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NCI Equity Program Attracts 1,000+ Agents
Khali Henderson
11/06/2009
TNCI and the Agent Alliance, sponsors of the Agent Equity Plan, said the program has more than 1,000 participants – direct agents and subagents — and added $2.5 million a month to TNCI’s revenue since rolling out in summer 2008.
The status report comes after a day-and-a-half meeting in Dallas this week between TNCI CEO Brian Twomey, Agent Alliance CEO Bill Power and the Agent Equity Plan Strategic Operating Council, which consists of agents that are both members and non-members of the Agent Alliance.
Council members attending the meeting included representatives from GST, PMG, Telegration, MicroCorp, TotalNet, OnTrack Communications and SinglePoint Communications. Other council members include Intelisys, ARG, Method One Communications and PlanetOne.
Twomey told PHONE+ the revenue achievements to date are in line with the initial plan for the program, but are especially noteworthy considering the impact of the economic downturn, which was not anticipated when the program was conceived and launched.
That level of interest and growth has allowed TNCI to take a different approach to managing the program. “This isn’t just TNCI in this trying to bring some partners to a transaction and get their cooperation,” Twomey said. “As we are approaching 2010, we are taking a completely different tack.”
That approach is for the stakeholders – TNCI and its partners – to work on a strategic operating plan for 2010, he explained, noting this week’s meeting in Dallas was part of that effort. “This gets into the network, the product, price points, compensation — to figure out where specifically we need to build and how we need to create continued sustained growth.”
Power called TNCI’s approach “unprecedented.” “This is not a carrier sitting behind closed curtains and developing its operating plan and then trying to engage the partners to get their buy in.” Instead, he said it’s a transparent and collaborative process to get to the end objective.
That object is for TNCI to be sold in late 2011. Twomey said TNCI already is identifying potential buyers and has entered into preliminary discussions with some.
Those conversations are “more evidence that this is a real opportunity for agents,” said Power, noting that the program is still accepting participants but time is growing short for agents to accumulate the revenue to achieve a substantial payout.
Agents can earn an equity share equal to as much as 7.5X to 9X of their monthly billing base at the time of a transaction, TNCI said. This equates to four to five years of commission. To participate agents must meet a minimum threshold of $25,000 in billed monthly revenue by the end of 2011. In addition to a windfall at the time of the transaction, agents also will have evergreen commissions after the sale.
Power said about half the participants in the program are new to selling TNCI’s services since the program was launched.
Cisco to Shell Out $3 Billion for TANDBERG
10/01/2009
Cisco Systems wants a bigger chunk of the video equipment market by shelling out $3 billion for TANDBERG.
Cisco wants to integrate TANDBERG’s video and telepresence technology into its current offerings. Over the past few years, Cisco has acquired Scientific-Atlanta and Arroyo, but this would be the company’s biggest step forward in the video communications business.
But as video becomes increasingly important to enterprise customers, the network giant wants to carve off a greater piece of the multibillion teleconferencing market by integrating Tandberg’s technology with its own. In a statement, Cisco called TANDBERG’s 1,500 employees “extremely important” to the future of the company.
TANDBERG’s board has already given the offer a thumbs-up. If approved by regulators, the deal should close sometime in the first half of next year.
Sources:
cnet: Cisco to buy video firm Tandberg for $3 billion
Financial Times: Cisco launches $3bn bid for Tandberg
Skype for SIP Interoperable with Cisco UC500
Khali Henderson
09/23/2009
Skype announced Wednesday at the VON Conference & Expo that the beta version of Skype for SIP has been certified as interoperable with the Cisco Systems Inc. Unified Communications 500 Series for small businesses.
This is the most recent interoperability agreement announced for Skype for SIP, a beta program that allows existing standards-based (SIP) communications infrastructure to connect to the Skype community. Earlier this month, Skype announced interoperability of Skype for SIP with UC systems from ShoreTel Inc. and the SIPfoundry open source community.
With today’s announcement Cisco UC 500 users can direct outbound calls to mobile devices and landlines via Skype, while also allowing them to receive inbound calls from more than 480 million registered Skype users. Skype calls are received and handled or directed in the same way as any other inbound caller.
In addition, if a company buys and associates online Skype numbers with their Cisco UC 500 Series solution, it can then receive inbound calls via Skype from business contacts and customers calling from landline and mobile phones.
“Cisco is committed to delivering easy-to-use technology to small businesses to help them run their business better and gain a competitive advantage,” said Mark Monday, vice president and general manager, Small Business Solutions business unit, Cisco. “We are excited about Skype for SIP interoperability since it adds a very cost-effective choice to the many other options within the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series.”
Certification testing was conducted by tekVizion Labs, an independent test facility in Richardson, Texas.
To sell the service, Cisco VARs will need to register for the Skype Service Partner Program and pass an online certification exam. Details about the new Skype Service Partner Program are expected to be announced in an address by Christopher Dean, chief strategy officer for Skype, who is delivering a joint keynote for the VON Conference & Expo and the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, which are colocated at the Miami Convention Center this week.
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DSCI Secures Spot on Inc’s Annual Listing of the 5000 Fastest Growing, Private Companies
DSCI has been a partner of Intervale’s for over 4 years, great customer service and a robust product suite.
http://www.dscicorp.com/news.php?article=71
http://cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10521/index.html
This is a great product that is starting to be a major part of our boardroom technology product line.
One of the nicest features of upgrading to VoIP is the voice mail to email notification. This allows a user to receive a wave file via email of a voice mail left for them at the office. This is a great feature not just from a customer service perspective but also from an archiving perspective. Also, for employees that travel, this feature will allow them to check voice mails and respond faster as opposed to dialing into the system.
One of the most overlooked ‘bills’ within an organization is the phone and Internet bill from your service provider. If the services have not been negotiated in the past two to three years (of which is the average contract length) than typically there is 20% savings to be had with potentially zero up front costs. For more information go to http://www.intervaletech.com/phone.aspx
