Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

Promise of 5G is arriving as infrastructure investments amplify long promised gains  

“The hard work of putting the fiber on the ground, mounting the radios on the towers, and securing the spectrum, which is one of the largest capex investments that needs to go in for the telcos to secure the right spectrum… and we are getting to a point in the US for example… that the coverage of 5G is almost there,” says Ragu Masilamany, VP and Global Head of Solutions Engineering. “Now we are starting to talk about advanced services over the infrastructure.” According to some industry analysts, by 2030, 5G will reach $7 trillion in economic value. In this podcast we learn about how that value is being delivered in practical and timely ways.

Communications service providers (CSPs) want faster monetization of 5G – and as recession fears loom and energy costs increase, some have a shortsighted view of the network’s true long-term impact. However, industry leaders see a much different picture, with 5G investments already paying off for customers through increased video/gaming usage on 5G (vs. 4G), private 5G networks and customized network packages, demonstrating a taste of what's possible.

“Mobility is here to stay. Flexible workforces are here to stay. And, the quality of the communication is ever more important,” adds Masilamany. “Almost every call is a video call and so that brings additional demand son the network.” To conduct business in the distributed hybrid work model, to achieve factory automation and to do many other things from smart city initiatives to logistics, 5G, or at least the things 5G delivers, has moved from potential gains to expected and needed services.

Visit www.amdocs.com

AI as a planning tool, has arrived

“Spreadsheets, yes spreadsheets,” says Jimmie Lee, CTO of XFactor.io. According to Lee, CROs use spreadsheets (yes spreadsheets) to plan their path and angle of attack as they guide their respective organizations through their go market pan.  In this podcast, Lee tells us how XFactor.io has taken those behaviors, and using AI, to build a platform that can inform a CRO how best to invest company funds, to understand predicted results from investments under consideration and to build out sales teams to generate revenue. By utilizing new technologies is a very informed way, XFactor.io can provide the type of information that was once only available to the very largest firms, and even then, possibly not as deeply insightful as what can achieved on the XFactor.io platform. AI as a planning tool, has arrived.

“Sustaining revenue is the hard part,” says Lee, noting that the platform provides a very accurate insight into what will be needed as a company goes from step one to step two, from take-off, to sustainable revenue and growth. The mis-investment of resources is a big cause of young firm failure.

Lee discusses the new MIKEY platform, which features an AI model that was built and trained on XFactor.io’s market data and the combined knowledge of the company’s leadership team. The launch of this platform marks a pivotal moment for XFactor.io and comes after the company recently acquired DecisionLink. With this latest offering, XFactor.io will be able to further enable businesses of any size to make real-time revenue-growth-based decisions at scale.

Visit www.XFactor.io

Jabra announced new AI-powered features for its PanaCast 50 and PanaCast 50 Room System at InfoComm 2023

“There are nine processors onboard the PanaCast 50,” says Jabra’s Chief Video Evangelist, Josh Blalock. “It allows us to iterate on that product over time.” That computing power has been driving a wave of announcements of onboard features that the PanaCast 50 can deliver, bringing together technologies that a client would have had to purchase separately. An intelligent Meeting Space feature, which people may understand as room boundary, works to include people who are in the meeting while excluding people who might be nearby but are not in the meeting. Intelligent speaker, a Microsoft connected technology, that identifies people, by name in meeting transcripts. Facial recognition, using AI, which drives notes and other information coming out of a meeting. And improved meeting equity with three video streams: the first stream is the current speaker, the second stream is for the previous speaker, and the third stream is the full panoramic room view of the meeting room or space.

In this podcast, Blalock lays out Jabra’s broad vision behind the parade of announcements so far this year. “Workers need devices that are not just built for being remote, but are built to be on the go,” says Blalock, noting that many of this year’s devices have specialized, small footprint and light, carrying cases, designed for users to be able to tuck a device into a case going in to a car or a subway, and then easily plug and play, from wherever they are. The quality gap remains for laptops, phones, and other devices, while the need to provide high quality and consistent meetings and sessions remains. “You want to be your best self wherever you are, and that’s what these devices do.”

Visit www.jabra.com

·      Cloud Communications Alliance and Jabra Event in Copenhagen: A Day of Thought Leadership

·      Content Guru Extends storm’s Sentiment Analysis Capabilities Through Jabra Engage AI Integration

·      Jabra PanaCast video solution first to market with all-new Microsoft device ecosystem platform

·      Jabra expands the Evolve2 range with the most portable and comfortable headsets built for ultra-flexible hybrid working

·      Jabra Elite 4 – feature-packed entry earbuds for both work and play

·      Jabra launches PanaCast 50 Video Bar System to facilitate next-level hybrid meeting experiences

·      Jabra showcases true wireless expertise for consumers, enterprise and medical at CES 2023

The regulatory landscape surrounding taxes on telecom services is perhaps the most complicated and complex tax structure in the United States. The number of taxing authorities varies from 10,000 to 17,000, all of which can impose taxes and fees on the different types of services provided by carriers. The tax rates in these jurisdictions are constantly changing, and their boundaries can vary from one street to the next or cover an entire metropolitan area. Due to this complexity, it is easy to unintentionally fall out of your compliance requirements, which can result in regulatory fines and penalties. Mishandling these obligations can also have other unintended consequences when you go to sell your company, take your company public, or even access a line of credit.

In this podcast, Brent Reeves, Chief Revenue Officer, discusses how the CereTax platform offers a robust solution for telecom businesses navigating the intricate landscape of communications tax regulations. Although CereTax is the newest communications tax solution, both Reeves and the CEO, Mike Sanders, have extensive experience in developing telecom tax software. Reeves emphasizes that CereTax's platform is built on decades of knowledge and expertise, stating, "This is the third engine we have built and is by far the most advanced, not only from a technology perspective but also its flexibility and ease of use." CereTax is designed to be user-friendly, enabling a smooth transition from other tax automation providers, and offers dynamic AI tools for finance teams.

Visit www.ceretax.com

Having started 46 Labs servicing carrier communication problems,46 Labs soon realized that large enterprise had very similar problems. Trevor Francis, CEO of 46 Labs, discusses with Don Witt of The Channel Daily News how they were able to support both channels fixing anything that would break in communications.

It was not long before 46 Labs was able to assemble a complete platform called Peeredge. Trevor provides two examples of how their technology is integrated into a carrier’s network and how they integrate their technology into enterprise as well.

Trevor Francis

Carriers and enterprises find Drag and Drop automation, push-button technology, global infrastructure, Peeredge and working with major organizations around the world to establish voice connectivity are standout features of 46 Labs.

Trevor will also discuss the reason that telecom companies use SaaS and the cyber security risks associated with SaaS technology.

This is good technology and it will help those carriers and enterprise that are short staffed, short on internal technical capabilities and may also need a network overhaul.

46 Labs is the world’s connectivity orchestration company. IT leaders harness their trusted Peeredge™ platform to bring together and interconnect the foundational infrastructure that powers their success - all while orchestrating connectivity sustainably and securely.

46 Labs Orchestrates the World’s Connectivity™. Digital leaders harness their automation platform and team of experts to orchestrate the foundational elements that power their global success. They enable their clients to ease their operational burdens and expand their reach across any connectivity medium.

For more information, go to: www.46labs.com or call +1 (888) 646-5227

As seen at CiscoLive, SmarTrak informs Cisco partners on what they need to work on next, make better use of the Cisco data you already get but may find difficult to manage and use.

The new reality of the recurring revenue model are the multiple contracts, subscriptions, and other renewals, that must be renewed. Cisco partners might be confronted with a spreadsheet of multiple rows and columns of services to renew, change, or replace, without a sense of where to begin, what to focus on. All of this occurs a t a point of revenue vulnerability. The customer might reduce services, not understand the value of some subscriptions, and possibly defect altogether. SmarTrak helps Cisco Partners and their customers, transforming Cisco data into actionable insights. In this podcast we learn how SmarTrak, a next generation SaaS application, helps partners succeed with the Cisco data they get on client renewal.

Helps prevent lost renewals, lost rebates, customer defections.

“We take that information and distill it down to, here’s the contracts you have, here’s the customers you have… and be able to interact with the end customer to say, ‘We need to renew, replace, retire, or do a tech refresh, on these individual items and get contracts renewed’,” says Ted Lee, CEO of SmarTrak. “This is a significant time sync and any of these lost renewals, or lost tech refresh opportunities, is real lost revenue.” SmarTrak organizes this critical renewal process, helps protect recurring revenue and helps partners make sure that the right mix of Cisco and Cisco backed services are being delivered as customer needs and Cisco’s technologies, advance.

Visit https://smartrak.io/ 

CiscoLive News

Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-founder of Keeper Security, continues his talk with Don Witt of the Channel Daily News, a TR publication in Part 2 where Darren continues his discussion about Privileged Access Solutions (PAM). He describes how traditional PAM solutions are falling short, and what IT pros need to do when it comes to Privileged Access Management. Darren also describes how Keeper Security excels at PAM.

Darren Guccione

Darren provides advice to organizations struggling with identity and access security. He finishes with future goals and what the company is currently focused on for release soon.

If you are concerned about security, lock down the corporate and enterprise passwords. By doing this alone, 80% of the threats will be neutralized.

Keeper Security is one powerful platform that protects every user on every device.

Deploys in just minutes.

Protecting millions of people and thousands of companies globally as the trusted and proven cybersecurity leader.  An easy-to-use platform that unifies critical components of Identity and Access Management and enables zero-trust transformation.

Visibility, security and control - Keeper’s platform gives administrators the power to fine tune their organization’s access levels to critical data and credentials across individuals and teams. Keeper uses role-based access control (RBAC) to support least-privileged access and tracks all user activity from every location and on every device.

For more information, go to: https://www.keepersecurity.com

For an individual, passwords become a nuisance when too many are involved. For a business, it becomes an incredibly large security risk if not managed properly and could have serious financial and operational consequences.

Darren Guccione

Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-founder of Keeper Security, talks with Don Witt of the Channel Daily News, a TR publication about who are Keeper’s typical customers, and what are their customer’s main challenges when it comes to password security.  Additionally, Keeper’s password manager significantly differentiates Keeper Security from other solutions in the password management space.

Darren also discusses why a zero-trust security framework is essential and why zero knowledge encryption is critical.

Keeper Security’s  Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions are critical to the enterprise in today’s evolving threat landscape.

Keeper Security is transforming cybersecurity for people and organizations around the world. Keeper’s affordable and easy-to-use solutions are built on a foundation of zero-trust and zero-knowledge security to protect every user on every device.

Their next-generation privileged access management solution deploys in minutes and seamlessly integrates with any tech stack to prevent breaches, reduce help desk costs and ensure compliance. Trusted by millions of individuals and thousands of organizations, Keeper is the leader for best-in-class password management, secrets management, privileged access, secure remote access and encrypted messaging. Keeper is backed by Insight Partners, a leading, global venture capital and private equity firm.

For more information, go to: https://www.keepersecurity.com

Learn Build Succeed

SkySwitch sells a white label service that enables the channel to sell just the right set of solutions to the customer is a big part of the approach. In this podcast, William Brister, Director Onboarding and Product Billing Services discusses how the goal is to make people independent. “We want our partners to be independent,” says Brister. Understanding the motivations of their channel partners is the basic building block of the program. Brister says that SkySwitch knows that people want to build a successful family-owned business or to create some other similar going concern that has equity value in the long run and can provide a good living over the medium term. People are seeking a partner that respects that goal of independence, and that obtainment of that goal begins with onboarding.

Learn Build Succeed

Many partners are surprised at the independence level being offered. Partners can build their own catalog of services. A companies onboard, they encounter a good deal of personal tough care and training, the care and training are all designed to prepare the partners to roll on their own, with all the support they need, but with a level of training where they can make successful sales right from the start. We learn about the company’s “Learn Build Succeed” succeed approach.

“We love to see our partners succeeding all the way to retirement or sale.”

Visit www.skyswitch.com

Updating the last century’s last mile

“It has to start at the edge and then work towards the core,” says 46 Labs CEO, Trevor Francis. But the edge is large, and migration can be costly. At a moment when we are discussing the possibilities of AI, a 5G enabled hybrid workforce and CPaaS, telecoms and enterprises can’t ignore a giant legacy infrastructure investment, the enormous copper legacy networks. In this podcast, Francis outlines the problems carriers and enterprises are facing this modernization process. We take on compliance issues, with an eye to the still existing regulatory framework that exists. Francis tells us about approaches that begin in the core. “It’s a little bit of pull and a little bit of push,” says Francis of the step by step, phase by phase process. “The last mile has to be replaced,” Francis outlines, but we learn that there are so many systems that any migration impacts, that organizations must look at each step. We learn how 46 Labs can help in this by offering ways to avoid having a complete rip and replace.

46 Labs can solve for outdated network issues in real time without having to overhaul the entire system. While replacing the network is the ideal choice, those who cannot make the massive change must turn to software providers who can monitor and update network technology that poses a risk to users.