VIEWPOINT
www.comms-dealer.com
COMMENT
NGN business
People
really do update:
want to
buy locally
DAVE CRUSE, CEO, CONJUNGO
Heightened competition and
Go local, buy local: A number of directories
new technology is driving
advertise shops and services locally. In fact
dramatic change in the inbound
there were a couple left by my door recently.
For me, being an accustomed Internet
voice market, bringing channel
user, this was a wasted effort on behalf
opportunities into sharper focus.
of the organisations that had put these
together and delivered them, no doubt
Opal’s Director of Wholesale,
at great expense. But the fact that these
Andy Hollingworth, discusses
publications still exist shows that there is still
high demand for such directories because
what’s in it for resellers.
people really do want to buy locally. Andy Hollingworth
Such directories are good for finding a
plumber or butcher but not much use
for buying any form of technology. This
is where it gets complicated. A directory H
aving the right call management developments in inbound, such as Opal’s
strategy is still a top priority for any advanced call handling solutions, Intelligent
customer-centric business, but there’s Call Control (ICC), offer impressive margins but
won’t tell you what a local company not much money to be made from offering also the flexibility to offer something a bespoke
sells if it is advertising in a local directory. them just another ‘vanilla’, off-the-shelf call solution tailored to each customer – providing
This leads back to my favourite subject... management product. The market is no callers with information and messages
vertical search. These days if you want to longer purely about cost, but about how a relevant to them. Operated over Opal’s NGN
buy a house you go to a website where reseller can add real value. Voice resellers network, ICC allows partners to sell an easy-
you type in what type of property you’re have to move away from traditional models to-manage call management system, either
looking for, where you want it to be, how and look to create tailored call management as a self-service option or managed solution.
many bedrooms, and of course price. Then, solutions, which not only offer more features
once the results have come back, you can but increase margin too. The inbound market Giving users total control of all their inbound
research further. Likewise with jobs. If you’re is hugely competitive, and forward-thinking calls via a portal, services such as ICC make
a lawyer, you’re not going to use IT Job partners need to look beyond selling generic use of a variety of customisable call plans,
Board, and if you are in IT and you want a inbound products, and making money spanning normal operations to disaster
job in a particular location, with a particular exclusively from minutes, in order to maximise recovery. By white labelling the portal, partners
salary, this can all be achieved and then the return from this margin rich platform. can also look like carriers and host their own
of course you can apply online. Simple. inbound products, tailoring them to their own
End users want high quality inbound services vertical or specialist markets, creating bespoke
Until Conjungo was developed, there was which can handle calls efficiently, or they run features and adding additional features.
nothing like this in the technology arena. I the risk of losing customers who don’t like being
was talking to a colleague who had been kept on hold, accidentally disconnected or By providing a complete inbound product set,
dining with a friend who had just installed lost in a maze of options. Indeed, a recent partners are placing themselves firmly in the
a new VoIP system. The biggest problem Opal survey of 1,000 consumers revealed that driving seat with their own customers and can
was finding a local supplier who was able widespread dissatisfaction is still prevalent when subsequently work on business development.
to supply, install and support the system. it comes to the service consumers receive For example, it becomes far more difficult for
It took them way too long and took too from call centres and other businesses. a customer to transfer their business elsewhere
much valuable management time and once they have built their processes around
effort to achieve this. Likewise, when This is where the channel can deliver, call handling services, and if a customer takes
chasing for investment, I met a company but in a competitive market you need an IVR solution, it achieves, on average, 10
that had used Conjungo to purchase a to be offering something that provides per cent longer call times, offering 10 per cent
CRM system successfully in their area by better value and puts you in front of the more opportunity for end customer businesses
using the appropriate criteria in Conjungo. competition. As a snapshot, around 80 per to cross-sell and up-sell to inbound callers.
cent of Opal’s partners currently offer
Yet again I find myself extolling the virtues of inbound services, evidence that there is With the traditional minutes market in decline,
Conjungo, but if you want to buy local you already high demand from end customers. resellers need ways to adapt their strategies
have to find local, and that is no easy task. Despite this, it is far from a saturated market, and being able to offer flexible and customised
Until now that is.
n
and the quality and complexity of the inbound inbound services will be key to winning and
solutions on offer varies dramatically. Exciting growing new business.
n
CN awards open for entries www.cnawards.com
44 COMMS DEALER MARCH 2010 www.comms-dealer.com
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