Toshiba Phone Systems and More

There is a lot of talk recently about how Hosted VoIP has come of age, and that it brings a lot of features to small and medium size businesses. It may be bias but for me being in the business of selling Premise based equipment I think that going hosted is not the only way to take advantage of the great features of VoIP!

Small and Medium size business want to have a competitive edge, they need to be concerned with costs, and most importantly they need have services that are reliable. VoIP brings a lot of those needs together but there are trade offs we done with a hosted solution. With a hosted solution all of your eggs are in one basket. If your broadband service that feeds the Hosted VoIP goes down you go down! Now before you say it let me say Yes you can have a back-up circuit but guess what that costs more money! If you share your broadband for VoIP with your Internet services then you have to worry about having enough band width! Another concern is cost, with hosted VoIP the services are paid for monthly and they never reduce or go away!Also you only have one choice in most cases for your LD carrier and that typically is the host!

Now let’s look at the argument for Premise based. First Premise based equipment can give you just as much VoIP features as a hosted solution can. There can be VoIP phones for users both local and remote, there can be VoIP carrier services from a variety for carriers. Features likefind me/follow me , voicemail as email, and remote worker support are all available from Premise based solutions. Additional features like external paging and desktop integration with your CRM package are also available. If your broadband goes down you can also have copper lines integrated as a fail over and not skip a beat making and taking calls from your VoIP phone on your desk! The cost of equipment can show a ROI in months , in many cases. After that you would only be paying for services rather than services plus features.

I’m not saying that hosted is bad, I’m saying take a good hard look at Premise based first, it can work. This post was inspired by a Q&A with Bruce Chatterley http://tinyurl.com/7don5w . Tell me what you think. Can there be a case made for both or is there one clear winner in the VoIP arena?

VoIP for BusinessVoip for business can do many things. Watch the video to learn more

Did this ever happen to you?

Recently I had an opportunity to bid on a job. There were several other vendors who had already made their bid, and I was coming in to the situation late. So I got a chance to sit down with the client and was able to convince him that our brand of equipment and the available features it offered made the most sense for their business needs.

We then sat down and reviewed the proposal together, and covered every detail. That’s normal for us, since we believe in educating our clients. Anyhow, everything seemed to go just fine, and I really believed that our company was going to get the job!

Well, a few days later the client called back and stated that he thought my price was too high and that I should sharpen my pencil. So I said “let’s cut to the chase, tell me where I need to be to win your business, you obviously like what I am saying and I would like to do business with you.” And he said “I agree” and he gave me a number. I met the number and thought it was all set. A done deal as they say.

Well, next thing you know I hear through the grape vine the business owner called his previous vendor and asked them if they sold what our company offered. When he heard “yes,” he then showed my competitor our price and told them beat this price and the job is yours.
And in a flash we lost the job. It was gone just like that.

Has this ever happened to you? Any thoughts?

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of people at customer forum. I decided NOT to use multi media, power points or any thing else, just me live! I told them who I was, who my company was, what we did, then I told them a story.

I talked about one of customers and the experience they had before and after we helped them, I was able to paint a picture of a real success story that they could relate to. Not a lot of product info or feature descriptions just a good story.

It worked! I was well received and the President of the firm hosting the forum came up to me and said “that was a great story”

Stories work, try it next time.

CJ Carlson