Time to train

VOIP HAS REACHED THE SAME level of acceptance as global warming — there are no more sceptics, as one carrier puts it. VoIP sales in Australia are increasing at 50 percent compound annual growth, according to research company IDC.

As SME Australia takes the first steps towards modern converged communications, resellers wanting their cut of the action need to start planning now. But where to start, and how?

Voice has until recently been a relatively specialised field dominated by proprietary systems, idiosyncratic hardware and time-intensive labour. But now any reseller with a good level of expertise in networking is a candidate for selling VoIP.

Data resellers may find the initial concepts a little different to standard networking fare. Fundamentally, voice may be just another application sitting on a data switch, but it is a much more complex sale than straight networking. Once learnt, VoIP is not a difficult technology to replicate.

Resellers need to talk to a vendor or distributor to start the process and begin training, the type and amount of which will depend on the reseller’s skillset. IPL Communications, part of the IPL Group, has resellers with voice and data backgrounds. IPL recommends that voice resellers form a relationship with a data company to start selling VoIP as quickly as possible. This could take from two days to two weeks, said Stead Denton, CEO of IPL Group.

However, the majority of resellers moving to VoIP will come from the data side. With an engineering degree from Microsoft or Cisco, a reseller would need five days plus five days per product over three months, said Denton. “If you are going from scratch … it would allow you to sell a reasonably sophisticated system.”

Basic box builders building and installing PC systems may not have enough skills in routers and more advanced Internet connections to make the leap.

Courses can be free or cost up to $10,000, with the average around $2000-$3000, said Denton. But make sure you book ahead as demand is high. “We’re full,” said Denton, who is running courses every month in three classrooms. “Whoever doesn’t get started now will find it difficult in a year or two to catch up.”

Resellers from a system integrator background also need to understand that, unlike on a data network, performance is time critical, said Greg Round, product development manager at distributor Alloy. Data packets dropped on a data network are simply resent and the user is none the wiser; VoIP packets are dropped for good, screwing up QOS.

Alloy gives resellers a Not For Resale VoIP package so they can become comfortable with the technology before they go to customers. Resellers are eligible for free training in PBX and QOS configurations.

IProvide, a partner program run by AAPT, offers free training for partners. As with programs run by other carriers, the aim is to get resellers selling VoIP as quickly as possible. MD Phil Sykes said it would take a reseller three months of classes to be comfortable offering VoIP to customers, compared to a year going it alone.

“We’ve got the best training,” said Sykes. “Our whole business is helping partners get up to speed.”

With training under the belt, a reseller needs to choose hardware. One sign that VoIP is still in its youthful days is the number of vendors in the market, with a number of start-ups competing with the main brands.

Lesser-known vendors chase market share through low prices and excellent value by packing lots of features into an IP PBX at no extra cost. Often these products make the bigger vendors’ products look like poor value, but there can be complications.

Denton’s advice is to stick with the major players such as Cisco, Nortel, Avaya and Siemens. Already several smaller vendors have folded, putting their resellers in an awkward position.

“He’s then got to support a product with no spare parts and no roadmap for revisions,” said Denton.

So you’ve done your training, picked a vendor and carrier and are ready to sell.

Although the sale of a VoIP system is an opportunity to expand the depth of the relationship between a reseller and its customers, the benefits are ongoing. VoIP generates revenue beyond hardware margins in the initial sale through upgrades, maintenance and new applications.

The many features of VoIP, more than the savings, are what will drive Australian SMEs to upgrade their PABXs. Resellers just need to make sure they are ready to give their customers what they want when they come asking.

“Whoever doesn’t get started now will find it difficult in a year or two to catch up.”

“We’re not going to invest all that training if the next year they’re not going to do anything.”