Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

“A tariff is basically a tax” …  “There’s are three lists of products that have been covered under tariffs, and a fourth list is threatened, that basically cover all of the additional goods that come out of China,” says Arthur Freierman, an attorney who serves as outside counsel to the AscdiNatd. Freierman has assisted the AscdiNatd with the organization’s ethics process, which seeks to maintain best practices for members and for the industry as a whole. Now, with tariffs as a new political and economic issue, Freierman has been offering advice to the organization and the organization’s members as they navigate through an unprecedented, in modern times, era of tariffs and potential “trade wars” with nations such as China. China is a major manufacture for much of the gear AscdiNatd members sell, buy and service. “The total of the first three lists is about $250 billion of product annually that would be subject to tariffs, bug the fourth list as an additional $267 billion, so it adds up?!”

In this podcast Freierman lays out what dealers and other channel partner companies need to know and understand about tariffs and the process that add or remove tariffs. He discusses what buyers and sellers should understand if they are trading across a border where tariffs have been imposed. A major takeaway is that tariffs view the products place of manufacture, and not where its being shipped from, as to what tariffs might be levied. A company importing used equipment originally made in China is likely going to face tariffs as if the gear was being imported from China, even if the used equipment is being sold and shipped from a country other than China. Freierman outlines resources available and ways for members to stay up to date on tariff status. Since many AscdiNatd members operate on buy and sell price differentials, tariffs can change the price or desirability of certain transactions. Freierman also points out that attempts to avoid tariffs by improperly processing declarations and other documents ca lead to still penalties and fines.  Keeping current and best practices are a sound way to proceed.

Freierman notes that the AscdiNatd has been working on public policy while keeping members up to date on the tariff situation unfolds.

“We have released support for this, that will facilitate integrating voice right into Microsoft Dynamics, says Dale Gantous of InGenius, “… and we’re one of the first ones to have done that. According to the company’s announcement on December 3, the new InGenius Connector Enterprise release, CIF-compatible with Microsoft Dynamics versions 9.1 and higher, incorporates the responsive design of Microsoft Dynamics with the interface for InGenius CTI for better usability. Gantous says that this will better enable contact centers to march customer demands in terms of how people wish to communicate, be it by phone, chat, SMS or social media. The days of siloed contact centers are over, she says. Even while the announcement is just days old, queries have been porting in. Gantous notes that InGenius works with Avaya, and “… all three flavors of Cisco”, along with Genesys.  Gantous notes how this release can also leads to improved use of contact center labor resources, as agents become more efficient with improved agent access to data. “They (the agents) feel better, they’re smarter, and they can help the customer more quickly.”

Visit www.ingenius.com

“In order to take care of the future we have to take care of the past,” says Eric Bauer, VP Marketing and Business Development, for North America. In this podcast, Bauer notes that AudioCodes, which makes a very large line of products of the most advanced nature, continues to offer its famous analogue gateways and these devices now have new currency as migration tools, connecting the hard to migrate and last to migrate end points such as on elevators and other on-campus locations. Bauer notes that in a hospital, patients are given a take-away or disposable phone. The instrument is replaced with each new patient. But an IP phone is not disposable, so AudioCodes analogue gateways are a great way to keep these devices connected. Bauer outlines how analogue gateways fit into a longer-term migration strategy.

Visit www.audiocodes.com

For the first time in over a half a century, the AscdiNatd is hold a meeting in South America. The region, which includes some of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies, represents a new opportunity for ASCDI members. In this podcast, Todd Bone, president and founder of XSi and Chairman of the AscdiNatd, outlines upcoming April event. Bone reports that the show will offer attendees many networking opportunities in events that also offer people a chance to learn about Buenos Aires and its rich history. The conference will be held at the Faena's Buenos Aires, which Bone says will itself be an exciting experience. The conference will not only offer ASCDI members to meet new potential equipment and services partners, the event will offer information on how to get started in working with South and Central American markets in terms of trading rules, shipping and more. Early registration is available until the end of the year and non-members are invited to attend. Sponsorships are still available.

Visit www.ascdi.com and the registration page to learn more.

As technology progress continues to move forward, accelerate and shrink, more can be done with less. So it is with satellites.  The massive communication satellites previously launched are not necessarily the answer for every situation. Meir Moalom, CEO, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sky and Space Global describes the technology to Don Witt of The Channel Daily News, a TR publication.

With Nano-technology, the Nano-Satellite acts as a cell tower in the sky at a lower orbiting altitude.  This limits the effective range of the service to a 1,000 mile sphere on earth’s surface as it moves around the globe.

There are huge areas around the globe that do not have the infrastructure to support cellular communications or IoT technology.  With the Nano-Satellite technology, areas previously unreachable can now be service allowing hundreds of millions that have smart phones to use the lower cost service. Africa, South Africa, Central America and others can now expand their service to additional remote areas.

Sky and Space is looking for carriers that service these locations to augment their service with the Nano technology. Listen in and hear how the technology can help you.

SAS is the first company to plan, build and operate a telecommunication commercial network over Nano-Satellites.

SAS operates in the field of Nano-Satellites, which is now the most popular type of satellites for diverse commercial usage. The low mass and high capabilities of Nano-Satellites makes them the preferable choice for constellations and applications in the New Space industry.

For more information, go to: https://www.skyandspace.global/

Last week, Convey Services unveiled the 2019 Sales Partner Outreach Program designed to help Telecom/Cloud suppliers team-up with master agents to deliver continuous outreach, education and promotion to sales partners and their customers. In. this podcast, Carolyn Bradfield, CEO of Convey, discusses the program including the Convey portal home page, the portal’s integrated email messaging engine, educational webinars and Conduct’s email campaign technology. Bradfield notes that as return on investment declines on one-time, expensive event based marketing, there was a need for a new and more up to date approach. Since the announcement, partner interest has been strong.

Visit www.conveyservices.com

“Network architects need to establish a long reach PoE backbone to support their IoT objectives, today and into the future,” says John Croce CEO of NVT Phybridge. In this final segment of a seven-part series on the Modern LAN, Croce walks us through a view of a modern network using modern LAN principles. Croce says that IoT endpoints – and by extension the supporting infrastructure – have been treated like exceptions. IoT means more devices, more connections and that means more security vulnerabilities. Croce discusses how these end points must be treated as the norm, not the exceptions. Croce discusses NVT Phybridge CHARIoT series of long reach power over ethernet technology including managed, unmanaged, and extender products to address all end-user needs.

This is the final episode of a 7-episode podcast series in which John Croce and Doug Green discuss the six principles of the Modern LAN; as well as why every consultant, system integrator and end-user need to be familiar with the principles and how organizations have already leveraged them to achieve better results. Modern LAN white paper and the principles within are the result of Frost & Sullivan industry analysts recognizing an alarming trend - IoT deployments are impacting the business network in an alarming way; raising concerns around network complexity, network performance and reliability, network security, long deployment times, environmental concerns, as well as the infrastructure costs and barriers that organizations are experiencing as they attempt to support IoT deployments.

Download the Modern LAN white paper free at https://go.frost.com/modernlan

Learn more about NVT Phybridge at http://www.nvtphybridge.com/chariotproducts/

The Software as a Service market is taking off and redefining the channel as it grows.  Dina Moskowitz, CEO of SaaSMAX, explains to Don Witt of The Channel Daily News, how she saw the channel changes early on when she started SaaSMAX.  She and SaaSMAX are now helping define the channel. Having recently signed a deal with D&H, SaaSMAX now has access to Office365 products and D&H resellers now have access to the many complimentary Office365 products from SaaSMAX.

Vendors are increasingly having a difficult time identifying good resellers especially since the channel is changing. Vendors that work with SaaSMAX have access to their in house developed IP – Partner Optimizer.  This tool will allow SaaSMAX to identify the key traits/characteristics of the vendors technology from their current resellers and internet-based technology websites.  Once identified, they can apply these traits/characteristics to resellers in the expansive SaaSMAX reseller database.  Identifying those with the closest fit to the vendor’s technology profile results in high probability prospects for the vendors sales team to target.

Individual vendors do not have the time or money to develop this sophisticated channel IP technology.  More and more vendors realize they can get ahead of their competition with key partners like SaaSMAX that can expedite the channel building process for new vendors or rebuilding process for existing vendors. Vendors that have a channel, in most cases cannot profile their resellers.  With SaaSMAX’s help, you can not only profile them, you can focus on the key resellers and bring on more resellers with the same characteristics.

Listen in as Dina discusses the process and how she can help vendors be more successful!

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

Better experiences for Cisco users

Often overlooked, or neglected, user experiences are important. The poor quality of UC sometimes provided by enterprises to their customers or their own associates, impacts worker productivity, customer satisfaction and brand reputation. In this podcast Steven Purcell, Senior Director, Global Cisco Program Management at Nectar defines what we mean by customer experience and what customer experience ROI. We learn about what can be done and what Nectar bring to the challenge. Purcell gives us an actual use case and outlines how Nectar’s close partnership with Cisco, plus Nectar’s ongoing partnership with Microsoft and Avaya, provides a path for multi-vendor platforms.

Visit www.nectar.com

Avaya ENGAGE conference, January 20-23, 2019 in Austin, TX

This week, the IAUG announced that Peyton Manning will be keynoting the IAUG’s annual Engage event in Austin, January 20-23. The announcement kicks off the run-up to a show that the IAUG leadership says will be rich in content and opportunity.

“We’ve strategically moved our IAUG Engage Event to the beginning of the year,” says Victor Bohnert, Executive Director of the International Avaya User Group (IAUG). In this podcast we learn how the event will also combine a number of traditionally separate Avaya events, so as the Avaya Partner Forum, to become connected to the event in January, allowing the many companies, developers, customers and partners of Avaya to “engage” each other and at the beginning of the year. In this podcast we learn about innovative ways attendees will have to learn and to network.

“The IAUG allows our members to be more competitive,” says Victor Bohnert, Executive Director of the International Avaya User Group (IAUG). Bohnert is describing what he describes is a three-way process, where Avaya’s user group enables a flow of communication between Avaya customers and Avaya, and Avaya customers and the Avaya channel.

Visit https://news.avaya.com/avaya-engage-2019