<div dir="ltr">Peter,<div><br></div><div>I am selling to small and medium sized business customer. We also have residential side for an ISP. Our average seat selling price today is between $25 to $35 per seat, so no I am not trying to sell on low price. </div><div><br></div><div>However, I personally hate selling to the customer when I know what else is out there today. I hate explaining time and time again that we have to charge for every auto attendant, voicemail box, etc. I am running out of excuses to tell the end customer when they say "well Vonage Business has the same $35 price per seat you do, but they have text messaging, call recording, CRM integration, voicemail to text, mobile apps, etc." You don't have any of that, so explain to me why your platform, at the same premium price is better? </div><div><br></div><div>We have to provide enough value to ensure people continue to buy and use their desk phones and/or apps, otherwise everyone is going to just stat using their cell phones for everything. Its getting to the point where cell phones are cheaper both on the hardware, service side, and provider a better set of features. Voice quality used to be the concern, but have you heard HD voice on VoLTE? Sounds amazing, better than any desk phone I have used. Plus with wifi calling hard to say well coverage is an area of concern. </div><div><br></div><div>So we either adapt to something that has value, or we continue to loose customers. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 9:19 AM, Peter Rad. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peter@4isps.com" target="_blank">peter@4isps.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
You didn't get my whole point.<br>
<br>
Customers want the same cheaper -- because that is how we trained
them to think.<br>
That is how we "sell" in telecom. We take orders while driving the
price to zero because (A) we don't value sales and marketing as a
sector of the economy; and (B) this has traditionally been an
arbitrage business. However, low prices only work in mass scale
with automation.<br>
<br>
First criteria of picking a switch is What are you selling and to
who?<br>
<br>
It sounds like you want the cheapest switch available so you can
sell at $10 per seat. <br>
That doesn't scale at all. The vendor can't support that. You can't
scale that.<br>
To support software you have to have revenue. Hence, per seat
licensing or maintenance fees.<br>
BSFT may be expensive but it has proven to scale - over 1M trunks
from XO and WIND and 10K seats added per month by an MSO. You pay
for that. That said. You don't need something that would scale like
that. <br>
<br>
NetSapiens is a great platform, but how would they continue to
support it with a flat rate price? <br>
<br>
When M5 dumped their M6 platform and built their own, they paid 75
devs to support it. That is overhead! Talent, hiring, benefits,
management, etc. We had a great discussion about this at ITEXPO in
2 panels with Dialogic, XO and Netsapiens (see summary:
<a href="http://www.dialogic.com/den/d/b/corporate/archive/2015/10/14/nfv-and-open-source-explored-at-itexpo.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.dialogic.com/den/d/b/corporate/archive/2015/10/14/nfv-and-open-source-explored-at-itexpo.aspx</a>).
We are doing it again at ITEXPO in Ft Lauderdale in January. Join
in.<br>
<br>
Colton, you have this idea that this should all be one turn key
system for practically free. This is exactly the kind of customer
mentality that everyone complains about. Free music, free movies,
free content, free software. This isn't the first time you asked
for switch recommendations either. So you are searching for Bigfoot.
<br>
<br>
In business, you cannot be all things to all people. That is the
Duopoly - average things for the mass market. <br>
<br>
The CLEC industry has always been fringe. Today, you either sell on
price (and eventually lose to someone cheaper like say Microsoft) -
or you put together a value prop for a specific target and you sell
to those 1000 customers, then the next 1000 and so on. <br>
<br>
If HPBX was about price, someone would already own the market. And
no one really does. It is a SIP trunk world.<br>
<br>
The HPBX industry is littered with open source. Linux, Apache, PHP,
OpenStack, Asterisk, OpenSRS, DNS, JPG -- all open source, buddy. <br>
<br>
Thank you.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
Peter Radizeski<br>
RAD-INFO, Inc. <br>
<a href="tel:813.963.5884" value="+18139635884" target="_blank">813.963.5884</a> <br>
<a href="http://rad-info.net" target="_blank">http://rad-info.net</a><br>
<br>
2015 Hosted PBX Market Report:<br>
<a href="http://www.onradsradar.com/2015/09/2015-hosted-pbx-market-overview.html" target="_blank">http://www.onradsradar.com/2015/09/2015-hosted-pbx-market-overview.html</a>
<br><span class="">
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div>On 11/2/2015 9:04 AM, Colton Conor
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">I agree that people are looking for a better value
proposition in Hosted PBX providers, but as Peter said most just
want a cheaper version of what they have. Which means service
providers must either shrink their margins, or go with a cheaper
platform that allows them to offer more value and keep the
margins. So as Alex said, If you're going to sell glorified
POTS/key system replacement, commoditised down to ever-shrinking
ARPUs, why in the hell would you pay Broadsoft prices on those
ports? Talk about paying the most to get the least. Those are
some of the most expensive ports in the known universe. "<br>
<br>
Ideally I would love a platform that didn't have per seat or
user fees. Just a base fee for the platform.<br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 8:00 AM, Colton
Conor <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:colton.conor@gmail.com" target="_blank">colton.conor@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Yes, I have taken a look at <font size="3" color="#1f497d" face="Calibri, Slate Pro, sans-serif">Enswitch
by Integrics. Looks like a solid platform, but a little
concerned about the user interface and overall design of
the platform. Its not as polished as I would like it to
be, but overall seems nice. For the price it seems like
an awesome system. I don't like the tough of Asterisk
being the core of the product.</font>
<div><font size="3" color="#1f497d" face="Calibri, Slate
Pro, sans-serif"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font size="3" color="#1f497d" face="Calibri, Slate
Pro, sans-serif">So far based on recommendations I see
Broadsoft, Metaswitch, NetSapiens, and </font><span>Enswitch by
Integrics as options. I am going to throw out 2600hz
as a platform that might evolve into a solution to
use, but its not there yet.</span></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Besides these 5, are there any other recommendations?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 8:58
PM, Alex Balashov <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:abalashov@evaristesys.com" target="_blank"></a><a href="mailto:abalashov@evaristesys.com" target="_blank">abalashov@evaristesys.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);line-height:initial">
<div>Have
you considered Enswitch by Integrics?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It's
the best of breed of the sort of thing that it
is. Moreover, if you'll tolerate BW price
points, you'll think it's practically free.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="https://integrics.com/enswitch/" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://integrics.com/enswitch/" target="_blank">https://integrics.com/enswitch/</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It's
got the API and integration path requirement
covered, too. I know about a dozen operators
and they're all pretty happy with it.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If
you talk to Alistair Cunningham, their
director, be sure to relate that Alex Balashov
sends his regards.</div>
<div><br style="display:initial">
</div>
<div>--<br>
Alex Balashov | Principal | Evariste Systems LLC<br>
303 Perimeter Center North, Suite 300<br>
Atlanta, GA 30346<br>
United States<br>
<br>
Tel: <a href="tel:%2B1-800-250-5920" value="+18002505920" target="_blank">+1-800-250-5920</a> (toll-free) / <a href="tel:%2B1-678-954-0671" value="+16789540671" target="_blank">+1-678-954-0671</a> (direct)<br>
Web: <a href="http://www.evaristesys.com/" target="_blank">http://www.evaristesys.com/</a>, <a href="http://www.csrpswitch.com/" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.csrpswitch.com/" target="_blank">http://www.csrpswitch.com/</a><br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</div>
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