Whether it is the keynote at a channel conference or a master agency, everywhere you look the message seems to be: Yo Agent, become a MSP!

So for a few years now, the keynotes, most notably from a Gartner analyst, have been a singular message: become a cloud broker or service provider or die!

CLECs have been trying to transition to cloud – most notably TelePacific, EarthLink and Cbeyond (now Birch). As TBI’s Ken Mercer writes, “We’ve been selling telecom services for years. Now our carriers like CenturyLink are having conversations with us on how they compete with the likes of IBM by offering professional services. Services such as consulting, managed services, system integration, outsourced IT and bundled IT packages: hardware, software and services with monthly pricing.”

The transition to PS (professional services) and MS (managed services) is the path up the stack from network (Layer 1-3) to closer to the user’s device (Layer 7 of the OSI stack). It is stickier (or not if done wrong or with poor customer service).

Telarus, a master agency, bought VXSuite to allow for network monitoring by agents. This means that even agents can do network monitoring – a service that just VARs were doing a few short years ago. Now network monitoring is expected. Proactive monitoring is desired. RMM (remote monitoring and management powered by Labtech, Autotask and so many others for the VAR/MSP space) was the sole province of the MSP. Now CLECs, ITSPs (VoIP), and now master agents are in the space. Everyone wants a piece of that pie.

While the Service Providers want their partners to sell more cloud – today that almost means anything besides a pipe – they forget that selling network is a replacement sale and selling cloud or MS or PS is an entirely different kind of sale!!! Big disconnect.

I have no idea why C-LInk thinks that they are competing with IBM ??? or that VAR partners are going to dump their own RMM for yours. Or how the partners are going to get enough sales skills to make the transition from transactional/replacement network sales to MS, PS and cloud sales. It is a gap.

And the funny thing is that the vendors themselves aren’t exactly knocking the sales of these services out of the park. The Mets lost the World Series because they were batting for home runs. Our industry should be the Kansas City Royals, hitting singles and doubles all game long to the finish line. How did they get there? Training, batting practice, good coaching and focus.

So as we move to a sector that resembles MSP World, remember a few things:

As partners, it is your business. You don’t work for the masters or their masters (carriers). Design your business to what you want it to be.

Keep in mind that commissions for stuff we sell now are diminishing and probably going away.

It takes a plan to transition to cloud. Not everyone that tried was successful, because it is about planning and execution.

There is a skills gap – get training! Not just product but sales training!

Leverage your partners to help you get where you want to go.

Have Patience. This will not happen overnight.

Good luck!

See you in Ft Lauderdale in January for Channel Vision Expo, ITEXPO, MSP EXPO!!

Tags: channel partners, clec, managed services, master agency, msp, sales, sellecom, strategy
Related tags: network monitoring, transition cloud, professional services, managed services, master agency, services

Follow me:

Twitter Profile

Related Entries

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

Vendor Buys Its Platinum Partner – Jun 09, 2014

Different Channel Partners Means Varying Obstacles – Jun 30, 2013

Channel Sales Enablement: Part 2 – Jun 30, 2013

CLEC Frustration Part II – Jul 28, 2011

Too Many Terms (Mini Glossary) – Jul 16, 2010

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

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

What Can You Learn from Target? – Mar 10, 2015

Sales Math and Measuring What Matters – Feb 18, 2015

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: Everyone Wants You to be an MSP

Copyright On Rad’s Radar?

Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

The FTC did a report on 9 data brokers. Scary.

“Data Brokers Collect and Store Billions of Data Elements Covering Nearly Every U.S. Consumer: Data brokers collect and store a vast amount of data on almost every U.S. household and commercial transaction.  Of the nine data brokers, one data broker’s database has information on 1.4 billion consumer transactions and over 700 billion aggregated data elements; another data broker’s database covers one trillion dollars in consumer transactions; and yet another data broker adds three billion new records each month to its databases. Most importantly, data brokers hold a vast array of information on individual consumers. For example, one of the nine data brokers has 3000 data segments for nearly every U.S. consumer.”

The industry says that it is for targeted advertising. Ha! And it provides risk mitigation for consumers. Again HA!

The data is stored indefinitely. Consumers don’t know how they are scored or any way to fix it.

How did I find this 2014 report? This article about a lawsuit: Supreme Court case pits privacy rights against Internet data brokers

Tags: big data, FTC, privacy
Related tags: consumer transactions, collect store, brokers collect, brokers, consumer, consumers

Follow me:

Twitter Profile

Related Entries

One Way to Privately Differentiate – Jun 29, 2015

The War on Privacy – Jan 07, 2013

Argument For Internet Regulation – Sep 24, 2015

Lessons from the AshleyMadison.com Hack – Aug 19, 2015

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

Mobile Phones are Hyperlinks – Apr 21, 2015

Sales Math and Measuring What Matters – Feb 18, 2015

News Tidbits Part 2915 – Feb 09, 2015

EarthLink Has Embraced Retail – Jan 07, 2015

The Cost of Attention (Advertising) – Sep 30, 2014

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: FTC Calls Out Data Brokers

Copyright On Rad’s Radar?

The quarterly revenue numbers are coming in with some companies doing well, some notsomuch.

The cablecos are doing well. The top 4 (public) MSOs – Comcast, TWC, Charter, Cablevision – “these four companies alone accounted for about 22% ($8.8 billion) of the $40 billion annual special access market in 2014,” according to a Forbes columnist.

“Comcast’s business services revenue increased 21.9% in 2014 and 26.4% in 2013.” Comcast Business does $1.2B per quarter – making them one of the largest CLECs!

“Time Warner Cable’s revenue from its provision of business services
increased 22.8% to $2.8 billion (annual) and represented 12.4% of its total revenue in 2014.”

“Last week, Verizon’s quarterly earnings report showed that the company generated $495 million in revenue from its Internet of Things business for the first nine months of 2015.” [source]

“Wal-Mart forecasted a 6 percent to 12 percent earnings drop for fiscal year 2017, it stunned financial markets and just about everyone one else in business.” [source]

Amazon opened a bookstore much to the chagrin of Wall Street, authors and booksellers.

EarthLink saw a widening net loss. They look more and more like Sprint every day. Two companies that have elements to do well but can’t untie their shoes long enough to make a stride.

“According to Sprint, the company posted a quarterly loss of $585 million on earnings of $7.8 billion, thanks in large part to a series of promotions the company has been running to try and keep pace with T-Mobile, which leap-frogged Sprint into the third-place carrier position earlier this year.”

T-Mobile subscriber numbers are growing. There are still rumors of a sale of the company.

“Black Box Network Services reported shrinking sales and a $129.8 million loss for its second fiscal quarter this week …Sales for the quarter declined 5 percent year over year to $237 million.” Re-structuring a sales org will ruin sales. [crn]

Xerox had a bloody quarter.

LUMOS Networks had a fine quarter. “The company added 308 route miles of fiber to its network during the quarter as well as 68 new enterprise buildings and 54 cell sites.” [Ramblings]

Birch said they had a strong quarter without any proof.

Like many telcos, Level3 numbers showed a decline in wholesale but a rise in enterprise. After one year of integrated tw telecom, things are going well.

The winners talk about strategic plans and execution. Probably a good thing to have in any business.

Tags: cableco, financials, level3, numbers
Related tags: companies doing, business services, billion annual, quarter, business, revenue

Follow me:

Twitter Profile

Related Entries

Charter Bulking Up – May 27, 2015

Are You Still an ILEC Agent? – Apr 07, 2009

Cable Will Win – Feb 16, 2015

The RBOCs: Copper, Spectrum, Regulation and Sales – Feb 03, 2015

What Will Consolidation Mean in 2015 – Dec 11, 2014

Comcast Merger Will Pressure CLECs – Nov 19, 2014

A Quick Look at Telco Revenues – Aug 21, 2014

Are You Getting Rejected By Cable? – Jun 30, 2014

Lots of Questions About CLECs – Feb 20, 2014

It’s Good to Know Your VoIP Numbers – Jan 20, 2014

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: Some Companies Are Doing Well, Some Not

Copyright On Rad’s Radar?

Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company

When Google Fiber enters a market, the Duopoly gets worried. And this is great for consumers. However, I am watching the Hype Machine from inside Tampa after Google Fiber announced that Google Fiber MAY come to Tampa (and Jacksonville, FL; and Oklahoma City).

All of Tampa is acting like they won the lottery. This town loves to be on a list – any list. It has an esteem problem after years of wanting to be like Silicon Valley. Now they would be happy to be Provo?!

The newspapers – we have 3 – have run articles about it for two days, including reactions from anyone they could get on the phone.

It isn’t that easy. First off, the city and county governments would have to approve a number of conditions for Google. They would probably get some push back from the Duopoly here. Then there is the matter of a cable TV franchise. Next there is the pole attachment problem. The poles are owned by the telco, electric company (which recently changed hands) and government – 3 entities to deal with and each with their own conditions for usage.

After that, neighborhoods have to sign up – and if there is enough demand Google will take note and plan the build out. That would include the TV-video head-end. “Google VP of access services Milo Medin called video “the single biggest impediment” to deployment, labeling it “the biggest piece of our cost structure.” [multi-channel]

Google TV isn’t exactly hitting it big either. Google Fiber Ended 2014 With 29,867 TV Subs. No mention of how many Internet subs. No way to guess either. Google Fiber passes just 3,913 homes in Stanford. No data on the other cities.

Tampa Bay has Verizon FiOS (soon to be Frontier FiOS in 2Q2106), Bright House cable (soon to be Charter/Spectrum) and WOW! (formerly Knology). Tampa’s own billionaire developer, Jeff Vinik, is building up downtown and laying his own fiber. Not sure where Google Fiber will have an impact, except maybe to cause price depression, something telecom is very familiar with. It’s ironic that cable will feel the price and speed pressure from Google that they put on telcos.

Up until now, Google Fiber has not crossed paths with FiOS. Not sure how that will pan out.

Data has shown that consumers don’t buy the fastest tier — bell curve! So Gigabit fiber for $70 is all about the hype, the marketing, the story we tell ourselves.

Yes, Google MAY pick Tampa. Or it may not. It won’t change a lot. The BizJournal quoted people saying that Kansas City’s startup system boomed due to Google Fiber. Maybe that is true. Maybe it was the fact that they were first – not one of the 18 cities with GF or the 100 cities with Gigabit Broadband.

When Cascade Investment backed some of Vinik’s plans for 24 acres in downtown Tampa, the local media spun it that Bill Gates was behind the deal. No, Cascade Investment was one of the backers of the $1 Billion deal. No single investment entity is going to take all that risk — or put all that risk in one basket. Cascade is controlled by Gates; he wasn’t partnered in the deal. This is a great example of the “news” media being nothing more than a megaphone for the government and CorpMerica. We experience it every day but hardly notice it any more.

Google went into the cellular business this year after much speculation. Google Fi isn’t killing it either. Alphabet is very good at experimenting and pushing boundaries. Just in this case, the marketing spin has spun too many people locally.

SIDE BAR

There is even talk about a fiber deal. Google – like Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft – own their own data centers and connect those data centers with either fiber they built or bought or dark fiber. It would be too cumbersome for these 4 megacorps to have a telco running their telecom network.

Tags: broadband, fiber, gigabit, google, tampa
Related tags: google fiber, either google, cascade investment, google, fiber, tampa

Follow me:

Twitter Profile

Related Entries

Cable Will Win – Feb 16, 2015

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

Phones and TV Are Disappearing – Jun 24, 2015

The Race to Gigabit is About Business – Apr 15, 2015

Do Network Upgrades Matter – Feb 11, 2015

Why Our Duopoly Doesn’t Work – Nov 08, 2013

Accolades – Dec 13, 2010

Is FiOS Crushing Verizon? – Jun 11, 2010

Wouldn’t Eminent Domain Work? – Jun 19, 2009

Duopoly against the City – Apr 06, 2009

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: The Google Hype Machine

Copyright On Rad’s Radar?

Robert Scoble, Rackspace futurist, has a newsletter. The latest one talks about the “Notification Summit at Betaworks’ offices in New York.” We live in a world of mainly 2 ecosystems – Google and Apple. (Microsoft dropped out when it lost the mobile battle.)

Betaworks VC, John Borthwick, wrote up his thoughts here on Medium.

Steve Gillmor posted his here.

Scoble writes, “What I learned at the summit is that we’re witnessing the move away from apps and towards streams of interactive user interface elements that stream down our screens.”

Today I was reading how apps, Facebook and others were actually tying up the free web and putting everything into containers. If you look at the mobile experience of most apps – Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter – the mobile app experience is inferior to the browser based experience – especially on LinkedIN (which must be made for rubles by people who never ever logon it – ever!)

Mainly we are trying to tackle NOISE. Notifications are noisier now than email ever was. Scoble points out that we need context. I think that we haven’t mastered context in email yet, so what he wishes for is a long way off.

The default setting for Noise is always ON. Twitter just did an update that turned on notifications. I had them all off on my devices.

“Some will go as far as leaving all social channels except for email, to try and escape the demands of engagement. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, for instance, recently closed down his Facebook account because he was overloaded after his Dreamforce event,” Scoble writes.

There are numerous articles about creativity and peace being destroyed by our crack-like addiction to social media. Envy and FOMO are big topics. (Bullying is another.)

Relentless noise.

It’s no wonder most companies suck at marketing – it is just added noise.

What happens when the notifications on your phone take over your day? How will any work get done? We live in a world that prides itself on being busy. Busy doesn’t mean getting anything significant done.

Tags:
Related tags: scoble writes, noise, scoble, email, facebook, mobile

Follow me:

Twitter Profile

Related Entries

TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: Re-Thinking Noise

Copyright On Rad’s Radar?

Sponsored by Apex Technology Services, a leading IT Services company