admin September 9th, 2010

Guest Blogger:  David Johnson, vice president, The Fulcrum Group

I’ve been in the IT industry a long time, and I’ve seen lots of changes. When the economy was going strong, many clients wanted the latest and greatest – and they didn’t mind paying extra for every little bell and whistle. This worked well for a lot of VARs for a lot of years.

When the economy turned sour, companies that had made their mark by making fast, product-based (rather than service-based) sales had a much harder time staying in business. In fact, 40,000 of the 250,000 VARS in the United States went out of business in 2009.

One of the reasons that my business continues to flourish is because I always knew that I should focus on cost savings and quick ROI for my clients. Everyone loves the bells and whistles – but can’t we have it all? (The answer is “yes”).

When it comes to phone systems, Digium Switchvox is a great solution for helping customers save on their telecom expenses while improving employee productivity. Switchvox is the right answer for any business that wants amazing features, rapid and effective return-on-investment, and a great price.

Case in point:

One of my clients, a local Dallas Fort Worth-based CFO outsourcing company with about 40 employees, wanted to lower its telecom expenses and improve employee productivity.

At the time, the company utilized Covad’s Hosted VOIP service and 3Mb/s of Internet service. However, their monthly telecom expenses topped $3,500 per month – and we knew we could help them realize savings and even better functionality.

My company, The Fulcrum Group, proposed a completely managed VOIP solution that would mirror their current Covad Hosted VOIP service. We proposed that the company utilize:

• XO 3Mb/s IP Flex Voice/Internet service (2 T-1s, up to 32 SIP trunks, dynamically allocated between voice and Internet), 3 year contract;
• Digium Switchvox SMB AA355 appliance with 50 Silver subscriptions (we re-used their existing Cisco switches and phones), 3 year lease; and
• The Fulcrum Group’s SPOT Managed VOIP Services offering, a fixed price, “all you can eat” support offering that covers all of the maintenance, support, moves/adds/changes, backups, and end training for the Switchvox VOIP system.

Bottom line:  We were able to lower the customer’s monthly telecom expenses by approximately $2,000 per month, and they now have a more flexible, higher functionality phone system that is improving employee productivity.

The takeaway?  Digium Switchvox is a great product to be selling in these tough economic times. But it’s going to continue to be a product that will make companies like ours look great – no matter what the economy is doing.

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