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MARKET REVIEW
osted VoIP mainstream
of Service and how this is implemented is also a key differentiator. “QoS technology makes the whole hosted VoIP service work, but only matters if the circuit is terminating on the hosted VoIP provider’s network,” noted Fellowes. “QoS is an essential part of the package, but it is only part of the package. You might get fantastic speed down the M4, but if you have to go onto a congested A or B road to get to your hosted provider quality will suffer.”
The buying processes differ from CPE. “Making the customer understand what they are buying in terms of connecting the equipment is the most common pain point,” said Fellowes. “They do not have their hands held in the same way as when buying a traditional phone system. Sales and engineering training is a key area where it is easy to fall down. Understanding VoIP of all varieties means understanding IP. Maintenance calls are all around call quality, which isn’t an issue with the right circuits and is almost impossible with the wrong circuits.”
The key areas for the sales person and engineer are to develop an understanding of the issues surrounding the internal network the customer wants to use, the circuit they want to run calls over and how calls will be routed from the handset to the hosted system. “Quality must come first, features second,” said Fellowes. “This is a true consultative sale in that you are involved in all a client’s communications infrastructure.”
The days of high capex telephone systems are
coming to an end, predicts Fellowes, and the number of IT VARs selling voice is increasing daily. They sell a variety of hosted, opensource (Asterisk), software-based and low cost server based systems, observes Fellowes. “All of these offer a compelling value proposition compared to many traditional vendors,” he added. “A large proportion of enterprise clients are rolling out systems such as 3CX and Asterisk, whereas a year ago it was mainly small early adopters looking at these systems. This number will only increase.”
Opal is seeing increasing requirements for both hosted VoIP solutions that can provide high quality voice calls and high levels of resilience and availability, as well as requirements for SIP trunking as an alternative to multiple ISDN30s. “Businesses are seeing the benefits of hosted services with lower operational impact of adoption and low/no capex investment up front,” said Ken Bailey, Product Manager for VoIP and UC, Opal. “Services are becoming far more mature, with complete PBX capability from the cloud, rather than the limited functionality of Centrex solutions previously seen in the market.”
The quality of the connection to the business premise, and the prioritisation of voice traffic over other types of traffic such as Internet and many data traffic types, is a critical element that channel players need to consider when choosing a hosted VoIP solution to offer to market. “Many businesses have been
waiting for lower costs of high bandwidth solutions that can support VoIP and converged applications,” added Bailey. “Opal has made lower priced Ethernet a reality and this will drive increased demand and sales for converged offerings of data and hosted VoIP.”
Resellers can be confident their customers will receive the bandwidth required to meet their concurrent call needs, and that the quality of each call is as expected from a traditional voice connection, so long as they build these offerings on a network infrastructure that offers this. “It will be important to choose a partner that can offer the reseller both the quality network and the hosted VoIP solution,” Bailey noted.
There is a clear market trend towards the provision of hosted voice services over converged data networks. This has big advantages for customers requiring flexibility across different sites and mobile workers while minimising the need for capital investment. By adopting this business model, resellers too can react quickly to customers’ demands. “By supplying the network and hosted applications resellers open up the potential of long-term, high value contracts,” Bailey added.
There are many solutions out there with different stated benefits and support models for the channel, so it can be a confusing picture. “If hosted VoIP is going to support business critical functions and processes, it must be supported by a quality network for the access and UK-wide reach,” said Bailey.
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COMMS DEALER JUNE 2010 45
Tom Fellowes
“Clients readily understand the benefits of buying hosted”
According to Paul Cloudsdale, Technical Director at O-bit, the VoIP market is still in a stage of development. “Although VoIP technology itself is mature, the market hasn’t caught up with it,” he said. “Traditional businesses don’t entirely trust hosted VoIP to deliver all their business communication needs, and are nervous about making the change. However, in some cases this apprehension can be well founded. The basic infrastructure, such as business-grade connectivity, needs to be in place in order for hosted VoIP to deliver on its promises. If a business doesn’t have this, then no matter how much faith they have in hosted VoIP, it would be a risky move for them to make the switch.”
The main access technologies that will affect the hosted VoIP space will be those that improve network quality and bandwidth. Fibre-to- the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technologies are a big step forward in getting guaranteed substantial
bandwidth to businesses. If a business has a quality data connection, then it is much easier to take advantage of what hosted VoIP can offer. But the move into VoIP can be daunting both for engineers and sales staff. “Sales training is vital if resellers are going to be able to successfully sell VoIP as staff need to feel comfortable with what they are selling,” added Cloudsdale. “The key area that a hosted VoIP sales person needs to develop is being able to show the potential cost savings to the end user of switching to VoIP. Sales people need to be aware of the opportunity that hosted VoIP sales can represent, and how it can open the door to reviewing the entire LAN infrastructure of a business for up-selling additional IP based services.”
For traditional voice engineers, it is vital they learn about IP-based communication and improve their knowledge of the LAN environment. “In order to be able to effectively install and deliver VoIP solutions, traditional engineers need to update their knowledge to include aspects like switching and routing,” said Cloudsdale.
As for differentiators, he believes that resellers should be looking at customer service. “This is what the majority of end users will be deciding on when choosing a VoIP provider,” he said. “For hosted VoIP it is difficult to differentiate on a technological level, and end users will be more interested in a provider that is able to offer great customer service pre and post-sale and during the lifetime of the contract.” n
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