Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

“Looking at the B2B business, about 40% of the market are SMBs,” says Amir Blich, vcita, Chief Business Development Officer. “And it's a very volatile market. You cannot apply enterprise use cases and tactics to it. One in every three SMBs will not make it to the second or third year. It’s very difficult to invest in this market.”

“36%. told us that they recently changed their telco provider because of either pricing changes or a better offer.”

Amir Blich

vcita, the business management platform for SMBs and the organizations that serve them, conducted a survey of 250 SMB owners in the US about their relationships with their telcos. Take a listen as we look at the finding and gain understanding of how to better serve this huge, but very challenging sector.

The SMB market has high churn rates – why do you think that is?

How can telcos prevent that and better retain their valuable SMB customers?

What do these survey results tell us about how SMBs relate to their telcos?

Why are SMBs are looking to their telcos to provide more than just core services like phone and internet?

With so many telco providers out there, how can they remain competitive and relevant to the SMB market?

Are SMBs interested in AI? Should telcos be offering AI-powered apps as well?

What’s the best way for telcos to build and offer business management solutions to their SMB customers?

Visit https://www.vcita.com

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BYOC and Baked Potatoes… and API Driven

“Simwood is a forward-thinking, straight-talking, carrier, with a lot of carrier services to offer,” says David Duffet, Simwood’s Corporate Ambassador. “Simwood is built from day one as an IP carrier. We see some carriers sort of shivering in the corner and getting worried about legacy technology getting turned off. We're 100% IP.” Simwood has been serving the UK for 28 years and is a member of the Cloud Communications Alliance.

“We're API driven, so everything that we've built natively in our globally distributed core is addressable via an API. We do have a portal as well, so people can come in and turn things on and off and configure things, but they can do it programmatically via an API. And so if you're a forward-thinking service provider, you can use Simwood to connect your services and your customers.”

BYOC (and baked potatoes)

So, what’s a carrier doing talking about BYOC, bring your own carrier?

And what does that have to do with baked potatoes?

Watch this unique podcast to learn how Simwood is offering and building the service sets that match today’s needs.

“Dinosaurs, beware. Simwood, have the potato. Because we're IP native. We're API driven. We're open-source friendly. Everything has coalesced and come together to allow us to offer this potato.”

Visit www.simwood.com

View the Simwood Potato

While people are often viewed as the number one threat in cybersecurity, they can also serve as your strongest defense when properly trained.

As the last line of defense against cyberattacks, users want more than passive training and checking off “cybersecurity training” from a to-do list. No one enjoys the monotonous “next > next > finish” course format or feels motivated by punitive phishing training.

That’s where gamification comes in, addressing users’ genuine needs for an engaging, meaningful training experience.

In this podcast, Doug Green and Marcelo Barros explore the importance of effective cybersecurity training and how Hacker Rangers, a fully gamified security awareness platform, can deliver an engaging and enjoyable learning experience that enhances employee engagement and drives real behavioral changes.

Visit hackerrangers.com and learn more.

CX Revolution Extends Beyond The Contact Center, Creo Solutions Podcast, Can CX mean more than using technology in a technology industry?

“When we think about CX, as we've been talking about it as an industry, we've really been thinking about contact center,” says Robert Galop, Co-Founder of Creo Solutions ( www.creosolutions.tech ). Can vCons take us further? Can AI-empowered CX tools bring improved CX to industries such as consumer retail or automotive?

In this podcast, we hear from Thomas Howe, CTO of Strolid, a company bringing technological change to the automotive sector. “What we're saying about a CX revolution really comes down to the fact that with a new vCon standard, you're able to capture and collect and analyze all the things your customers say. For all the ways in which we weren't listening to them, either one by one or as a group, all of those improvements will now be available to us for the customer experience.”

“We mean big CX,” adds Howe.

Are you listening?

One of the aspects of this change is the simple act of listening. As Jeff Pulver points out, we listen with our minds, not our ears. We possibly hear a conversation, but we don’t necessarily process everything.  “If my sister and I vConned every conversation we had leading up to the last event we did, we would know who was right and who was wrong. Perhaps I was wrong, but I don't remember hearing certain things. But with a VCon, there's no more indecision because it'll be on record and it'd be authentic. It's authenticated what was said. And really what drives this is the confluence of not just this technology, but the fact that we're living inside of a gen AI revolution.”

Imagine the number of human misunderstandings driven by a lack of listening.

@Dave Michel, TalkingPointz, Special for TR

“AI is not going to replace people, humans, it's empowering humans,” says Filipe Leitão of RingCentral. “That's our narrative because that's what we see happening.” Dave Michel, of TalkingPointz shares with TR readers, RingCentral’s ideas on AI. Recorded at the recent UC EXPO, we learn how RingCentral looks at AI as a critical, and enabling, tool for the contact center and for across the enterprise.

“I think in one or two years from now, we're not going to be talking about AI because it's going to be part, an integral part of the product, whatever product we're talking about.”

Get more TalkingPointz

Learn about RingCentral

Learn about CCA

In part two of this series, Doug Green and Megan Howse, SVP of Marketing at iQmetrix, take a close look at the agenda and impressive keynote speaker line-up at SummitX 2024—the only event of its kind focused on telecom retail. Doug and Megan talk about the four conference tracks, the unmissable breakout sessions, and how telecom professionals of all kinds can benefit from attending this unique event.

About SummitX

SummitX by iQmetrix is the only event of its kind with a focus on telecom retail and Interconnected Commerce. We bring together all stakeholders from the industry, creating an interconnected community space packed with thought-provoking content, idea-sharing with industry professionals, and unmissable networking. We also make sure there are some great experiences and lots of fun along the way — including an epic mountainside party that you’ll never forget!

X is for the great experiences we’ll create.

X is for interconnectivity and intersectionality.

X is for the 10 (long) years since our last Summit.

SummitX is being held October 27-29, 2024 at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort and Spa, Arizona. For more information and to register, visit www.iqmetrix.com/summitx.

About iQmetrix

iQmetrix is the only provider of Interconnected Commerce software solutions for telecom retail. Interconnected Commerce is a complete set of software and technologies that are modular, flexible, and have telecom-specific capabilities, enabling telecom retailers to provide an uplifting experience for their customers. We empower telecom retailers to transact, activate, and fulfill products, as well as operate their business, and unify the online and in-store experiences. Our solutions powered $17BN in sales last year, and are used by 370,000 telecom retail professionals across almost 1,000 clients. iQmetrix is a privately held SaaS company with global employees. For more information, visit www.iqmetrix.com.

A major challenge facing the enterprise contact center is managing efficiency amidst the chaos. For many, this is a job for the supervisor.

In this podcast, Jamie Stewart, Marketing Manager at Sytel, discusses how automation can manage efficiency more quickly and accurately than supervisors, for both inbound and outbound contact and the interplay between them. Supervisors can be freed to coach and encourage, while agents are assigned automatically where they are needed most.

Resellers, MSPs, partners and enterprises can utilize CCaaS that provides these efficiency savings at scale, combined with the flexibility of cloud connectivity.

Visit www.sytel.com

TaxConnex tackles telecom tax complexity, offers white glove service, Podcast

“We don't want to just be a return provider,” says Robert Dumas, Managing Partner of TaxConnex. “We want to be part of the tax team. We want to be the telecom tax expert. So our clients can call us up with all sorts of tax questions unrelated to actual filings because we want to be able to help them manage the process holistically from invoicing all the way to the remittance.”

“In telecom specifically, you have significantly more localities, counties, and cities that have city ordinances or codes that give them the ability to directly assess a utility tax or communications tax. These taxes generally apply to communications, gas, or electric utilities. But it's thousands of potential returns throughout the country. And then, of course, you have to add the E911 fees. And, again, many of the E911 fees are collected at the city and county level because the cities and counties manage their own emergency management systems, and those fees are necessary to fund them. So we are still remitting thousands of returns a month specifically to folks in California Missouri Nebraska and Colorado, just every place that has a local E911 or utility users tax of some kind.”

In this podcast, Robert outlines how his firm offers a different take on telecom tax issues. Robert outlines how his firm offers a complete white glove service, with customized services and an interesting approach to providing personalized account services.

TaxConnex is a new CCA member who brings decades of tax experience their clients.

Visit https://www.taxconnex.com/

PCs for People Offers Full-Service Electronics Recycling While Delivering Technology to People and Communities, ASCDI Podcast

“We're a full-service electronics recycler,” says Loren Williams of PCs for People. In this podcast, we learn how PCs for People is not only a full-service recycler but also a recycler making a difference for both sides of the recycling process. For the organization disbanding retired equipment, PCs for People offers a secure and convenient way to dispose of equipment. On the other side of the recycling process are people who receive a needed machine, ready to use. “The most recent study I saw is that 40% of low-income households in the United States today lack access to a computer and or affordable Internet access. And at PCs for People, we're working to change that.”

“Our mission here is around digital equity and sustainability,” adds Williams. “So here's our impact last year. We were able to distribute 57,000 refurbished computers all across the United States. Because each computer supports more than one person, you can see we supported 140,000 individuals. This is just in 2023. We kept 6 million pounds of electronics out of landfills, and everything we collect stays out of landfills, even those computers we can't use. We'll harvest some parts, but we make sure that the rest of the computer gets responsibly recycled. And then a little bit about the demographics of our recipients, like 4.5 out of 10 or 45 out of 100 previously had not owned a computer. This is a significant achievement that we were talking about before, you know, that it's easy for a lot of people these days to just make an assumption everyone's got a computer.”

Many readers and listeners of TR and many members of the ASCDI community might know Loren Williams from his days at Comdisco. Today, Loren applies his rich experience in the secondary market industry to helping people gain needed access to the digital revolution.  “we will come out on-site as long as it's within a reasonable distance of one of our locations. And we'll pick up that equipment that's filling the closet, the hallway, the warehouse, the basement, the attic. We'll come in and pick it up with one of the trucks like this. There's no charge for the pickup. There's no charge for the data deletion service. There's no charge for the report about the data deletion that a lot of companies like in case they get audited.”

Users get a computer that has a warranty and technical support. “That copy of Windows is not the donor's license. We have a relationship with Microsoft to be able to load Microsoft operating systems. And then we start the distribution process in our retail stores, on our website, where we ship anywhere in the country, and through partnerships with social service organizations and other nonprofits that are reaching low-income households.”

Visit https://www.pcsforpeople.org/

UCaaS is not a final destination: Mitel’s Luiz Domingos On Mitel Common Communications Framework, Mitel, Zoom Partnership, It's just another option that comes as part of this kind of solution

“UCaaS is not a final destination,” says Luiz Domingos, Mitel’s CTO. “It's just another option that comes as part of this kind of solution. That's how we see it.” Domingos tells us that, based on customer feedback, Mitel developed the Mitel Common Communications Framework. “The Mitel Common Communications Framework is a blueprint. It's the evolution of our hybrid communication solutions encompassing products and services. By definition, a hybrid solution, a hybrid deployment, is a combination of certain applications on-premise, hosted, private clouds, and the SaaS, UCaaS type of deployments. All of them supporting and providing services to the customer. So, there's some research done recently by Frost and Sullivan and also our checks with our customers. The majority of the customers out there are utilizing hybrid deployments. So, this is a figure that will remain the same for the next three years. Over 80% of customers are hybrid. A small amount of customers are either full premise or full cloud.”

In this podcast, Domingos also discusses the just-announced partnership between Mitel and Zoom.

“At Zoom, we found a partner that believes that as well. So the option or the opportunity to work with Zoom and partner really addresses the hybrid deployment and combines Zoom Workplace, and Zoom AI Companion, with Mitel's flagship communication platforms, our platforms for voice, with all the infrastructure that we created through the years, 70 plus million users out there, with the opportunity now of bringing Zoom capabilities into those customers, ensuring that there is a Zoom-first experience adapted to the Mitel's hybrid portfolio. For us, the hybrid model in this case for enterprises will bring security, the control, and will take the best of both worlds scenario, correct? We're taking the mission-critical communications and the long-term experience that Mitel has in the marketplace.”

Earlier this month, Mitel and Zoom announced a strategic partnership designed to empower enterprises worldwide with a unique hybrid cloud solution that combines Zoom Workplace and Zoom AI Companion with Mitel’s flagship communications platform in a modern, deeply integrated communication experience. The partnership will introduce a Zoom-first experience within Mitel’s hybrid portfolio, including access to the full Zoom Workplace platform, which works seamlessly with existing Mitel investments.

“Our contact center is evolving and we're into our next-generation program that will create the solutions that our customers need for

AI and AI integration into our portfolio,” adds Domingos. “We're taking advantage of our large technology partnership community that are bringing very good products that augment the solutions around our voice and collaboration and contact center applications. One of them, I can illustrate a few of them. We have a company called PolyAI, and a company called Talkative that are providing very good entry levels or interesting entry points to our contact centers, particularly when you talk about chat, speech, and also capabilities for AI around virtual agents and analysts and analysts on the material that we create. On the opposite direction, taking insights out of our contact center, we have several partnerships.”

Read the latest news and views on Mitel

Zoom and Mitel announce strategic partnership to deliver differentiated AI-first hybrid communications and collaboration solution for enterprises worldwide

Mitel’s New Common Communications Framework: A Game-Changer for Hybrid UC Solutions

Unlocking Hybrid Unified Communications: Mitel’s Cloud Strategies, Security Measures, and Future Innovations, Evan Kirstel Blog 

https://youtu.be/Xp2N6KMOB-E