I will be speaking at the Ingram Micro One event in DC on Tuesday. The topic is the Capitalizing on UCaaS for Cash!

I designed a worksheet with some highlights of the talk. Download it here:

Worksheet on UCaaS for IngramOne 2018

It is that time of year where every UCaaS provider pats itself on the back for receiving awards, especially if they are on the Gartner Magic Quadrant. [see here and here and here and here.]

There just isn’t a list that is true and unbiased. None. Most of the wards go to companies that do business with the firm handing out the awards. That’s one reason that the MQ and other lists have pretty much stayed the same the last 5 years. Only changes due to M&A.

Think about it: there are over 2000 providers. I learn about a new one every month or so. No one is researching all 2000 or even 1000. Maybe 100.

Even at the UC Thunderdome with Avaya, Mitel, Ring and Coredial, how did those 4 get picked? They paid to be up there.  Mitel raging about 1M users. Ring claiming the only pure play OTT UCaaS provider on the dias. Um, Coredial is too (and they have surpassed 300K users all sold through partners).  That’s how market aware these folks are.

Speaking of Mitel, they recruited a Verizon channel director to be their channel director. That is interesting to me since Verizon isn’t what we would call Channel Friendly. (Ask Teledomani or Kingcom). On top of that, Mitel was acquired by the same PE firm as Rackspace with the suggestion that they would be merged. Interesting times over there.

I still see Shoretel logos on partner websites. Is that even an option anymore?

XCaaS? Really?!

Quite a few companies are buying to fill in features for Enterprise level contact center (CCaaS the level up from UCaaS). I just wonder how big that market segment it, especially since this isn’t a unique statement: “[SP] delivers full omni-channel contact center capabilities with latest unified communications enhancement”. Delivers might be over-selling it. Offers is more like it.

With copper going bye-bye around 2020, many small businesses will be looking for POTS replacement. I guess this will be where the cablecos once again beat the telcos to the ground and win market share (like they do in broadband).

 

 

I get why companies have to present at investor conferences – to shore up support, build confidence, tell a story and hope institutional investors buy your stocks, bonds, debt.

I have to wonder if the telecom analysts at these banks actually understand the industry. To hear a CFO tell it, the road is laden with gold for UCaaS and SD-WAN. At least 90% of the vendors exhibiting at the channel events are offering both of those products.

AT&T has deployed SD-WAN to 28,000 locations. So they win right? I mean, I have been seeing the PR out of WIND and other places about number of locations, but 28K is the biggest. I mean, come on, it is good to have the biggest.

Then you hear how they actually can’t deliver on SD-WAN firewall…

On the flip side, Ma Bell sucks at UC. They resell RingCentral because for some reason despite running a Broadsoft – and let’s not forget about the CallVantage they offered early in the race – they punt this to Ring.

In UCaaS, the race is largely (publicly) between 3 providers: Ring, 8×8 and Vonage.  Yes there are a couple of thousand other companies offering some version of UC/Hosted PBX/Hosted VoIP/UCaaS/Collab, but 600K seats is now the floor to play in that space.

At CPEv, it was mainly noise about UC and SDWAN.

The problem with these two products?  Price is shrinking. Lack of differentiation. Too many players. Word is Comcast is practically giving SD-WAN away to just put some numbers on the board. SDWAN pricing has been collapsing since it sprang on the market.

Data Center was a hot topic for me at CPEv.

Fast Facts about DATABANK

• Geography
• Our People – Seasoned Executive Leadership (CEO, CISO), customer focused, accountable, and easy to do business with. (I hope Channel Friendly!)
• Platform – Hybrid IT Platform offering flexibility as enterprise needs change. Providing contract revenue portability with Data Center, Private & Public Clouds.
• FedRAMP Certified Cloud – audit ready documentation for HIPPA, PCI, FedRAMP, SSAE-16/18
• Portal for Real Time Network/Security/Audit Visibility

Trends Databank is seeing:

1. All Enterprise IT organizations have increasing concerns about security of their networks.
2. Channel competition is getting more competitive than ever with new entrants every day.
3. Market competition is challenging enterprise network designs, with increasing Cloud evaluations

Cyxtera was a major sponsor at the show. They were talking about Hyper Converged Infrastructure as well as dynamic data center.  Ask Tine Gravel why they are the Netflix of IT.

I did see Jean-Marc Porson who is now VP of Channel at Element Critical.  Congrats!

Another data center company was dumb enough to be discussing how they were going to cut a master agency out and sign one of the partners directly. Why do data center companies do this?  There aren’t that many partners selling DCI. Do you think we don’t talk?  Dumb asses. And that same DC company couldn’t even tell me where his Florida DC was.

D&H was at the show. In the VAD space, they are behind Ingram, Tech Data and CDW. They are about the size of ScanSource ($3B). D&H just signed a deal with SaaSMax.

If you were at this show, you weren’t crowded. There weren’t any lines. The weather in Philly was crazy warm. If you didn’t go to the Reading Terminal Market, you missed out! And you probably think that every partner is a IT guy. This show went too far a swing to MSP.

Best part of the show?  Hanging out with friends.

Many partners say there are just too many shows. Informa, CompTIA, ChannelCo, TD, Ingram, HTG, vendors (like Microsoft Ignite or Dreamforce) and on and on. Too many shows, not enough attendees.  The result is competition for the vendor dollars.

The top Master Agencies have been holding their own conferences for quite a few years. They are now starting to interfere with the big channel shows – in dollars and attendance.

When TCG has a 12 stop road show in 2018, that is going to suck up a bunch of MDF from their sponsors. They didn’t have a road show last year, so someone lost out. There is NOT an unlimited number of sponsor dollars.

There is also a finite number of target attendees. (The average partner attends just 2 shows per year.)

Apparently there is a finite quantity of good content and fresh keynotes that are relevant. (I will leave that rant alone for now, but just note that quality content and relevant keynote message are factors to attendance.)

One show that I have been a speaker at has gone through a ringer. The day passes skyrocketed and show floor attendance took a big hit. Then the show decided it was going to crack down on suitcasing. [Note: Suitcasing is when you do not register for the show but attend for meetings. I am not certain you can throw me out of the coffee shop at the hotel though.]

Other shows have had a relevance problem that caused them to stop having two shows a year. Now they have one that is a lot better.

Through the years you have to change with the times. Adjust. Pivot maybe.

Now we have the channel show in Philly coming up and I am hearing that the company behind it is checking registrations like Santa’s elves to see who was naughty. And by naughty I mean, who registered as a partner instead of a supplier.  “Since [company Q] has a strong partner program, we do consider you to be on the partner recruitment side and thus subject to supplier rates … it’s a recurring request from our exhibitors that those with attendee passes be likely partners for their programs.”

Imagine registering for the show in August and getting hit with a new invoice 2 weeks before the show to “re-adjust” your invoice to mark you as a supplier because you are a master agency? Weird. Then to talk to a bunch of other master agencies your size and none of them have had a similar issue. Hmmm.

That won’t exactly get you what you think it will. As much as the industry likes to throw around numbers of the 100s of thousands of potential partners, most shows have been in the same pool for years. And that pool maxed out several years ago.

Shows need traffic (eyeballs). Obviously targeted traffic is better, but some traffic is better than none.

Earlier this year before the Vegas show, there was a LinkedIn post that made the rounds that basically said do not buy a pass because it just wasn’t worth it. This show is still fighting to explain its value.  Most attendees are NOT there for the sessions. They are there for the meetings – and the parties.

A channel show allows you to meet with a bunch of vendors and suppliers at once. But this isn’t exclusive any one channel show any more. Now a partner can attend any number of events to meet her vendors and partners.

How does a partner decide?

• Some are cheaper to attend. (The hotels in Philly are ridiculously priced.)
• Some shows have other benefits. CompTIA knows that the way to a partner is through their stomach.
• Shows can put you in a room with your self-selected tribe. Ingram Trust X, ASCII, HTG and RR usually have a homogeneous attendance of mainly MSPs.
• Some shows are very technical or specific to a vertical or an ecosystem (Gluecon, Dreamforce).

Shows have to have a clear identity.

Show runners also have to provide an experience.

For quite a while, Informa’s East Coast show has been a big question mark. Let’s not forget about the disaster that was DC two years ago.  Austin was better when ChannelCon was there.

The energy varies per show, too. A part of it may very well be that the traditional  agent shows are starting to become a big frat party that some of us outgrew. They still have booth babes, keggers, beer pong, and a lack of emphasis on anything positive or technical. (I say that since the keynotes are doom, gloom and politics.)

I have run shows and events for many years (see BarCamp Tampa Bay, IGNITE Tampa, II4A, TCA, FISPA). I know how tough it is to get attendees, good speakers, quality content and make people happy. My rule: who is the customer? The customer is the Attendee. Most shows, the customer is the vendor. When you only care about the dollars, the show ends up sucking.

Since it is a partner’s hard earned cash and his valuable time, she will choose with her pocketbook which shows are worthwhile.

Marketing 101: give the people what they want.

Coffee, water, wi-fi, learn something relevant, make a new friend, don’t waste my time, safe environment – that’s it.

As a conference company your job is to grow a tribe and feed the tribe.

It isn’t about the 5500 registrations – (obviously because you are going through the registrations now and no way are you sifting through 5000+) – it is about the engaged and the take-aways.

At FISPA, the show is about the culture. It is one of the few shows like it. Care is taken to preserve that culture. At BarCamps the show is about the attendee that learns, shares and speaks. BarCamp is an Unconference, which means anyone can speak. It is peer to peer sharing. BarCamp Tampa Bay has been about building a community of techies and start-ups since we started it in 2007. Culture and Community, not numbers and dollars.

It is your show, you can do what you want. Yet if you are losing ground to other shows, you have to ask yourself: Who is my customer? What value do I bring? You might be answering those questions incorrectly.

 

 

Just back from the 15th Annual Microcorp One on One event in Atlanta. It is always great to see folks. The Georgia Aquarium is a cool venue.

I spent some time listening to Telstra talk about the SDN launch. In the most basic terms, on-net globally for Telstra a customer can spin up a circuit or a cloud server instance. It is an interesting take on on-demand telecom.

APXnet has agreements with most cable and fiber providers including LUMOS, CableOne and Mediacom. They can reach rural better than most on any size pipe.

CenturyLink had a huge presence. (Probably because Microcorp was a huge Level3 and CenturyLink master agency before the merger.) Garrett Gee and Jimmy Sands explained that the integration is moving along. It is still segmented on legacy C-Link and Level3 systems but the integration of the businesses is progressing. The product catalog is under review and should be out soon.

Janet Schijns of Office Depot was the keynote. She threw me off with the Nike comment at the onset. She discussed digital transformation then segued into how Office Depot is trying to become the MSP for all businesses.

Many companies are in the MSP space, like Black Box, TPX and Dimension Data. The MSP space is going through a bunch of M&A (like 3 per week!) It would be great to know what segment of the marketplace the MSPs are good at. Specifically.

Chuck Piazza of Momentum did a great job presenting challenger sales.

Angela Leavitt of Mojo Marketing gave a great talk on using LinkedIn.

ACC Business, a division of AT&T, is celebrating 20 years since AT&T acquired them. (ACC is my go-to vendor for network.)

NITEL had the new logo flying. It looks good.

Bullseye and TPX channel teams were in attendance to inform partners about the new directions of each company.

Of course, the biggest topics were cloud and SD-WAN. Partners should be looking for ways to move beyond just selling network. By asking what is riding on the WAN and internet, opportunities will arise.

Thanks for another great show!