We have attended numerous industry calls related to vendor business results. One of the changes is that there seems to be more product strategy and announcement changes than the previous quarter with vendors not just reporting financial results.
In discussing the rationale and impact amongst the FOX team, we figured that many of the traditional players in telecom are starting to “feel the heat” from the emerging/smaller, but growing, competitors and feel they have to change to survive, perhaps?
We also reflected on the fact that many of the traditional players did NOT have briefings to provide updates or share their results.
Upon further digging we discovered that they had continued to cut back marketing and consultant/analyst support staff. This is definitely counterproductive to keeping market awareness and “top of mind,” particularly with us consultants and analysts.
With the increasing speed of business, combined with information overload from emails, sms, video call invites, etc., I believe that it is still important for manufacturers, carriers, dealers and integrators, to have live events where we get the chance to ask questions of real people within an organization.
My concern for the long term is that if specific vendors don’t push hard to promote their products to the consultant/ analyst community, then we are less likely to be current and aware of their firm offerings when we go to market for a client acquisition. That is why we applaud firms like BrantTel, Cisco, Interactive Intelligence, Mitel and NEC (to name a few) that still invest time, money and effort to plan and deliver regular quality customer, consultant and channel education/networking events. It is also not just about learning about the latest products, but equally and many times more important to learn about the people and how they support the products they sell.
Related Tip Sheets
Speaking of industry events, we recently attended a briefing for the upcoming Telecom 2015 conference hosted by Neotelis. This year’s conference is planned for the 27th and 28th of October, and will be held at the Old Mill Hotel, Toronto.
The Telecom 2015 conference is in its third year in Toronto, and provide attendees with an opportunity to meet a cross section of enterprise, government and education end users, combined with large, medium and emerging manufacturers, dealers and integrators all together in a relaxed, networking geared venue.
The two-day conference provides a cost-effective opportunity with the least amount of time and effort to get a crash course on the latest telecom, network and contact center technology trends, issues and considerations.
Value of Real Time Face-to-Face Networking
All of us in technology are very used to communicating via email, sms, video, etc. Although I am a big fan of collaboration applications and use them daily in running FOX GROUP, I must admit that I still enjoy chatting with the cross section of established and emerging vendors who attended a recent planning luncheon face to face. As entrepreneurs, we always find it exciting to have discussions with our peers, as well as discussing the challenges that we all seem to face, whether we are selling products or services.
During the Telecom 2015 launch event, Susan Dineen and I had the opportunity to meet some of the smaller vendors in telecom, contact center and networking products. It was great to connect and have the opportunity to set up times to meet in the future.
Do not hesitate to contact Roberta Fox to discuss further. As always, I welcome your thoughts, feedback and comments. You can contact me at Roberta.Fox@FOXGROUP.ca or 905-473-3369 x 1001.