We live in a strange world where seemingly everyone likes to shop at Walmart, but very few people want to work there. We want to know that we are getting a “deal” on everything that we buy, but we want to be selling “expensive” things. I am starting to see this selling mindset take over the technology marketplace. This is especially true with “cloud consultants.” Their goal is not to provide solutions, but rather to have you pay for everything aaS (as a Service). This means that you are paying monthly for every one of your technology solutions. This is not good for you, but it is good for them as they are getting paid, as an agent, every month for each of your technology solutions.

This goes against CBSi’s 30-year history of “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Our thought is that (eventually) paying monthly for every one of your technology solutions will cause your overhead to get too high (a.k.a. your aaS to look too BIG) for your business to afford it.

Below, I am going to break down some of the common solutions that “cloud consultants” would have you pay for every month and give you our thoughts on whether or not that makes sense.

I will start with Internet (Cable, Fiber, Wireless). This is a commodity that you can’t avoid paying for every month. Carriers (i.e. Comcast, Verizon, etc.) have to maintain and support networks; therefore, they bill you monthly. Using a “cloud consultant”/agent for this purchase makes sense. An agent can provide multiple quotes from competing carriers. And, the carriers will pay the agents (every month) for bringing them new business.

Next up is CCaaS/UCaaS. UCaaS is Unified Communications as a Service; CCaaS is Contact Center as a Service. So, UCaaS is the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging, presence information, voice, mobility features, audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence, desktop sharing, data sharing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging. Whereas, CCaaS is outsourcing a similar technology solution for your contact center. I don’t believe that using a “cloud consultant”/agent for this purchase always makes sense. The math is simple: https://blog.computer-business.com/is-over-subscription-still-relevant. This is a place where you should consider making a capital expenditure (“CapEx”) investment in your business to keep your operational expenditure (“OpEx”) low; this is especially true with larger organizations. For example, we have a 1000 user UC customer who made a CapEx. Because of that CapEx, their OpEx is $1.20/user/month. The lowest “in the cloud” solution that we have seen is $10/user/month. Imagine those savings over time!

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is in the middle of the road. The 3-2-1 backup rule requires that you “keep at least 1 copy of the data offsite.” Even if you have two copies on two separate storage types but both are stored onsite, a local disaster could wipe out both of them. Keep a third copy in an offsite location, like the cloud. After all, if there’s a fire in the server room it won’t matter how many backups you have if they’re all stored next to each other. So, your plan either needs to include someone taking your data offsite or paying for cloud/offsite data storage.

SD-WAN is another solution that is in the middle of the road. Whether or not you need to pay monthly for this depends on your expectations and requirements (i.e. do you want to aggregate traffic at a transport session level or packet-level). For example, if you just need simple load balancing, you can probably do that in your firewall. If you need a true bonding WAN router, you are going to need to at least make a CapEx to upgrade. Once you move to needing a cloud relay service, expect to move into an OpEx model. So, your expectations and requirements determine whether or not you need to pay monthly. But, a “cloud consultant” will only give you one option: pay monthly so that they can get paid monthly.

Cybersecurity, just like Internet, requires paying every month (or year). One of the key values that you get from vendors (whether antivirus, firewall, threat intelligence, etc.) is that they are constantly collecting, processing, analyzing, and disseminating information that poses a threat to applications and systems. If you aren’t paying for up-to-date security information, you are doing cybersecurity wrong! However, you need to be careful about how much you are spending. You don’t want your overhead to get too high, but you don’t want to “risk it all” either.

Next up is integration. How will your SD-WAN solution work with your cybersecurity solution? Odds are good that if you only buy one or the other aaS, your “cloud consultant” will be clueless about how to make the two solutions work with each other. Whereas, our core business for 30+ years has been integration. We make firewalls from one manufacturer, switches from another manufacturer, and phone systems from yet another manufacturer all work seamlessly together.

Bottom line: We are trying to intelligently invest in our business and we would love to help you intelligently invest in your business: (804) 798-4444 Option 2 or email sales@computer-business.com.

Ashland, Virginia – Computer Business Solutions, Inc (CBSi) is now a certified Video Conferencing Partner of Yealink, the global leading unified communication (UC) terminal solution provider. CBSi is also the first Yealink Certified Partner in Virginia, an accomplishment designating CBSi as an expert in Yealink Video Conferencing products. This is an addition to CBSi’s existing Yealink product offerings:
desktop IP phones, wireless IP phones, and audio conferencing.

“We are excited to be named the first Yealink Certified Video Conferencing Partner in Virginia,” said Jamie Stapleton, CEO of CBSi. “This accomplishment gives us access to a wide variety of products specifically designed to address the needs of small and medium businesses at price points they can afford, without sacrificing quality, reliability, or service.”

Yealink Certified Video Conferencing Partner program is an exclusive community of partners who are recognized for their uncommon know-how and service. As a Yealink Certified Video Conferencing Partner, CBSi not only enjoys the traditional benefits of a Yealink partnership, but is also given additional rewards such as exclusive special promotional offers, customized business planning sessions, vertical and solution training opportunities, recognition and priority on Partner Locator, among many more.

About CBSi
Located in Ashland, Virginia, Computer Business Solutions is an organization of computer professionals with over 30 years of on-the-job-experience and capabilities that are unparalleled. Delivering strategic solutions helping achieve real business success, CBSi consultants work to develop solutions to fit their clients’ business, people, and vision.

For more information, contact the company at (804) 798-4444 or via email at sales@computer-business.com. On the Web, visit www.computer-business.com.

About Yealink
Yealink, the global leading unified communication (UC) terminal solution provider, helps businesses of all sizes make the most of their UC experience and embrace the power of “Easy Collaboration”. Yealink One-stop UC Terminal Solutions unify voice, video and data, and satisfy diverse customer needs and usage scenarios. The company’s comprehensive product portfolio includes video conferencing systems, conference phones, desk IP phones, wireless DECT phones and accessories. Customers from more than 100 countries enjoy Yealink’s reliable UC terminal solutions through its well-established global sales and service network. For more information, please visit: www.yealink.com.

(This post was inspired by these posts:  Does Integrity Still Matter? and Why This CEO Will Never Hire Another Salesperson)

I spent part of the end of 2014 evaluating Hosted VoIP Providers.  My peers motivated me to do this by saying that CBSi can more make money on Hosted VoIP vs. a premises-based system.  While I have no doubt that this is true, I always try to remember that one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Going back to our rich 26 year history, I started to ask myself some questions:  Why do we have a phone system?  Why do we sell and service phone systems for other businesses?  The answer was simple:  “over-subscription.”  Historically, phone systems have been an “over-subscribed” model, meaning that the number of phone extensions generally far exceeded the number of phone lines utilized.  This is simple cost-efficiency.  If you have 10 employees, it is unlikely that all 10 will be on the phone at the same time.  So, if you invest in a premises-based phone system, all 10 employees can share fewer phone lines.

In the old days, this involved complex Erlang math to figure out how many phone lines you needed.  With the advent of SIP Trunking, businesses can get unlimited lines (a.k.a. “call paths”) without paying more.  This gives a business the flexibility to scale on demand.

Let’s take my church as an example customer.  They have 10 users.  When they were looking to replace their OLD phone system, I had them invest in a premise-based system.  Their total telecommunications spend (system plus SIP Trunking) is indicated by the blue line in the graph below.  The orange line represents what they would have spent on a 10-user “full-featured Unified Communications (UC) solution.”  The grey line indicates what they would have spent on a more basic 10-user Hosted VoIP solution.  (I even threw in a hypothetical yellow line for a $10/user Hosted VoIP solution.)  A premise-based system always comes out cheaper for them.  10 users are served by a single $40/month SIP Trunking account.  Even a hypothetical $10/user/month Hosted VoIP solution would cost them more.

This graph had me wondering if my example customer, my church, was an anomaly.  So, I ran the numbers again for 100 users below.  Again, even a hypothetical $10/user/month Hosted VoIP solution would cost them more.

I conclude that carriers and sales people can make more money selling a Hosted VoIP solution.  I also conclude that CBSi’s rich 26 year history has treated us well.  And, we would like to continue treating our customers well in the hopes of another 26 years!

Here is to a successful 2015!

If you are interested in learning more about how we are providing people with thousands in monthly cost savings by moving them to SIP over the Internet, please call (804) 798-4444 Option 2 or email sales@computer-business.com.