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January 17, 2006


Catch The IP Telephony Wave

TMCnet News


(Microscope Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
With the channel scrambling around to try to discover what will be a sure fire margin earner this year, the world of converged telecoms stands out as an area that the vendors believe will produce results in 2006.

Talk of the need for dealers to focus on IP has dominated the latest couple of issues of MicroScope as the predictions for the 12 months ahead were collated from the industry, and as the year starts in earnest the expectations for IP telephony remain high.
 
For the reseller the magic ingredient of a convergence sale is not so much getting the margin on the kit but the chance to offer some value-add that keeps the revenues flowing on an account for years to come.

"Convergence will mean big contracts and enormous long-term revenues via increased demand for fully managed services," said Mark Cornell, director of partner management at BT Business. "For resellers looking to tap into sales opportunities at the top end of the market, corporates and big public sector organisations are increasingly reliant on the network as the backbone for all their business-critical applications.

"Not only are they running voice and data over one infrastructure to secure cost savings, they are also harnessing high-speed networks to power applications from customer relationship management and data storage, through to remote access tools to support flexible and home workers."

But it is not just at the top end of the market where resellers can expect to make money selling IP telephony. Already there are signs that interest in converged networks is growing in the SME sector.

"SMEs this year will be more exposed to the benefits of convergence and as a result of this will begin to implement such technology in their business structures," said Conleth McCallan, managing director of the ISP Datanet. "There seems to be an increasing confidence in on-line services as a whole and this year such amenities will begin to thrive as people gain confidence with using Web sites, well known or otherwise."

His views about SME opportunity are echoed by others in the industry.

"As IP telephony technology matures further and the cost differential between IP telephony and TDM-based telephony decreases and finally reverses, it can be expected that the percentage of smaller organisations adopting IP telephony will increase," said Ian Shepherd, solutions manager at Telindus UK. "Indeed, several IP telephony manufacturers have already stated that they believe this to be so, such as Cisco and Nortel, which have produced a range of specific SME products, and are strategically committed to making their offerings more attractive to the SME market."

There are other approaches open to the channel. Those with networking experience are being encouraged to sell tools that can test and ensure that a converged backbone can take the pressure of carrying both voice and data. There is also a potential approach from the security angle, selling to users unaware of the need to protect the traffic that is pinging across the data and voice network.

"The fact that you can walk into your local supermarket and buy a wireless access point at the same time as buying fruit and vegetables is a time bomb. At a time when we are all concerned with identity theft and credit card fraud, maybe we are missing the most obvious access to our homes and businesses?" said John Pepper, managing director of Minx Technology. "A fraudster no longer needs to rummage through your bins to get your documents all they require is a wireless laptop and some basic networking knowledge to access all your personal information."

Channel players that think talk about an IP explosion is merely an echo of the hype that has surrounded this technology for the past five years would be wise to listen not just to the analysts, but to those at the frontline selling converged solutions.

"MZA saw growth of ten per cent on the previous quarter in the third quarter of 2005 [the latest available figures]," stated Tim Wells, head of marketing at alwaysON. "We believe alwaysON makes it easy for channel partners and customers alike to adopt IP telephony. Our own order book, or rather, that of our channel partners, is already looking healthy, so we expect, with them, to be riding high on the crest of this particular wave."


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