"Top 10" Questions Answered by this TA Seller's Guide
- Who, What, Why & Who (Who is the the guide written for, what skills does it teach, why was it written and who sponsors it?)
- When (How "fresh" is the content and what are the major recent revisions?)
- Problem Description (Does your customer have "this problem"?)
- Customer Description (Does your customer fit "this description"?)
- Quick Solution (Who are the accredited TA members or vendors that can solve the problem?)
- Historical Background (What do the veteran consultants know about this problem?)
- Problem Solving Checklist (What are the specific problem items that need to be addressed?)
- Solution Provider Checklist (How do I know which solution provider to choose?)
- Case Studies (How have these sorts of problems been solved by others like me?)
- Additional Resources (What other ways can TA members & vendors help?)
1. Who, What, Why & Who (Who is the the guide written for, what skills does it teach, why was it written and who sponsors it?)
Who's this for? All Telecom Association ("TA") Seller's guides are written for telecom agents, channel partners, technology consultants, IT VARs and other similar professionals in the business of helping business owners and decision makers understand the scope of a particular telecom or technology problem they have and then understand the options and resources available to address and solve the problem.
What will I learn? The guide is designed to enable the reader to speak to his or her client or prospect not as a technical expert but as a knowledgeable "shopping proxy". The guide empowers the seller to professionally act as the business owner's "agent" to find the right solution at the right price to solve the customer's problem.
Why'd TA write this? The reason the guide is written is to assure the reader that TA members and vendors are problem solving professionals - not simple sellers of solutions they don't understand. Many business technology equipment providers avoid distributing telecom and technology services because they don't want to get involved in something they are not an expert in. Customers however prefer to work with solution providers that can integrate all the "piece parts" that comprise a total solution. This guide will enable any technology vendor to help their client choose a proper service provider.
Who sponsored this?
Granite Telecommunications, Ernest Communications and Wholesale Carrier Services ("WCS") are the accredited TA vendor members that sponsor this guide. They specialize in serving the needs of multi-location enterprise businesses that need to have all their POT's lines managed and billed by a single provider.
The following TA accredited members also sponsor this guide. TA accredited members are "subject matter experts" ("SMEs") as well as independent representatives of one or more of the sponsoring vendors listed above. TA's MLE POTs accredited members have documented experience working with MLE POTs business customers and have the knowledge needed to match customers to the right vendor or vendors. TA has interviewed many of these SME for the MLE POTs blog. You can view these SME interviews by searching the MLE POTs blog for the SME names.
303-663-6700 [email protected]
Joe Erickson, Telesave Communications
309-314-3864 [email protected]
Marc Metzger, Telecom Management Resources 248-671-2161
Scroll lower in this seller's guide to view a longer list of all TA members and vendors that specialize in working with multi-location business customers and providing needed telecom and technology solutions.
Like all Buyer's & Seller's Guides found on blogs, the MLE POTs Seller's Guide is designed to be the single reference a telecom agent or channel partner would need to start to know what they're doing as a professional solution consultant. The seller's guides set a knowledge foundation for the seller so the seller "has the big picture". Once reading the seller's guide, the blog audience member will better understand the "conversational context" of the blog posts and associated comments.
2. Updates (How "fresh" is the content and what are the major recent revisions?)
This MLE POTs sellers guide is being initially published at www.MLEPOTs.com on 3/17/2010. It will be continually revised and upgraded as needed or as recommended by TA's members and vendors. Dates and summaries of updates will appear here.
Like all Buyer's & Seller's Guides found on blogs, the MLE POTs Seller's Guide is designed to be the single reference a telecom agent or channel partner would need to start to know what they're doing as a professional solution consultant. The seller's guides set a knowledge foundation for the seller so the seller "has the big picture". Once reading the seller's guide, the blog audience member will better understand the "conversational context" of the blog posts and associated comments.
2. Updates (How "fresh" is the content and what are the major recent revisions?)
This MLE POTs sellers guide is being initially published at www.MLEPOTs.com on 3/17/2010. It will be continually revised and upgraded as needed or as recommended by TA's members and vendors. Dates and summaries of updates will appear here.
4. Problem Description (Does your customer have "this problem"?)
5. Customer Description (Does your customer fit "this description"?)
6. Quick Solution (Who are the accredited TA members or vendors that can solve the problem?)
Historical Background (What do the veteran consultants know about this problem?)
Problem Solving Checklist (What are the specific problem items that need to be addressed?)
Solution Provider Checklist (How do I know which solution provider to choose?)
Case Studies (How have these sorts of problems been solved by others like me?)
MLE POTs Defined
While any business with more than one location can be loosely defined as "multi location", the MLE POTs category is for those businesses that are "enterprise" (kinda big) in that they usually have at least a hundreds or more locations. The "POTs" modifier means the multi location business locations are usually small in that they use POTs lines (plain old telephone service) as opposed to T-1 data lines or phone service over an Internet connection.
A classic MLE POTs customer might be a chain of 200 retail furniture rental stores that all have 5 phone lines - two for talking, one for fax, one for credit cards and one for alarm - spread over half the United States. The fact that the locations are small in size but are spread over several different phone companies makes the MLE POTs service one huge pain in the neck for a business telecom department to manage.
MLE POTs consultants and vendors specialize in taking the headache of dealing with multiple phone companies and hundreds of small phone bills off the shoulders of the business end-user.
7. Historical Background (What do the veteran consultants know about this problem?)
Problem Solving Checklist (What are the specific problem items that need to be addressed?)
Solution Provider Checklist (How do I know which solution provider to choose?)
Case Studies (How have these sorts of problems been solved by others like me?)
History of "Phone Company Pain"
The multi-location category originally began decades ago when businesses with dozens or hundreds of locations were going crazy with what seemed like thousands of phone bills from scores of different phone companies. No one could keep track of what invoice was for what service. Most multi-location businesses became content with just paying all the bills as quickly as possible in order to ensure no location got any service disconnected for non-payment,
When a business did make an inquiry to a phone company for a suspect charge the nightmare really began. Being on hold for 20 minutes or more to be transfered then to someone else who didn't understand the question to eliminate a $14 charge just did not seem worth the effort for most businesses.
8. Problem Solving Checklist (What are the specific problem items that need to be addressed?)
The MLE POTs Checklist
1. Inventory What are all these phone bills paying for? someone needs to create and keep updated a master inventory or all phone lines, Internet connections and data circuits.
2. Bill Review So do you really need everything you have (and are paying for?) It's one thing to know what you have but quite another thing to know WHY you have it and even IF you still even need it. Who knows this? This is also known as telecom expense management or "TEM".
3. Help Desk "My voice mail's not working" "I need to move my desk phone to another desk" the requests for help never ends. Can this function be outsourced to an MLE vendor?
4. Consulting "Isn't there a way to do all this cheaper or better?" this should be your first question after getting a handle on what you have. Strip it all down and then "rebuild it better".
5. "Life Cycle Management" Once you've "stripped it all down" and you've got a plan to "rebuy it better" then you need a seriously organized and managed process to procure and track new service and equipment purchases.
6. Other Stuff If it touches equipment, cable, dial-tone, Internet, data, IT or anything else releated to telecom or technology that you want to outsource - put it on the table when interviewing and selecting MLE vendors. They want to hear about it because every additional "thing" they can do for you makes you a "stickier" customer for them.
9. Solution Provider Checklist (How do I know which solution provider to choose?)
Enter the Multi-Location POTs Solution Provider
Multi-location enterprise or "MLE POTs" solution providers come in three flavors but all basically suggest that they are the cure for business managers to the MLE blues in that the MLE solution provider will take over the whole management of all the phone bills and make sure that only what's needed and cost effective will be paid for. Savings are also generally suggested and result mostly from the MLE customer not having to pay the payroll of their own employees to keep track of the mess.
Following are the three MLE Vendor Flavors:
1. Carrier A carrier is a phone company that directly provides and bills for all the solutions that your business is using in the way of telecom, Internet and data connectivity. Where a business has its locations spread all over the country over many different phone company "areas" (AT&T, Verizon & Qwest), it's hard to get a single old-fashioned "carrier" to be the "single MLE vendor" for an expansive MLE customer.
The new "IP" carriers can solve this problem. A single IP carrier can provide dial-tone, Internet and data to a MLE customer coast-to-coast (and around the planet) using "business grade" VoIP and SIP. Many businesses are reluctant to go the IP route but in less than five years even the "old carriers" will be pushing IP dial-tone as the primary solution. If you're looking for a MLE IP solution as opposed to a POTs solution, consult TA's www.MLEIP.com blog that reviews the VoIP carriers that solve MLE problems the "VoIP way".
2. Reseller A reseller is a "switchless carrier" that becomes the "customer" in the place of the MLE customer. The reseller receives all the different phone bills and then creates a single bill for the customer to review and pay. Being an "industry insider, the reseller of course makes sure all the bills are proper and that the reseller's wholesale rates are as low as possible. The reseller marks the bill up before presenting it to the customer of course to cover the costs associated with the value the reseller is adding.
Often resellers will provide MLE customers the very best prices because the MLE resellers can "cherry pick" the low-price solutions in any part of the country. Want fiber, cable or DSL to save money in a certain state? Not a problem.
Many MLE customers choose a MLE POTs solution provider over a larger or IP carrier when they first decide to outsource their telecom nightmare because it's the "easiest first step". Literally all a MLE customer has to do is sign a piece of paper for the reseller and a month or so later their "hundreds of bills" turn into one bill and there's suddenly only one number that needs to be called for billing or customer service.
3. Agent A telecom agent (AKA channel partner, IT VAR, technology consultant, etc.) that specializes in MLE POTs is often the business customer's "ace in the hole". They can help a business end-user pick the best combination of MLE carriers or resellers as many of the agents know all of the resellers and carriers professionally. The "agent route" works especially well for business customers when the agent or IT VAR the customer's working with is also the person who is integrating the customer's your dial-tone, Internet and data to the customer's equipment or critical business applications.
10. Case Studies (How have these sorts of problems been solved by others like me?)
11. Additional Resources (What other ways can TA members & vendors help?)
Other TA Vendors & Professional Members Providing MLE Solutions
These providers are listed in the order of votes they received last year in our annual "Members Choice" awards balloting:
Ernest Group
Bullseye
MegaPath
AireSpring, Inc.
Accel Networks
Smoothstone IP
New Edge Networks
ATEL Communications
BandWave Systems
Broadview Networks
Comm. Mgmt. Services
Entelegent Solutions
Excel Communications
Nitel
NuVox
PAETEC
Telnes
TelePacific
TeleSource
TNCI
Vocal IP Networx
World Telecom Group
MLE IP
MLE Data (bandwave, Nitel,
If you'd like to get listed or sponsor any buyer's guide, please contact Dan Baldwin, TA's Executive Director at 951-251-5155 or [email protected].
About Telecom Association's Buyer's Guides
Each "Buyer's Guide" under any topic begins as a collection of blog posts on that topic. The buyer's guide is designed to hold the accumulated "collected knowledge" of all the posts. The main idea is that if you were to read all the topic posts as they were posted, you'd be able to write the buyer's guide yourself.
The buyer's guide is a distillation of all the knowledge in all the posts. Each successive post will be used to update the buyer's guide. If we do this correctly, someone new to the topic can simply read the buyer's guide and then have all the knowledge they would have had if they read all the posts.
TA's Buyer's guides exist because TA's members and vendors have chosen to sponsor them as a way to objectively educate you about your purchase decision and as a way to introduce themselves to you while you're considering a purchase in an area that they have expertise.
TA's 3,800 independent members and vendors are actually the best living "buyer's guides" you'll find to help you. Most have over five years of experience (many have over 20 years) helping businesses and channel partners find the right telecom or technology solution at the right cost among among all the available options. Their knowledge is totally up to date. By consulting them you'll benefit from the knowledge they gained just yesterday (and maybe avoid a disaster that happened to a business just like yours the day before).
If you need to call on a business to help you please first call the buyer's guide sponsors. If they are not able to help you completely satisfy your business needs, then call the other TA vendors or professional members listed who may also be able to address and solve your problems.
If you need a referral to the right TA vendor or professional member to solve your problem, please contact Dan Baldwin, TA's Executive Director at 951-251-5155 or [email protected] for a personal referral.
Multi-Location Buyer's Guide Sponsors
Ernest Communications and Granite Telecommunications specialize in serving the needs of multi-location businesses. Please click on the links or logos to view their websites and then follow up with them directly about how they might meet your multi-location needs. You can scroll lower in this buyer's guide to view a list of all TA vendors and professional members that provide multi-location solutions.
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