Posted 11/2/10 By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email
Bandwave Systems, a Philadelphia bandwidth services VAR best known for aggregating multi-carrier broadband connections for multi-location businesses that want to create their own "blended access VPN", has added a backup & data recovery ("BDR") solution to help their agents' clients protect their critical business data by backing it up to "the cloud".
Telecom agents who distribute Bandwave Systems' services can now pick up the BDR business that is often lost to IT consultants. "Asking a customer or prospect how comfortable they are with their existing remote data backup and disaster recovery contingency plan is a great conversation starter," states Tom Azelby, Bandwave's managing partner. "A great follow-up question is, 'When's the last time you tested it?'"
Bandwave offers their agent's customers a complete BDR solution that includes setup, monitoring and testing. All Bandwave agents need to do is find customers that are interested in discussing BDR solutions and Bandwave will do the rest. "The BDR solution comes pretty close to selling itself," Azelby continued. "Business customers know weather their current backup solution is bullet-proof. Usually it's not and they're get enough tension for the business owner about it that they're usually receptive to recommendations from someone like their trusted telecom agent who's offering an easy BDR upgrade."
To assist our agents in getting the BDR conversation started with their business customers and prospects Bandwave provides "done-for-you" marketing pieces that agents can use in email newsletters, blog posts and other Internet or print marketing.
Telecom Association has created a BDR post for their customer blog, email newsletter or website that any TA member can licence with permission and then use for their own marketing purposes with very little editing. Click here or the image to view the BDR content for customers.
Podcast Explaining the BDR Service
Click the audio player below to listen to TA's podcast with Adil Zaidi, Bandwave's BDR product manager discuss their solution and how it compares to other marketplace options.
Click here to download the MP3.
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Dan Baldwin: Hello, this is Dan Baldwin. Today we are talking to Adil Zaidi, the Operations Manager for Bandwave Systems. Adil, thanks for talking to us today.
Adil Zaidi: Thanks for having me, Dan.
DB: We understand that Bandwave Systems has a brand new backup disaster recovery solution that many telecom agents may not be familiar with selling.
Question Number 1. Can you tell us, what do we need to know about backup data recovery solutions, on-line solutions, and why is that Bandwave is rolling this out now?
AZ: Sure. Well, we’ve noticed a lot of growing interest in our off-site date backup, so we included it into our product offering. We manage our customer's Internet connections, so offering an off-site data backup was a natural fit for us.
DB: So it follows that any telecom agent that is selling larger pipes to business customers should ask, "What are you doing with these pipes?" And, "Are you using them to back up your data currently?"
AZ: Exactly. It’s a great fit for our current customers, or potential customers, who are looking to secure their data off-site. We have the bandwidth for that, so bringing in the off-site data backup was something that agents really like.
1:15 DB: Question Number 2. What do we need to know about pricing? Is it standard pricing, or all specialized pricing depending on whatever the customer needs?
AZ: We like to custom quote our agents and customers. The reason for that is, we want people to feel comfortable with the product we are offering.
We don’t want to turn anyone away. We like to really customize everything here at Bandwave Systems.
DB: Question Number 3. Who’s buying this, and why? What are we going to be looking for as a telecom solution provider in our customer base?
AZ: We are actually focusing on small to mid-size businesses to offer this product. It’s for people who are looking to roll out of on-line BDR (Backup and Disaster/Data Recovery) that they found either difficult to use, or didn’t have the support they needed.
The other type of business would be someone looking for off-site backup for the first time. We can really hold their hand through the process and get the ball rolling, and deliver exactly what they need.
2:22 DB: Question Number 4. What sort of customer are we looking for?
Do we measure by the number of PCs? The number of servers? Do they need to have a network? How much they’re backing up on-line? What are the numbers that we’re looking for? Or does that even matter?
AZ: In fact, that doesn’t matter to us. What we want to do is, we want to offer as many computers, as many servers as the customer needs. They will have a username and password for their account.
They can back up as many computers or servers as they need. We don’t charge extra for that.
We charge for the space that they are using on our servers per gig. That’s how we custom quote the price here.
DB: Question Number 5. How do you actually distinguish yourselves in this market? What are the points that the customer is going to compare this solution to other solutions?
3:20 AZ: In addition to price, there are 3 ways a solution is compared. First, what the software looks like on their screen.
Basically, when they load the software they interface. How easy it is to navigate through, add files that they need, or remove, pull software, or files that they save to our servers. That’s one of the main points
The second point would be their data. Is it being backed up in the or their location? We have redundant servers for all the customer’s data.
And the third is customer service. I think that’s the most important point here. When someone calls in and they have an issue, they are getting a live person on the phone to help them solve their problems.
DB: And my understanding is, not only will you help them solve problems after the fact if they have problems, but you’ll actually help them set this up.
AZ: That is exactly correct. We want to make sure that the initial upload is done correctly, and all of their files are backed up.
4:28 DB: Does this solution lend itself to a web demo on what it would look like when they are setting this up, and managing it on a daily or weekly basis?
AZ: We are able to do that as well. We can give them a tutorial, show them how it works, how to save files, how to back files up. It’s all done here.
DB: Question Number 6. When the telecom agent asks their client or prospects about backup disaster recovery, are there major players out there that the customer may ask them about, “Well, how do you compare to this or that?” the telecom agent needs to know about?
AZ: Yes, a company out there would be Mozy that we can compare ourselves to. Mozy does provide a similar service than what we have.
5:21 But, again, what we really drive down on is that support that we offer. Larger companies like Mozy are distant from their customers. They don’t provide that initial support, and the continued support as well.
DB: They also have a different way of pricing where in addition per gig price, they charge per PC or per server, which will end up adding onto the price after the customer signs up.
AZ: That’s correct. We have one price for the data, and that’s it.
DB: This is Dan Baldwin. We’ve been talking to Adil Zaidi, the Operations Manager for Bandwave Systems. Adil, did we forget to talk about anything?
6:05 AZ: We covered everything. If there are any additional questions, we can be reached here at Bandwave Systems either on our new website, www.bandwavesystems.com, or through e-mail at agents@bandwavesystems. com.
DB: Okay. Great. Adil, thanks for talking to us today.
AZ: Thanks Dan.
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