Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

A recent SIR report revealed that in the majority of cases SMEs are asking their IT support company for advice when considering hosted solutions. This is probably because after a voice reseller supplies a PBX they often have little to do with the SME except to supply new handsets and fix the occasional issue. The data company on the other hand is often ‘embedded’ with their customers; patching servers, installing software and supporting their desktop hardware and applications. Most SMEs would not dare run anything (like hosted telephony) over their LAN without first consulting with their IT support company. Another channel to watch out for is mobile. These guys often have thousands of SME end users and, in a saturated and competitive market, they are keen to find something else to sell them. With teams of well trained and hungry sales people and with no legacy base of ‘tin’ to protect they are quickly building large bases of hosted telephony seats.

This question was recently asked on a panel at Convergence Summit South. Most of the panellists (four of which had Broadsoft platforms) talked about features and pricing. The resulting questions from an audience of mostly resellers made it clear that the panellists had only further confused them. If resellers and dealers are having problems differentiating between offerings then maybe its no wonder that a recent market report shows 60% of SMEs are too.

Research last year from SIR indicated that the majority of SMEs sought advice from a trusted supplier before buying business communications solutions. Further, they will usually research the web and get a quote from a well known carrier (often BT) before they end up buying from an existing supplier. It is very rare for a reseller to be competing against other resellers in the 10-100 employee market and when it happens the incumbent usually wins (unless they have messed up the relationship).

BT Retail has conceded that hosted telephony is a viable alternative to on-premise telephone systems by launching BT Cloud Voice through their direct channels and their local business franchises. Another Broadsoft-based offering, this is good news for their competitors because BT will boost demand through generic advertising and by the fact that they have ‘legitimised’ the product. However they will also be a significant competitor so here a five things you might need to know when you inevitably meet them in the market.

1. Acceptance of the concept

Before IP voice was commercially viable, millions of US SMEs were already using Centrex. In the early 1980s the US telecommunications market liberalised, creating 7 local operating companies (the equivalent of Openreach) nicknamed ‘Baby bells’. These all launched their own central exchange offerings (Centrex) in preference to on-premise telephone equipment. With a big stake in the equipment market, BT was never really interested in Centrex and the UK’s first Centrex product launched by Mercury in the early 1990s was clumsy, unreliable and expensive.

Investment in IT hardware and software reaches a record high but SMEs struggle with complexity

A new survey by BNP Paribas reports that business investment in IT hardware and software has hit a record high, up by a quarter since the start of the 2008 financial crisis. The report says that business investment in information and communications technology jumped to £34.4 billion last year – up by 24% since the height of the recession in 2009, when businesses’ IT capital spending was just £27.6bn. 

In the mid-1980s the government broke British Telecomm's monopoly and suddenly anyone could sell telephone systems to businesses.

Although some companies started up specifically to sell telecommunications most of the new suppliers of phone systems already sold office equipment (fax, copiers, furniture) and had decided to diversify. To a lesser extent IT Support companies also added telecommunications to their portfolios but they were more service-orientated than equipment and early set-backs with these products often put them off. When the market for telephone calls liberalised later in the decade the channel was really born and thousands of small local companies started supplying calls and lines as well as telephone systems. Some of the large indepedent telecommunications companies we see today e.g. Daisy, Alternative, Kcom were only made possible by the actions of the government.

I was out with one of our JolaPhone dealers last week demonstrating the platform. The customer, warming to the concept, made the point that they would probably need to upgrade from their existing ADSL circuit to either Fibre broadband or a leased line. The dealer replied that he agreed but it was not something they got involved in. When the customer nipped out to get their BT bills I ask Jon why he felt that way. He said they did not do 24/7 support and the 36 month commitment on leased lines worried him in case the customer went bust or didn’t pay. Dealing with the carriers was a pain he said. It took ages to get prices from them all and even then he had to haggle to be sure he was getting the best deal. By the time he went back to the customer they had usually progressed the circuit with someone else.

5 tips for generating high quality IT contracts

Q. When is an organisation absolutely, definitely in the market for a complete IT overhaul?
A. When they are moving into a new building

There are hundreds of construction consultants in the UK ranging from huge international companies like Capita and Mott Mac to small local businesses. Often they are given the task not only of overseeing the construction and fit-out of a building but also making sure utilities and IT infrastructure are ready to go when the client moves in. They are a remarkably un-tapped resource for IT companies and here are 5 ways to help you engage successfully with them.