6/5/00 Computer Reseller News 35 (See BOLD)
2000 WL 2162919
Computer Reseller News
Copyright 2000 CMP Publications Inc.
Monday, June 5, 2000
897
CRN Test Center
Channel Overview
CTI Invasion
--
Dumb Phones Need Not Apply
Preston P. Forman
New York - The new economy met the old economy with the recent launch
of airline JetBlue Airways. It was not a dazzling e-commerce system,
although they do have one of those. It was a network of more than 100
phone representatives working out of their homes using computer
telephony integration (CTI) and LAN-based phones.
What word processing did for the typewriter, LAN telephony and call
processing is doing for the phone. As the CRN Test Center saw in a
similar roundup of LAN- and PC-based telephony conducted last year,
businesses want phones that do more than connect people. They want
phones that connect people with information.
"When I first started in this arena, people didn't understand the
concept; it was beyond the realm of knowledge of how to use Ethernet on
the LAN to carry voice traffic," said Greg Zweig, product manager for
3Com Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. "Most industry analysts now take it for
granted that this is the way that voice will be carried in the future."
Depending on the viewpoint, voice is in many ways not even the focus
of LAN-based telephony.
"The big driver for the product is the increased productivity for the
end user," said Carol Meier, vice president of marketing for Artisoft Inc., Cambridge, Mass., which makes a software-based telephony product.
"It's the phone systems that have been lagging behind, largely because
people have put up with it. Now phones are leveraging the IT
infrastructure."
The vendors in this roundup all target the small- to midsize-business
market. Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, N.J.; Nortel Networks Corp.,
Brampton, Ontario; and Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., typically
target larger and more geographically diverse businesses.
This is no small market. Cahners In-Stat Group, Newton, Mass.,
estimates that by 2002 U.S. companies with up to 100 employees plan to
spend $4.4 billion on network hardware products, including converged
solutions, from a base of $2.7 billion last year.
Target Integrator
Certainly profitable, this blending of computers and telephones is
not an easy pursuit for network integrators or their voice integrator
brothers. In many cases, training from distributors and vendors only
takes integrators so far, which is part of the driving force behind widespread integrator mergers. All three vendors in this roundup also
actively help solution providers partner with others in the industry.
"We want [integrators] with experience but, in reality, the market is
ripe for [integrators] who want to enter voice. Generally, our
[integrators] have only one or two years experience offering converged
solutions," said Corey Manley, director of product marketing at Flexion.
"Ideally, the most perfect VAR has voice and data experience, but
that's not the majority of VARs out there. We want one with the
knowledge of either and the commitment to learn something new and put
forth the resources on the side that they are not familiar with," said
Zweig.
3Com, which eschews distributors for its LAN-telephony products,
devotes the most resources of the vendors in this roundup to training
and post- and presales support. The company also has some of the most
stringent requirements, includes 24 x 7 phone support, spare parts and
inventory commitments and has the ability to dispatch a trained
technician within four hours of a major system failure. The benefits
seem to outweigh requirements: free backup phone support, customized collateral, special demo programs and 3Com's well-regarded marketing
assistance.
With its open-standards-based architecture, Artisoft's product can
operate with any board, flexibility that can be critical in environments
with existing hardware and PBXes. Typically, Artisoft products are
targeted at verticals, particularly high-tech and manufacturing.
Given the target audience and the realization that many
communications integrators are themselves small businesses, Artisoft
emphasizes its marketing efforts, particularly a seminar-in-a-box
program. Integrators also have access to the company's professional
services organization for complicated customization jobs.
Founded by former 3Com engineers, Flexion is the new kid on the block
but offers the broadest channel program in this roundup. Flexion
distinguishes itself in a well-rounded assemblage of marketing, training
and partnering efforts that give solution providers new to the
voice-data world a start with continual support afterward.
Like all vendors, Flexion's training is free, but it goes a step
further by sending a sales engineer on-site with new solution providers
for the first several installations. Leads are developed by both a
regional sales staff and through a partnership with BizBuyer.com, an
e-commerce site for small businesses.
Flexion also has developed a partnership with competitive local
exchange carriers (CLECs) to funnel telecom business to local solution
providers in exchange for supplying the necessary bandwidth. Flexion
integrators also can resell a service where Flexion continually monitors
a customer's site and sends the solution provider trouble reports or
suggestions for upgrades.
"It allows them to be proactive but also gives them the ability to go
in and sell more hardware and services that they didn't have insight to
before," said Zar Aslam, director of channel marketing.
Barry Goldstein, president of CT Networks, Northport, N.Y., said that
is a critical difference in LAN-based telephony: It is a solution
instead of just an office utility.
crn.com
June 05, 2000
---- INDEX REFERENCES ----
COMPANY (TICKER): Jetblue Airways Corp.; 3Com Corp.; Artisoft Inc.; Lucent Technologies Inc.; Nortel Networks Corp.; Bce Inc.; Nortel Networks Corp.; Cisco Systems Inc. (X.JTB COMS ASFT LU NT BCE T.NT CSCO)
NEWS SUBJECT: World Equity Index; High-Yield Issuers (WEI HIY)
MARKET SECTOR: Technology (TEC)
INDUSTRY: Airlines; Communications Technology; Telecommunications, All; Software; Networking: Equipment Manufacturers (AIR CMT TEL SOF INEM)
PRODUCT: Telecommunications (DTE)
REGION: North America; North America (NAM NME)
Word Count: 847
6/5/00 COMRSNWS 35
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