As part of TMCnet.com’s special On the Road series in San Jose, CA (News - Alert), TMC’s Carl Ford got to sit down with Steve Francis, chief sales and marketing officer at Zultys (News - Alert), a unified communications provider.
A manufacturer of voice over IP (VoIP) equipment for small to medium sized businesses (SMBs), Zultys offers products such as IP telephones, wireless IP phones and many IP peripherals.
Based on SIP Open Standards, Zultys IP PBXs support Mac, Windows 32 or 64 Bit or Linux users and integrate features such as softphone, Find me-Follow me, Presence, Secure Chat, Tele-worker support, Inbound Contact Center, IVR, ACD, Automated and On-Demand Call Recording, Fax Origination/Termination, Cell Phone (News - Alert) Twinning, just to name a few.
Francis has been a sales and marketing executive in the telecommunications industry for over 30 years and talked with TMCnet about the current marketplace for Zultys’ sales, of which he spoke very positively.
“What’s happening with the marketplace today is that SIP trunks are available and they work, they’re cost-effective. That’s what’s driven a lot of our sales, in that our product is natively SIP,” said Francis. “The SIP trunk marketplace is good and strong.”
Another area that is strong, Francis notes, is local area network, or LAN. A local area network (LAN) is a computer network that connects computers and devices in a limited geographical area such as home, school, computer laboratory or office building. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide area networks (WANs), include their usually higher data-transfer rates, smaller geographic area, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines.
“If you’re doing an IP PBX (News - Alert), an IP telephony system, that’s going to live on the local area network and have good voice quality, it has to be a quality local area network,” said Francis.
SIP trunk and LAN have, as Francis notes, have created the “nice position” that Zultys is currently in, in that sales are good, profitable and the company is able to do well within the IP industry as a whole.
The last year alone, sales were up a little over 100 percent. Francis notes, the company is on the same track to repeat that success this year despite the downturn of the economy.
“We save people money and show them a real return on their investment,” he said, noting the two attractive points when it comes to marketing and selling to businesses wishing to save during cost-cutting times.
Zultys is a very channel-centric company. Philosophically, the company believes in creating the economic advantage for the channel partner.
“The channel partner has a good reason to be in the business with us,” said Franics. “We don’t over subscribe geographies. We don’t want our competition to be more of ourselves. We are very protective over our channels.”
The company is committed to the channels, as Zultys sells exclusively through a global network of distributors, VARs and partners.
The typical customer size, according to Francis is 10-200.
“Our product fits that very well. But it also scales, as we can go up to 128 sites and 10,000 users,” he said. “The product itself is great for multisite, for remote workers and the mobile worker.”
For enterprises wanting to make full use of their installed IP-PBXs and not only communicate over IP within the enterprise, SIP trunking is a viable and cost-effective option. Unlike in traditional telephony, where bundles of physical wires were once delivered from the service provider to a business, a SIP trunk allows a company to replace these traditional fixed PSTN lines with PSTN connectivity via a SIP trunking service provider on the Internet.
SIP trunks can offer significant cost-savings for enterprises, eliminating the need for local PSTN gateways.
For Zultys, this means delivering cost-efficiency to the customer.
“In most markets, the SIP trunk is the significant cost-saver,” said Francis. “We have a number of channel partners that sell exclusively in a SIP trunk environment. They don’t do PSTN at all. “
For Zultys, the best channel partner is the telephony companies.
“Generally speaking, our partners are old line telephony guys who have embraced new technology and have kept themselves educated. To me, I find that the key. Regardless of where they came from, they have to keep themselves contemporary.”
This, of course, is in line with Zultys’ mission, which is to deliver leading edge, comprehensive unified communications solutions that are also flexible and easy to use. For the channel, Zultys strives to help grow profitability by providing the latest in telephony and technology.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.
Michelle Amodio is a TMCnet contributor. She has helped promote companies and groups in all industries, from technology to banking to professional roller derby. She holds a bachelor's degree in Writing from Endicott College and currently works in marketing, journalism, and public relations as a freelancer.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
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