Irwin Lazar with Nemertes Research recently posted an insightful blog on No Jitter. In an nutshell, Nemertes interviewed IT leaders from 200 companies earlier in the year. Nearly 100% of the participants said they expected flat or falling budgets for 2010. They were asked (a) what would they be forced to cut; and (b) what would they cut last. The results were perplexing as Voice and UC topped both of those lists. What?!?

Irwin explains the logic behind this: Voice is one of the larger budget items while at the same time mission critical to the business. Net/Net – IT leaders need to cut costs and are looking at Voice and UC more tactically than strategically. Whereas in the past they were interested in leveraging UC to improve processes and drive competitive advantage; in the near future they are looking for Read the rest of this entry »

Have you seen the commercials on TV about GMC trucks that say “We are professional grade?” It’s a simple way of telling the consumer that their vehicle meets a higher standard. In this case, the term “professional” likely refers to a construction manager, contractor, field engineer, or the like. You can imagine people like this needing heavy payload, tough shocks, and a lot of horsepower. You can also imagine their trucks have to take a beating and still perform on a daily basis. You would also infer Read the rest of this entry »

A week ago, we touched briefly on the topic of business continuity and disaster recovery. This is a topic that I keep coming back to with a lot of partners — especially those located in California (epicenter for fires, mudslides, earthquakes, etc). Considering the list of potential threats out there, there’s a tremendous opportunity for Avaya partners to find a niche in disaster planning. Not to say that there aren’t other companies out there that specialize in this area. Quite the contrary, it’s a cottage industry but one with room for new entrants- especially ones with a different approach and unique expertise (did you know that AGS has a professional service in this area?). Frankly, this is a conversation I have had with partners repeatedly that strangely has not led to much activity. So let me share my line of thinking here, and you tell me what you think. There’s a couple of things going on. First, we’re seeing a critical mass of impending disasters and emergencies: natural disasters, terrorist disasters, school shootings, Pandemics,.. this list goes on. At the same time, we’re all talking about how to differentiate ourselves and approach customers with solutions, not products. Many partners are trying to crack the code on how to charge for the up-front design work that goes into the solutions they propose. Might this not be a way to provide extremely valuable consulting that (a) customers are willing to pay for; and (b) allows you to pull through significant constructs? The exciting thing is that Catalyst supports you in providing a number of solutions that solve very real problems that public and commercial organizations face. Here’s some of the big ones:

• Avaya is providing a lot of innovation with it’s Communication Enabled Business Processes. Simply stated, “A holistic combination of software, consulting, and support services that integrate Avaya Intelligent Communications into business processes, making it possible to sense events in real-time and then orchestrate and track enterprise-wide actions – creating a more responsive organization.” Avaya accomplishes this with a software component called Communications Process Manager which integrates with your clients existing business applications and processes.
• Mobile Communication System (MCS) and Quicksite are ruggedized Avaya systems that can be quickly deployed in the field by first responders.
• Juniper SSL VPN includes an option for ICE (In case of emergency) licensing so your client can pay only for the ability to use licenses less expensively in the event of a disaster. This clientless VPN allows organizations to send people home and still have access to the corporate network without any tricky client software — just a web browser. It’s also a great compliment to IP Softphone..
• Avaya IP Softphone and EC 500 give users the ability to operate remotely if need be in the event of a disaster. Both of these have value on the main system or resident in an MCS or Quicksite.
• Computer Instruments (an Avaya Dev Connect) has a number of canned applications like loved one finder, community notification and others that play well in this space.
• See my previous post which highlighted the very simple virtues of MultiTech’s Cellular Gateway – Call Finder.

So we know that we have great solutions in this space, how do you build a consulting practice around BC/DR? First, you can explore Avaya’s professional service offers through AGS. See this link for great information. If you’re looking to keep all this high margin profit to yourself, you might consider sending one of your sales people or engineers to a certification course for business continuity. The Institute for Continuity Management has a 5 day accelerated track next month. Might this be a new niche for your business?

Recently, I had the pleasure of reading a book called Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne. In a nutshell, the book shares how many companies (Southwest Airlines, Yellow Tail Wine..) have beaten their competition by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested markets. I think it applies very well to the business of selling IP telephony and convergence solutions and it really gives you a blueprint for differentiating your business from your competition. Anyone that is seeing declining margins, increased competition, and difficulty growing their business will appreciate BOS’s lessons in creating a new story. So here’s the question: are you swimming in blood red, shark infested waters where you compete with Cisco, Shoretel, and even other Avaya partners on price? Or have you found a blue ocean of uncontested waters where there are more opportunities and competition is irrelevant. You know the old saying, “fish where the other fisherman aren’t” (yeah, really milking the whole ocean/fishing metaphor).  Here’s a good test to see which waters you’re swimming in: http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/about/test.html

How can we differentiate your business? Create a new set of ground rules which customers use to base their decisions? Let’s sit down and create what BOS calls a “value curve” for your business. This helps you reorient your focus from competitors to alternatives while shifting from customers to noncustomers.