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What Does a Master Agency Look Like?

Years ago, master agencies were mostly telecom brokers. Today, with cloud services, hardware, data center, managed services, mobility and adding their own services, master agencies have morphed.

The models vary greatly. A couple, like COLOTRAQ, are specialists. A few are cloud services brokerages. A couple have become distributors of next-generation technologies in communications and IT infrastructure. Others just got bigger. Then you have something like TD Mobility that puts all the devices and cellcos in one place – kind of niche.

There are a couple of master agencies that don’t call themselves that at all. Both leverage what they consider to be exclusive assets – fiber maps and lit building databases. Access to that database is the lure for selling circuits, colo, etc.

Peter Thiel says, “Businesses succeed better when they differentiate rather than compete.”

The key is to set yourself apart, which is hard to do in a crowded marketplace. People forget that being all things to all people or a one stop shop (like Amazon or WalMart) is about price and convenience. The ease of doing busy – especially in telecom – is a big deal. Greasing the mess that is telecom is a big thing.

People also forget that People do business, not with organizations, but with People that they like and trust. Channel is mainly about Relationships. And ease of doing business. And relationships. How can that help set you apart?

Tags: channel managers, master agency
Related tags: master agencies, cloud services, people forget, people, master, services

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Channel Sales Enablement: Part 2 – Jun 30, 2013

Where is the Channel Going? – Oct 26, 2015

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Is the Channel a Reflection of its Execs? – Aug 05, 2015

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October 27, 2015 , On Rad's Radar

TV is Moving to the Internet

TWC is trialing Internet TV. “The beta service will let some customers get online Internet TV services, without requiring a cable connection, through a Roku 3 device,” according to eweek.

Comcast Xfinity, Verizon, Boingo, DISH (Sling TV) have joined Hulu, HBO, Starz, and CBS with streaming TV services. It will all move to IP — not necessarily over the Internet. Netflix has been trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to be treated like a cable channel on cable networks. WOW accepted the challenge.

On Sunday morning, Yahoo! exclusively streamed an NFL game from the UK. Yahoo paid $17 million for the privilege and had about 13.5 million unique visitors. The experience had mixed reviews. “Why, it’s almost as if people were using different connections, technologies, hardware and transit routes to connect to the same source! Interestingly, the stream appeared to fare much better for set top (Roku, etc.) and mobile devices than it did for traditional browsers, though I’ve yet to see a comprehensive explanation why,” reported DSLR.

I find it interesting that the Roku is a common denominator in these deals (not Cisco).

Roku allows consumers to (1) own the set-top box; (2) save money (as much as $10.95 per month on set-top box rental); and (3) one portal for all TV choices. This may be the wave of the future; moreso than the Internet TV due to the ease of updates to the Roku.

NPR has a story about cable nevers and cable cord cutters. It seems the big reason is money.

We are in the midst of a fight for the middle class, a living wage, et al. What gets lost in that over and over is that our economy is based on service industries. Look at any major thoroughfare in the US: it contains grocery stores, dry cleaners, restaurants, drugstores, coffee shops, etc. RETAIL and SERVICE. This only works if consumers have disposable income. Income has been flat for a long time (while expenses have increased).

Henry Ford knew it. Today’s CEOs do not get it.

I have always looked at financial reports thinking that most companies have peaked organically. VISA, Mastercard, NFL, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon. Without inorganic moves, these companies have peaked and the revenues have one way to go: down.

Take Sprint for example. Softbank dumped like $20 Billion into Sprint. It is losing ground to T-Mobile. It never got close to Ma and Pa Bell (ATT, VZW). Now it is in cost cutting mode. Organic sales/growth just have not happened for Sprint. So revenues go slip, sliding away.

“Every industry and every organization will have to transform itself in the next few years. Every industry and every organization needs to transform itself…or fade away.”
– Tim O’Reilly

“The pace of change is unprecedented–and staggering. … From a business–and, for that matter, government–perspective there is, in a sense, only one overarching strategy: constant, high-speed innovation.” – Tom Peters

Tags: cable, cableco, innovation, Internet, internet, sprint, tv, TV, yahoo
Related tags: industry organization, companies peaked, transform itself, cable, internet, sprint

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

What If Cable Didn’t Sell TV? – Aug 21, 2014

The Decline of TV – Sep 10, 2015

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What’s With the MSO Consolidation? – Mar 26, 2015

News Tidbits Part 2915 – Feb 09, 2015

Verizon Puts the Move on Video – Feb 06, 2012

As TV Slows, The Cloud? – Jun 13, 2011

Is Cable-like TV Almost Extinct? – Dec 11, 2009

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October 27, 2015 , On Rad's Radar

Where is the Channel Going?

There have been several announcements lately about channel programs from Windstream, AT&T, InterNap, Integra and others. In a few cases, the announcements are in defense of reduction in force. In the wake of layoffs, the carriers are defending their channel position. In unison they are singing, “We still like the channel!”

Even companies that left the channel came back to it. (I am talking to you InterNAP!) Why? Sales. It always comes down to sales.

Layoffs may have been a result of low sales or missing the revenue goal. In some cases, like XO or TWC, it takes so long – over 2 weeks – for a service inquiry (let alone a quote), that more efficient carriers – for example, ACC Business – can handle in 24-48 hours. These types of operational hurdles WILL impact revenue. People migrate to where it is easiest to do business.

We live in a time of the iPhone and SAAS, where customers can hit a website and be live in less than 24 hours. No one is waiting around for a quote any more, because if it takes that long for a quote WHAT WILL THE ORDER BE LIKE and WHAT WILL TECH SUPPORT BE LIKE?

According to a comment from Windstream, the next gen partner is what they are looking for. What the heck is that?

WIND’s program dates back to Nuvox and T1 slinging. All of a sudden, WIND wants to go upstream with a $1250 minimum sale. That will be hard to do for a number of reasons. (1) Their current active partners are with you for $300 T1s. (2) Culture of operational messiness cannot be fixed with an infographic. (3) At the $1250 space, there are numerous other providers who carrier a cache brand that live in this space – AT&T and VZ just being 2 of them. (4) Comcast Enterprise will now be competing in this space.

Another reason for layoffs is a new corporate strategy – like WIND going upstream. We used to see this about once a quarter at BellSouth. “Today, you must sell this. Stop selling that.” As if any partner could shift strategy that quickly.

The conflict that most channel programs are experiencing comes from the trauma of wanting to sell stuff that the market isn’t ready for. The hype of UC is louder than the ability of the UC players to sell it. While most carriers want to sell multi-location deals, a majority of businesses are single location.

It would be nice if a partner could sell the entire catalog to a business customer, but typically that catalog is so large and vast that not even direct reps know half the products! And partners need to be comfortable that the carrier can deliver on it. That is hard to do when the carrier has trouble delivering on network services – quoting, ordering, installing, billing and servicing properly, timely and satisfactorily.

How do you put a customer in front of a carrier that can barely supply network and hope that they do a better job on cloud services? Cloud services is something with more moving parts and a number of deployment flags. It is why some partners pick best of breed providers for each service and bundle that with the network provider that is available in that area. Is that the Next Gen Partner that WIND was talking about? Or did they mean the partner who goes upstream with them?

The strategies for the carriers is changing. Just look at AT&T, VZ and Comcast. AT&T bought DirecTV. Granted that netted them bundling in LATAM and saved them $15 per sub on U-Verse, but TV is like wireline. VZ bought AOL and launched an online video service – chasing eyeballs, Hulu and Netflix. Meanwhile, after losing its bid for TWC, Comcast is launching an Enterprise division and looking at an MVNO with VZW. Similar but different.

The Channel needs to start thinking about specializing. I say this because in healthcare now, specialists are still making money, while general practitioners are getting squeezed financially. I see this happening in the channel as well.

It isn’t that you won’t make a living; it is just that your income will decrease and you will have to transact more and more deals to maintain. Inside a specialty, price gets a little less pressing; you know the lingo; you are perceived as an expert; you can move beyond network to other services to get stickier and raise ARPU.

More and more service providers are looking for channel partners. Many are just migrating to master agents. Master agents are looking like Tech Data.

Channel shows are more numerous – CVX, CP, UBM, CRN, Penton, TD and the master agents. The co-marketing dollars cannot extend much further. Someone has to lose.

Shows that RFID tag your badge: You are the Product!!! Think about that. It should change how you feel about (a) the industry; (2) the show producer; and (3) the vendors/sponsors. It should also make you feel like a piece of meat or a commodity. How do you change THAT perspective?

The vendors, masters, providers and distributors stopped thinking of us as partners a long time ago. It is readily apparent today.

Even when they say it isn’t a numbers game – it is. Pareto was almost right: it isn’t 80/20; it is 95/5. They chase 100s to get 5. Are you one of the 5 – or one of the 95?

Tags: channel partners, expo, master agency, windstream
Related tags: master agents, cloud services, network services, channel programs, channel, partners

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A Cloud View from AVANT – Aug 19, 2015

Telecom News Tidbits Part 2927 – Feb 27, 2015

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October 26, 2015 , On Rad's Radar

Telecom Tidbits for Thursday (Part 2922)

Zoom (the modem manufacturer) is just one of a number of companies and organizations opposing the Charter-TWC-BH deal.

And firms – including Apple and Yelp – are also opposing a new cyber-security bill – CISA. Got to be tough to give all that Super PAC money and not get your way.

TechDirt: Tim Berners-Lee: ‘Just Say No’ To Facebook’s Plan To Bastardize The Internet. To give free Internet to the third world, Facebook wants to subsidize it; limit it to unencrypted and approved sites; and watch all the traffic to design ads. How thoughtful.

The FCC had to remind carriers that booze and other personal items are not part of telecom costs.

Recognizing that viewers are tired of ads, Google Unveils YouTube Red: a $10 Per Month Ad-Free Option that allows downloading.

ESPN – the most expensive channel package on cable – lost over 3 million viewers in the last year. ESPN blames lite channel packages (like Sling, Google Fiber and others) and cord cutting. As a Chris Berman fan, I have been watching ESPN since almost the beginning. Look, Poker is not a sport. Hours and hours of repeated SportsCenter should only be on ESPN News! Why pay $7 per month for just Monday Night Football, some MLB games and basically for the NFL Network. It stopped being a top sports spot years ago — and it catching up to them.

The difference between ESPN and Google is that Google takes risks and uses data to guess what its consumers want. ESPN only listens to sponsors. That is the problem I see with so many companies today.

Want to make money? Make the viewing experience personal. Then Boom! people will flock there and pay for it.

Tags: content, FCC, fcc, google, politics, security
Related tags: google

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The NSA Spying Scandal isn’t New – Jun 07, 2013

The New FCC Chairman Might be Biased – May 02, 2013

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October 22, 2015 , On Rad's Radar

Telecom Tidbits (Part 2921)

M&A in the data center space as Colologix acquires New Jersey based Net Access. Net Access, LLC is a “colocation and workspace recovery provider with over 200K gross square footage across three enterprise-grade facilities in Northern New Jersey.” NJ is the new target for Greater NYC. Net Access has 700 customers! Now cologix will have 24 data centers in 9 markets.

The data center space is hot right now. Deals are happening frequently including the WIND-Tierpoint deal yesterday and the Digital Realty-TELX deal. Rumor has it that Terremark is up for sale.

8×8 landed 2 big customers: Regus and NetSuite. Regus, the global, flexible workplace provider, will deploy 8×8’s cloud communications platform to 140 sites at first. “Regus was unable to offer a business phone service with key features such as mobility, multi-channel communications and presence-enabled directories. By selecting 8×8, Regus has ensured its customers have access to the most advanced enterprise communications tools to increase their business flexibility and productivity.” At least Regus sees the flexibility benefit of Cloud Comm. Too often, our industry forgets that cloud is about change.

“Following an extensive multi-vendor, technical review and proof of concept (POC) process, NetSuite selected 8×8 as its new cloud communications solutions provider and 8×8’s flagship Virtual Office business telephony solution to address its evolving global communications requirements. With more than 4,500 employees worldwide, 8×8 worked with NetSuite to onboard the first 2,400 employees by the end of August across nine locations – delivering a record-breaking six-week deployment in the final seven sites. The initial deployment spans three countries, including large offices in the Philippines. The remaining offices are expected to be fully deployed by 2016.” [source]

These are big wins that will raise both 8×8’s ARPU and seat count (and revenue). Who says desk phones are disappearing?

Edgewater Networks, Metaswitch and Jon Arnold did a study of 1200+ SMBs and VoIP in North America. You can get a copy of the analysis here.

“SMBs remain entrenched in a legacy environment, with 70 to 80% of businesses currently using TDM.” So VoIP really has only penetrated about 25% — sad really but there are factors, like how to cost effectively deliver under 8 SIP trunks with quality of service. The Duopoly serve 75% of the SMB market. Lack of features is biggest reason to move to cloud comm (see Regus).

Equinox Info Systems became employee owned after 29 years, David West told me at the show today. Equinox re-signed a number of bigger customers, including Fairpoint. Equinox offers call analytics, FCC reporting, VoIP fraud monitoring and help with robocalls and toll fraud.

UNITEL offers many lines of insurance and risk management for service providers. It now offers OSHA training on-demand as well as other HR compliance webinars. UNITEL is pushing further into its customers with HR specialists that know specific state and federal laws. At some point, you have to go deeper into your clients instead of looking for more and more clients.

Tags: 8×8, cloud communications, comptel, data center, hosted pbx, mergers, smb, voip
Related tags: cloud communications, center space, regus, customers, cloud, communications