On Rad's Radar Archives - Page 39 of 376

PlumUC Pipes in on Skype4B for Partners

On Microcorp‘s weekly agent call, the first topic was the Office365 opportunity for channel partners. (One slide from that call shows the size of the opportunity is on twitter.)

I wasn’t aware of how many vendors were pushing Office365. These include Level3, Sprint, Arkadin, CallTower, TelePacific, Velis4, BitTitan, Rackspace, Tierpoint, CenturyLink, Evolve IP, NeoNova, even GoDaddy. Partners might want to just ask their favorite vendor about it.

In just 15 minutes on this podcast, expert Greg Plum of PlumUC gives us a good look at Skype for Business and why partners should examine it for their portfolio.

If you have iOS or just can’t see the flash podcast player, you can either listen on Soundcloud or download the mp3.

If you want to hear more from Greg Plum on the Skype for Business opportunity, he did a podcast with Velis4’s VP Guy Yasika on soundcloud.

Tags: conferencing, microcorp, microsoft, podcast, UC
Related tags: skype business, partners, opportunity, skype, podcast

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Selling UCaaS as a Solution with Velis4 – Jun 17, 2016

On the Channel Hamster Wheel with PlumUC – Jan 11, 2016

A Podcast with PlumUC – Sep 16, 2014

UC Tidbits #2441 – Jul 05, 2016

UCaaS Tidbits #2440 – Jul 05, 2016

The Struggle of the Channel Managers – Jun 23, 2016

Most Businesses Fear Change – May 19, 2016

Musings on the Polycom Deal – Apr 18, 2016

It Will Be an Outsider That Kicks Your Butt – Feb 22, 2016

Uh Oh, Microsoft is Closing the Gaps – Jan 15, 2016

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July 19, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

Business Continuity is a Conversation

I think about Business Continuity all the time. In the past two months, my cable service has gone out 3 times and I have 2 power outages here in Tampa. When the Internet is down, there isn’t much I can do since everything is Internet.

Do business consider this? Not often enough. As a telecom consultant, it is my job to point it out to the business decision maker. How much is an hour of down time worth?

Last week, Comcast suffered a massive voice outage nationally. Windstream, CenturyLink and others have all had widely reported outages this year. Outages happen more often now because of a best effort mentality. No more five-nines.

Hacks happen every day. Unprotected computers are infected almost immediately. No one thinks it will happen to them. It is the hurdle in selling security (and insurance). Why worry? It won’t happen here.

Ramsonware is scary. It is occurring more often. A smart backup can alleviate some of the hardship.

Business Continuity (BC/DR) is becoming more important for businesses every day if they recognize it. One indicator: do they utilize battery backups everywhere? Then start the conversation there.

SD-WAN will solve some security, fail-over and BC issues. It might be time to learn about how.

On the carrier side, AT&T is going deep into SDN and NFV. AT&T is releasing their SDN software, ECOMP, to open source. They are talking about being able to use white box CPE globally. Via 4G that CPE will download the necessary software to be a router or firewall or what-have-you.

TelePacific Rolls Out Advanced SD-WAN Connectivity in Nationwide Pilot.

SD-WAN is fueling 150% growth at Aryaka.

Verizon is partnering with Viptela to offer a hosted SD-WAN service.

Masergy, XO, CenturyLink and Mettel – even Vonage – have all added SD-WAN overlay services. Don’t you think you should know what they are when your mid-market clients ask?

Join us for another Blab! about SD-WAN on 8/3 at Noon ET.

Tags: disaster recovery, mpls, NFV, outage, SDN, security, WAN
Related tags: business continuity, business, happen, often, outages, continuity

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UCaaS Tidbits #2440 – Jul 05, 2016

Tidbits # 2436 – May 18, 2016

Services Partners Should Take a Look at – May 10, 2016

An SDN-WAN Primer for Channel Partners – Sep 01, 2015

Are You Frustrated With MPLS? – Jun 17, 2015

The Last CLEC Pivot – Jul 14, 2016

UC Tidbits #2441 – Jul 05, 2016

SD-WAN: the Hype has yet to start – Apr 26, 2016

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2433) – Apr 25, 2016

TelePacific Rolling Out SD-WAN – Apr 18, 2016

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Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

July 19, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

The Last CLEC Pivot

There were a number of big CLECs (over $500M in revenue) just 6 years ago – PAETEC, Windstream, Qwest, Cbeyond, XO, Level3, Global Crossing, TW Telecom, EarthLink, AboveNet, Zayo, and TelePacific.

By 2012, half were gone, swallowed up by acquisitions. [CBEY-Birch, Qwest-CLink, Paetec-WIND, L3-GX, L3-twt, Zayo-ABoveNet]. Today, with XO going to Verizon next year, there are really only a handful left. And they don’t look like what a CLEC looked like 6 years ago.

Wireline Copper is in decline in large part to fiber, Google and cable, but to no small extent by the ILECs not wanting to be in that business anymore. They don’t have to share fiber assets like a UNE. They do wholesale it, but since the ILECs are getting beat by the cablecos, the wholesale ILEC fiber isn’t an awesome deal.

Buying wholesale from cable is resembles punching yourself in the face. They don’t want to sell wholesale. I have heard this from them repeatedly. They make Verizon look like a generous wholesale partner. They will snake your customer out from under your contract. )I have heard these stories repeatedly as well.)

After you have done this for a while, you want a change. Who wouldn’t? Telco is to gastroenterology what candy is to dentistry.

TelePacific has made a shift. With its acquisition of DSCI, TelePacific is taking managed services, UCaaS and SD-WAN nationwide. I have been known to say, Layer 1 or Layer 7 – either own the network or own the app. With managed services, UCaaS and SD-WAN, TPAC is betting on being a business technology partner at Layer 7 (of the OSI Model). Congrats, to one of my favorite clients (for full disclosure to my readers).

The other final pivot occurred in Atlanta, where EarthLink “acquired Boston Retail Partners, LLC (“BRP”), a highly regarded management consulting firm focused on the retail vertical. BRP’s experienced consultants work with leading retailers to deliver strategic solutions that address the business and technology challenges unique to the industry.” This might be the final note of the retail song that ELNK has been playing. Retail is a vertical they decided to attack and own and this might be the final piece needed.

It reminds me of CapGemini a little in that CapGemini is a consulting firm that partnered with VMWare and their AirWatch division to offer mobile desktop mixed with MDM. A consulting firm being a service provider like an MSP.

This ELNK acquisition makes me wonder if they will spin-off their network assets – Deltacom/IFN fiber, ONE Comm fiber in the northeast and New Edge Networks – to a REIT or other entity. It would make sense IF the revenue of the CLEC could stand up to scrutiny by itself. We’ll see, but it is definitely a different looking CLEC. I’m not even certain that term applies to them any more.

After 28 acquisitions, Birch has a new CEO and mission for organic growth predicated on a fiber lit building strategy and Cbeyond’s cloud portfolio. They still look and act like a CLEC.

Zayo is all fiber all day. Pipe, pipe, pipe. Oh, yeah we have some data center stuff from a Latisys acquisition but fiber, fiber, fiber.

And Level3 is still plugging away at its own triple play: the voice network that more than 70% of the VoIP providers rely on; a very well connected network with a top looking glass that is connected to content engines as well as enterprises, government and carriers; and fiber. The next step for Level3 is to connect their young security services department into their well-connected market. This would get them up the stack a little too.

Rumor today is that Comcast wants to buy Level3 to compete eye to eye with AT&T and VZ.

Network is the main play but no one can survive forever on just selling network – unless you have many unique routes, you run your network flawlessly and you know where the assets are. There has to be a layer beyond just pipe. That’s what everyone is working on.

Tags: birch, cbeyond, clec, earthlink, fiber, level3, managed services, MDM, mergers, SDN, WAN, zayo
Related tags: business technology, managed services, fiber fiber, services ucaas, fiber, network

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Did EarthLink Goof on Branding? – Dec 14, 2010

Tidbits # 2436 – May 18, 2016

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2433) – Apr 25, 2016

20 Years and what? – Feb 10, 2016

A Big Deal in the Works? – Feb 03, 2016

EarthLink Acquires Deltacom – Oct 01, 2010

OMG! More M&A – Jun 20, 2016

Services Partners Should Take a Look at – May 10, 2016

TelePacific Rolling Out SD-WAN – Apr 18, 2016

Can You Say More M&A? – Apr 07, 2016

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July 14, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

The SPIFF War

Money is practically free, so why not use it for a land grab? This is the premise behind the industry consolidation. It is hard to grow organically, so grow inorganically by buying competitors or new markets (like Vonage and Nexmo).

But eventually you think out the herd of competitors that you can afford to buy and now you have the real revenue growth numbers staring at your face. UGH!!! How do we buy more growth? Advertising won’t work. It has rarely ever helped the CLEC industry. I remember Paetec ads about technology. XO was a big sponsor at the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey arena and yet no one I ask knows who they are.

So if the awful advertising CLECs did won’t work, how do we get growth? Well, we could innovate and make a really cool product but that seems unlikely. We are in a me-too industry that since the pin dropped was all about Saving the Customer Money! We can’t change that now by making a product that people would seek out – like say Slack!

Nope. How about buying sales? That we can do!

Hence, the SPIFF wars of 2016. Every other day I get an email with a new SPIFF announcement. Most are from Hosted VoIP companies. These SIFFs include SIP trunking much of the time. It is getting crazy as it is well past 3x MRC for any SPIFF.

There are two reasons this war is occurring: the market is such a bloody red ocean (hyper-competitive) that providers need to get attention or the sales are slow coming in. It makes me wonder how soft the market is. Very few VoIP providers are public, so revenue numbers – real numbers – aren’t reported.

As an agent, I like SPIFF money, but I don’t like when carriers say that is the component I use to decide who to sell. It is kind of insulting.

On a 20 seat deal at $25 per seat, it is $500 in MRC, which is the minimum sales size for some of the SPIFFs (some require $1000+). At 20% I get $100 per month. Do you think I want to TRY a new provider? Do you think there is room in there for me to blindly trust a new provisioning team or deployment method?

I won’t sell SIP trunks OTT because the call quality is questionable enough that I don’t want to be bothered with the headache. OTT Hosted PBX has a higher churn rate than reported because they leave out the first 30 or 60 days.

How many customer calls can I take for $100 per month?

Certainly there is a percentage of partners selling on both price and compensation. And that allows a provider to buy market share. But at what cost to the partner’s business?

How about a we won’t screw it up guarantee? Or we pay a SPIFF if the customer isn’t happy? That would work but it would need to be more than 6X MRC because I will lose the customer forever.

It will be interesting to see if year over year sales growth for Hosted VoIP goes up more than the 26%. I am betting it won’t.

Tags: agents, channel partners, commissions, hosted pbx, sip trunk, voip
Related tags: spiff, growth, customer, sales, think, hosted

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What to Ask Your Prospective VoIP Provider – Sep 29, 2010

The Telecom Long Tails – Jun 07, 2016

What About Selling Cloud? – Feb 21, 2012

Broadvox and Cypress: What Now? – Oct 17, 2010

Chasing the Points – Feb 03, 2010

The Struggle of the Channel Managers – Jun 23, 2016

Replaced by a Robot – May 05, 2016

Uh Oh, Microsoft is Closing the Gaps – Jan 15, 2016

A View of UC from Broadvoice – Sep 24, 2015

What the Studies About UC Say – Aug 25, 2015

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July 12, 2016 , On Rad's Radar

CompTIA’s 2016 MSP Study

In CompTIA’s 2016 MSP study, the take-away is that MSPs expect to make more revenue, but they don’t know how that will be. “Their optimism is countered by continuing worries about their role in a market increasingly dominated by cloud computing solutions and by a persistent problem with employee retention,” reports the CompTIA press release.

“But bullishness on future business is tempered by worries about margin erosion. Just over half of the firms cite margin erosion as a factor that keeps them awake at night.” Every sector of telecom and IT is seeing price pressure. Every sector has a couple of giants that control the lion’s share.

Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Rackspace are the computing giants, but traditional MSP vendors like Cisco and Microsoft have affected MSP business models. Carolyn April, senior director, industry analysis, CompTIA says, “Naturally occurring market commoditization accounts for a portion of slimming margins, but some of the blame also falls on MSPs themselves, many of whom continue to compete with one another solely on pricing.”

In an interview for Ramblings, Host.Net’s Lenny Chesal remarked, “The world we see requires a lot more hand-holding, problem solving, and out-of-the-box thinking. We’re really taking advantage of that, and going forward we are really focused on an open mentality toward solving problems, bringing in more, stickier solutions that aren’t pure infrastructure.” Creativity, Solution Selling, Out of the Box Thinking – and other cliches are actually needed today. Not just by MSPs either. CLECs, ITSPs, VARs, Agents are all competing in a different world. However, they are using old models to do that with to their detriment.

My favorite quote: “Topping the list of things that keep MSPs awake at night is cloud computing, cited by 62 percent of companies.” The hottest sector that they used to own and could continue to own, but they think that price will beat them. All about Value and service.

Tags: cloud computing, CompTIA, msp
Related tags: margin erosion, awake night, cloud computing, comptia, sector, computing

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