By Dan Baldwin
I've been helping Southern Californai based small and medium sized multi-location business customers choose business phone equipment and business phone services for over twenty years and I've never once had a customer or prospect with a office phone system problem call and ask me for a quote for "unified communications". What they do ask for is some sort of "magic telecom bullet" to make what they've already paid for work "better, longer and cheaper" - especially in today's economy.
Business customers that have heard of unified communications are the ones that have previously had some telephone experience with an "enterprise business" (a business with 1,000 or more employees) where an employee's office desk phone interfaces with their mobile smart phone which interfaces with their office computer. In other words, small business customers equate unified communications or "UC" as a pretty fancy phone system with a very high price tag that only very large companies can afford.
Does "UC" for SMB Exist - and What Does it Look Like?
Unified communications does exist for the small business that needs between 15 and 100 phones, and thanks to Steve Jobs, small business owners already kind of understand UC and are ready to buy it - from UC vendors that can properly explain it - like the four that follow.
Steve Jobs has been indispensable to the UC sales process because all a UC/hosted VoIP/cloud phone system salesperson now has to say is, "You know how your iPhone does phone calls, text messages, video and all kinds of cool apps, right? UC connects all that to your office phone and computer! Is that what you want?"
For every small business owner that owns a smart phone or an iPad the answer is always, "Yes!"
Unfortunately, wanting UC for small business and being able to buy UC for small business (that actually works) can be a daunting task for small business owners, their independent telecom consultants and IT equipment VARs because it does not always work perfectly when operating on top of the public Internet.
How Do You "Buy Right" When Buying UC for Offices Under 100 Phones?
Fortunately, "buying UC right" in the "under 100 phones" sector is a fairly low risk endevour because most smaller businesses will want to have the UC phone solution operate off of their existing Internet connection and computer network.
Unfortunately, without the proper precautions, haphazardly trying different UC phone solutions without an experienced UC "sherpa" showing the way (an independent telecom partner experienced with UC for SMB) can be quite painful due to disruptions in the customer's computer network and phone calls that simply don't work.
Four "UC 4 SMB" Solution Vendors to Start With
Telecom Association members report positive customer experiences in the UC 4 SMB realm when using MegaPath, Broadview Networks, SimpleSignal and 8x8. Following is a brief overview of each of these four vendors. To learn more or to get started on a demonstration please contact your local independent telecom agent or channel sales partner.
MegaPath
MegaPath had primarily been seen as one the the nation's largest data network providers after they merged with Covad that dabbled in "hosted VoIP" but that changed in a big way when they merged with Speakeasy. Speakeasy was one of the most successful hosted VoIP business phone service providers in the US for businesses with under 100 phones.
With Speakeasy's low-end hosted VoIP/UC expertise and Covad's nationwide network (not to mention Megapath's managed network security services) MegaPath is propably the only "must consider" vendor in the under 100 phone office looking at UC options because Megapath can start a small customer's phone/UC solution on the customer's own network and then migrate the customer's UC solution up to MegaPath's private MPLS network if and when the need arises.
Broadview Networks
Broadview Networks is on this list because they are a modern "phone company" that does "phone equipment" and phone services really well. By contrast, many of Broadview's competitors are network services companies that "also do phones". The distinction may seem small but it is in fact very big when it comes to the after-sale installation experience. Broadview has installed over 70,000 UC phones across the country. They know how to make small businesses happy with their phone system after the sale.
Broadview is different from their competitors in another way in that they really pretty much lead with "this is a great office phone system". While their solution has unified communications features they know that their customers are really just trying to buy phone - modern phones with all the cool features - but at the end of the day, they're phone. Broadview also has a great way of putting the phones, the installation and everything you need in one tight bundle which makes a Broadview phone solution very easy to understand and buy.
SimpleSignal
SimpleSignal is another "gotta see" UC 4 SMB vendor to look at because they are the "best of breed" high-end hosted VoIP vendor for business customers that has never abandoned the under 100 phone class of customers. While similar uc/hosted phone system vendors have all but abandoned business customers that want to use their public Internet connection to make their UC phone system work, SimpleSignal continues to bring the Broadsoft platform to the under 100 phone market.
SimpleSignal also stands above their competitors in that they "lead with the app" for the small guy. While the largest phone system vendors are knocking themselves out designing communications applications for customers with 1,000 or mor phones, SimpleSignal recognizes the small business customers want integrated conferencing, call recording and video too. SimpleSignal engineers their apps to give small businesses the UC phone solution freedoms that enterprise businesses enjoy.
8x8
A year ago I would never have considered 8x8 as a viable option for any business customer as I was pretty sure they were kin to magicJack, Vonage and other "two-tin-cans-and-a-string" phone vendors. Over the last year though I've had several independent telecom sales partners say, "No, 8x8 is great! I've got many of my small business customers cut over to 8x8 and they're pretty happy."
When I tried to dig deeper with the consultants that recommeded 8x8 as to their presales inquiry and customer phone requirements the consultants said, "Dude, the customer wanted something cheap and fast. I said, '8x8 will drop ship the phones to you and they'll either work or they won't - no guarantees.' If the customer likes how it works they keep the phones. If they don't they send the phones back. What's not to like?"
How to Try UC for Your Small Business?
Give your local independent telecom agent or technology channel sales partner a call. If you need a referral click our Recommended Members by Metro link. Your local agent or channel partner will be able to let you know which UC/business phone providers their other small business customers have had good luck with. Maybe it will be MegaPath, SimpleSignal or 8x8, maybe it will be another vendor.
Please keep your expectation in check though. Unified communications, hosted VoIP, my-phone-and-office-in-a-cloud, whatever you want to call it is a lot different from a copper phone line from Ma Bell connected to an old bomb-proof bakelite phone.
Use the "BYOB" (bring your own broadband) feature of these low end solutions to your advantage by trying them out in your office or offices before you commit. If the sales person wants to map out all your past phone pain and document all your desired apps - that's good, but don't commit to anything until you see the phones working with temporary phone numbers on your existing network.
It would not be unreasonable to ask for a one or two week trail. but make sure that during the trial that all your biggest phone users do everything on the UC phone that they currently do on the "phones you hate". (It's funny how customers suddenly long for their old office phones after they switch to a new office phone system.)
Video Snapshots of MegaPath, Broadview, SimpleSignal and 8x8
To get a feel for the UC sales mentality of MegaPath, SimpleSignal and 8x8, click the three videos that follow. They offer a pretty decent representation of what you should expect.
Then call your local independent telecom sales partner to see what he or she recommends and then have your local person take you into a carefully managed unified communications trial.
MegaPath
Ross Anderson of MegaPath at recent trade show shares how Megapath shares the strength of their network that their UC/hosted VoIP customers enjoy. Ross is one of MegaPath's managers that support their independent channel sales partners. I shot this video myself at a trade show this past year.
Broadview Networks
Broadview Product Manager Rob Marschall describes how their OfficeSuite hosted VoIP solution solves a variety of SMB problems. This video is from the Broadview website.
SimpleSignal
Dave Gilbert, founder of SimpleSignal gives his famous, "this-is-unified-communications-on-a-napkin" explaination of how hosted VoIP works for small business customers. I shot this video myself in SimpleSignal's California office. It's one of a series that explains the benefits of unified communications and hosted VoIP to small businesses.
8x8
Debbie Jo Severin, 8x8 chief marketing Officer shares their latest unified communications phone systems applications that they're bringing to businesses that need under 100 phones. This video was produced not by me but TMCnet.
What's Best For Your Business?
Looking for a Southern California based, vendor neutral business communications technology service expert that can help you out with your multi-location telecom or data network problems?
Click here to learn about how we might be able to fix your problem for free, then contact me directly at 951-251-5155 or [email protected].
BaldwinTel helps multi-location businesses across the United States but specializes Southern California especially San Diego County, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County and San Bernardino County.
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