Posted 5/11/10 By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email
I interviewed TeleSource CEO Ronnie Bice last week to catch up with where TeleSource is the leader in dominating any multi location business market segments being pursued by telecom agents and channel partners.
To get more information now about TeleSource, contact Ronnie Bice at 888-849-0555.
Click here to download the MP3 interview or click the player below to listen now.
Following are the interview notes if you'd like to follow along.
00:00 You're a master agent that focuses almost exclusively on multi location accounts?
We've created TeleSource's agent program in response to our own multi-location customer's requests. Nationwide DSL brokered from multiple vendors is one example. We monitor and mange nationwide DSL from our own NOC ("network operation center").
01:05 You have a 24/7 customer "help desk"? What does that include?
As far into the customers's network as they will allow us to go. some of our retail customers allow us to go past the core routers to ping all the way to their point of sale systems. We can even go past that to check every device on the network. We can trouble shoot broken printers for example and determine if a printer repair person needs to be dispatched or a cable technician, etc.
02:30 How do you bill for the 24/7 telecom help desk?
It can come included if the customer subscribes to our TEM ("telecom expense management") "TeleSource Connect" software product. It's a totally managed and outsourced solution to all your telecom related issues. Other customer can get the help desk solution by itself it they want just one number to call, just "one throat to choke", one company to handle all my telecom needs. We can build a special pricing package for these customers.
03:35 Do you have agents selling the help desk service?
We have rolling it our to our agents in 2010. Agents and reseller partners can also distribute the help desk or TEM solution under our "white label" program in order to promote their own brand and not ours.
04:40 And the "TeleSource Connect" TEM software has a customer facing portal?
Yes. It has a very intuitive customer facing portal that can be accessed by the customer from any Internet connection in the world.
05:40 How does all the customer's monthly multi carrier data get into the TEM software? Does the customer have to get their network services through TeleSource?
Agents that "white label" the product are responsible for getting the data into the TEM software. If the customer is a direct TeleSource customer through the agent then we have several options available. We have 16 people who do nothing but key data into the software for our customers. We also have a full staff of programmers who write customized code to enable electronic importation of data from the carriers. We specialize in importing from semi-data hostile carriers. We've mastered getting data imported from AT&T for example. What used to take five order entry people five days to import one bill can now be done in about 15-minutes.
08:00 How does your TEM solution compare to any of the others on the market from other carriers or master agents?
There are many huge TEM solution providers that want to play in the $20million and above annual customer spend. TeleSource is more interested in the $20million and below annual spend. We think it's a huge underserved market.
08:50 What are the high-margin solutions you hope to sell the most of in 2010?
Managed services - the "total telecom outsourced solution" for multi location companies. We manage all the TEM software. We pay all the bills and then provide a single audited invoice at the end of the month that can be easily imported into the customers accounts payable system. We want to do the network management and deployment of all telecom and IT systems for new locations for our multi location retail customers. We do everything from contracting the cabling company to do in and do the cabling, install and manage the Sirius radio systems. We do all the speakers, all the amplifiers all the DSL. On the day the location opens the customer knows everything related to telecom, data, phone systems and switches is ready to go and ready to start. TeleSource's management to this level has the added benefit of making sure all the inventory it input correctly to our TEM software.
10:50 Does the customer provide a deposit where you're paying all the bills as they come in and does the TEM show a running tally of carrier disputes you've filed for the customer?
It all depends on the size of the customer, their credit rating and what the customer wants. The TEM has a robust carrier dispute manager module that the customers like very much. It show detail down to the ticket level as well as a summary of all the amounts recouped from the carrier.
13:00 So TeleSource acts as the customer's outsourced bill paying service?
Yes, but more. We're a bill paying service with auditing and integration.
13:40 What's the ratio of new sales you expect in 2010 between your agents and your in-house sales staff?
Our direct side will be about 40% of our revenue with the rest coming from our agents and existing customer growth.
15:15 When you get a new customer are you usually just taking over managing their existing carrier contracts or are you getting them to switch carriers?
We do both models depending where the customer is with their existing contracts. We're totally fine if a customer wants to stay on AT&T forever and just have us manage their AT&T relationship to keep AT&T honest.
16:14 Do you do "shared savings" where you'll split the saving you capture with the customer as part of the fee?
Not previously but we are looking at doing that in 2010.
17:15 You do structured cabling?
In the greater Charlotte area we ourself do structured cabling, switch management, maintenance and repair - everything telecom related including Avaya and Cisco equipment. We provide the same service outside Charlotte with sub-contractors but we're managing the sub-contractors.
18:25 You also do management of RFP's or "Requests for Proposals"? How does that work?
Yes. It began as a request from one of our larger customers where we went in and wrote the entire RFP. We distributed the RFP to all the carriers. To keep everything square we did not submit the RFP to any carrier that TeleSource represents. Our programmers actually wrote a software program with a weighted scale to help compare the proposals.
20:00 AT&T is one of your biggest carriers that you represent?
Yes. AT&T / Bell South. We're one of their "Gold" agents. We're able to pay the very highest AT&T commissions to our AT&T sub-agents.
20:40 Do you use any of the POTs consolidator carriers?
Do to the exclusivity clauses in out AT&T agreements we've had to avoid working with the POTs consolidators. If that creates a challenge we can refer business to other agents appropriately.
21:35 So TeleSource actually does everything the POTs consolidators do except rebill?
We actually do what the POTs consolidators do and more. We do equipment maintenance. There's really nothing we won't manage for the customer.
22:30 What about solving multi location customer challenges with IP solutions like MegaPath and New Edge? Are your multi location customers showing much interest in IP?
Our multi location customers have not yet shown huge interest in VoIP for voice. POTs lines are really pretty cheap for retail customers still. Are customers are finding that the RBOC's DSL offereings really can't be beat on price.
24:10 So TeleSource helps the customer really access and then properly manage the best prices for any form of Internet or data access in any market be it DSL, cable or something else like a cellular data connection using a "Raven box"? The customer gets the great rate and you manage all the bills?
That's what we do.
25:10 And you can do structured cabling truck rolls anywhere in the US?
Any state, any time anywhere. We manage it.
26:00 What customer vertical markets do you see as the most fertile for new agents in 2010?
Multi location retail is beat almost to death. The multi location auto industry is really nice.
27:40 Are you doing any IP-PBX solutions or hosted VoIP installations?
Not yet but we're looking at it. We've actually built our own Asterisk server solution that we're testing in our in-house lab to see if we want to be our own hosted solution provider for our customers. We're not really ready to jump into that right yet though.
28:30 Are your customers asking about MPLS to pull all their location's data together?
We have some customers that have that today but most of our customers are not wanting to afford it. That may dramatically change after the recession but it's not happening now that we can see.
29:25 What about conferencing? Much demand for that from your clients?
Not a lot. We did sell a Spectel conferencing bridge to one multi location car dealership but not much outside that.
30:00 What are the top SIC code customer verticals that you specialize in?
Healthcare, automotive and retail.
31:00 What's the smallest customer you'll take?
We do single location customers. The key is multiple bills. If a single location customer gets multiple bills from multiple carriers then they're a great prospect for TeleSource. Our biggest customer has over 2,000 locations. The customers need to be interested in an outsourced managed service though.
32:25 How's the financial health of TeleSource?
We're privately help but we've had double-digit growth year over year with triple-digit growth in 2007. Last year was not as brutal to us as to some of our competitors. We really refocused quite a bit of energy on serving our existing base and as a result we grew in double digits in 2009 as well.
34:05 What kind of sales resources does TeleSource share with agents?
Myself, a very experienced VP of sales, two in-house sales reps and two more employees dedicated to agent support.
35:00 What's the history of TeleSource?
I started in telecom 25 years ago for a company called Summit selling long distance for 15 cents a minute. I worked at BTI, Global Crossing, Cable & Wireless. later I decided to start my own agency to serve larger customers I'd met that seemed to want to tap into my skills. We started with cubicle in our house and then moved into our own offices.
38:50 Did you write your own TEM software or customize something off the shelf?
We wanted to be a TEM company from inception. We hired our own programmers and wrote all the software in-house ourself. We've additionally written other software solutions that bolt on to the TEM including like a robust CRM solution. We have relationships with Masterstream and RPM and are writing software that interface with all the different systems including our TEM.
42:45 Have any of your clients asked you about energy?
Not to provide energy but our clients are interested in having our TEM software monitor and audit their energy bills.
43:44 So your software does nice exception reporting that your clients embrace?
Yes. Very well.
44:45 I understand you work with some special charities?
The GRIN kids charity takes terminally ill kids to Disney World for four days every year along with their families and doctors. I've been involved for over ten years helping. The last couple years we've done a casino night to raise quite a bit of money.
48:00 And you own a Harley?
A 2008 Screaming Eagle "Ultra Classic"
48:50 What's your retirement vision look like?
I'll still be doing this when I'm 80 unless I meet a phone company that wants to have it's own in-house TEM division.
To get more information now about TeleSource, contact Ronnie Bice at 888-849-0555.
