen, referrals, and in place of actual marketing. The big mistake the telecom industry made was not having certifications. PBX vendors do. CompTIA and TCA have certification programs, but the carriers themselves either waived it off like icing in hockey or just couldn't get the program to take root.
I see many cloud companies adding a channel program. They ask: How do you get channel partners to sell your services when the MRC is small? That's the rub, but the two biggest channel companies didn't think that way. They made their channel programs the center of the partners business. That may be harder to do today.
So you have to ask, how do you align with the right partners who want to build incremental income through selling your services?
Or can you pay your partners to promote your services to their base?
The cost of customer acquisition -- the cost for sales - has mounted. The Internet has changed sales a lot, so has mobility, voicemail, junk email rules and other filters that make it harder to make sales the traditional method. So you look for people who already have a relationship with your target market.
I guess marketing isn't an option.
I already see the Hosted PBX services going to commodity level. The rest of the cloud should follow. Without well trained sales representation in the field, it will just be a price war. Your incremental sale will be relegated to the checkout line like gum and candy.
All the channel partners in the world didn't replace a brand, marketing, a strong product, and channel support. These were the elements that Cisco and Microsoft had. Do you have them? A strong program with a value proposition?
]]>This would be huge win for any agency, since VZ waffles over the channel all the time.
However, this agency is a Dover, DE company formed in January with no website and some goofy VoIP phone numbers. It points to either a scam or VZ Wholesale, specifically Kathryn Kalajian,who signed the letter, didn't check to the agency out.
Another option the agency was formed by former VZ Wholesale employees who thought it was a get rich quick idea - and did everything on the cheap (like website, email, phones, etc.) This isn't a new idea, btw. More agencies have been started by phone company employees that you can imagine (not all of them successful).
Maybe the TCA should tell the AWA, LLC to get CTP certified!
]]>CompTIA has many certificates including a cloud one. Other organizations are putting together certificate programs - some for revenue, some because it will take a lot of education to move the needle on cloud revenue sold via the channel.
One of the reason for the need for certification is the change in telecom. For years, telecom was TDM. A PRI was a PRI, a standard with just two configurations available. Everyone knew what they were getting. Today, it is a miss-mash of TDM and IP - and a lot of grey area in the middle. If you are running a fax server, for example, a PRI that is actually a SIP Trunk with PRI signaling in the IAD is just not going to cut it. Some companies don't even know that is what they are delivering until it is turned up - and doesn't work! Then the real mess begins.
SLA's are all over the map, but are a feature that appear on many RFP's.
Certificates are about education. A certified professional is someone who takes pride in his (or her) business and understands that it takes ongoing education to do the job well.
]]>The TCA
, the only non-profit trade association for the channel partners (VAR's, agents, inter-connects, YOU), has a lot going on in the next two months.Heading into CPExpo in Orlando, the TCA will hold its fifth Channel Chief Summit. The CCS is an opportunity for the top channel executives of our service provider members to meet face-to-face to learn and share. This time round, Quest CTO Mike Dillon and Parallels SVP John Zanni will be presenting to the participants.
The TCA's first member networking event will be held on September 11.
A month later, the TCA will be putting on a regional member educational event in Chicago. Details will be coming soon.
Later this month (August 23), the TCA monthly webinar series continues with a panel on Cloud Communications with Premiere members - Alteva and M5.
In the shifting channel, the most important factor for success is an educated sales force.
]]>Sat in on the CenturyLink Channel Alliance - Get back in the Game Roadshow in Tampa this morning. It was nice to see Stacy Conrad from Microcorp; Josh Anderson and his co-workers from Telephony Partners; Dale Tucker from CCA; and put a face to an old Qwest SE, William Hobbs, now a CCA Emerging Sales Technology Consultant (ETSC) for Florida. Hobbs did a nice job on Why VPDC and The Benefit of Cloud over Colo. The roadshow had 3 parts (Hobbs did part 2):
Dale Tucker went over the Rules of Engagement, You definitely need charts and glossaries to follow along the categories and acronymns. Basically, colocation, managed hosting, virtual private data center (VPDC), public cloud, private cloud, and managed servcies (like Hosted Microsoft Exchange) are all available to the Channel to sell at full commission - unless you engage an account exec - then it is HALF!
For agents used to working with AE's, this will be a bummer. However, half is better than zero. Also, with the ETSC as your godfather inside the C-Link-Qwest-Savvis beast, you won't need the AE.
A lot of colo and data center business comes from the Channel.
And for those that do not know how to sell Colocation and Data Center, the TCA has done quite a few webinars, including Getting Your Arms Around the Cloud by Allan Watkins of Total Telecom Management n Atlanta and Let's Talk Colo, moderated by Khali Henderson of Channel Partners magazine and featuring Dany Bouchedid of COLOTRAQ and Chris Palermo of GCN.
Tucker did mention that Savvis is working on a sales certification for colo and hosting. This silo will be a huge focus for C-Link it seems, especially with 54 data centers
Hobbs spoke about not talking about the technology of cloud, but about the business side of cloud, especially cloud services like VPDC and Compute-on-demand. It's about right sizing the data center. It's about OPEX versus CAPEX. It's about DR/BC. It's about getting out of the IT business and back to their own business focus.
C-Link also has an initiative to light up data centers with C-Link network - wave, IP-VPN, MPLS and Internet Bandwidth. There are 154 data centers now. In Jacksonville, FL, C-Link is putting in a ring to connect CSX, Peak10, Colo5 and the C-Link data center on a metro fiber ring. C-Link is also connecting 4 data centers in Charlotte on a metro ring. AboveNet did something similar in Atlanta by connecting almost all the data centers on a metro fiber ring. Agents can easily sell ELine, IQ Port, Private Port and WAVE into these 154 lit buildings.
Hobbs pointed out that the integration is going well with CenturyLink-Qwest-Savvis.
]]>Number 1: Saves time! Instead of calling around to collect quotes, the agent can do that more efficiently.
Number 2: Meeting Your Needs. The Independent Agent will be able to present a telecom solution more aligned with your needs. The Agent is not beholden to any one product or carrier.
Number 3: Translation. Telecom Agents can help make sense of your bill and the quotes from other carriers in order for the prospect to make an apples for apples comparison.
Number 4: Insider Knowledge: The Agent is familiar with the provisioning process and the carriers to provide the prospect proper expectations.
Number 5: Customer Advocate. The Agent has the customer's best interest at heart. Directs tend to come and go, but the Agent will be there for the Customer in the long term - and will always be looking for ways to add Value to the Customer. This is the main answer for me: Continuity. I've been doing this for 11 years and in that time I can barely keep track of the employee rotation going on at any carrier at any given time.
Number 5.5: Usually the same pricing and without cost to the customer as the carrier pays the Agent for sales. There are two caveats here. One is that I have seen cases where directs got better pricing (by working the system better than me). Two, there are times I will charge to procure bids for customers, especially if I don't ahve a relationship with the carrier.
Another great reason to get your TCA CTP: If you have a certification, you look more like an expert and you have a solid foundation of knowledge.
]]>The other piece is that WYSE has 3000 partners. Too bad a CLEC didn't think to buy it just for that new channel.
Dell is an interesting company because while it is known for hardware - PC's, tablets, gadgets and servers - Dell is making the move to cloud.
__PLACEHOLDER__Going back to December 2010 when "Dell announces the acquisition of the cloud-based medical archiving leader InSite One to help healthcare organizations simplify retention of healthcare data." The PR says, "Additionally, like Dell's recent acquisition of Boomi, this acquisition builds on our strategy to help customers take advantage of the economics and scalability of the cloud in the way that best fits the requirements of their industry and the needs of their business." So while Dell chases the Cloud, it seems to be doing it in a hardware-services model. In other words, VAR's are used to selling hardware and wrapping one service around it. Dell is still doing it. InSite One was image archiving for medical - basically, managed storage.
Storage - like InSite One, Compellent and EqualLogic.
Networking: Force10 Networks and SonicWall. Both also spill over into Security in the managed security segment, which falls in with Dell's SecureWorks and KACE divisions. Security is supposed to be a big game to be in. Dell is buying into that space. I wonder how many VAR's it picked up with Force10 and SonicWall... 1000?
Next, AppAssure backup and recovery was an obvious move to become more of a managed services provider -- or to empower its VAR's to become MSP's. That might be the strategy: empower its VAR's to become MSP's all through Dell services (and hardware).
This puts Dell directly in competition with the VAD's - Ingram, Tech Data and SYNNEX. Who will get the attention of the VAR?
And to tie that strategy of a VAR becoming an MSP is the announcement that Dell Offers Partners 'Cloud Services & Solutions Certification'. That ties the MSP bow up.
]]>