Now we have a bunch of hype around Cloud Farming and cloud assessments. That sounds great, but buyer beware! Unless you have a Cloud Architect or Network Architect on staff to review these plans, are you sure you have the clients best interest at heart?
In cloud, the hard part is the MIGRATION. In data center world, a colocation migration for a Fortune 5000 firm is a two year plan. Two years to move a data center cage! The circuits, the boxes, the IP addresses, the mapping, the design, the physical move, the duplication, yadda, yadda.
I sat in meetings on software migration projects in the early 2000s that took over a year to plan. Yes, a year to plan before starting the migration, which took two-plus years.
'Verizon Communications Inc. announced that it has moved more than 150,000 employees to Google's productivity apps, called G Suite," Bloomberg reported. I'd like to know how long that took.
8x8 sold some big accounts in the last 15 months - "Announced new deal with Regus, the leading global workplace provider, to deploy 8x8 Enterprise Communications as a Service (ECaaS) solution at Regus worldwide business centers." And 8x8 "Announced 2,400-seat deployment across nine global locations for new enterprise customer NetSuite." Neither of these deployments happened quickly. Try a year of roll out. Global LNP is a bigger nut to crack than getting some RLEC to release a number.
I'm not against Cloud Farming. I think that agents have to practice going deep to get more wallet share from the customer. Not just get the network and the voice, but the email, the backup, the SaaS, etc. To do that takes some skill and training, being deliberate and confident.
I just don't know how that works with reality (in scale). The shortage of qualified Architects and talent to assist in planning and assessment are just the first bottleneck. The lack of a PMO department from most partners and providers to steer the migration and deployments will create some messy implementations as well as unhappy customers and partners. Lastly, we come to the compensation. When the sales cycle coupled with the deployment timeline is more than two years, how will that excite partners to sell it?
Certainly, there is a move to cloud occurring. It is NOT happening at the rate of change that analysts or cheerleaders are predicting or broadcasting. Most computing environments will remain Hybrid - some SaaS, some colo, some other. Much of the decisions on this matter consider such factors as flexibility, ROI, TCO and internal IT skills.
People forget that Hosted PBX/UCaaS deployments still suck. That LNP still takes up to 14 days (or longer with Birch!). That Internet pipes are on a 120 day construction delay. That even something as minor as turning up a port and a circuit between two lit data centers can fast approach 90 days longer than the two week install interval quoted. If we can't get these relatively simple things to work, you want to jump on Complex stuff?!! [This is me LMAO!]
NOTE:
There are experts out there. COLOTRAQ has partnered with some smart people for Cyber-Security and Cloud Readiness Assessments. Certainly, Microcorp has leveraged its TAP Program to put experts at the ready for partners. Acuity in Tampa has started building up its own managed services portfolio including wireless management and VoIP deployment testing. Other master agencies have brought on some cloud talent. They had to. It will be the engineers, the talent that can break it down and talk plainly about it one minute and delve into I/Os the next that win deals. Look for those.
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]]>Try something new.
Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report was released this week. She makes 2 big points:
One: There are now about 3 billion global internet users, but user growth is stalling at about 9% year-on-year. Smartphone sales are slowing, as is the yearly growth in the number of smartphone users, down to 21% from 31% last year. There will still be a market for bandwidth, but the it will not be lucrative. Revenues need to diversify from network.
Two: The rising Snapchat generation: Millennials communicate with text, but Generation Z prefers to communicate with images. There are now over 3 billion images shared daily between Snapchat, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp--all but one of which are owned by Facebook. 55% of Pinterest users use the site to find products they want to buy. Messaging apps are moving from simple text tools to communicate with friends to platforms for commerce. It will make selling simple VoIP solutions difficult, because smartphone and apps beat a Hosted VoIP solution. This will make it even harder on the remaining VoIP Providers.
Other things not from Meeker's report, but from the news.
Ransomware is a real problem for small and large businesses. Even NASA got hit - as did Congress recently. It is so bad, the FBI issued a warning. Selling security is going to be a big market. Data backup is a good solution for ransonware (if set-up properly). So is an anti-malware solution. How many businesses can afford to be down for 2 days?
Have you thought about selling data center? If they have an extensive WAN or MPLS network, a data center may be involved. QTS is turning the Sun Times building in Chicago into a large Tier 3 data center. It will have with 317K SF of capacity, 24MW of power and have fiber connectivity from 5 carriers. If you need help selling colocation, call the experts at COLOTRAQ.
If you want to stick with just bandwidth, how about managed WLAN or managed wi-fi solution for bigger buildings? Cablecos offer it. Some telcos. ADTRAN, Ruckus, Cisco. In a world of IOT and mobile devices, managing the wireless network is a pretty big problem to solve.
Don't want to sell mobile devices? How about mobile expense management? Stay tuned for a podcast on Monday from Wireless Watchdogs.
Have you thought about Microsoft - and riding the wave of hype around Office365, Sharepoint and Skype4B? If you have read any of my blogs, I mention Skype4B often. There is demand for it.
WAN Monitoring is getting louder. Master Agents have added circuit monitoring. AireSpring offers it under the AireNMS service mark. Most VARs and MSPs offer RMM (remote monitoring and management) of desktops, laptops and servers. This is similar.
Colocation, Backup, Security, Monitoring, WLAN and mobile expense management are all items ancillary to what you are selling now. You would be doing a disservice to yourself and your customers by not mentioning them.
There will be a gulf of disapproval. (see diagram) I think that gulf is about 5 years old now. Time to get through the Dip, grab the bull by the horns and change.
]]>Bright House is chasing Enterprise with its fiber and Hosted PBX service (powered by their Telovations acquisition). BHN is also involved in the local start-up scene in Tampa Bay.
XO along with Cbeyond and Telovations signed up to distribute telecom and network services through Tech Data, a global value added distributor of hardware and software in 2007. Cbeyond (now Birch telecom) and Telovations gave up early. XO tried really hard to get traction with Tech Data VARs. Since then, TD has launched TDMobility which is a cellular/mobility master agency. TD also signed up with Microcorp to be its Master Agency for telecom and network services. (This is much like CDW using master agencies instead of signing directly with carriers.) Tech Data has also launched a cloud services brokerage called TDcloud (yeah, really original). Last week, the XO deal unraveled. I'm curious how the Microcorp deal is doing.
]]>One way is SIP Trunking. Everyone offers it. Find someone you like and trust and sell that, although if you are reading this blog, you probably are selling SIP Trunking already.
Next up is Conferencing. Web, audio and video conferencing are coming of age. Most companies use some kind of conferencing, you just have to get in the habit of asking about it. It's as easy as asking them if they use Webex. Then go into your pitch about quoting them a cheaper rate. You will see a couple of conferencing companies with booths at CPExpo in Orlando in 3 weeks.
Another easy one is efax. If you are selling VoIP, what do your customers do about faxing? One answer is efax from you.
One more quick one for your customers is email. Hosted MS Exchange, Blackberry Enterprise Server, Office 365, Zimbra, Zoho and Google Apps are all answers to the email question. Almost all of them pay you a commission through a vendor. (Google doesn't.) Zoho just rolled out email marketing into their suite of services. J2 bought Landslide.com to create CRM with email marketing. J2 also sells efax. Faxbetter.com is owned by my pal and is always looking for partners to sell 50+ numbers. The efax and email space are a nice little sale that will make you money.
Now to hit two bigger options that may be considered SAAS, but them conferencing, efax and email are all cloud services too. Just most folks don't look at it that way.
Telecom Expense Management is finely coming into its own. Many master agencies - like PARTNERIQ by TBI, INSITE from Microcorp - are offering TEM. Your typical medium sized business problem has more than one contract for telecom. Multi-location businesses have a number of circuits at each location. TEM allows for the centralization and organization of billing and contract data. If you sell it, you end up being the outside telecom department for that business. Isn't that what you want? That's always been my goal.
The final thought for Agents is MDM, mobile device management. There are so many reasons to offer MDM. "One laptop is stolen every 53 seconds! 70 million smartphones are lost each year, with only 7 percent recovered."
"MDM is in essence software that secures, monitors, manages and supports mobile devices deployed across mobile operators, service providers and enterprises and its s main objective is to provide a high level of security on a mobile communications network, while supporting multiple devices and continuing to reduce cost and downtime," writes TMCnet. TDMobility and MetTel are just a couple of vendors that offer agents and VAR's the MDM service to sell.
TEM and MDM offer "a complete view of customer spend, billing; Inventory and trouble ticket management." They are a way for you to differentiate yourself from other agents and other sales teams, while increasing your own profitability per account.
We hear a lot of talk about cloud - and technically these are cloud too - but you have to add to the catalog of services you offer today to become a trusted advisor. TEM and MDM are just two ways to have a value based conversation with your customers.
]]>You have to adjust for the changing times, unless you just want to push pipes. But your customers are under a strain to handle devices, billing, auditing, tracking as well as security and more. You can make some extra money -- and become more than just a sales guy -- if you move beyond the pipes and help your customers with the rest of the story. HUH? They buy those pipes from you for a reason. Help them with that.
Happy New Year!
]]>When master agent,TBI, launched its SAAS-based TEM platform, Geoff Yearack, director of TBI's wireless division, stated that it was a way to aid agents with getting some of the wireless spend of clients.
Agents have to start looking at ways to get more of the telecom wallet as that budget is absorbed into the IT budget. The simple approach is to offer TEM to your clients. Another approach is to offer asset management. To tie into cyber-security, laptops, data cards, mi-fi gadgets, tablets and smartphones not only need to be tracked by businesses but secured against data theft and loss.
Cbeyond, XO, TelePacific and other CLEC's are offering cellular plans in conjunction with Dynamic T1 and other services. With the average T1 price at an all time low, it's one way to increase ARPU or MRR -- and in turn, increase commissions.
Sprint recently raised $4B in a debt offering in order to pay for network upgrades for "iPhone and its Network Vision network modernization plan". Rumor is that some of it will be used for Clearwire build-out, which seems likely given that Clearwire has some of Sprint's spectrum and has been Sprint's 4G partner. How do you hang that up now? But it goes to show that even after the billions already spent by the the cellcos - VZW, ATT, Sprint, Clearwire, and even MetroPCS - billions more will have to be spent to -- not buy more spectrum -- but to just deploy the spectrum they are currently sitting on, for tower backhaul and for network management. Big pie there that Agents need to take a piece of.
]]>Both AboveNet and FiberLight have some new fiber miles to sell.
XO has almost 100 route miles of new metro fiber in Charlotte (with help from AGL and DukeNet). That helps XO offer bigger pipe (like FastE) to go with EoC. XO is pushing E-SIP over MPLS. They are also offering VPLS for those IT folks that don't more control than MPLS offers.
Savvis has a new data center in Atlanta and opened DC #4. Savvis is also pushing MPLS with IAAS for the customer that wants private cloud computing infrastructure or needs to securely connect to their hosted apps. Savvis is obviously looking for Enterprise, Government or Fortune 5000 clients for their new portfolio.
Level3 announced Coverged Business Network service, which means pick two or more of these services on one pipe: Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), IP-VPN, and SIP Trunking voice services.
New Edge Networks and XO both offer EVDO backup for small businesses that need redundancy. EVDO backup allows for a diverse path for access.
New Edge Netwroks (soon to be married to Deltacom) is offering $289 T1 in 450 cities and $499 for a T1 with DSL or EVDO backup bundle.
GSI is doing auditing and TEM.
2011 will be interesting!
]]>It started with a panel I moderated this morning on Demystifying the Cloud. It's a paradigm shift to move from Layer 2 to Layer 7; to move from access to applications and hosting. Hosting is the Cloud. Amazon, iTunes, Google Apps, Hotmail are all examples of the Cloud.
Everyone has heard of Salesforce.com, the $1.3B SAAS provider of CRM software. I remember when they were at ISPCON as an ASP (with Jamcracker) trying to push the application as a service model. But this was before ubiquious broadband, 3G and smartphones. Today, SAAS is a productivity move, not a just a cost saver.
Other opportunities were introduced by a panel of agents. Marty Lyman at Compass Solutions sells Hosting, so he understands SAAS and The Cloud.
Conference calling has helped Doug Sammak of VATIC Outsourcing expand his protfolio of business. Allan Watkins of Total TeleCom Management has added TEM (telecom expense management) to get into the businesses that spend more than $15K per month.
Melissa Stafford of Converge Solutions holds the record for the most diverse carriers sold. Her business is not focused on a product set or carrier, but on whatever the customer needs in the overall telecom and IT space. She understands that today it is about getting the most share of the Total Telecom & IT Spend of the customer.
Education is available everywhere. (That thing called the Information Superhighway has a wealth of information to help you and your business).
]]>Agents have a similar worry. One reason agents worry is because selling Managed Services in Consultative Selling is very different than selling a PRI or T1. Very Different!
It's transition time - time to take some sales training (Call RAD-INFO!)
For value-added resellers who sell IT services, the Cloud is still an opportunity. Here's 3 ways VAR's can profit from the Cloud:
One: partner with SAAS providers to get residual commissions from customers you bring to them. It isn't much money, but every stream of income counts. (I'd rather have 25 small streams of income than 1 big one).
Two: someone has to the integration and migration. Migrating databases to SAAS requires labor. IT shops can get paid for that. Integration with the SAAS provider and the client company employees is another space that needs to be filled. (VAR's could just re-bill the SAAS with a support or management fee).
Finally, the management piece. Remember, that not every application and certainly not all data will be moving to the cloud. Some of it will be a hybrid solution of private cloud and public cloud. You know what becomes important? Access, security and backup.
By Access, I mean ways to access the data in the cloud: Internet Access, MPLS or VPN. With Redundancy and reliability, too.
By security, I mean that private clouds coupled with lots of government regulations mean that security on the WAN as well as the LAN will be important - and likely too complicated for any in-house tech department. Access to the Access, if you will.
Lastly, data backup, email archiving and storage will be even more important as we move to the cloud. Someone has to manage that. It could be you.
In the Agent World, we have TEM and TAM. VAR's will need something similar.
TEM is telecom expense management (and sold as software-as-a-service, btw). Even circuits that I did not sell to the customer can be checked and inventoried on a TEM platform. Bill reconciliation is one piece of it, but also as offices open and close, employees leave and join, connections will need to be moved, changed, added or terminated. TEM helps to watch all that.
Close to that is TAM, telecom asset management. Laptops, EVDO cards, cellphones, data cards, routers, switches, IP phones - all these hardware assets that an employee or very small office may have - need inventory management. When the employee leaves, don't you want his hardware back? Don't you want to know how many data cards and data plans are in service? TAM.
VAR's could do something similar. In the security realm, companies would like to know that when they fire Al, he can be locked out of all data, systems and networks. That's your job!
Seth Godin says a Linchpin manages chaos, makes the complex simple. That's the Value.
]]>"I'm very enthusiastic about the opportunity to join an entrepreneurial company that has bold plans to provide value-added tools to their agents, VARs and end customers. I've known MicroCorp for years and have always admired their integrity and progressive nature. I am truly excited to be a part of the MicroCorp team and look forward to contributing to the success of the company," states Mr. Morford.
That means that Microcorp is putting some muscle behind this differentiating app in 2009. It's one more tool for Microcorp agents to use to get in doors and to upsell the base.
]]>"Absolute Software.. has developed software that lives in a notebook computer's motherboard and pings Absolute's headquarters with its online IP address. The daily pings let companies keep up-to-date lists of where their computers are around the world and notify them if a ping comes from an unexpected location. Customers can trigger a code to wipe a machine's hard drive from afar... The technology is called Computrace." [Fast Company]
There is the other side of TEM: low barrier to entry, almost Amway like - as Dave Rusin writes here. But TEM requires stories, referrals, testimonials, because quite simply, the person doing the TEM activities now doesn't want to be out of job if your magic potion actually works. So talk to those CFO's and utilize the leverage that can be TEM.
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