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Selkowitz Technology | Seattle’s small business network and telecom consultant
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Microsoft released their small business phone system, Response Point, to great hoopla in late 2007. It seemed their intent was to use their Partner program to get the product out to small businesses. This market strategy made a lot of sense, but their recent moves to undercut that model makes me think that plan isn’t going well. If Microsoft had success with channel partners driving sales, they wouldn’t be heavily discounting the product at Costco.com.
The problem with selling direct at a heavy discount is it kills off the local channel partners who provide professional installation and service. To get around that, many of these small business phone systems are claiming they’re self-installable. My experience seeing DIY installs is some companies fail, others struggle for a long time with setup, few have the tools to get the wiring right, and none figure out optimal configuration and use of the system. Professional installation is a small price to pay to get the system working perfectly in one day - a few mishandled calls from a DIY setup costs a lot more than an expert installer.
So therein lies the problem - small businesses are much better off having an expert installer handle their system installation, yet Microsoft is allowing the partners to be undercut which will damage their business model and drive them out of the market. And you can’t just call up any phone guy - phone system vendors work on specific systems, not just anything you happen to own.
If you ask me, Costco and Microsoft are setting up small businesses for a bad experience - phone systems still benefit from experts for installation and occasional repair/troubleshooting. When small businesses that buy this package need help most, they may not find it.
The Author: Kevin Selkowitz
About: Kevin Selkowitz is the founder and lead consultant for Selkowitz Technology, a Seattle-area small business systems consulting company. We focus on the four major technology needs of small businesses - phone systems, phone and internet service, servers/network infrastructure, and business applications.
This entry was posted by Kevin Selkowitz, on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Phone Systems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response on the right, or trackback from your own site.
