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 >

'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 (News - Alert), 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 MORE >

InPhonex: 'We Are Entering a New Era'

For today’s service providers, there’s no time like the present to invest in lucrative next-generation communications, from video to HD voice.

In turn, there’s no better time to be a company like InPhonex, which is focused on helping service providers create telephony products without having to dig their heels too deeply into telephony. READ FULL ARTICLE >