Peter Radizeski is Founder and President of RAD-INFO INC. He is an accomplished blogalyst, speaker, author and consultant. He has helped many service providers with sales training, marketing, channel development and business strategy. He is a trusted source of knowledge about the telecom sector. His honest and direct approach make him a refreshing speaker.

Look for his innovative ideas and analysis of current technology on his blogs.

Meet him at one of the many conferences he attends and speaks at.

Hire RAD-INFO today!

Get the Most out of the Trade Show

How do you maximize your benefits from a trade show?

Here are some simple tips to follow:

  1. Register early to get the best rate.
  2. Stay at the host hotel because you will run into more folks than if you are commuting to your hotel.
  3. Research travel arrangements – like airfare, cabs, buses, Uber, whatever. How expensive is parking?
  4. Have plenty of business cards [In fact, order some now at MOO!]
  5. What is your Goal? What two or three things do you need to take away from this show for it to be positive?
  6. Plan in Advance. Check to see what sponsors and speakers will be there. What sessions look interesting? Mark your calendar!
  7. For the biggest impact vendors like to have a booth or table. See about opportunities to sit on a panel. This gives you a little bit of spotlight.
  8. Bring two pairs of comfortable shoes and wear them on alternate days.
  9. Wear your badge in plain site. 
  10. Be sure to follow up with new contacts and vendors after the show. 
  11. Note anything interesting in a notebook (or a note taking app like Evernote). 
  12. Carry a pen or 2! 

Lately, some folks just take a photo of my business card – or quickly add me to LinkedIn. I still take notes on business cards  (hence the pens)

Good thought:  Take a moment after the show to make note of any exhibits or displays that you thought were particularly effective. What did they do that you could implement in your own company’s marketing campaign?

Dinner:  Having a meal is a bonding experience. I always have dinner gatherings at shows. You can too. Many attendees have no plans, so inviting folks to dinner (even a Dutch treat) will quickly make you a friend.

Peter Shankman has some interesting things to add.

We’ll see you in New Orleans on Feb 5-7 for FISPA LIVE and the following week on 2/13-2/16 at ITEXPO + CVX Expo + SDWAN in Ft Lauderdale.

—
Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
January 9, 2018 , NSP Strategist

VoIP M&A in 2018 Vol 1

Well, 5 days into 2018 and we have some M&A activity.

First up, the newly merged entity called STARBLUE, which is the result of Star2Star merging with Ireland’s Blueface. Star2Star is a hybrid provider based on Freeswitch that has on-premise hardware (Asterisk box) at the customer premise, gets SIP trunks from Level3 or other, and has some elements in the cloud (like voicemail). Star2Star was mainly channel sales driven. Blueface is a member of the Cloud Comm Alliance and is a Broadsoft shop. Weird pair.

Tired of these articles (mainly written to promote the stock): Why Cisco’s Acquisition of Broadsoft Is a Strategic Fit. “BroadSoft owns about 19 million subscribers and is a provider of cloud calling, contact center solutions, and other services.” That is NOT true. Most of those subs are owned by the BSFT client. And most are SIP trunks. True, BSFT has a white-label division (that the VoIP Logic acquisition bolstered) but they don’t have 19M users directly.

BTW, a number of BSFT shops are dropping BSFT for Netsapiens and other platforms.

Polycom (owned by PE firm Siris Capital Group) is buying Obihai. This is a consolidation in the VoIP end-point space, not unlike snom-Vtech or Mitel-Aastra.

Element VoIP, a Tampa Florida based Hosted VoIP provider, has changed its name to Viirtue. That should be no less confusing for people to find. Element recently merged with another Netsapiens provider, so this name change is kind of a launch.

IP Centrex to Hosted PBX eventually it was called Cloud Comms, then UCaaS now Unified Collab.

This is interesting (and will make Craig Walker sad): Report: Google working on major G Suite improvements, including ‘Wolverine’ VoIP service.

Even some SD-WAN M&A: Martello Technologies, the provider of performance management solutions for real-time communications, announced today that it has merged with SD WAN network performance and business continuity company Elfiq Networks. [source]

January 5, 2018 , Channel Playbook

On Talent Especially Millennials

FISPA wanted me to do a talk on Millennials but I just don’t have enough real world experience except in the startup world. But NYU Professor Scott Galloway does a good job of giving some advice on managing Millennials. Despite that it is about Retail, the data can be extrapolated to your business as well.

Enjoy this podcast

—
Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
January 3, 2018 , NSP Strategist

About Talent (Especially Millennials)

FISPA wanted me to do a talk on Millennials but I just don’t have enough real world experience except in the startup world. But NYU Professor Scott Galloway does a good job of giving some advice on managing Millennials. Despite that it is about Retail, the data can be extrapolated to your business as well.

Enjoy this podcast

—
Peter Radizeski is a telecommunications consultant and analyst with RAD-INFO INC.
January 3, 2018 , NSP Strategist

One Thing to Expect in 2018

Change is the one thing to expect, even embrace in 2018.

The channel is aging. Some thought they would be retired by now. Unfortunately, circumstances have changed so retirement is pushed out. Revenue is declining. Ask any carrier or any agent.

I think we will see more M&A in the channel partner companies.

Master agencies face declining revenue alongside increased quotas. The vendors expect more from the agencies. More means added expenses for staff like back office, agent support and engineering (to g=enable bigger or complex sales).

We have seen mash-ups before – like TSX. I was surprised that there were not a few other mash-ups like this that create something of a smaller Agent Alliance umbrella.

It will be interesting to see how many partners merge or just sell out. It isn’t as lucrative or fun as it was when most partners started in the channel.

Some agencies are morphing to MSPs. Why? To fill the voids in tech talent that customers need. Some VARs became ISVs (software and integration shops).

What will agents do?

The last of the CLECs – the bastion of the agent – is shifting to managed services and cloud (UCaaS, Contact Center, SD-WAN, security). Agents HAVE to transition too!

All of this has one glaring hole: service delivery!

Service Delivery is Opportunity, where partners can make money. Project Management (PMPs), software integration, user training, network design, installation, monitoring and repair are all areas that partners can expand into.

We’ll see if any of them do in 2018.

January 2, 2018 , Channel Playbook
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