All the time I hear from companies about how much money will be saved using VoIP. But no one ever includes the cost of the T1 line or business grade DSL or Cable modem service.
To SpeakEasy I say.."Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!" Start with transparent pricing. For a small business let everyone know what they really need and then provide the cost benefit analysis, instead of getting companies all excited and then not have them know they really don't have enough bandwidth to support the VoIP!
Hi Andy. Amanda from Speakeasy here. Thanks for mentioning our coffee promotion. When it comes to setting up VoIP for small businesses, unlike in the residential space, pricing can be influenced by a whole slew of factors. As a result, upfront pricing is quite difficult, necessitating a consultative sell. At Speakeasy, we do our best to be as transparent as possible when it comes to pricing by listing prices for connectivity and voice on our site. You can check out some possible configurations at www.speakeasy.net/integrated. But, as noted earlier, a consultative sell is necessary, which is why we're encouraging companies to fax in their phone bills so a Speakeasy agent can evaluate them on a case-by-case basis to find out exactly how much they could save. There's really nothing to lose - send us your bill and best case scenario you'll save a ton of money; at the very least you'll get some free coffee out of it.
Posted by: SpeakeasyAmanda | June 15, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Well said Andy
Always reminds me of when I was in the internet cafe business and guys would come into use Skype, they always mentioned how thrilled they were to be talking to their families for free.
Completely forgetting about the €4 per hour/7c a minute they were paying us to use the net :-)
Posted by: Pat Phelan | June 15, 2009 at 09:30 AM
I have talked to several small businesses with DSL interested in a hosted PBX. When they find that a T-1 is required to support the solution, they quickly revert back to POTS. Small businesses who deploy 100% virtual offices (no bricks and mortar) are the exception.
Posted by: seanwilder | June 15, 2009 at 09:16 AM