Telecom Reseller / Technology Reseller News

SD-WAN as a Service, scaled for any organization, RabbitRun Podcast, We’ve perfected it: failover that doesn’t fumble calls

Small businesses need the very same things large enterprises need. Capital expenses, buying more than you need, completing claims on limited operations budgets, are among the things that limit what’s smaller companies can get. With that in mind, Pat Saavedra founded RabbitRun, which offers SD-WAN as a service. According to Pat, the MSPs need to be able to offer SD-WAN as an easy to sell, easy to deploy, high margin service, that delivers on the basic promise of the as a service model: selling the end user just what he needs, when he needs it. In this podcast we learn how Rabbit Run has made SD-WAN doable for the “little guy”.

“We really do need something that takes away the upfront costs. This is exactly how we do it. We keep businesses online with our affordable as-a-service SD-WAN: A fully managed service with alerts and everything you need for a managed service,” adds Pat. “MSPs can sell it immediately out of the gate and obtain immediate ROI.”

Solid Failover: We've perfected it

Pat tells us that his failover approach puts an end to dropped calls. “Whether you have five phones or 50 phones, with the Rabbit Run device, we're going to fail you over. Now, failover is one thing, but reliable failover is a totally different thing. Doing that without dropping live voice calls, video meetings, That's an art in my opinion. We've perfected it.”

Pinpoint Problems, Saves Money and Time

We also learn great added benefits such as being able to know when to go right to the ISP with an issue.  Pat reports that his MSP clients often say of their customers, “They're calling me as if I'm their ISP.” With RabbitRun, ISP level issues are identified, which reduces MSP customer friction and speeds to time to close customer service issues.

Visit https://www.rabbit.run/

https://youtu.be/wtKfuh3V7hw

Telin One.Demarc solves customer challenge, offers brand damage rescue, Podcast, Partners get stuck with ISP issues, Telin pioneering solution

“Their first reaction is, hey, let's call my technology provider, the one that I have an agreement with to provide phone service and IT support and maybe disaster recovery,” says Kyle Wiedinger of Telin.

When phone service deteriorates, people look at the brand on the phone and, just like that, brand damage occurs. The problem might be with the ISP, but it’s the label on the phone or phone system that gets the call, gets the blame, and even if resolved, sees their brand’s reputation get dinged up.

Telin One.Demarc

In this podcast, Kyle discusses and illustrates One.Dmarc, which basically works to create better continuity of service and better continuity of quality of service, along with critical hot failover.

“We set up a specialized VPN connection between that device and the Fusion Hub that we have sitting in our data center,” adds Kyle. “Then we provision an eSIM with 5G cellular data to that device. Now, what this connection does is it has a couple of features to it. What you're seeing here is going to be bandwidth bonding. So essentially what it's doing is it's taking the packets of data and splitting them up between the different internet connections that you have… If it's just your ISP and your cellular connection, that works just as fine. It’s taking advantage of both connections simultaneously and then reconfiguring those packets on the other end to increase the quality of your service.”

“The most important feature is the hot failover. If someone snuck up behind me right now with a pair of scissors and just snipped the cord to my modem, we wouldn't even drop. This session would transfer over to cellular seamlessly.”

Visit www.telin.comtelin

Snom recognized as visionary leader, as brand recognition rises, Snom can brand for MSPs very quickly

Channel Vision Magazine has awarded Snom’s Partner Program with their 2024 Visionary Spotlight Award. In this podcast we learn that the award affirms the goals Marc Magliano, Snom’s Vice President, Channel Business for the Americas and Antoine Karachekhlian, Snom’s North America Channel Director, laid out as they laid out a plan to build Snom’s band and Snom’s channel program.

“A solid channel partner program is the heart and soul of your channel,” says Mark. “It helps you build that awareness, and the brand awareness is something, quite honestly, that has challenged us over the past few years but with your help, and others like you, over the past 12 to 18 months, we've made strides and now you see Snom everywhere… Our partner Partner program helps us deliver and drive value to our MSPs and resellers, just right across the board.”

“We've added, I think the number now is over 250 new MSP resellers. We've increased our breadth of partnerships in the ITSP community. We have significantly more partners that are co-branding or branding our technology to their customer base. Things have really exploded for us. Again, I couldn't be more thrilled.,” adds Mark.

Building a Brand that Brands

As the Snom brand has grown in visibility, Snom has been using its manufacturing power to help their MSP clients, brand their brand. “Everybody can brand, but us our parent company being a manufacturer and we get our stuff directly, you know, from the factory makes us more nimble, and quick, to react to that branding thing, the aspect of the business,” says Antoine. “We can brand products as small as a couple of hundred, whereas they're doing a couple of thousands. And that speaks to our power, basically, of how we can deliver.”

In Stock

Many customers took notice of Snom, as Covid disrupted overly extended supply chains. With two warehouses in North America, Snom is not only a manufacturer but also a company that maintains available stock. We learn about their fast, advanced replacement ability. We also discuss a personal approach. Customers needing help, replacements, or assistance with making a sale, can get directly on the phone or online with Snom’s leadership team and get personalized attention. A partner program is about the products sold, but it also depends on people, support, logistics and quality.

Visit www.snomamericas.com

Is IoT Poised to Improve Telecom Retail Customer Experience? The telecom industry has witnessed a rising trend in licensed Internet of Things devices that operate on telecom networks and require SIM cards or eSims

“Data is king,” says Jason Raymer, Senior Vice President of Revenue and Client Experience at iQmetrix. The telecom industry has witnessed a rising trend in licensed Internet of Things devices that operate on telecom networks and require SIM cards or eSims. As a result, telecom retailers are now expecting smart home devices to bring in business, with 78.69% of respondents to an iQmetrix survey saying they expect an increase in IoT device sales in 2024.

In this podcast, Jason speaks with Technology Reseller News about consumer behavior in a world of evolving IoT technology, the challenges facing telecom retailers today, predictions for IoT applications in telecom retail and its impact on customer experience, as well as the benefits of integrated technologies for retail spaces.

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. We interconnect the entire industry, bridging carriers, retailers, manufacturers, and a huge ecosystem of vendors and external system integrations.

Since 1999, we’ve been passionate about helping the leading brands in telecom to grow by providing best-in-class software, services, and expertise that enables them to adapt and thrive. Our solutions powered $17BN in sales last year, handling nearly 60 million invoices and 22 million activations, and are used by approximately 320,000 telecom retail professionals across 1,000 clients. iQmetrix is a privately held software-as-a-service (SaaS) company with employees in Canada, the U.S., India, and Europe. For more information, please visit www.iqmetrix.com.

https://youtu.be/YP0_LnhHQio

Telin puts paging on partner radar with CyberData 25V/70V, Paging systems, door phones, door strikers, panic buttons, the list is really endless when you go into applications

“Our product, this 25V/70V, is a culmination, what we call hybrid paging technology,” says Dan Marchetto of CyberData. It's a combination of SIP and IP along with constant voltage. And constant voltage, both of these technologies have been around for some time, but we're the only ones that have it in the same box with all the feature sets. It makes a big difference when it comes to installations.”

Same notification coverage, at a fraction of the cost.

In this podcast, Dan takes a deeper look at how the 25V/70V can offer Telin partners the same notification coverage at a fraction of the cost.

“When you start adding up speakers in areas that don't need zoning, it's an amazing savings as compared to using all IP. Again, for the exact same coverage,” adds Dan. Human resource department and retail applications are discussed. But paging applications are almost unlimited.

I think there's a whole new world of additional revenue, and additional ownership of that client, that our partners can bring on, when they sell CyberData,” says Zack Lee, of Telin. “Paging systems, door phones, door strikers, panic buttons, the list is really endless when you go into applications.”

As partners seek to diversify their portfolio, Telin’s partnership with CyberData reflects two things in motion. With paging, there is an almost unlimited number of use cases and a huge number of legacy sites that need to see new and better equipment. CyberData has worked to deliver a product that is cost effective and yet improved over previously installed systems. The CyberData presence in the Telin offering represents Telin’s goal of being a single source for a greater variety of products and services to sell.

Visit https://telin.com/

Infobip is growing rapidly, and that growth is fueled by innovation. Recently, Infobip was recognized as a Fast Company Most Innovative Company for 2024. In this podcast, Ethan Gustav gives us an update on how Infobip is maintaining fast growth. “We were recognized in the automotive category. We created a very cool experience, in WhatsApp for Uber, where Uber users could order their ride through their WhatsApp and powered by a chatbot, which really was like interacting with a human. GenAI is, is enabling us to do some really cool things,” adds Ethan. The recognition placed company in a space alongside companies like NVIDIA, Google and Microsoft and YouTube. We also learn about Infobip’s 10DLC, a critical part of Infobip’s telecom story. As we enter the second half of 2024, Ethan gives us a look at major ongoing and emerging trends.

Visit https://www.infobip.com/

“Everything I've talked about is baked into our product”

“It should come as no surprise to anyone that the message really underpinning Cisco's story across the board is around AI,” says Kristyn Hogan,  Vice President of Global Collaboration Partner Sales at Cisco. “When we think about how Cisco collaboration, and Webex, are really leaning into that message, there's one north star: experiences matter. That's what is guiding us.”

In this podcast we learn that Cisco is guided by a changing workplace landscape and work itself being re-imagined.  AI is to be deployed to create virtual agents who sound and act natural, and “not robotic”.

“Several months back, we went live with some of those AI assistant features in our meetings portfolio. It's changed the game. When you record a meeting, at the end of the meeting, you get an email with a beautiful, accurate summary of the meeting and action items already assigned. We've polled our customers and 80% have said they've seen significant time savings just from that one feature.”

We also hear about Cisco’s partner story.  “We have enabled over 30,000 partner sellers’ year to date, and the year's not over.”

Kristyn stresses that AI is “baked into every product”. Recorded on the same day as the closing celebration featuring a private concert with Elton John, Kristyn notes that these AI features are not simply add on SKUs. The Las Vegas Review Journal, in reporting on Sir Elton’s concert, described Cisco as an AI company.

Visit www.cisco.com

More Cisco News

Kristyn Hogan: Experiences Matter, Cisco Live Podcast

Webex by Cisco Using AI and CPaaS to Expand CX, Cisco Live Podcast, "a sense of remembrance"

Cisco announced at Cisco Live last week, new developments in Webex Contact Center, including providing an AI Assistant for contact center agents, and integrate third-party virtual agent solutions. The AI Assistant for Webex Suite will soon be generally available to customers. In this podcast Amit Barave, Vice President of Product Management, Webex, Cisco Systems, discusses these advancements.  Amit tells us that these steps forwards will mean better transcripts, more precise recording and a “sense of remembrance”.

Whereas a person won’t tend to remember every detail of a transaction, these new AI powered tools will bring back an event with great clarity."

“CPaaS allows us to open our platform to an infinite number of developers and use cases,” adds Amit, as we learn about Cisco’s commitment to enabling the developer community to invent on the platform. “AI is here in WebEx Suite and WebEx Customer Experience.”

From last week's announcements: Making AI work with the Future of Work (read more)

AI-Powered Contact Center and Hybrid Work Innovations: New capabilities in Webex Contact Center will help organizations design and manage conversational self-service experiences, provide an AI Assistant for contact center agents, and integrate third-party virtual agent solutions.

Additionally, AI Assistant for Webex Suite will soon be generally available to customers. IT admins will benefit from remote device access management in Webex Control Hub, and all- new Desk Reservation with Cisco Spaces makes it easy to find and book desk spaces and Cisco Collaboration

Learn More

Visit https://www.webex.com/

Webex by Cisco Using AI and CPaaS to Expand CX, Cisco Live Podcast

“We are the unique all-flash storage. Everything we sell is all-flash”

“We're very concerned about sustainability, about the private planet,” says Pure Storage’s Brian Ferrar who was speaking at Cisco Live this week. “We see how much money energy efficiency can save our customers in their data centers… there's no magnet there's no mechanical devices inside the system there's no moving parts and so obviously you know that requires less cooling, it requires less power consumption, and that's a key capability...” AI is continuing to revolutionize many industries yet many organizations are running into roadblocks when developing scalable AI infrastructure (i.e. daunting hardware requirements, time constraints). FlashStack for AI, Pure Storage and Cisco’s end-to-end AI pipeline solution, addresses the complexities of AI deployment and secure expansion with efficiency, enhancing performance, scalability, energy savings, and more.

“What RAG does is it allows you, when you're doing your prompting and your querying using an AI interface, you can use RAG to take the query and augment that query with your local data, with your local information,” says Craig Waters of PureStorage, discussing the transformative power of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

We learn about a long-term relationship with Cisco that’s critical to achieving the need to help customers enjoy both all the advantages of AI while keeping top their respective organization’s sustainability goals. With AI, power use and sustainability as the hot topics of CiscoLive, we hear that the PureStorage booth was busy, very busy.

Visit https://www.purestorage.com/

Pure Storage shines AI ready storage

Denise Lee: AI can help solve the sustainability challenge

“I think AI is going to be a really big part, to unlock, to drive some of those insights, analytics, and automation, that make all of this come together much faster than it would take for us to do if we had to code and reprogram everything ourselves,” says Denise Lee, Vice President for Cisco’s Engineering Sustainability Office. AI will increase power needs in the data center. Lee sees that challenge as part of the solution. AI has a role in the larger picture of achieving suitability.

AI is being implemented everywhere, but advancements in AI infrastructure can be at odds with energy-consumption goals. Energy and data centers are the foundation for managing the AI boom, so enterprises need to build the right infrastructure to support a sustainable future, now. At Cisco Live, I spoke with Denise Lee, Vice President for Cisco's Engineering Sustainability Office, about the holistic approach Cisco is taking to reduce energy consumption needed to sustain AI and emerging technologies.

In this special podcast, Lee outlines a path towards a sustainable future that delivers on both the promise of AI, along with having the power to deliver AI. We learn about sustainability beyond the familiar discussion of regulatory compliance, environmental best practices. These important goals can be achieved, but Lee sees those goals as occurring within a broad-based approach that includes powerful financial incentives to save on costs, and to grow new opportunities: saving the planet, saving money, opening new lines of business.

CiscoLive: Sustainability Focus

Lee describes the changing sustainability landscape. “I had one session at the whole show, and it was the only session talking about sustainability…  This year, we have over 55 sessions across the show. We have 12 hands-on demos in the sustainability zone, and we have countless sessions.” We learn how sustainability has migrated to being seen as a central and critical part of business operations. Lee also describes how companies that are implementing sustainability changes are noticeably outperforming their peers. The rapid growth of data center energy has caught people’s attention. The economic race to sustainability is on.

Lee offers a glimpse at fresh thinking and new products that my well revolutionize how we transport energy and data. The new thinking will include new processes and new approaches to renewability. “Now renewable energy is what really makes all of this possible because if you can't harvest renewable energy, store it and then use it accordingly.”