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National Harbor: In the Bubble

More than one person mentioned how National Harbor looks like a town in a bubble or a movie set. As the CPEv show wraps up, here are highlights.

It wasn’t UCaaS after UCaaS after UCaaS. It was broken up. UCaaS/VoIP is still big – and there are still too many vendors for not enough sales – but it didn’t seem like every booth. At the CSNG event, it was wall to wall VoIP. It looked like the starting line for the Great Race, with teams in their matching colored shirts from almost every VoIP provider – DSCI, Panterra, Jive, Fusion, Momentum, Net2Phone, Nextiva, Vonage, Star2Star and a few others.

TelePacific is closer to finishing its merger with DSCI, which will be good for all partners as this CLEC pops out onto the national scene as a Managed Services Carrier. TelePacific will have a new line of managed services launched soon in conjunction with DSCI. SD-WAN will just be one of the new services that partners can sell nationally.

SD-WAN is making a ripple. Verizon brought the full team to its hot dog and beer session on SD-WAN. Very competent people explaining the different ways that VZ can deploy managed SD-WAN either from Cisco or from Viptela.

Ecessa is excited about the opportunities that the channel is bringing them. Both Ecessa and Aryaka told me that right now it is about education – both to the customer and to the partner – about what SD-WAN is and what it can do for the networks and productivity of the customer.

Polycom wasn’t prominent at the show, but neither was Yealink. A few UCaaS providers told me that more and more UCaaS seats are beings old without phones. Jabra and Plantronics are picking up business. (I wonder if ScanSource distributes those lines of headsets?)

Level3 is still going through integration issues according to two different partners.To be expected I would imagine as they try to merge networks with TWTC and add SDN.

Quite a few carriers spent more than a little time explaining that they WERE indeed embracing the channel.

IOT was talked about, but I still don’t get how channel partners will make money at it. Verizon went from $455M last year to $800M this year in IOT revenues, which is a blip in their coffers.

A lot of talk about the ScanSource/Intelisys deal. The X4/Sandler merger didn’t even get to spend a week on anyone’s mind. Everyone is wondering if this will be a trend. There has to be at least two deals in the pipeline right now. We’ll see.

Not much else to say. Safe travels.

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Related Entries

  • The Last CLEC Pivot – Jul 14, 2016
  • UCaaS Tidbits #2440 – Jul 05, 2016
  • The Struggle of the Channel Managers – Jun 23, 2016
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  • TelePacific Rolling Out SD-WAN – Apr 18, 2016
  • The Distributor Side of Things – Aug 03, 2016
  • Nothing But Vanilla Pudding – Jul 29, 2016
    IMG_20140813_145516.jpg
  • UC Tidbits #2441 – Jul 05, 2016
  • Tidbits #2438 – Jun 07, 2016
  • Another UCaaS Acquisition – May 31, 2016
  • Tidbits # 2436 – May 18, 2016

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    August 17, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

    National Harbor: In the Bubble

    More than one person mentioned how National Harbor looks like a town in a bubble or a movie set. As the CPEv show wraps up, here are highlights.

    It wasn’t UCaaS after UCaaS after UCaaS. It was broken up. UCaaS/VoIP is still big – and there are still too many vendors for not enough sales – but it didn’t seem like every booth. At the CSNG event, it was wall to wall VoIP. It looked like the starting line for the Great Race, with teams in their matching colored shirts from almost every VoIP provider – DSCI, Panterra, Jive, Fusion, Momentum, Net2Phone, Nextiva, Vonage, Star2Star and a few others.

    TelePacific is closer to finishing its merger with DSCI, which will be good for all partners as this CLEC pops out onto the national scene as a Managed Services Carrier. TelePacific will have a new line of managed services launched soon in conjunction with DSCI. SD-WAN will just be one of the new services that partners can sell nationally.

    SD-WAN is making a ripple. Verizon brought the full team to its hot dog and beer session on SD-WAN. Very competent people explaining the different ways that VZ can deploy managed SD-WAN either from Cisco or from Viptela.

    Ecessa is excited about the opportunities that the channel is bringing them. Both Ecessa and Aryaka told me that right now it is about education – both to the customer and to the partner – about what SD-WAN is and what it can do for the networks and productivity of the customer.

    Polycom wasn’t prominent at the show, but neither was Yealink. A few UCaaS providers told me that more and more UCaaS seats are beings old without phones. Jabra and Plantronics are picking up business. (I wonder if ScanSource distributes those lines of headsets?)

    Level3 is still going through integration issues according to two different partners.To be expected I would imagine as they try to merge networks with TWTC and add SDN.

    Quite a few carriers spent more than a little time explaining that they WERE indeed embracing the channel.

    IOT was talked about, but I still don’t get how channel partners will make money at it. Verizon went from $455M last year to $800M this year in IOT revenues, which is a blip in their coffers.

    A lot of talk about the ScanSource/Intelisys deal. The X4/Sandler merger didn’t even get to spend a week on anyone’s mind. Everyone is wondering if this will be a trend. There has to be at least two deals in the pipeline right now. We’ll see.

    Not much else to say. Safe travels.

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
    Related tags: , , , , ,

    Related Entries

  • The Last CLEC Pivot – Jul 14, 2016
  • UCaaS Tidbits #2440 – Jul 05, 2016
  • The Struggle of the Channel Managers – Jun 23, 2016
    microcorp-panel_20160614.jpg
  • TelePacific Rolling Out SD-WAN – Apr 18, 2016
  • The Distributor Side of Things – Aug 03, 2016
  • Nothing But Vanilla Pudding – Jul 29, 2016
    IMG_20140813_145516.jpg
  • UC Tidbits #2441 – Jul 05, 2016
  • Tidbits #2438 – Jun 07, 2016
  • Another UCaaS Acquisition – May 31, 2016
  • Tidbits # 2436 – May 18, 2016

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    August 17, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

    Show Wrap Up: Too Much Reckless Behavior

    As we wrap up the CP Evolution show in DC, my reflections have not been good. I will wrap up the show in a later post, but I need to get this off my chest. This show was an alcohol fueled bachelor party filled with scuffles, drunks, frustration and even sexual harassment.

    This wasn’t your fraternity reunion. This wasn’t a bachelor party. People – men and women – spent their time and money to do commerce. Thanks for spoiling that.

    People that don’t know our industry – like say executives at certain VADs – I wonder what they think? We look like an unprofessional bunch of drunks. Who would want to do business with us?!

    Maybe the emphasis of the show shouldn’t be drinking early. Sunday it started at 4, Monday at 3 and Tuesday at Noon!!! Will AA have a booth at the next show? Or will Budweiser be a sponsor soon?

    Granted the show had a ton of vendors and master agents, but the actual agent in the wild, the street pounding, circuit selling partners were missing. Frustration and booze breed testosterone, which leads to some awful behavior.

    Is membership the Women in the Channel fueled by our frat boy behavior?

    Honestly, as a partner, is asking for sexual favors for an order considered okay behavior?

    Groping a woman in the industry, slapping someone’s butt, pulling a woman into your room – these are just the few instances that happened at THIS show! These acts happen to women in our business every show!!!

    Granted, the falling down drunkenness probably adds to the frat boy atmosphere, but shouldn’t our industry be passed this by now?

    People have long memories. We play musical chairs. The butt you slap today may be your boss next week. The guy you fell on while drunk may be the partner you wanted. There is a ripple effect because, like National Harbor, our industry is a fish bowl. It is small. People talk. It didn’t go unnoticed. And it wasn’t funny.

    I am left to wonder: Is this who we are?

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  • Why I Am Skipping Connections – Sep 06, 2011
  • Where Can You Find Me? – Oct 12, 2010
  • TEDx Tampa Bay: Happiness is the Key – Feb 13, 2010
  • Visit Me at ITEXPO at a Discount – Dec 30, 2009

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    Apex Technology Services
    Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

    August 17, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

    Attention is Money

    At yet another channel conference, the gold is Attention. How do you get Attention.

    All anyone is fighting for right now is attention. And I mean Fighting.

    Look at me. Look at me. (It just amounts to a bunch of NOISE)

    Another master agent. Another data center. Oh, geez, another UCaaS player. And this one is yammering about SD-WAN.

    Everyone wants attention. But they want it now. On their terms. In the most annoying way because they think the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

    Put your money where your mouth is has turned into a SPIFF war, sometimes in conjunction with a price war.

    Wearing bright colors and interrupting people with noise doesn’t separate you from the pack. It actually makes you part of the pack.

    Get creative! Be Different. Explain the reason you are different.

    And remember that this is still a relationship business.

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  • Nothing But Vanilla Pudding – Jul 29, 2016
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  • What You Can Learn from the Music Industry – Jun 20, 2016
  • MSP Tidbits (#2437) – May 25, 2016
  • Food for Thought (Tidbits #2434) – May 02, 2016
  • Telecom Tidbits (Part 2431) – Mar 29, 2016
  • What Happens in Vegas – Mar 17, 2016
  • How To Win at UCaaS – Feb 03, 2016
  • Getting Perspective – May 14, 2015

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    Copyright On Rad’s Radar?

    August 16, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

    Where Are We Now? Ode to the Agent

    After the news hit (for some on Friday night, for the rest on Monday morning about ScanSource buying Intelisys), where does that leave everyone? That has been the big question on everyone’s mind.

    Do the sub-agents get screwed in the ScanSource deal?

    What Changes? That is the big one because we HATE CHANGE!!! Well, maybe more precisely, we FEAR change. Yet we work in an industry that is not only in constant change, but in the midst of big, faster change – with more coming.

    Many partners have been in the game since the 1990s. Some of them want to retire. Some are tired of this sh stuff. They don’t enjoy it anymore. They don’t give a hoot about the cloud or UC and now comes SD-WAN. F*** Me!!! It’s too much. Too complicated. Top that with buyers who think they are educated (and we have to re-educate). Other buyers just want simple. (I hear about this everyday as they ask not for UCaaS, but SIP trunks or just dial-tone.)

    So we will see more M&A as partners transition out.

    We will see a couple more VADs merge with masters. Why? Copycat Effect coupled with the very real Wall Street declining revenue effect. For example, Tech Data did $27.7 billion in sales in 2015, $26B now. That is the cloud effect on VADs. They need MRR. The VADs have tried MRR via partnerships with masters and rolling their own cloud services. They will need inorganic growth to counter the revenue decline. (And hey money is free today for a public company!)

    The other point comes from a Juniper blog post about how MRR increases valuations today (if you care about that sort of thing.)

    On the W-2 side of the equation, things have changed in the channel as well. It used to be that Channel Managers would become Agents. (See Aligned Communications, GCN and others.) Not as likely today.

    Instead the CMs cycle through a bunch of carriers until they run out of options. Then they either take a position with a master agency or join the cloud services world, which is entirely different than the telecom world that they are used to.

    Selling has changed. What we sell has changed. The WAN is very complicated now. The services catalog from vendors is huge and relatively unknown. There are too many acronyms. There are too many vendors. (Stat from CompTIA: 600 new vendors entered the global IT arena; meanwhile, the number of partners have declined.) I’m tired just writing that.

    Top that off with M&A that scares the heck out of partners who are in a constant state of panic about commissions. There aren’t many partners who have not been screwed on commission at least once. Every M&A deal results in one question: Am I still getting my commission check?

    As we head to DC for another channel show, the buzz will be about the ScanSource deal as well as Shoretel up for sale. Hopefully some SD-WAN buzz and plenty of time for coffee. If you are going to the show, partners are meeting for drinks at 7 pm on Tuesday, 8/16 at Granite City Food & Brewery, one block from Gaylord. Join us!

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  • Get Off the Agents’ Back – Apr 12, 2012
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  • What About Selling Cloud? – Feb 21, 2012
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  • The Struggle of the Channel Managers – Jun 23, 2016
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  • 4 Points on Selling Broadview OfficeSuite UC – May 26, 2016
  • Replaced by a Robot – May 05, 2016

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    August 9, 2016 , On Rad's Radar
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