In most topics there are 1 or 2 clear-cut winners (see here). In email, it is Gmail. In Office suites, it is Microsoft. In desktop O/S, it is still MS, despite a flood of Macs. In phones, it is Apple and Android. In cellular, it is AT&T and VZW. In texting, it is WhatsApp, Messenger and Snapchat. In storage, it is Dropbox and then box. In ride-sharing, there is Uber and Lyft, and then everyone else.

In the US, due to a number of regulatory and historic reasons, there are no clear winners in TV, ISP or Voice sectors. You could say that Comcast is one of the biggest ISPs along with TWC and AT&T. In TV, it could be AT&T and Comcast again with DISH and TWC.

In VoIP, especially Hosted PBX/UCaaS, there are brand leaders like 8×8 and RC – each with market caps of $1B (give or take), but Comcast probably adds as many hosted seats per month as they do.

Depending how you parse it out, ThinkingPhones, Evolve IP, West and NTT are big players in the UC&C space. Are there winners in the conferencing space with PGI being bought for $1B and Citrix re-organizing?Who knows. These are mature markets – or even settled markets.

In the virtual phone space that Grasshopper played in before Citrix bought them, is there a clear winner? FV, J2, Google and others play in this space. No one has sucked the air out of the room yet. In fact, this space may become a battle ground as desk phones decline and the workforce goes more virtual. And as the freelance market grows from 35% in the US work force today to 55% in just a few years.

Despite the recent consolidation in the UCaaS space, there is still no clear winner. Although analysts always peg growth in UCaaS at 20% per year, only a few ITSPs even come close to that number in seat sales (if you take away virtual phones and network).

I’d say the window is closing for a number of reasons. (1) With the billion dollar babies – Vonage, RC, 8×8- things will shift. (2) VCs want their investment back after waiting 5-10 years for this ocean to rise. It will force some sales (like it did last year). (3) MS and Cisco will put the heat on at the top of the market pyramid (enterprise, Fortune 5000); (4) most ITSPs have not figured out the sales process yet, so the winners will be the ones who put the Sales Machine in place now that it is so expensive per click.

The winners will be by segment. The same company at the bottom of the pyramid will not be the winner at the top. As Vonage Business execs are finding out, it is hard to sell that logo into an enterprise. As 8×8 experienced, moving up to mid-market is an expensive and time consuming effort. West had a $15 million client leave to go to single vendor!!! Do you see how this will likely play out?

In a debate on Fred Wilson’s blog about Netflix versus networks, is it the packaging ro the content? I think it is the User Experience, integration, education, bundle, deployment (which I guess is packaging).

No clear winners yet but it will be fun to watch in 2016 – as it was fun to watch in 2015. It gets started in Lauderdale in less than 3 weeks. See you there! (*and if you want help with that sales machine, give me a shout)

Tags: 8×8, hosted pbx, UC, voip, vonage
Related tags: sales machine, clear winners, clear winner, winners, space, market

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Vocalocity Acquired by Vonage – Oct 10, 2013

Vonage Picks Up Another One – Aug 20, 2015

2000 Players Have Less Than 40% of Market – Jul 21, 2015

Vonage Buys Simple Signal – Mar 17, 2015

News Tidbits Part 2916 – Feb 16, 2015

The State of VoIP – May 24, 2011

End of Year Summary (Tidbits part 2426) – Dec 31, 2015

Cloud Comms On the Rise – Dec 28, 2015

Unified Hope for UCaaS – Dec 16, 2015

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2921) – Oct 20, 2015

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In most topics there are 1 or 2 clear-cut winners (see here). In email, it is Gmail. In Office suites, it is Microsoft. In desktop O/S, it is still MS, despite a flood of Macs. In phones, it is Apple and Android. In cellular, it is AT&T and VZW. In texting, it is WhatsApp, Messenger and Snapchat. In storage, it is Dropbox and then box. In ride-sharing, there is Uber and Lyft, and then everyone else.

In the US, due to a number of regulatory and historic reasons, there are no clear winners in TV, ISP or Voice sectors. You could say that Comcast is one of the biggest ISPs along with TWC and AT&T. In TV, it could be AT&T and Comcast again with DISH and TWC.

In VoIP, especially Hosted PBX/UCaaS, there are brand leaders like 8×8 and RC – each with market caps of $1B (give or take), but Comcast probably adds as many hosted seats per month as they do.

Depending how you parse it out, ThinkingPhones, Evolve IP, West and NTT are big players in the UC&C space. Are there winners in the conferencing space with PGI being bought for $1B and Citrix re-organizing?Who knows. These are mature markets – or even settled markets.

In the virtual phone space that Grasshopper played in before Citrix bought them, is there a clear winner? FV, J2, Google and others play in this space. No one has sucked the air out of the room yet. In fact, this space may become a battle ground as desk phones decline and the workforce goes more virtual. And as the freelance market grows from 35% in the US work force today to 55% in just a few years.

Despite the recent consolidation in the UCaaS space, there is still no clear winner. Although analysts always peg growth in UCaaS at 20% per year, only a few ITSPs even come close to that number in seat sales (if you take away virtual phones and network).

I’d say the window is closing for a number of reasons. (1) With the billion dollar babies – Vonage, RC, 8×8- things will shift. (2) VCs want their investment back after waiting 5-10 years for this ocean to rise. It will force some sales (like it did last year). (3) MS and Cisco will put the heat on at the top of the market pyramid (enterprise, Fortune 5000); (4) most ITSPs have not figured out the sales process yet, so the winners will be the ones who put the Sales Machine in place now that it is so expensive per click.

The winners will be by segment. The same company at the bottom of the pyramid will not be the winner at the top. As Vonage Business execs are finding out, it is hard to sell that logo into an enterprise. As 8×8 experienced, moving up to mid-market is an expensive and time consuming effort. West had a $15 million client leave to go to single vendor!!! Do you see how this will likely play out?

In a debate on Fred Wilson’s blog about Netflix versus networks, is it the packaging ro the content? I think it is the User Experience, integration, education, bundle, deployment (which I guess is packaging).

No clear winners yet but it will be fun to watch in 2016 – as it was fun to watch in 2015. It gets started in Lauderdale in less than 3 weeks. See you there! (*and if you want help with that sales machine, give me a shout)

Tags: 8×8, hosted pbx, UC, voip, vonage
Related tags: sales machine, clear winners, clear winner, winners, space, market

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Related Entries

Vocalocity Acquired by Vonage – Oct 10, 2013

Vonage Picks Up Another One – Aug 20, 2015

2000 Players Have Less Than 40% of Market – Jul 21, 2015

Vonage Buys Simple Signal – Mar 17, 2015

News Tidbits Part 2916 – Feb 16, 2015

The State of VoIP – May 24, 2011

End of Year Summary (Tidbits part 2426) – Dec 31, 2015

Cloud Comms On the Rise – Dec 28, 2015

Unified Hope for UCaaS – Dec 16, 2015

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2921) – Oct 20, 2015

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Interesting viewpoint on Success and Salespeople from David Kahle on LinkedIn: “The vast majority of mankind, including the vast majority of sales people with whom I work, really don’t want to be successful. They understand that success only comes as a result of the investment of time, money, and emotional energy. And, they don’t want to make the investment. They are motivated to just get by, instead of succeeding.”

After seeing weeks of articles (in my social feeds) on how to be successful, best habits, yadda yadda throughout December, I want to puke. Most people are okay just the way things are. (Until something starts to slide like income or the ability to have a cold brew.)

In a time when we give awards for participation, it will be a small percentage of people – especially sales people – who will have that drive to succeed (not to be confused with that drive to get a paycheck).

So what do you do when you want to hire a salesperson but they are in the 80 percentile instead of the 20? One who doesn’t have the drive to succeed but gives you a solid 40 hours of effort? In many cases, they have a mediocre 15 year career in telecom and a closet full of shirts with logos from the numerous companies that employed them.

Kahle does point out that not everyone is going to be a superstar. Management will need to improve in negotiation and motivation. To get the 80% to be fair to middling. Superstars will be able to work anywhere.

Lots of people don’t like salespeople, but not a lot of selling gets done without a sales team (except for a few network effect impacted unicorns). It will be interesting to watch this progress. Channel sales will become a bigger part of the strategy (for smart companies).

Tags: sales, sellecom, selling
Related tags: sales people, drive succeed, success salespeople, people, sales, success

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Cloud Comms On the Rise – Dec 28, 2015

Sales is Transitioning, Are Salespeople? – Jul 17, 2015

2 Ways to Increase Your Revenue – Jul 08, 2015

What Do You Do When Gigabit is $70? – Jun 30, 2015

Are You Offering Solutions or Products? – Jun 26, 2015

Where is the VoIP Market is Going? – May 11, 2015

Making Referrals Work – Apr 22, 2015

Why Aren’t You My Customer? – Apr 17, 2015

Re-Education Will Be Required – Apr 06, 2015

What Business Model Should the VAR Examine? – Mar 30, 2015

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Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

Interesting viewpoint on Success and Salespeople from David Kahle on LinkedIn: “The vast majority of mankind, including the vast majority of sales people with whom I work, really don’t want to be successful. They understand that success only comes as a result of the investment of time, money, and emotional energy. And, they don’t want to make the investment. They are motivated to just get by, instead of succeeding.”

After seeing weeks of articles (in my social feeds) on how to be successful, best habits, yadda yadda throughout December, I want to puke. Most people are okay just the way things are. (Until something starts to slide like income or the ability to have a cold brew.)

In a time when we give awards for participation, it will be a small percentage of people – especially sales people – who will have that drive to succeed (not to be confused with that drive to get a paycheck).

So what do you do when you want to hire a salesperson but they are in the 80 percentile instead of the 20? One who doesn’t have the drive to succeed but gives you a solid 40 hours of effort? In many cases, they have a mediocre 15 year career in telecom and a closet full of shirts with logos from the numerous companies that employed them.

Kahle does point out that not everyone is going to be a superstar. Management will need to improve in negotiation and motivation. To get the 80% to be fair to middling. Superstars will be able to work anywhere.

Lots of people don’t like salespeople, but not a lot of selling gets done without a sales team (except for a few network effect impacted unicorns). It will be interesting to watch this progress. Channel sales will become a bigger part of the strategy (for smart companies).

Tags: sales, sellecom, selling
Related tags: sales people, drive succeed, success salespeople, people, sales, success

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Twitter Profile

Related Entries

Cloud Comms On the Rise – Dec 28, 2015

Sales is Transitioning, Are Salespeople? – Jul 17, 2015

2 Ways to Increase Your Revenue – Jul 08, 2015

What Do You Do When Gigabit is $70? – Jun 30, 2015

Are You Offering Solutions or Products? – Jun 26, 2015

Where is the VoIP Market is Going? – May 11, 2015

Making Referrals Work – Apr 22, 2015

Why Aren’t You My Customer? – Apr 17, 2015

Re-Education Will Be Required – Apr 06, 2015

What Business Model Should the VAR Examine? – Mar 30, 2015

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ITEXPO is in Ft Lauderdale in 20 days. Will you be there?

Our ITEXPO panel on Open Source for Service Providers will be using Dialogic’s study, which is examined in this blog post by Jim Machi of Dialogic.

Some good reads to start off the new year.

AVC’s Fred Wilson on What Is Going To Happen In 2016

Alianza has a good read about Disruption to the cable industry HERE. It is based on an Accenture study about the top line growth of cable and the factors that may affect it.

Apparently, the cost to acquire a cellular customer is at least $650, as VZW is now poaching AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile Customers With a $650 Credit. How profitable can that be? In 2 years, that is $27 per month and ARPU is about $54 per month. Margins of 50% on cellular? This is what happens when the metrics are ARPU and new adds. Must get more customers (even unprofitable ones).

Five cloud experts give their predictions around cloud and security for 2016

Comcast gets more consumer complaints than any ISP. “The deluge of angry customers is so big that the FCC gets more Internet service complaints about Comcast than it does for AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable (TWC) combined.” [ARS]

Level3 would like inter-connection congestion to be reported to the FCC as part of the “FCC’s new rules requiring ISPs to supply more information on their management of networks to consumers.” NCTA says Heck No! And they would because they don’t want transparency on their artificial congestion (aka squeezing the tube that connects consumers to Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and other OTT content that they want to watch.)

Remember CarrierIQ? They were the company adding rootkit for monitoring smartphone usage for the cellcos. After scrutiny, they went belly up. AT&T bought the assets. Probably a joint venture with the NSA.

Tags: att, cable, cellular, cloud computing, disrupt, FCC, internet, isp, security
Related tags: cable, customers

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At the FCC – Feb 24, 2015

The Mobile Ecosystem Battle – Sep 28, 2010

TV is Moving to the Internet – Oct 27, 2015

3 Cable Stories That Are Good Reads – Jun 02, 2015

Phone Companies, Channel and Other News – May 29, 2015

2 Items About Open Internet – Dec 03, 2014

The Load on Cable – Jun 12, 2014

More Big M&A Deals Announced – May 19, 2014

Net Neutrality Loses – Jan 14, 2014

The FCC is Busy (Part 2) – Sep 25, 2013

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Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company