COMMS VISION 10-12 NOVEMBER GLENEAGLES PREVIEW
www.commsvision.com COMMS SPINS A NEW WEB Kay Tobin
Internet technology has changed the way businesses operate and transformed the way products are sourced, delivered, deployed and maintained. From a telecoms point of view the impact of these changes is both significant and exciting, enthuses Kay Tobin, Commercial Director at Tri-Line.
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nternet technology turns many of the traditional models of sales and delivery on their head, but it also opens up a world of opportunity for those willing and able to grasp it. “The data output from telephone systems provides the basis from which all our products are developed,” says Tobin. “Since our inception back in 1999 we’ve included an in-built web server. This wasn’t an afterthought but based on a firm belief that web technology would transform the way businesses operate and our products would need to be able to fit in and become a part of that. Any reasonably IT literate prospect grasps the
significance of this and the advantages it offers.”
As the IT and telecoms roles have converged and web technology has advanced, it’s now far easier for a prospective buyer to inform themselves of the differences between the plethora of products on offer. “As we move away from hardware towards software, it also makes a lot more sense for a prospect to download and use a product in order to evaluate its potential benefits. This opens up a completely new way of selling for the traditional channel,” added Tobin.
In deployment, such products can be
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downloaded from a secure website. Connection to most modern PBXs is usually via IP and involves nothing more than typing in the host and port number. The software can call home for a license. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trial or a full license, the process is the same. Remote installation is free and customers are given full access to the support desk for 14 days after installation, whether it’s for a trial or full license, so they can effectively trial the product as well as the support available.
Tobin also noted that Tri-Line’s products are designed to be easy and intuitive to use. “Regardless of how powerful or feature
rich a product may be, if the user can’t use it easily the product will be of no use,” she added. “The end user experience informs every step in the design of our product interfaces. To most prospects, telephony is simply a service they need in order to operate. If this service sits outside other business components it’s impossible to add real value. By providing products that slot in with existing systems and explaining how these work, even as part of a trial, the solution sells itself.”
The old channel model was often based on making a number of appointments per week and selling the prospect the advantages of a proposed product. “If given a choice of discussing what a product could do and seeing it actually doing it, most well informed prospects would opt for the latter,” noted Tobin. “Our whole channel proposition is based around delivery rather than promises. Our products take less than a minute to download, configuration can be done remotely and we believe our resources are better spent on showing the product in
action within a business. By concentrating on what they could achieve and showing them how the product fits in, a whole new sales model emerges.”
The biggest challenges facing part of the channel today is their innate fear of change, often combined with a refusal to skill up, says Tobin. “The resellers who engage with this new web- centric world are closing more business and spending a lot less time doing it. The question for those that are not is simply, Why not? Technology, particularly web technology, allows us to deploy solutions that could only have been dreamed of a few years ago. As a manufacturer, we have to focus on not just ensuring we embrace this, but do so in a way that offers real tangible benefits for the user. All the channel needs to do is understand and apply this.
“We see Comms Vision as an opportunity to meet with forward looking, like minded channel partners to show how radically different our products are, not only the underlying structure, but the whole channel proposition.” n
Resellers who
engage with this new web-centric world are closing more business
Silver Sponsor
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