TMCnet Interview with Matt Bramson at ITExpo West 2011

Thoughts on IT Expo West

Last week I was in Austin for IT Expo West. My general impressions were that the event was busy: well-attended by exhibitors and attendees. There were lots of speaker/panelist sessions. What continues to be striking about IT Expo and the internet telephony industry in general is that the thought and market leaders are not billion-dollar corporations. Instead the leaders are inspired individuals and creative small companies.

As I walked around the exhibit hall and the breakout sessions I kept coming back to two main thoughts: this industry is converging around a handful of opportunities and each opportunity remains largely up for grabs.

• Consumers are not the main focus of most exhibitors at IT Expo but leading players like Skype and magicJack had a presence. The main questions in this space remain unanswered: What will home phone service become over the next five years? How completely will mobile phones take it over? Will it morph, through video, into a feature of TVs?
• Cloud-based unified communications service for small to medium-sized businesses seems to be the primary opportunity focus of exhibitors and attendees. As a general strategy this seems to make sense: SMBs are numerous, fragmented, and always looking for a competitive edge. But, again, some of the main questions remain unanswered: Who is going to cut through the clutter and develop a credible SMB solution-provider brand? Who is going to make it easiest for SMBs to gain real value from a new communications solution? Is anyone going to innovate a killer app/feature that will capture the imagination of SMBs?
• Enterprise and government markets are a focus of a number of exhibitors and attendees but, at least to this observer, with a couple exceptions there wasn’t much innovation or energy around this opportunity. Perhaps the infrastructure and scale expectations of enterprises and governments – and their typically-long sales cycles – scare off innovators looking to prove marketability in months instead of years.

I think that the door is now wide open for someone to do what Vonage and magicJack did for consumer VoIP – make it simple, accessible, and omnipresent – for SMB cloud-based unified communications. My guess (hope) is that the company that does it will, like Vonage and magicJack, be a new player rather than a well-known brand. They will approach businesses in their language – meaning the messaging will be about growing your business, retaining your customers, and making your team more productive rather than about the technology itself. They will offer a solution that is fully assembled and ready-to-use rather than something that requires upfront customization and plug-ins. And they will offer a mobile user experience that is as powerful, if not more, than what is available in the office. And if they can add a “secret sauce”, something their solution does which is different and cool, then they could break out from a dense pack of aspiring service providers.

I have an idea of who just might do it . . .

eComm Conference 2011

Matt Bramson's Presentation at the 2011 eComm Conference:

Matt Bramson - Presentation at Emerging Communications Conference & Awards (eComm 2011)

View more presentations from eCommConf

Matt Bramson, CMO to speak at the 2011 eComm Conference

Matt Bramson, who manages global marketing and sales for InPhonex, has a passion for commercializing novel ideas. In his 20-year career, Matt has focused on taking groundbreaking technology products to market, using creative strategies and overcoming odds.

http://america.ecomm.ec/2011/commercializing-your-products-and-services.php

InPhonex + Jazinga = A Perfect Combination for Small Businesses

Today Jazinga, the manufacturer of the innovative and easy to use Unity 2000 small business phone system, announced that InPhonex has been named a Service Partner. Businesses with a Jazinga phone system can feel confident using InPhonex as the service provider to deliver a complete solution. InPhonex’s Teletrunk product has been tested with the Jazinga Unity 2000 and the two work together perfectly.

Teletrunk is a SIP-compliant service can provide a Jazinga phone system, or any phone system, with local and toll-free numbers in 75 countries and offers flexible usage options including unlimited calling. If you currently own a Jazinga phone system or are considering getting one, contact InPhonex for a quote for service.

Is "No Impact" Telecom No More?

During a discussion today about the amazing capabilities of our new Televate product, I reflected back on my career in telecom sales. One of the main things we used to tout when talking to a prospective customer is that when the switch from his current provider was completed there would be “no impact”:

• Your phone number won’t change – no impact.
• The way your employees use the new service won’t change – no impact.
• The experience your customers have when they call your business won’t change – no impact.
• The new service won’t provide any new tools or information for your business – no impact.

The only real impact from switching providers was to be a lower monthly bill. And we treated “no impact” as a major selling point!

Believe it or not, most telecom companies and their salespeople still tout the “benefit” of no impact when switching service providers.

Well, Televate is much different. Your phone number won’t change and your bill will likely go down but aside from that the impact is considerable:

• The way your employees communicate and collaborate will change radically and immediately – huge impact.
• Your employees’ ability to be reachable and productive outside the office will change drastically – huge impact.
• The experience your customers will have when they call your business will be transformed – huge impact.
• The tools and information your business will have to manage customers and maximize business performance will be elevated – huge impact.

At InPhonex we see a fast-approaching end to “no impact telecom”. Businesses large and small are demanding more. Televate makes it easy to bring major impact to your business – and isn’t that the point of changing providers?

VoIP Users Conference

VUC Interview with Matt Bramson: http://www.voipusersconference.org/2011/televate-inphonex/

What Does Continued Mobile Consolidation Mean For The Channel?

The big talk at CTIA is the pending acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T. Most of the discussion is about the impact on consumer choice, hardware suppliers, and wireless technologies. But there’s another dimension. T-Mobile has a robust set of programs for channel partners, resellers, affiliates, and retailers. What will happen to those programs and the participants? If AT&T’s past approach is any indication then it is likely that many will be consolidated into AT&T programs, some will be discontinued, and many participants will be groomed out. “Groomed out” is a euphemism for “left out”. It should be clear that if your business currently generates significant revenue from selling telecommunications services that industry consolidation is probably not a good thing. You’ll have fewer options of services to sell; customers will have fewer choices to navigate; carriers will have fewer competitors so commissions are likely to decline; and product and service innovation is likely to slow. So what should you do? Wake up and smell the coffee!

Continue to sell telecom service if you must but see it for what it is – a means to an end. That end is the applications that users run over those telecom services. Leading consumer applications are largely free and advertising-supported and the ones that cost money are sold directly through app stores (if I can use that term generically and not get sued [http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-apple-amazon-20110323,0,5609580.story]) controlled by the dominant players. But business applications – particularly applications for small and medium-sized businesses – represent a massive and available opportunity. If you currently sell T-Mobile devices and services to businesspeople and businesses then you should immediately begin investigating applications, like InPhonex’s Televate, that you could start offering to your customers. That way if in a few months you get a “Dear John” letter from AT&T it won’t be such a blow.

Businesses Are Just Groups Of Consumers: Observations CTIA 2011 in Orlando

I spent this afternoon walking around CTIA. It’s a big show – hundreds of booths ranging from a half-acre dedicated to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab to small booths offering rhinestone-studded phone covers. But what struck me was how few exhibitors were focused on businesses – businesses that don’t sell mobile phones or services that is. It seems that Apple’s “enterprise strategy” of viewing businesses as just groups of consumers has become the conventional wisdom. I couldn’t find any exhibitors touting devices and applications that help businesses outside of telecom solve problems, improve employee productivity, or satisfy customers.

My initial response when I realized this was discouragement. I had hoped to see the latest and greatest innovative mobile business tools. But then I realized what an opportunity this is. The mobile industry is focused on creating amazing devices, faster networks, and easier-to-use operating systems, browsers, and media players. But they’re leaving it to companies like InPhonex to offer the mobile business applications desired by accountants, contractors, dentists, lawyers, retailers, and other businesses large and small. They’re willing to lay the foundation upon which we can deliver high-margin mobile business applications. I can hardly wait to see how great Televate will look on a Galaxy Tab.

Feature-Rich Televate Business Phone System from InPhonex Gives SMBs Powerful, Cloud-Based Business Communications

Now Generally Available, Service Offers Hosted PBX / IVR / CRM Combo with Full Functionality via Desktop and Mobile Interfaces

MIAMI -- To enhance collaboration and communications for small and medium-sized businesses, InPhonex today announced the general availability of Televate, a cloud-based telephony system that combines the business-communications capabilities of a hosted PBX, hosted IVR and hosted CRM.

Televate, to be sold through channel partners, is designed to help SMBs appear larger than they actually are and ramp up productivity to compete more effectively.

The service works anywhere inside or outside the office, enabling SMBs to support global operations and customer bases. Unlike other cloud-based telephony solutions, Televate empowers every employee with full call-center functionality, including CRM integration, content-rich screen pops, and caller and customer history.

Features of Televate include:

• A cloud-based core application – a business phone system with multiple virtual extensions, so users can access the entire system online anytime from anywhere.
• A desktop application that creates a single company database to manage all inbound and outbound contacts.
• A mobile application that delivers complete communication and collaboration capabilities.
• Support for multiple phones, including InPhonex Plug & Ring desk and conference phones, as well as Android smart phones.
• Local and toll-free phone numbers that are activated instantly and can be used for phone and fax. Unlimited calling and faxing are supported in North America, and toll-free or local main company numbers are available in 75 countries.
• All traditional PBX functions, including voice mail, e-mail delivery, advanced call management, auto receptionist and company directory for every user on the system.
• Integration with leading business and social applications, including Salesforce.com, SAP, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
• One low monthly price, with no setup fees or contracts. Users can be added any time.

"Televate answers the question, 'What does a small business need to really elevate its capabilities for competitive gain?' " said Matt Bramson, Chief Marketing Officer of InPhonex. "We have learned that a phone system alone isn't enough. Televate puts the phone system at the heart of a set of valuable tools, including full call-center functionality for every member of a small-business team."

The Televate offering stems from a strategic agreement between InPhonex and Ringio in which the Ringio cloud-based rich-calling application is fully integrated with the InPhonex platform to create a complete solution for business users and tremendous opportunity for channel partners.

InPhonex is seeking additional channel partners to market Televate. Benefits of working with InPhonex include ability to expand market opportunity, close sales quickly, increase revenue immediately, and manage customers' phone systems from anywhere. Information about becoming a channel partner can be found at http://business.inphonex.com/channelpartners/.

For more information about Televate, please visit http://business.inphonex.com/.

About InPhonex

InPhonex provides channel partners and service-provider customers with an agile suite of carrier-grade telephony services for SMBs, enterprises and residential customers. Leveraging its flexible telephony platform, InPhonex provides channel-focused offerings including Televate, a complete cloud-based managed telephony system for SMBs; Teletrunk, an IP phone system for enterprises and SMBs; and Telecall, a replacement service for residential phone lines. Miami-based InPhonex also develops custom solutions sold directly to established service providers. For more information, visit www.inphonex.com.

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TMC interview with Matt Bramson, CMO

IT Expo 2011

I spent the day today at IT Expo at the Miami Beach (just across town from our headquarters) and here are some observations and thoughts.

Concern About the Channel

More than one person today has asked me my opinion on the future of the channel, meaning the telecom agent channel. The concern is that channel programs appear to (again) be threatened with major carriers, like – most recently – Verizon, dramatically shortening the list of products the channel can sell and others – like AT&T – insisting that agents bundle mobile phones and plans into sales to qualify for commissions, looking to push the channel in ways that may not be beneficial to its health. But the more profound threat – and to me the more interesting one – is whether the decided shift to complex, cloud-delivered solutions is one to which the channel will successfully adapt.

There is no question that the stereotypical telecom agent – who knocks on doors, learns what a company buys today, and returns tomorrow with several quotes for comparable service for less – faces a challenging transformation. Those that will thrive, in my view, are the agents and agencies that understand their customers – and perhaps are vertical or even niche-focused – and that view the glass as at least half full. Yes, it’s true that the old way of doing business is going away but the new way actually offers tremendous opportunity. Instead of selling Internet access for perhaps $20 per user per month you can sell hosted applications that could amount to $100 per user or more. Agents that spend the next year clinging to the old way will fail. Those that embrace the new opportunities can prosper.

Knowing your customers and having a narrow focus could be a real key. Here are a couple interesting examples. Did you know that in the US alone there are 350,000 dentist offices? Focusing on just dentists – by developing a suite of applications that meets their specific needs – could result in a huge business. If you assembled a bundle of hosted applications – PBX, CRM/Practice Management, HIPAA-compliant storage/backup, and a few other apps – you could offer dentists a differentiated choice to the generic offerings of the leading telco providers. And if 10% of all dentist offices became your customer for $500 each per month that would be a $200 million business. It’s just an example – but it does illustrate that there are types of opportunity available today that didn’t exist a few years ago.

Clouds, Clouds Everywhere

Walking the exhibit hall floor it is clear that “cloud” is a term that is nearly-universally embraced – in the industry. Most booths and collateral display the term prominently. The challenge with this – and any industry-darling buzzword – is to make it relevant to customers. “Cloud”, in my view, has a ways to go on that front. The real benefits of cloud-based application delivery depends on customers changing how they operate too. A business that still runs mostly conventional installed software and stores much of their data locally is not going to fully benefit from the potential of the cloud. How many businesses are really ready for a cloud-centric methodology? Who will educate them to the wisdom of this approach? The answer is likely circular: whoever does will be successful at selling them a bunch of cloud-based services.

Now I’m off to Startup Camp – one of my favorite features of IT Expo.

Matt Bramson, InPhonex Chief Marketing Officer Keynote Speaker at ChannelSolutions 2011 in New York on 1/25/2011

I am looking forward to being the keynote speaker at ChannelSolutions in New York next week. This all-day conference should be extremely worthwhile. Unlike a lot of other conferences this one promises to be refreshingly tactical. It is billed as an ”event [which] will bring experienced providers and sales partners together, sharing their insights on what works, what does not work, and why.” During the course of the day we will hear from more than a dozen providers of innovative business services. There is still time to register at http://channelsolutionstoday.eventbrite.com/

For my keynote I plan to establish a tactical tone at the outset. I believe strongly that 2011 and 2012 are going to be momentous for the business telecommunications marketplace. The next 24 months will be pivotal in determining the landscape for years to come – especially for cloud-based service providers and service distributors. Why do I say that?

I entered the telecom industry as a serial entrepreneur on the heels of the Telecom Act of 1996. I decided telecom was the wave to catch so I jumped on board what looked to be a promising ride: Craig McCaw’s Nextlink. The last 15 years have taught me how to read the currents, winds, and tides. Some are widely recognized like the transition to packetized voice, increased broadband penetration, the growth of wireless and smartphones, and the advent of the cloud-based service model. What makes the next 24 months so promising is that other forces are beginning to have a major impact. Here are three that need to be understood and mastered:

1. Customers are changing. They are increasingly comfortable with the idea that they must provide certain key elements of business solutions like adequate, high-quality bandwidth, a reasonably-well-engineered LAN, and an ability to quickly master user interfaces. Expectations like LAN assessments, on-site installation and training, and provider-performed moves, adds, and changes are diminishing – fast. The same people that have learned how to setup a PC or two, a wireless LAN and printers, and a NAS at home are gaining the confidence to do the same thing at work.
   
   
2. Services and service providers are changing. The fastest-growing business telecom service providers don’t have their own network or dozens of data centers or armies of field technicians or even large sales forces. What they have are services that solve important business problems and the ability to sell and deliver those services. Services are changing too. The cloud-based model provides efficient means to deliver specialized solutions. The old model presented major obstacles to creating a solution for a single type of business – the emerging model makes it possible and even preferable. And the large business telecom provider orthodoxy of never crossing the demarc has never been as crippling for them as it will be over the next 24 months.
   
   
3. Sales is changing (and needs to more and faster). Since about 1990 – the advent of the AT&T/MCI split-screen ads – telecom sales has been about making and proving one claim: a comparable service at a lower price. Telecom “salespeople” simply needed to find out what a business was buying and how much they were paying. Then they offered an equivalent service at a lower price and, a decent percentage of the time, they got a new customer. Most still practice the same approach. The large business telecom providers seem more or less convinced that this “sales” approach doesn’t urgently need to change. They just need to keep putting products and pricing in the hands of their “salespeople” that allow them to keep on keeping on. But the game has changed – and will continue to – right under their noses. It’s like the story of the boy who rode his bike across the border everyday – the guards would search him and find nothing – because he was smuggling bicycles. Telecom salespeople couldn’t/wouldn’t sell solutions so now they don’t – they sell bandwidth and other basic, commodity services that enable others to sell solutions on top. They’re selling the essentially the same stuff as they were 15 years ago only it’s not the solution anymore – and many seem just as blind to it as those border guards were.

What I think all this adds up to is a unprecedented opportunity for cloud-based business services providers to use the next 24 months to realize huge growth. Here are the keys: offer services that the large providers can’t or won’t, leverage the willingness of customers to be part of the solution, and – most important – sell through understanding and solving business problems (or partner with companies with salespeople that do). Two years from now several currently-unknown companies will be well on their way to $100 million in annual revenues from sales of cloud-based business services. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or more of them is in the room with me in New York next week.

InPhonex Selected by Nuance Communications to Stress-Test Custom Speech Applications

Using InPhonex Platform, Nuance Underscores Commitment to Delivering Positive Customer Experiences in the Contact Center

MIAMI – InPhonex, which provides a comprehensive array of telephony services, today announced an agreement to supply Nuance Communications, a leading provider of speech solutions, with a robust, high-capacity platform to stress-test its custom speech-enabled contact center applications.

The InPhonex platform generates the sustained volume of incoming calls needed to prove the resilience and capacity of Nuance’s applications, which automate functions otherwise performed by human agents. Playing prerecorded clips of callers’ utterances during the calls, InPhonex enables Nuance to test its customers’ contact center solutions before putting them into production – to deliver the best customer experiences.

Nuance is using InPhonex’s platform to make thousands of simultaneous calls to applications that Nuance has designed and deployed for Fortune 500 clients in retail, banking, travel and other industries. These applications, tested on Nuance customers’ servers, automate common telephone transactions, such as prescription refill requests, bill payments and airline-ticket purchases.

“Given the caliber of our clients and the volume of calls handled on a daily basis, it is important that we ensure our speech-enabled contact center applications stand up under very heavy customer usage before we put them into production,” said Ken Arakelian, IT Solutions Architect, Nuance Communications. “With its channel capacity, InPhonex enables us to test, without having to purchase dedicated PSTN connectivity for our own test bed. And thanks to InPhonex’s willingness to learn and adapt to our particular needs, we are able to control our test methods and our budget.”

As Nuance performs its testing, it draws from banks of prepaid calling minutes set up for each of its custom clients, keeping a tight rein on costs.

“Once we understood Nuance’s very specialized business requirements, we built them something our more typical, private-label service provider customer probably never would have dreamed of,” said Matt Bramson, Chief Marketing Officer of InPhonex. “Interestingly, Nuance’s success with us makes a great proof case for the qualities most providers look for in suppliers: capacity, reliability and flexibility.”

About InPhonex
InPhonex is a global meta-carrier providing a comprehensive range of high-quality, feature-rich telephony services in more than 150 countries. Leveraging its flexible, high-capacity telephony platform, Miami-based InPhonex serves communications service providers, businesses of all sizes, value-added resellers (VARs) and consumers, under its own and other brands.

Offerings include multiple applications, services and utilities, such as VolP, hosted PBX, SIP trunking, product creation and provisioning. Easy to implement, InPhonex solutions help businesses round out their portfolios to attract more customers, manage more efficiently and generate more revenue per customer. For more information, please visit www.inphonex.com.

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So What Haven’t You Heard Before?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Gary Kim, serial technology entrepreneur, journalist, and Mensa member (according to the backgrounder on him I was sent). Gary is the Editor-in-Chief of both Fat Pipe and IP Business magazines. Today I was a panelist in a session moderated by Gary. I enjoyed both the one-on-one discussion and the group discussion. One theme the two discussions had in common was “the death of the demarc.”

For a generation the demarc was the division between the service provider’s stuff/responsibility and the customer’s stuff/responsibility. IP telephony has started to change that and SaaS practically obliterates it. Whether you consider the death of the demarc to be good or bad probably depends on who you are and how satisfied you are with the status quo. It will be interesting, though largely predictable, to see who embraces the death of the demarc and who resists it.

The topic of the panel today was “The Business Case for VoIP – Going Beyond ROI/TCO” and I think going beyond the demarc to understand the needs and ambitions within the homes and businesses of your customers is one of the keys. This is what the launch of our new joint product with Ringio is all about. The Ringio On InPhonex (ROI) application is all about radically improving the way a business connects with its customers, collaborates internally, and assures its competitive edge. The dialog necessary for a business to appreciate the true value of ROI will be focused on topics like: Why do customers call you? What do your employees need to know about the customer as they answer the call? How important is it for you to be reachable and responsive to your customers? What business tools and information do your employees need when they are outside the office? How do you measure your communication effectiveness?

The questions that will not dominate a successful discussion include: How many phone lines do you have today? How much do you pay your current provider? How many minutes of calling do you do? These are the old, service-provider-side-of-the-demarc-questions – certainly not irrelevant but no longer the entirety or even the core of the discussion. It will not be easy for many service providers or their salespeople to make the adjustment. Many customers may also be slow to appreciate the importance of shifting their buying process away from simple price comparisons to more detailed reviews of capabilities and interfaces.

Walking out of the session I had a chance to talk with Gary one-on-one. I asked him, “So all day every day you talk to people like me about our companies and our products. Do you get tired of it? Does it all start to sound the same?” He had an interesting reply: “There is one question I never get asked that I wish I would. And it is, ‘How much of what I’m telling you is really unique?’” So, bravely, I did. “Gary, so what that I’ve said to you in our conversations yesterday and today haven’t you heard before?”

His reply was direct: “Everything you’ve said about the power and flexibility of your platform I hear from several different people every day – whether it’s more or less true in your case is hard for me to evaluate. But what is different and exciting is your vision. You and InPhonex really seem to have your strategy figured out. Your clarity of vision is a powerful differentiator.”

It made me think back to the presentation by Simon Sinek at the SAP Executive Partner Summit in Cancun. I wrote about it in August. I think InPhonex has our Why figured out while nearly every other company Gary talks to is fixated on What and maybe How.

Discussions with people like Gary are really helpful – if a bit intimidating. What it reminds me most of is the months I spent writing my Philosophy thesis in college. I’d spend weeks reading and thinking and writing and then I would go into a meeting with my thesis advisor, a professor and, in my case, the Chairman of the department. This was the moment that the previous weeks of thinking and writing were tested. Was I making any sense? Was there anything original to my thinking? How close was I to proving my argument?

So, at least according to “Professor Gary Kim”, we’re on the right course. In college that kind of feedback would have sent me in search of too much beer. Today it will send me into the office tomorrow with even more enthusiasm.

Press Release - InPhonex, Ringio Join Forces to Deliver Intelligent, Virtual PBX Functionality to SMB Market

October 5, 2010

InPhonex, Ringio Join Forces to Deliver Intelligent, Virtual PBX Functionality to SMB Market
Ringio On InPhonex (ROI) Reseller Offering Provides Advanced Telephony Features at Reduced Cost

MIAMI and HERNDON, Va., Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A new partnership between InPhonex and Ringio is giving small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) access to PBX features and functionality previously only available for large enterprises. Both companies will introduce the new service at ITEXPO, which runs Oct. 4-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Ringio On InPhonex (ROI) incorporates features from Ringio, a cloud-based Rich Calling Service, and InPhonex, a telephony platform service provider, to create a unique offering for SMBs, including:

• Server-free advanced call center functions designed for SMB users, including personalized greetings; the ability to intelligently route and forward calls based on the caller's history; a learning knowledge base about callers and other advanced collaboration features, such as presence, notes and contact sharing.
• A fully featured mobile application.
• Intelligent screen-pop capability, which presents CRM data in the context of calls.
• The ability to use existing soft phones and VoIP phones with Ringio.
• Local number portability (LNP) in 15 countries.
• Integrating all PBX and telephony services from one provider, eliminating the need for multiple vendors and lowering costs.
• Designing customized managed calling plans, including bulk calling, worldwide calling and personalized calling plans.
• A global telecommunications footprint that includes 75 countries.

"Unlike most hosted PBX providers, which take existing on-premise PBX platforms and move them to the cloud, Ringio was developed from the beginning as an intelligent, cloud-based PBX to address the unique needs of SMBs," said Ringio Co-Founder and Chairman Michael Zirngibl. "Ringio On InPhonex builds upon that goal by giving SMB customers a single provider for their telephony, call center and PBX needs."

InPhonex is recruiting and selling ROI through channel partners, which can white-label the service and resell it to SMBs, while Ringio is selling the service directly to SMB customers.

"ROI is an attractive addition to the offerings we provide our thousands of value-added reseller partners," said InPhonex Chief Marketing Officer Matt Bramson. "Not only does ROI enrich resellers' opportunity to target SMBs – the largest segment of the enterprise market – but it also gives them a set of features unlike any other in the market."

Ringio On InPhonex has an average cost per user of about $40 per month for unlimited calling and an end-to-end solution.

Now in beta release, Ringio On InPhonex is expected to become generally available by the end of 2010. For more about becoming a channel partner for Ringio On InPhonex, visit www.inphonex.com/ROI.

About InPhonex

InPhonex is a global meta-carrier providing a comprehensive range of high-quality, feature-rich telephony services in more than 150 countries. Leveraging its flexible, high-capacity telephony platform, Miami-based InPhonex serves communications service providers, businesses of all sizes, value-added resellers (VARs) and consumers, under its own and other brands.

Offerings include multiple applications, services and utilities, such as VolP, hosted PBX, SIP trunking, product creation and provisioning. Easy to implement, InPhonex solutions help businesses round out their portfolios to attract more customers, manage more efficiently and generate more revenue per customer. For more information, please visit www.inphonex.com.

About Ringio

Located in Herndon, Va., Ringio is the first cloud-based Rich Calling Service to intelligently route calls to any phone in the world along with relevant information about the caller – making conversations more meaningful and productive. Integrating intelligent call routing and CRM data, Ringio provides capabilities previously available only through call centers and proprietary customizations – bringing Rich Calling Services down market to small and medium-size businesses for the first time. By enhancing conversations with context about the caller, Ringio enables companies to significantly improve their interaction and service with the people that matter to their business. For more information, please visit www.ringio.com.

Thoughts from IT Expo West

Today was a busy one at IT EXPO. I had the opportunity to address a group of potential resellers and participated on two panels. In addition I was interviewed for a podcast (http://www.telecomreseller.com/category/podcasts/).

As I reflect on the day, three thoughts stand out:

1. I am excited about the relationship with Ringio we announced today (press release). We are calling the joint offering ROI: Ringio On InPhonex. The opportunity to offer a uniquely powerful hosted business application – one that combines a PBX, IVR, and CRM – to distributors as a white-label product is receiving an enthusiastic response.
2. There is tremendous energy in the next-generation telecom space right now. The IT EXPO show is well-attended; all the sessions I was in were full; and the exhibit floor was busy this evening.
3. Cloud-based telephony services represent an opportunity that is without precedent in the recent history of telecom: widespread profitability. Never before has it been possible to launch a telecommunications service offering and deploy it to tens of thousands of customers without spending millions of dollars on infrastructure. In the past the huge upfront debt crushed most start-up service providers. Many that survived had to go through bankruptcy restructuring in order to do so.

The downside of lower barriers to entry is a crowded marketplace (hence a busy trade show). The key to success – as it nearly always is – remains execution. The companies that can market and sell their service and retain their customers will have the opportunity for rapid, profitable growth.

It seems to me that execution is about creativity and hard work (also known as “inspiration and perspiration”). The creativity I am focused on right now is thinking about the all the companies that have the right resources and relationships to sell ROI but aren’t currently selling telecom services at all. More to come on this thought . . .

INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO West 2010

I am looking forward to attending TMC’s IT EXPO next week in Los Angeles. I have attended the last several IT EXPOs and have found them well-run and well-attended. This time I am looking forward to being able to participate in a number of the sessions.

Tuesday, October 5th at 10am – Presenting at Reseller Day 2.0
This is an innovative session. Typically trade shows have lots of sessions about technology segments or other somewhat abstract topics and it falls on the attendees to figure out how the content can benefit them. The intent of this session is to allow attendees to hear a series of brief presentations about products and services that they can practically run right out and resell. Given that InPhonex pioneered private-label VoIP resale eight years ago and has more than 3,500 resellers today, I am especially excited about being able to speak directly to a room full of eager potential resellers.

Tuesday, October 5th at 10:30am – Moving from Concept to Cash Flow with SaaS-Based Switching & Network Management Services
For this session I will be on a panel with other executives discussing the evolving technical and business models in the cloud-based business environment. It’s tough to predict the actual direction that a panel will take (and that’s part of what makes them interesting) but I expect to offer input from the InPhonex perspective which is that we have entered “the era of applications” and the demands on telecom service providers have changed. The competitive battleground has shifted. For a generation customers’ telecom decisions have been based largely on the “price” leg of the three-legged product, price, support stool. Today the “product” or application leg is bearing a lot of weight: consumers and businesses are demanding advanced features, powerful integration, and ease-of-use. For a clear illustration of this shift look at the mobile service/device/application marketplace(s). Many Internet telephony service providers are so consumed with managing their telecom platform (which they perceive to be essential to maintaining control of their service and its cost) and maximizing their distribution that they haven’t prioritized creating competitive applications. InPhonex offers an alternative: outsource your telecom platform needs to InPhonex and focus your resources to succeed in “the era of applications”.

Tuesday, October 5th at 11:30am – Minutes Merchants: Peering from Arbitrage to Outsourcing
This panel will be hosted by Hugh Goldstein who is someone I always enjoy having a conversation with – especially about our industry – because he is so knowledgeable. Again, predicting the content of a panel is tough but this one should be interesting because it is focused on an interesting topic about which I expect there are passionate views. It seems to me that the central question at issue is whether the wholesale “minutes merchants” business is dead or dying. I have my opinion: which is that predictions of this sort are inherently risky. Sometimes a “dying” business or segment is just one innovation away from a new peak. What I do know is that InPhonex is not focused on being a wholesaler. We believe that while remaining aware of wholesale pricing levels – and their psychological impact on our customers – InPhonex needs to remain focused on the value-add that our platform delivers. A wholesale minute or DID is not a solution. It’s like a single piece of a puzzle that many current and aspiring service providers don’t fully appreciate. To continue the analogy, many tend to think they are building a 10-piece puzzle when the reality is closer to a 100-piece puzzle.

Wednesday, October 6th at 9:30am – The Business Case for VoIP – Going Beyond ROI and TCO
This should be a great panel. I will share the dais with executives from other Internet telephony service providers to discuss what could be the Big Question for all of us right now: what are benefits of VoIP services that don’t show up on a lower monthly bill and how will these benefits get communicated to the marketplace? We have or are soon to reach the end of the opportunity to “pick the low-hanging fruit” of businesses and consumers that can reap huge savings with a switch to VoIP. We need to get proficient having a persuasive conversation about increased productivity, improved reachability, lower administrative costs, and the like. The providers that succeed at this have an opportunity for tremendous growth. Those that fail will be left fighting tooth and nail over the price-focused buyers. InPhonex’ core offering is to liberate service providers to focus on product excellence and advancement – by allowing them to outsource their telephony platform. The service providers that focus on the power and innovation of their offerings will be in a better position to have a credible dialog beyond “here’s how much lower your monthly bill will be with us . . .”

So next week is shaping up to be an active and exciting one for InPhonex and me. I hope to see many of our current customers at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Please attend one or all of the sessions above and, if you do, come up and introduce yourself – I am always eager to speak with a current or prospective customer.

Thoughts from the SAP Executive Partner Summit

by Matt Bramson, InPhonex CSO

I spent the day today at the SAP Executive Partner Summit in Mexico and three experiences stood out:

1. Singh Mecker of SAP provided some worthwhile perspective. For perhaps thirty years businesses have been capturing and storing data. There are now 4.6 billion mobile devices in the hands of consumers and they are demanding fast, effective access to that data. SAP wants to "orchestrate" (their current buzzword) that interaction. In Latin America (the focus of this Partner Summit) SAP has a massive marketshare lead (four times the share of their next competitor). The SAP ecosystem of customers and partners seems to have tremendous momentum. Curiously voice applications seem to be largely overlooked -- good thing I am suffering at a luxurious beachside resort for a few days to be here.
   
   
   
   
2. The keynote speaker was Simon Sinek, a Columbia professor and author. His presentation was very focused (which is a rare treat). He drew a target with three concentric circles and wrote "What" in the outer ring, "How" in the second ring, and "Why" in the center. His point was that most companies approach their customers with the What -- the products and services they provide -- then they go to the How -- that they have superior manufacturing processes or service quality -- and if they get to Why it is something like "to make money" or "to generate a high return on invested capital". But, Sinek argues, the Why is what connects emotionally with customers and this "outside-in" approach doesn't inspire anyone -- not customers nor employees. Great companies, on the other hand, “Start With Why” (the title of his book). Great companies make sure their customers and employees focus on the Why and then the How and What follow from that. He gave a few examples (like Apple -- of course) but I thought I'd try the exercise on InPhonex . . .
   
   
   1. Why? To provide consumers, businesses, and partners with the tools they need to create powerful, flexible, and profitable voice solutions without requiring them to invest significant capital, build and maintain infrastructure, or establish relationships with multiple telecom service providers.
      
      
   2. How? By building the InPhonex platform that has components to support the communication and collaboration needs of consumers, small businesses, enterprises, resellers, and service providers; that has online interfaces and payment tools for end users, administrators, entrepreneurs, and carriers; that has a scalable SOA architecture and complete APIs; and that is supported by an experienced, passionate team.
      
      
   3. What? Calling Plans, SIP Trunks, Hosted PBXs, worldwide DIDs/LNP, and many, many more products and services.
      
      
   So our goal, according to Sinek, is not to do business with everyone possible but rather to do business with the people who believe what we believe -- the people that connect with our Why. So the InPhonex customers we want are the ones that value our powerful, flexible platform and what we allow them to do with it. The consumers that don't connect to our Why may become our customer through manipulation (unbeatable pricing, fear, peer pressure, etc.) but not by inspiration. Some may even be repeat purchasers but they will never be loyal customers.
   
   Philosophically, I think he's right on. At first it seems counter-intuitive that the goal is not to have as many customers as possible. But if a majority of your customers are not on-board with your core mission and are only with you because you have successfully manipulated them, it is almost impossible not to lose your way (create and endless parade of products or promotions or other incentives to keep them). But if most of your customers believe in your vision and are loyal to it, how can you go wrong?
   
   
3. Lastly I had a chance to spend almost an hour talking privately with Patricia Hume, SAP’s dynamic Senior Vice President of their Global SME Indirect Channel. Our conversation covered a wide range of topics but, given her background as a senior executive at Avaya (where we crossed paths when I was with XO – an Avaya Platinum Partner), I was particularly interested in hearing whether she would validate my observation that the SAP ecosystem seems to have a dearth of voice applications. I think it’s fair to say that she agreed that SAP-integrated voice applications could be a fit for the ecosystem – particularly with SMEs. So it seems as soon as I get back from the beach we may have some work to do.

'Us, or A Whole Group' for Voice Services: InPhonex CSO

Recently TMC's CEO Rich Tehrani had a chance to sit down and interview the Chief Sales Officer of InPhonex, Matt Bramson.


The company's seven years old, and according to Bramson, the vision was to create a platform that could be used to create and resell Web services. READ FULL ARTICLE >