Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

As various services in the UC market become commoditized, Wildix sees their partners as central to the Wildix brand of offering customized services through a partner network. In this podcast, Robert Cooper, Managing Director of Wildix Americas discusses how Wildix’s MSP partners wrap their services around Wildix’s platform, while Wildix encourages the MSPs to be a visible brand in the mind of their respective customers. We learn about several new releases including x-bees​, a platform for routing all business communications - including VoIP calls, chats, video calls and more - into a single in-browser interface. The Wildix UC&C Summit 2021 also featured the announcement of x-caracal, Wildix's solution for tracking leads and customers throughout the sales process. Cooper also tells us about Wizywebinar, Wildix's all-in-one solution for creating, hosting and inviting potential customers to webinars. Cooper points out that Wildix’s cloud approach allows people a flexibility in not sinking capital into a technology that might not last.

Visit www.wildix.com

Understanding Sound Investment

According to a report issued by EPOS, last fall, “…83% of global business leaders say that audio equipment has become more important compared with two years ago.” In this podcast, Lars Riis Rasmussen, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at EPOS, discusses how the new work environment, which will likely combine work from home with work from office and elsewhere, buying high quality audio products represents a critical decision. As work is being carried out in many environments, EPOS makes the case that a better-quality device is a sound decision. Rasmussen outlines the background of EPOS and discusses the company’s unique offerings. We also get to understand the insights from the ‘Quality Audio: A Sound Investment’, that included replies from 2,000 decision makers across 7 global markets and sectors including IT, finance, business services, healthcare, and media. Rasmussen tells us EPOS represents a great opportunity for the channel offering a high quality solution to a current challenge.

Read the paper: https://www.eposaudio.com/en/us/enterprise/insights/white-papers/invest-in-audio

Learn more: https://www.eposaudio.com/en/us/enterprise

Sangoma is in a process that will end with the acquisition of Star2Star. Together, the two companies, well known to TR readers, will represent a considerable force in a rapidly changing market. The combined company will marry a significant installed on prem base with a strong cloud player. In this podcast, Jim Machi, SVP Product Management and Marketing at Sangoma and David Portnowitz, CMO at Star2Star give us the details and a glimpse at what comes next.

On January 29th, Sangoma announced it entered into a Definitive Agreement to Purchase Star2Star for $437 Million dollars, consisting of $105M in Cash and 110 Million in Sangoma shares. The deal is expected to close by early April, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. When the deal closes, the combined company will be a leading, profitable, financially stable Cloud Services company, with pro-forma revenues approaching $250M CAD with 70% recurring revenue.

In this podcast we learn how the combining of Star2Star’s complete suite of cloud communications services and products, combined with the existing Sangoma Unified Communications portfolio, will create an entity of meeting enterprise and SMB challenges, and needs during a period of migration. We also learn how the two companies plan to make these opportunities available to their channel partners.

Visit www.sangoma.com and www.star2star.com

Recently, Alianza, Inc., a leading cloud communications platform for service providers, announced that its Business Text Messaging product is now available. The cloud-based texting solution is purpose-built for communication service providers (CSPs), enabling them to grow commercial revenue, stand out from the competition, and deliver a compelling new communication service to their small and medium business (SMB) customers. In this podcast Justin Cooper, Customer Success & Product at Alianza, discusses BTM as an opportunity for the service providers and an immediate need for many of their customers. “We think this is a nice easy sell for the service providers,” says Cooper. “We see this is a nice add on,” continues Cooper who sees BTM as a value add, and also a “wedge”, permitting Alianza’s partners to offer something unique. Cooper also discusses various uses, including customer communication, outreach, notification and more. The solution is managed from an intuitive web portal where businesses can have two-way conversations with their customers. Supporting multiple users and features including automated keyword responses, scheduled responses, contact management, and outbound marketing campaigns, SMBs can leverage their phone number for multiple inbound and outbound communications.

Visit https://www.alianza.com/

As a result of COVID-19, many Managed Service Providers have had to adjust their operations to adapt to the companies around the country that were modifying their operations resulting form the pandemic.  Greg Tinker, SVP/CTO and Matt DeCurtis, Director of Operations at Anexinet provide Don Witt of The Channel Daily News, a TR publication, an overview of the current MSP trends based on COVID-19 and customer demands. Trends in IT management have also been affected as a result of the pandemic.

A new normal is emerging for MSPs and IT management. Greg and Matt identify what those new norms include and exclude.

Greg Tinker

From intelligent, full-stack engagement strategies and solutions to modern, secure infrastructure products and services, Anexinet focuses on technology-enabled business transformation that drives value. For over two decades, Anexinet has helped companies worldwide solve their most complex challenges—from engaging front-end interactions to dependable back-end solutions. Anexinet’s record of client success springs from a culture rooted in thought leadership and delivery excellence.

For more information, go to: https://anexinet.com/

Matt DeCurtis

About Matt DeCurtis

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdecurtis/

 

 

 

About Anexinet Managed Services

https://www.anexinet.com/managed-services/

About Anexinet Cybersecurity Solutions

https://www.anexinet.com/cybersecurity/

Today’s sourcing of contractors is more complex than ever. Companies need skilled help for projects that are often very integral to the company’s core mission and identity. But what you don’t know about your contractors could be a big problem. In this podcast, Jeff Muto, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Veriforce discusses how the support of a technology platform with data, analysis, and reporting to prequalify contractors for work and a mechanism to track and report ongoing performance can help to mitigate ongoing risks. Muto outlines a path for telecom companies to hire and manage safe and qualified contractors to ensure quality work, performance, and productivity. We also learn about some of the vulnerabilities and expenses that can occur without a service such as Veriforce.

Visit www.veriforce.com

Eddie Oyakhilome

The venerable SBC has proven again to be a most useful product, this time in the use of Microsoft Teams for voice and real time communications. In addition to a number of storied names offering SBC based solutions in the market, there is TE-SYSTMES offering a different SBC based approach: a no equipment virtualized SBC. In this podcast, Eddie Oyakhilome, Senior Vice President - Business Development for NA, LATAM, APAC, and EMEA outlines his company’s unique solution and the company’s very close work with the Microsoft team that works on Microsoft Teams. TE-SYSTEMS is an anynode Session Border Controller (SBC) for Microsoft Teams, and is certified for Microsoft Teams. Anynode is a pure software solution which offers a simple and quick access to the user interface with many advantages in comparison to basic hardware solutions. Anynode software SBC connects to almost any telephony trunk or interconnect with third party PSTN equipment with the use of Direct Routing. In addition, the installation on the Cloud, Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms reduces administration expenses. Oyakhilome, outlines how TE-SYSTEMS offers an opportunity for the channel to get involved or up their game in the Teams market. We learn about incentives and other aspects of their partner program.

Watch a video https://youtu.be/52QcLSEHRts

Visit https://www.anynode.de/features/

Listen to the podcast below

Rob Rodier

In 2020, the Lightyear team launched a website where customers can source quotes, compare prices, implement and manage their IT network infrastructure services for free. In this podcast, we speak to Rob Rodier, a telecom industry veteran and VP of sales at Lightyear, to learn about the Lightyear platform and how it utilizes its 400+ provider network to save time and money for the modern enterprise.

Lightyear is a pre-series startup that’s revolutionizing the way enterprises procure their network infrastructure. In the digital world we live in, buying network infrastructure is still a very inefficient, offline and painful process for customers. If this sounds familiar to you, check out this podcast.

Rob Rodier, the VP of Sales for Lightyear, speaks to Doug Green on Telecom Reseller about how his 15 years of experience in the telecom industry led him to Lightyear and how the Company is changing the way customers procure and manage their networks.

In today’s world, the status quo network infrastructure buying process involves multiple phone calls and long wait times for quotes, among other nuisances. According to SourceToday data, inefficient purchasing like this costs business more than 6,500 hours per year, adding up to more than $170,000 in needless expenses. In addition to wasted time, savings are left on the table during the quoting process due to the opaque and complex pricing market in the telecom industry.

Lightyear provides customers with a free online interface to request quotes for their specific network specifications, and then guides customers through the negotiation, implementation, and contract rebidding process.

Lightyear has an edge on data as well as they’ve sourced thousands of quotes from a network of 400+ providers. This enables the Company to ensure you are getting the best pricing, and make consultative suggestions when necessary. Check out their free online questionnaire to see for yourself!

Average business internet access costs based on a breakdown of ~1,000 price quotes.

The chart above shows pricing insights gathered by Lightyear for business internet connectivity. As expected, dedicated internet access is more expensive than a best efforts internet connection. On a more interesting note, notice that pricing does not scale with bandwidth, e.g. the 500Mbps DIA price is less than double that of the 100Mbps DIA price.

Sound interesting? For more information, go to: https://lightyear.ai?cid=HOENrb

Work from home, work from anywhere, these are the order of the day and what appears to be the shape of the new decade. In this VideoCast, Brian Phillips, Director of Product Marketing, Group Solutions of Poly walks us through the Poly Studio P Series, a suite of personal pro-grade video and audio conferencing devices to help workers in many settings, including home, office and more.  Phillips discusses:

Studio P5 Webcam precision-tuned for exceptional video conferencing, 80 degree view, integrated privacy shutter and automatic lighting compensation

Studio P15 Personal Video Bar with 4K clarity, AI technology, automatic camera framing, certified for Teams and Zoom

Studio P21 Personal Meeting Display with a display, integrated ambient lighting, camera and audio all-in-one

Studio P5 Kit which pairs the new Studio P5 webcam with a Poly device of choice – whether that’s a Poly Voyager or Blackwire headset, or a Poly Sync portable speakerphone –  you choose what works best for you.

For added convenience with IT managers in mind, the entire Poly Studio P Series comes with access to the new Poly Lens Desktop App, so businesses can easily manage a remote workforce from the cloud, as well as the brand new Poly+, an exclusive personal device support service. These new offerings encompass hardware, software, support and services all in one seamless package that makes set-up super easy for the user and management from IT even easier.

Watch product videos on YouTube

Read the Poly Blog

Watch or listen to the podcast below

How can enterprises be more agile? Leadership looks to IT, but even today IT administration can be cumbersome and costly. But it doesn’t have to be. Enterprises can save time and money by automating their unified communications and contact centers. They can streamline and standardize user on-boarding and off-boarding and gain real-time visibility into user resource allocation.

Starfish Provisioning Manager for Cisco Collaboration Solutions is a communication management tool that can help enterprises provision user resources more quickly and consistently. Its modular features make managing Cisco systems easier even for operators with no advanced knowledge.

Michael Stahl, Vice President of Starfish Associates, works closely with enterprise customers and the Starfish engineering team to help solve the day-to-day challenges of administering UC and CC on-prem and in cloud and hybrid environments. In this podcast, Michael shares how Starfish developed Provisioning Manager to make digital transformation more accessible for mid-size enterprises and what new features are included in the latest release.

Visit starfishassociates.com for more information.