Ring, ring. Opportunity appears to be calling in the hosted VoIP market — where service providers are eying hosted voice as a portfolio offering, with a range of players making moves in that direction. Here’s a sampling of developments.
Black Box Network Services, a $1 billion voice and data networking company, earlier this month branched into hosted voice over IP, entering an agreement to resell CoreDial’s services.
Meanwhile, IP comms specialist 8×8 Inc. inked a teaming pact with Level 3 Communications to pursue federal government business telecommunications deployments that include hosted IP telephony services.
Across the pond, InTechnology, a managed services provider in the United Kingdom, is partnering with POSTcti, a Microsoft Gold Voice Specialist Partner, to provide a hosted Microsoft Office Communication Server service with integrated IP telephony.
And Smoothstone, which provides unified IP communications as managed services, recently cited an uptick in hosted voice.
Michael Laughlin, VP of shared services at Black Box Network Services, said market research from such firms as Gartner and Frost & Sullivan encouraged the company in its first foray into hosted IP telephony. Frost & Sullivan, for example, forecasts the number of installed hosted IP telephony lines to hit the 3.6 million mark in 2014. That compares with a bit under a million lines installed at the end of 2008, according to the market researcher.
Laughlin said he sees hosted voice as a cost-effective alternative to traditional and IP-based private branch exchanges. He said the approach removes a sizable capital outlay for on-premise equipment — along with the necessity of patching and maintaining gear. Hosted voice makes telephony an operating expense that is easier to manage and plan for, he added.
Can all MSPs get into the game? Doubtful. Some will find it too expensive to built out hosted VoIP infrastructure. And other MSPs don’t want to be seen as reseller “agents” for third-party VoIP services. Still, hosted VoIP and unified communications seem to be gaining critical mass.
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Posted In: Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
Tags: 8x8 Inc. | Black Box Network Services | CoreDial | Hosted Unified Communications | Hosted VoIP | InTechnology | Level 3 Communications | Microsoft Office Communications Server | POSTcti | Smoothstone
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John, you hit the two hosted VoIP entry points on the head: build or partner. In practice, Appia makes a pretty compelling case for the latter, and we think we make it pretty easy to get up and earning. MSPs that might be leery of being seen as “agents” may be surprised at the options (white labeling, etc.) that are available to them. Let me put it this way: It’s a very rare day that we can’t find a way to benefit a partner. Hosted VoIP can be a strong addition to any managed service portfolio. It’s worth a conversation.
Matt: Build or partner seems to be the central question facing MSPs on multiple fronts these days — from hosted VoIP to SaaS applications (SharePoint, Exchange, etc.). The topic dominated last week’s N-able Partner Summit.
I think Hosted VoIP is one of those areas that to build it yourself requires a significant human and equipment capital outlay to do it well, so it lends itself to partnering. The other advantage of partnering on the VoIP side is less direct business risk by not being on the hook (no pun intended) for a client’s entire IT infrastructure AND their phone infrastructure. Many MSP’s have the IT side down pat, but the VoIP side is going to continue to rapidly evolve. Partnering allows for the MSP to have some good flexibly for choosing the right partners and technologies as the platforms evolve. The build model doesn’t allow for that as well.
Brendan: Great thoughts across the board. I guess the bottom line for me is as follows… I’m willing to go a few minutes without email per month. But I can’t live without dial tone… So I wonder if most MSPs are really in a position to build a five-nines hosted voice system… Partnering sure sounds like the more logical route for most MSPs.
-jp
Seven years ago we chose to partner with M5 Networks here in New York – a lot of their business comes from their IT Partners. They have a very mature partner program and rely on their IT partners to supply phones + related equipment and integrate the voice solution into the overall network.
I suggest to be VERY thorough before suggesting any hosted VoIP to your existing clients – switch your own phones to the VoIP Partner if possible for a few months. We had a bad experience with another partner which I’m still trying to forget. Joe’s right people have a lot less tolerance for dropped calls than delayed emails. You don’t want a fly by night ruining your reputation on the IT side or even worse costing you clients.
We prefer to not white label as well – our larger clients appreciate that we’re focused on I.T. and are not trying to pass off as a telecom company.
Gerson: I like your advice, directing MSPs to actually try a VoIP service before recommending it to your customers. Imagine if more VARs had run Windows Vista for a bunch of months before selling Vista systems… … …
Good point indeed on trying a service before selling it. Trust is the most important ingredient in any effective partnership, and it’s probably the biggest hurdle to overcome when weighing partnership options against building out a service yourself. In addition to an excellent service, a good channel provider should also have plenty of referenceable customers AND partners, and won’t be afraid to let you talk to them. Make sure. Like Gerson says, bad VoIP can drag you right down with it.
We use Aretta.com which has been wonderful for us! Jim