Mark Llewellyn, Carrier Marketing Manager at Mitel told Comms Business Magazine, “We have a two pronged sales approach to the hosted IP telephony market. There’s a wholesale model where we are selling to resellers such as London based reseller Telco Services under their Nexus brand, AT Communications under their SiNET name and Gamma Telecom who want to be a service provider in their own right. Then for those that either don’t have the capability or inclination to be an SP we will be referring resellers to these three partners and other as we grow. Mitel will be brokering the deals and three or four are progressing already.”
Llewellyn says this move constitutes a major roll out of a focussed strategy on hosted applications for Mitel, “The ink is drying on a communications plan that will formally launch the service and see the ability for all our channel partner to re-sell the service from these three partners.
We are helping the three define their pricing strategies but by and large they have completed the task themselves and are bundling the hosted telephony with other services. The key to hosted telephony is differentiation – it’s not just about voice, it’s about broadband, minutes and applications such as desktop, Microsoft LCS, CRM and ERP.
All of our distributors will also be a target for Mitel as there is a fulfilment role to play in hosted telephony. Resellers today would be foolish not to consider hosted solutions and should take a look at what is available. There is a small leap of faith required but the benefits, such as recurring revenues streams and up-selling opportunities that outweigh the risk.”