Master Agent Featured Articles

As the technology world continues to evolve, it has a ripple effect on the role of master agents. In fact, an increasingly popular trend common nowadays is that telecom agents are beginning to break into the managed services field.

This isn’t a brand new thing, as various master agents have been crossing over into the managed IT services division since the end of the 1990s, in search of a way to drive revenue and expand on opportunities. And those reasons are eerily similar to why at this current time telecom master agents are beginning to leverage managed services.

According to a recent article featured on SearchITChannel, breaking ground within the managed telecom services space can be pretty complicated. In order to improve sales, it is crucial that the master agent’s voice offering be cheaper than a consumer’s current phone bill.

“A managed services deal, in contrast, may hinge on more complex factors, and the sales cycle may lengthen accordingly. The service itself is another issue: Telecom agents must either acquire the managed services skills and infrastructure or obtain those services through the partnering route. As for the latter strategy, telecom master agents have emerged as important intermediaries. Telecom master agents provide access to managed services, offer sales training, and, in some cases, broker partnering arrangements with IT VARs. They also maintain contracts with carriers, which helps agents source telecom solutions. Some of those companies now offer to set up their agent partners in the managed services business,” the article revealed.

At this time, there are some obstacles that are staring master agents in the face from penetrating this market that include being fully prepared to sell these services.

The article revealed that a discovery phase is crucial in this process that will enable telecom master agents who are potentially considering transitioning to managed services to receive answers to ideas including:  what is the amount of server downtime experienced by customers in the last year, how much money is needed to be spent on copier maintenance and does the customer require after-hours support?

In addition, not knowing enough about managed services can be detrimental to this transition as “telecom agents don’t know what they don’t know when it comes to IT managed services,” Pete Keane (News - Alert), president at Outreach said in a statement.

To break down these barriers, an effective option for master agents is to form a strategic partnership. An example of this is when CharTec teamed up Outreach Technology. Outreach agents sell CharTec’s managed services, while CharTec’s IT-oriented partners complete installations and handle tech support. This relationship enables the telecom agent to grow its portfolio, while simultaneously powering on-site services.

With a successful alliance such as the one mentioned above, it is easy to establish ties between agents and IT providers which will create better and brighter business opportunities now and in the future.