Have you seen the commercials on TV about GMC trucks that say “We are professional grade?” It’s a simple way of telling the consumer that their vehicle meets a higher standard. In this case, the term “professional” likely refers to a construction manager, contractor, field engineer, or the like. You can imagine people like this needing heavy payload, tough shocks, and a lot of horsepower. You can also imagine their trucks have to take a beating and still perform on a daily basis. You would also infer that the average truck that’s not “professional grade” probably can’t handle this type of use. That’s a pretty attractive story encapsulated in two simple words: professional grade. I finally had the opportunity to sit in on our two-day Convergence Sales Training which, by the way, was outstanding. One of the things that Jim Sevier, the trainer hit on was the idea of Avaya, Juniper and Extreme all being carrier-grade solutions. As we all know, carriers have no tolerance for down-time. What all three of these solutions have in common is the fact that they all separate their hardware from their software. Avaya, Juniper and Extreme all have modular operating systems which allows for upgrades and patches without taking down the systems. Therefore, all give the customer the type of uptime that (a) carriers demand; and (b) the competition cannot provide. Jim took this point to the next level with one simple observation. In many cases, the pinnacle of CTO career success is to work for a carrier. By differentiating your solutions as carrier-grade, you immediately appeal to the aspirations of most CTO’s. Next time you are speaking to a CTO and telling them why you are different, these four words “we are carrier grade” will get their attention and open the door to a great conversation. Better yet, you could say, “If you’re not looking for carrier grade, the competition’s solution is a great alternative.” If you want more information on how to back up this statement, give me a call.
Here’s another idea as part of the “foots in the door” series. I’d like to offer a prize to the first person who tries this and provides feedback. Bluesocket is a great wireless vendor (and Avaya DevConnect) whom Catalyst distributes and supports. I won’t go into their complete story in this post but I’ll give you a nutshell as I see it. For customers who have a wireless network today but aren’t able to effectively manage it, secure it, or provide guest access – Bluesocket allows them to do all of the above and more — without replacing their Access Points. This is unique since most wireless vendors are focusing on the access points which can be a costly replacement. If you have a hungry sales rep that is looking for opportunities, have them jump in their car with their laptop and try a few parking lots for unsecured wireless networks. Yes, I know, this can be tricky and it’s hard to know which AP’s belong to which companies (especially if it’s in a corporate park). Why not type out a list (or at the very least a count) of all the open networks and share that list (discreetly) with all of the tenants of that office park. Better yet, work with the property manager to organize a security briefing. Let them know you have the ability to secure their network without replacing their AP’s (this is unique since most solutions require replacing them). Also, let them know your solution has a very user friendly interface for the receptionist to issue ad-hoc guest access for visitors. The first partner to try this one gets a Catalyst golf shirt or similar swag item from yours truly. You just might find this becomes a nice engine for acquiring new customers.
This week I was at the Comptia Breakaway event. In the booth next to ours, there was a company called OnForce which describes itself as an online marketplace for on-site technology services. In a nutshell, their site allows you to shop for subcontractable (I think that’s a word) engineers who can perform technical services. One of their reps explained to me that they have 11,000 people listed. Each engineer has a profile that includes his/her certifications and specializations. Here’s the best part: after someone uses one of these engineers, they get to rate the work of that person. This means they have a vested interest in doing good work since it will be viewed by future shoppers.
Why is this important for Catalyst resellers? Two reasons: First, if you don’t currently have adequate skills in-house to do implementations in the data networking space (say for instance: Juniper, Extreme..), you can sub out that work with a higher amount of confidence then if you were just searching blindly on the web or in yellow pages. Second, this represents an opportunity for YOU to list your engineers (telephony or data) on the OnForce marketplace. Since it’s important for you to max out billable hours from your engineers, this allows you to fill in the gaps when you don’t have projects for your engineers. We may learn in the near future that utilizing this marketplace allows you to invest in data talent sooner since you would able to keep those resources working while you ramp up your sales pipeline for data infrastructure. I would suspect you may also find that this could bring you into new sales opportunities as well. If you want to learn more, I’d encourage you to visit their website. My understanding is that it is free to join. OnForce generates revenue by charging $11 per transaction plus 10% of the billable services.
Hopefully, this is a means to turn “on” your data implementation skills as well as your billable hours with your own techs.
A week ago, we touched briefly on the topic of business continuity and disaster recovery. This is a topic that I keep coming back to with a lot of partners — especially those located in California (epicenter for fires, mudslides, earthquakes, etc). Considering the list of potential threats out there, there’s a tremendous opportunity for Avaya partners to find a niche in disaster planning. Not to say that there aren’t other companies out there that specialize in this area. Quite the contrary, it’s a cottage industry but one with room for new entrants- especially ones with a different approach and unique expertise (did you know that AGS has a professional service in this area?). Frankly, this is a conversation I have had with partners repeatedly that strangely has not led to much activity. So let me share my line of thinking here, and you tell me what you think. There’s a couple of things going on. First, we’re seeing a critical mass of impending disasters and emergencies: natural disasters, terrorist disasters, school shootings, Pandemics,.. this list goes on. At the same time, we’re all talking about how to differentiate ourselves and approach customers with solutions, not products. Many partners are trying to crack the code on how to charge for the up-front design work that goes into the solutions they propose. Might this not be a way to provide extremely valuable consulting that (a) customers are willing to pay for; and (b) allows you to pull through significant constructs? The exciting thing is that Catalyst supports you in providing a number of solutions that solve very real problems that public and commercial organizations face. Here’s some of the big ones:
- Avaya is providing a lot of innovation with it’s Communication Enabled Business Processes. Simply stated, “A holistic combination of software, consulting, and support services that integrate Avaya Intelligent Communications into business processes, making it possible to sense events in real-time and then orchestrate and track enterprise-wide actions – creating a more responsive organization.” Avaya accomplishes this with a software component called Communications Process Manager which integrates with your clients existing business applications and processes.
- Mobile Communication System (MCS) and Quicksite are ruggedized Avaya systems that can be quickly deployed in the field by first responders.
- Juniper SSL VPN includes an option for ICE (In case of emergency) licensing so your client can pay only for the ability to use licenses less expensively in the event of a disaster. This clientless VPN allows organizations to send people home and still have access to the corporate network without any tricky client software — just a web browser. It’s also a great compliment to IP Softphone..
- Avaya IP Softphone and EC 500 give users the ability to operate remotely if need be in the event of a disaster. Both of these have value on the main system or resident in an MCS or Quicksite.
- Computer Instruments (an Avaya Dev Connect) has a number of canned applications like loved one finder, community notification and others that play well in this space.
- See my previous post which highlighted the very simple virtues of MultiTech’s Cellular Gateway – Call Finder.
So we know that we have great solutions in this space, how do you build a consulting practice around BC/DR? First, you can explore Avaya’s professional service offers through AGS. See this link for great information. If you’re looking to keep all this high margin profit to yourself, you might consider sending one of your sales people or engineers to a certification course for business continuity. The Institute for Continuity Management has a 5 day accelerated track next month. Might this be a new niche for your business?
Let’s face it, the business of selling IP telephony solutions has a good amount of complexity to it – particularly when you look at implementing these solutions. Aside from the time it takes to get the network tuned up for voice traffic, you also have to take the the voice system and program a growing breadth of applications to meet the customers needs. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it right? A growing challenge I’m seeing with my partners is the challenge of managing cash flow. Since implementations are taking longer and customers aren’t paying any quicker, something’s got to give right? This is one area where partners need to look at what their distributor can do to shorten the time from shipment to successful implementation. A big thing that Catalyst is doing is providing System Integration and programming on the IP Office system. Aside from loading cards, upgrading software and testing the system for DOA, we actually program the system to your customer’s specs. By the time the system arrives at the customer site, it’s rack and stack and training (which Catalyst can do remotely). If you’re like most partners, you ship the system to your facility to put on a bench to do staging/programming in-house before sending it out to the enduser. This typically takes at least a week and in some cases causes you to incur freight charges. If you happen to have some DOA materials, it could take much longer. So, from a time from shipment to install, your interval is shorter by outsourcing to Catalyst which allows you to pay your bills timely without having to borrow from your bank. This also helps you maintain the best credit score with all of your vendors which ultimately helps you negotiate the best discounts in the long term. As for your technicians, this is also a great opportunity to evaluate how you use those resources to drive revenue. Could they be generating higher margin professional/ billable services? Going out on sales calls to close deals? Providing network consulting (for fee)? Just as exciting, in the coming months, you’ll see Catalyst announce the same program for Avaya ECG Communication Manager systems. The good news is these services are sku’d and easy to price and order. Click this link or call me to learn more.
Earlier this year, MultiTech launched a product called the CallFinder®. In a nutshell, it bridges your phone system (on the trunk side) to the cellular provider. It sounds pretty simple, and it is..but when you start to consider how this can get your foot in the door, there’s a lot of possibilities.
First of all, if your prospect has several people with cell phones on the same network, say Sprint as an example, you can program your phone system such that anytime you call an employee (from your office deskset), you won’t burn any minutes on your calling plan. That’s a very quick ROI when you consider it lists for around $600. One of the things cellular providers spend a lot of energy on is figuring out how to reduce the “churn” in their customer base. TIP: Why not partner with your local Sprint or AT&T sales rep and come up with a plan to market this widget into a base of corporate clients? You gain new customers while they gain extra “stickiness.”
Another angle that’s really nice is the idea of having a failover if the regular PSTN circuits go down. This could be a lifeline for businesses that have mission critical dial-tone needs. A lot of organizations (especially healthcare, finance, and government) have business continuity plans. This is one tiny little solution, but it’s a foot in the door with a very broad audience. TIP: Almost every city has a number of disaster recovery consultants. For instance click this link on the DRII website (BC/DR website) to find consultants in the area who may have an interest in this. Once you have a foot in the door, we have a whole bunch of things to discuss with them including Juniper SSL VPN, IP Softphone, Avaya MCS (Mobile Communications System) and Quicksite (if these don’t sound familiar, please call me to discuss).
In light of these possibilities, I call this product the “new-customer-relationship-gateway”.
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading a book called Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. In a nutshell, the book shares how many companies (Southwest Airlines, Yellow Tail Wine..) have beaten their competition by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested markets. I think it applies very well to the business of selling IP telephony and convergence solutions and it really gives you a blueprint for differentiating your business from your competition. Anyone that is seeing declining margins, increased competition, and difficulty growing their business will appreciate BOS’s lessons in creating a new story. So here’s the question: are you swimming in blood red, shark infested waters where you compete with Cisco, Shoretel, and even other Avaya partners on price? Or have you found a blue ocean of uncontested waters where there are more opportunities and competition is irrelevant. You know the old saying, “fish where the other fisherman aren’t” (yeah, really milking the whole ocean/fishing metaphor). Here’s a good test to see which waters you’re swimming in: http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/about/test.html
How can we differentiate your business? Create a new set of ground rules which customers use to base their decisions? Let’s sit down and create what BOS calls a “value curve” for your business. This helps you reorient your focus from competitors to alternatives while shifting from customers to noncustomers.
Over the past couple months, I’ve found myself reading a number of blogs from some of my favorite “thinkers”. It occurred to me recently that this could be a great way to share some of the best practices I discuss every day with partners. The topics discussed here will be real tips and strategies you can employ in your business today. My hope is that you’ll come to appreciate the fact that I won’t fill this blog with self-serving vendor “propaganda”, rather practical yet innovative strategies you can put to use immediately.
