IP5280: Finding Success With HD Voice

John Scarborough and Jeffrey Pearl, co-founders and managing partners of IP5280 (News - Alert), took some time out of their busy day recently to talk to TMCnet about a variety of subjects ranging from the benefits of Hosted VoIP to applications to HD Voice and their relationship with Polycom.

 

Englewood, Colorado-based IP5280 specializes in business VoIP services. The company has been operational for about three years and is a profitably run, privately held concern completely owned and operated by its employees.

 

IP5280 boasts of a global array of customers ranging from individuals who work virtually out of their homes around the globe, to sandwich shops with multiple locations, to companies like Denver-based Media News Group, CSU, and others.

 

To hear Pearl say it, “The neat thing about Hosted VoIP is that it scales. It could be three marketing guys starting a company working from home, all the way up to companies like Lockheed Martin (News - Alert), so we do serve very large organizations. We have product sets that scale all the way down to a home office and all the way up to the largest companies on the planet.”

 

According to Scarborough, the team at IP5280 also offers years of experience in telecom.

 

“Jeffrey and I have grown up in telecommunications over the last 20–25 years,” he said, “and most of our engineering team came from ICG, which of course was one of the forerunners in VoIP. Jeffrey (who was the CEO of ICG) and I met over at Qwest (News - Alert) about 5 years ago.”

 

Outside of basics like networking gear, the IP5280 solution comprises a BroadSoft platform, Edgewater devices on the edge of the network, and Polycom SoundPoint IP phones, among other related components.

 

Scarborough and Pearl addressed their relationship with Polycom.

 

“Polycom is the brand that our customers see on their desk,” Pearl said. “The interesting thing about HD phones that John and I came to realize right out of the gate is that the quality is better than what we were used to in the PSTN world.”

 

And that quality is a key component of what IP5280 offers their customers.

 

While early adopters considered VoIP primarily from a cost savings perspective, today it’s becoming clear that people are increasingly moving to VoIP for the features that allow disparate colleagues all over the planet to connect together; features like simultaneous ring; voicemail to e-mail and more.

 

According to Pearl, with Polycom, “…we were able to put quality into the mix, and we actually lead with quality when it comes to selling VoIP products to our customers because of Polycom HD Voice. When we go in and demo the solution, when we light up a Polycom HD phone and the first words come out of that phone and the customer’s response is, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t realize the quality had gotten to this level! This is unlike any other call I’ve ever heard before…’ then you know you’re onto something.”

 

Scarborough adds, “we often hear our customers refer to this as radio studio quality. It’s startling at first if you haven’t heard it before. To further prove that point, we conducted what we refer to as an HD VoIP challenge. We modeled this after the Pepsi challenge, where we did a side by side hearing test of HD Voice and Ma Bell. We surveyed over 200 business users over the last few months and it was a resounding response to say the least, of course 9 out of 10 people chose the HD Voice quality over Ma Bell.”

 

IP5280 told TMCnet that they are among Polycom’s largest VoIP channel partners in the Western region, covering about 18 states (not including California). They are very proud of their significant relationship with Polycom and do a lot of work with them, and they are looking forward to offering new and exciting devices beyond the current state of HD phones.

 
Another exciting opportunity for IP5280 is the addition of applications to desktop phones.

 

Pearl again: “Polycom has their own stable of developers in addition to the independent third parties available out there. We work with one in Colorado called ZStream just as an example. We’re working with them... to enable our phones to support news and weather information that is pushed to the phones; users can input ZIP codes and pull up current weather at that location.

 

“A silly little application at first, but one that can evolve to more concierge oriented applications in the hotel or hospitality industry,” he added. “Imagine being able to order the proverbial pizza online, only this time it’s using the phone that’s in the hotel room. Looking up flight information… being able to order a rental car though your phone. We see that some of these emerging applications — in the right fit —could really be a great convenience for a hotel guest or a user who might not be next to their computer.”

 

Scarborough added his thoughts on the subject. “We are starting to see certain applications emerge on the Polycom SoundPoint IP 650 HD phone (one of their high-definition phones) that might enable a more targeted approach in certain verticals. The 650 has a USB port in the back of it, so you can put a thumb drive in the back. Think of the law firms who would love to have selective call recording capabilities; a lawyer, from their 650, downloads a .wav file to the thumb drive and they can have that recording available for possible future use.

 

“We’re also seeing a few applications emerge that are a bit more customized for verticals, but generally at this point it’s still about dial tone and features that everyone would want to use. I think we’re going to start point towards more customization in the future.”

 

Pearl pointed out a pair of interesting use cases where HD Voice was enabling IP5280 customers to realize increased efficiencies and a better quality of experience.

 

“With regard to HD voice, we have two customers whose employees had hearing issues or were hearing impaired, and they were able to communicate better on the phone as a result of HD Voice. Also we’ve had customers, who do a lot of international work where maybe some of the phone lines are fainter and the accents are sharper and more pronounced, and it’s tough to understand people or communicate, and the HD phones — we’ve heard from them — have allowed them to be more efficient in communicating.”

 

Scarborough added, “For me it’s exciting to watch what Polycom is doing. They’re not manufacturing anything but HD at this stage, so this is the direction that everything is going in. I think it will be exciting to see how these devices evolve over the next 12–18 months, because I think there’s going to be a real rush of new applications as a result of that.

 

“One last thing I’d like to emphasize is that HD voice has become a real ‘silver bullet’ for us in converting people from traditional telephony, because when you think about it, VoIP — specifically hosted VoIP — gives customers the flexibility and features they have never had before and of course the savings, but I think up until now people might have been scratching their heads wondering if the quality is as good. And now with this silver bullet we’re able to lead with the quality and say the quality is better. When prospective customers hear the difference… that is going to accelerate the losses at traditional telephone companies and increase the migration of people to Hosted VoIP.”

 

“The triple threat of quality, feature function and ‘oh yeah by the way we’ll save you 30% over the traditional phone company,’ that’s a powerful accelerant to the market,” he added.

 

Pearl echoed his partner’s assessment. “This is the single greatest threat to the IP PBX (News - Alert) market, since they don’t support high-definition. I think when you combine the triple threat and HD — specifically in this context as a feature — this is going to drive the switchover from IP PXs to the hosted VoIP world.”