VoIPWatch

Chasing To The Bottom: 8x8 Express Revealed

It looks like 8x8 is conceding in it's efforts to use agents to capture the small business/SOHO market that it hasn't been working so they've taken up the mantra "if we can't beat them, join them." They've become a member of what I like to refer to as "the chase to the bottom" crowd with their latest "new" offer, 8x8 Express.

Granted, 8x8 is well positioned and can serve up what can be seen as a "disruptive pricing" offer with the low price and large feature set. And they can do this very effiiciently, because smartly, founder and now board chairman/CTO Bryan Martin had the foresight years ago to secure their own patents and use most of their own, internally built technology. As a result they are great at avoiding paying recurring licensing fees to companies like Cisco or others for a softswitch, session border controller, app servers and more. No licensing fees translate to lower operating cost, higher margins, so their ability to pass on savings to customers of all sizes is one part of the company's DNA. 

From the way things are positioned, it sure looks like 8x8 has chosen to go to the low end, directly. That cuts out the agents who have built their business and been how the company has been able to grow. From an outside view this adds more confusion for the channel with this offer. But their efforts to go direct begs the question that if the low end of the market is going that way, and bypassing the channel which built 8x8, what's next?

In many ways this is a delayed, "me to" reaction to Google rolling out a paid Google Voice service. The move is also happening at time where many of the branded and white label VoIP and UCaaS category players are moving up in the number of seat customer segments they are chasing.

Some logic by 8x8 could be that this offer frees their resellers up, and given they are mostly agents, it allows them to pursue those larger, mid-market sized accounts. While on paper and in presentations that makes sense, late to the game VoIP converts who 8x8 Express seems to be built for, are in need hand holding, which agents and MSP's provide. If the customer doesn't need hand-holding there already are plenty of other offers on the street for the "free" and "low cost" services.

So lets analyze why, a company that has so coveted the enterprise and mid-market segments would do this:

1. Visibility - 8x8 has become less visible in the SOHO market space due to their efforts to move upmarket. This offer helps them reestablish themselves.
2. Stock Price-8x8 stock has been trading in the mid-twenties but over the past two years has been like a roller coaster. By getting some low paying, high margin customers and where almost all the price paid stays with them, they bolster the number of seats, and help us those additions to reduce churn which inspires analyst confidence.
3. Integration-8x8 has successfully integrated a series of acquisition parts and their own IP together. They now have a fully integrated platform which allows them to offer a better service offering than the legacy telcos and cable companies for a much better price.
4. Competition-RingCentral, Dialpad and Vonage are all chasing the high hundreds to high thousands seat market customers. This opens up the door for 8x8. How they market this will be the deciding factor.

Oh, and if the product feature set sounds familiar, that's because it is. Other companies like former client Phone.com have had similar service offerings, as has Grasshopper and a few others. The 8x8 offer also was like a deja vu to me, as Dialpad Free, which was launched in 2017 in the Bay area, and went national in early 2018, because of the many similarities. That too placed 8x8 Express into the "me to, me also" category.

I think the idea of 8x8 Express, like Dialpad had with Free has it's place, but 8x8 should have just branded it as Express (powered by 8x8) and separated it from the parent's offerings. The could still do all the upselling, but just as Coke and Pepsi release other products in the beverage category, not all are Pepsi this and Coke that. 8x8 could have done the same thing, and likely accomplished more.

 

 

 

If You Offer A Product or Service You Should Read Tsahi's Post

Often we find that much of the content online is written in an "inside baseball" style. That's where the lingo and the phrases that make up a story are often written the same witty way that Hollywood writers weave in jibs, jabs, innuendo and more. I know, as I'm often guilty of working in a double entendre from time to time. That's why today's post from my pal Tsahi about ZOOM and their gaff about vulnerability was so refreshing.

Tsahi wrote it so just about anyone could understand what ZOOM did wrong and right. For starters, it's a great primer for Product Managers on how to access a situation and report on it. For analysts and media there was a distillation of the problem, and how, as well as why, ZOOM got there. About the only thing I can question was Tsahi's comment about PR as I think in today's era of "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" journalism, where facts never get in the way of possible ad impression style editing, ZOOM actually got around to doing the right thing, including having Apple issue a patch on their own.

Read Tsahi's revealing recap, and learn from it. He also built a nice case about WebRTC without bashing ZOOM.

Well played. Very well played.

My Blue Jeans Experience vs. Calling

I'm a video communications user from as far back as CU-SEEME. I remember the early days of SightSpeed, which Comunicano worked closely with along the way, all the way up to their exit to Logitech. We also worked intimately with Skype's video team who had me test their then in beta video function that I remember testing, helping them realize that depending on the compression algorithm just how much bandwidth and what type of processor was needed back when we handled marketing for the Skype Store. I even went out and bought a super fast Samsung laptop that I gave to a friend who enjoyed the pain of Windows after I was done with the testing.  That's why yesterday's experience, a first time in a long time on BlueJeans was so memorable. It just worked. From the first click to when the call ended.

For the BlueJeans call I used my Pixelbook by Google, perhaps the best Chromebook ever made. I didn't have to do much more than install a screen sharing extension, something I think is more about granting permissions than really about adding in any new functionality. I clicked on the link that had been provided by the folks at Intuit for a call to discuss a silly Citibank caused problem where data feeds to Quickbooks Online had stopped, and where the new connector wasn't being "connected" to by the bank. The BlueJeans video was as crisp just as the explanation by the representative from Intuit was who in about thirty seconds was able to see what the issue was caused by, as it seems Citibank has not enabled the functionality needed for third party services on my account. 

BlueJeans delivered a clear, clean and crisp call. Audio was robust and he video was sharp, with the ability to read the faces of the participants being key to me. We were all engaged with one another, face to face, and the 30 minute or so call was about as good as any face to face meeting I've ever had.

Compare that to my old school telephone calls with Citibank that were mostly over crappy sounding 800 numbers, answered by first name only, faceless, heavily accented support team members, who put me on hold and yielded far less in results. Over a two hour period I was in touch with no less than 8 different "voices" at Citibank. My calls were disconnected three times on call transfers from their Asian call centers to their support team member colleagues in the states. Requests for call backs never happened. Trouble tickets on this issue opened months ago have gone ignored. The number of contradictory answers I've gotten from Citibank representatives have gone from the ridiculous to the absurd, with one rep outright saying "you have to download the data as a CSV file and import it as Citibank doesn't support Direct Connect" which is exactly what they and Intuit have worked to implement. Another told me that there's no relationship between Intuit and Citibank, yet the Intuit logo and service description is right on their developer hub portal page.

Seriously? You can't make this stuff up.

The video call with the team at Intuit got to the point of feeling a kinship. I was able to see the genuine interest in solving the problem and more I was able to see that my concerns, were their concerns. When I compare that to my experience over the phone, with a bank I've had a relationship with since the 80's a few hours later it was staggeringly surreal. Beyond the lack of help, a total absence of product knowledge, the BlueJeans call experience was completely different.

No one was hiding. No one was left waiting on hold for 40 out of sixty minutes. The call started on time. People were prepared. They were candid. No one obfuscated the facts, played the game of "we can't connect you to anyone who knows anything." Instead I was dealing with team members who all were candid, helpful and eager to get the issue fixed for someone who pays annually less than Citibank has made on fees and interest over a thirty plus year relationship.

To me the use of BlueJeans by Intuit and their team's comfort in using it with customers speaks volumes about the importance of face to face engagement in the customer service troubleshooting arena. Being able to see the smiles, the twinkle in the eye of their team and the ability to see the look on mine was why many of us understand the need for video communication in the era of remoteness. 

Could this have been the same with Zoom or GoToMeeting. I'm not sure. BlueJeans really has nailed the one click and you're in experience, and if it works that easy on a Chromebook, well it must be just as easy on everything else.

While I'm far from sold on the big bank approach to customer service, the 30 minute call with Intuit's team has sold me on the direction BlueJeans is going. And you can "take that to the bank, Jack."

Verizon Adding Zoom Signals a Changing of The Guard

It looks like when it comes to cloud based collaboration ZOOM is pushing Cisco's WebEx and the Broadsoft off to a supporting, more legacy customer oriented role at Verzion and taking its seat at the table. It's also a big win for all OTT players when last week Verizon announced their choice of Zoom as a new collaboration partner, just rival AT&T has.

It's important to note that Zoom grew out of unhappy WebEx founders and team members who felt Cisco wasn't letting them innovate, so with the announcement they have in some ways detthroned their former master. For years Broadsoft and Cisco both have also touted the fact that Verizon is one of their biggest customers, as well as Verizon making it well known. That type of status often helped propel both into top positions in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, as the channel alignment of being the in-house solution, brought lots of customers to WebEx and Cisco Call Manager as well as Broadsoft. But with last week's announcement made by Verizon, the armor has been being pierced by the rising collaboration upstart. ZOOM has in reality matured, building a better product than WebEX or Broadsoft, and taken aim at the legacy suppliers of services that Verizon (and AT&T) have been offering.  This should not be taken lightly.

The key here is that Verizon actually announced it, vs.  Zoom making a one sided announcement. The differences are in the Verizon quote coming first and the fact that a Verizon PR person was listed as the contact. This is telling.  It shows a few things, but mostly that the tides have shifted.

Verizon already has WebEx and also offered Broadsoft based solutions with prominent play on their website in the past.

Those links now generate 404 errors for pages not found, another tell that Verizon is moving on from the past and looking towards more Cloud native solutions. By putting their weight behind ZOOM the way they did,  sure looks likeVerizon is moving away from pushing Cisco WebEx as the single source solutions and opening the door to what their enterprise customers want, and in reality, have been using as an Over The Top (OTT) fashion.

What this also means is that point solutions have a future, if they meet the needs of the enterprise. Verizon is also looking less like being the landlord and more like being the broker of the services they offer. With ZOOM also in the phone business this really appears to be a bigger win for ZOOM and a striking loss for Cisco. The action would also appear to open up the door to the rising number of CPaaS players as well, who likely will strike deals with Verizon to sell solutions their customers need, which they don't want to build and offer. 

The world is changing. The Cloud, faster speeds with 5G and greater mobility are the key, so with ZOOM winning these carrier accounts, they have officially gone from being enterprise cloud grade ready to carrier delivered. That's big.