Recently, TMC's (News - Alert) Stefania Viscusi had an opportunity to talk with Joe Marasco, sales director of Rel Comm, Inc. The company is a 24-year old voice and data products provider, serving upstate New York, but with an office in the Research Triangle of North Carolina.

"A lot of our business focuses on the public sector," Marasco said, adding that "we do a lot of school districts, a lot of municipalities, and we also do a lot of health care and call centers. That's our niche."

Speaking of the Phybridge (News - Alert) UniPhyer as a way to move people to IP telephony, Marasco said most times, when you go out to a customer site for an evaluation, "one of the key items the customer's looking for is that they want to go into VoIP. They don't necessarily know why," Marasco said, they know it's an industry standard and seems to be the direction things are moving, but "they typically have a budget in mind," and a lot of them "just aren't there" with the technology.

And when they do get the technology upgraded, "they've spent through their budget, before they even place a phone on their desk."

Marasco noted, "We have a more cost-effective product than recabling a facility or providing POE switches. That came from the Phybridge product."

Viscusi noted that six months ago, Rel Comm got new business with a local school and health care facility. "The school was actually a capital bid," Marasco said, which came through a consultant. They were updating a different product, and as Marasco says, sometimes that can be pretty expensive.

"We came in and offered an alternative, keeping the analog phones in the classroom, and using the Phybridge to provide the POE switches. We actually came in about twenty percent below what the upgrade on the existing product would be," Marasco said, adding, "We've had no complaints, the customer's been very happy."

To find out more, check out the Podcast HERE.