Welcome to the September edition of VarPhonex Voice. This month we have worked with our staff in Brazil and Argentina to provide a Spanish and Portuguese version of this newsletter in order that all of our valued resellers are able to access the news, advice and helpful tips found in the VarPhonex Voice.

Other exciting VarPhonex initiatives include our participation in The VON Conference & Expo in Miami, Florida from September 21 - 23, 2009.  Matt Bramson will be speaking on "Doing Business in the CALA Region" on Tuesday September 22, from 5:15 - 6 p.m. VarPhonex team members and I will be in attendance and we would love to meet with you.

VarPhonex Voice Editor

Interview with Matt Bramson, VarPhonex Chief Sales Officer
by Jenise Collado, VarPhonex Voice Editor

VPX: You came to VarPhonex after a successful 10 years at XO Commu- nications, one of the largest Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in the country. What motivated you to work for VarPhonex?

MB:  I joined XO months after the company founded by Craig McCaw was taken public.  It was called Nextlink then and that year the company did $140 million in revenue.  I came on-board as a sales executive.  Ten years later the company’s revenues were $1.4 billion and I was responsible for corporate business development and reported to the Chairman, legendary financier Carl Icahn.  I played an important role in building XO into a billion-dollar industry leader and I am proud of that.  The core strengths of XO were its assets, its people, and its focus on a next-generation market opportunity – competitive local phone service.  When VPX contacted me I saw the same strengths: an outstanding set of assets, a great team of people, and a focus on Internet telephony – an opportunity many times larger than the opening of local phone competition in the US.  I saw joining VPX as an opportunity to repeat my success.  Every day I am more convinced that I made the right decision. 

VPX:  What do you hope to achieve as the Chief Sales Officer?

MB:  My role is defined plainly: increase revenue and profitability. At VPX accomplishing that requires understanding and executing on a simple truth: the only way that we

succeed is if our resellers succeed.  So my job, essentially, is to figure out how to make sure that all our three thousand resellers have what they need to succeed selling Internet telephony.  So what I hope to achieve is to help create thousands of success stories.

VPX:  What are the typical hurdles to setting up, learning, and administering an IP phone service?

MB:  This "space" - I hesitate to call it an "industry" because it is so dynamic – is ever-changing.  I would say that is the number one challenge.  Businesses that sell Internet telephony services must constantly react.  For resellers this can be a major challenge: how can you respond to changes in the market since you depend on your supplier for your products, prices, features, everything?  VPX was founded six years ago and pioneered private-label Internet telephony.  The company's entire platform has been designed and built to enable resellers.  VPX has tools that allow resellers to build new products or modify existing ones, revise pricing, or enable features in minutes.  VPX is not an obstacle to our resellers’ ability to react – we enable fast, effective reactions to market changes.  Plus our tools enable our resellers to develop and offer differentiated services – forcing the market to react to them (which, of course, is the real key).

VPX:  Who are the resellers that VarPhonex attracts, now and in the future? 

MB:  VPX attracts a wide range of resellers – by design.  We have hundreds of resellers that are individual entrepreneurs: ingenious, energetic businesspeople exploiting the generational opportunity to convert consumers and businesses to Internet telephony.  They see the potential, they have the drive, and they need someone to provide the services. We also have dozens of large businesses reselling our services.  We have Internet Service

Providers that want to offer powerful, reliable voice services to their customers without investing millions.  We have phone system manufacturers that want to offer a complete, bundled solution.  We have marketing companies that see in Internet telephony an ideal product to leverage their proven sales model.  And we have large, multi-location businesses that use our platform to provide all their communications needs: free internal extension calling worldwide, powerful tools to control costs, instant provisioning of phone numbers and phone lines, and low, volume-based pricing.  Because our platform enables us to cost-effectively service resellers large and small I expect our future to resemble our past – thousands of resellers of all sizes.

VPX: What are some suggestions you have for resellers who wish to implement effective management, higher profits and increased efficiency?

MB:  The key for any business is to figure out what professor Jim Collins calls your " hedgehog concept": the intersection of the three circles containing what you are passionate about, what you are or could be the best at, and what you can do most profitably.  Once you have that figured out then you execute your concept and don’t get distracted.  Even listening to your customers can be a distraction sometimes.  Make sure that the customers you listen to are profitable and loyal – customers that are neither can lead you astray.  Lastly make sure that your organization understands that there are only two jobs in this world: sales and sales support.  Every member of your team needs to know which they are and how they can excel in their role.

Grandstream HandyTone 286
by Charles Goodwin, Sales Manager

Grandstream Networks is a leading designer and manufacturer of innovative, affordable, and high quality IP voice and video products for the worldwide broadband telephony market.  The HandyTone286 is an entry level Voice-over-IP device supporting one telephone number and one RJ-45 interface 10/100 mbps Ethernet network.  The 286 is light-weight making it easy to use while traveling, offers the simplicity of plug and dial, and works with any PSTN or cordless phone.  This is the perfect adapter for the home and for travel.  The HandyTone 286 features everything you will need for basic phone service at an excellent price!

It looks like this summer is shaping up to be a hot one for VoIP phone manufacturers.

Thanks to the rapid adoption of standards based open source and open source based VoIP systems, the emergence of HD Voice and the rebounding of prosumer spending, a plethora of manufacturers will have a new VoIP phone hitting the streets over the next three months.

Here's a quick round-up of what you'll see.

AudioCodes looks to make their move into the VoIP phone space official with the later summer/early fall release of their highly anticipated HD VoIP series. Riding the wave of press spurned by Jeff Pulver’s HD Communications summit, the 310HD and 320HD have fared well through initial testing.

While AudioCodes is working out the kinks with their beta group (and setting an MSRP), Cisco quietly announced their 6900 series of VoIP phones. Aimed at the economically conscious business user, these

Cisco’s don’t come equipped with wideband codecs support, nor are they natively SIP, but no one ever got fired for buying Cisco. So expect folks to be asking about them.

Cisco’s stiffest competitor, Polycom isn't sitting on their hands either. A little over a week ago Polycom announced two new offerings the SoundPoint IP 321 and SoundPoint IP 331. These new models are upgraded versions of Polycom’s IP 320 and IP 330.

Polycom also announced that their benchmark VoIP phone, the IP 501 was going EOL this August. With no direct replacement planned, the mid-range VoIP phone space should become hotly contested by new and existing players.

One such company looking to gain traction in the mid-range marketplace is Citel. The company that made its mark, like AudioCodes, in the handset gateway space has been receiving strong feedback on their first offering the C4110.

The C4110, which supports both SIP and IAX, is soon-to-be-joined on the streets by two bigger brothers that were on display at the spring IT Expo.

Never one to be left behind, snom will look to carve out a home in the executive and enterprise space when the previously announce snom 870 hits shelves within the next month. The snow white phone that supports a color screen also comes with wideband codec support should compete for customers attention.

After a long wait and much anticipation the US will finally see a DECT phone offering from Siemens. The S675 and A580 DECT VoIP phones will be strong competitors in an emerging market that has been looking for more affordable solutions.

Siemens likely won’t be the only ones competing for customers looking at DECT. Sources tell me that as many as three new DECT VoIP phones could be seen in the coming months.

These release of new VoIP phones this summer isn’t likely to stop in the fall either. Look for the major players to drop a new model or two in the fourth quarter in order to position themselves for a strong 2010.

Ask Sales Support
by Alessandra Tasselmyer, Customer Service Support Representative

Reseller: How do I change my markup?

VarPhonex: Click on RESELLER INFO page from your RAP (Reseller Administration Panel) in the FACTOR field you will type:

If dollar is your currency: 0.0001% that will be increased. For example, if you would like to increase 20% you will type 0.00012 and so on. For 100% you will type the number 2 instead of 0.001…

If you are using a different currency you will type the result of the formula: 0.0001 x the price of the dollar in your country x 1.% that will be increased. For example, for 30% and dollar being 1.27 the formula will be 0.0001 x 1.27 x 1.3 = 0.0001651. Make sure that you only type the 0.0001651 in the currency field.

On LABEL you will type the symbol of the currency being used.

Reseller:  What is the difference between PM PASSWORD and SIP PASSWORD? Why is important that they are different? Where can I find them?

VarPhonex: PM PASSWORD is the premium password for each account (CU ID). SIP PASSWORD will be the one used to configure the devices. The virtual number who has access to the PM PASSWORD will be able to see all the virtual numbers added to a certain account and will be able to make minor changes to account like add new virtual numbers to account, add or take credit from a certain number. If you only have one customer per CU ID, you should not have a problem giving them the PM PASSWORD, as long as you do not mind them making changes. If you have multiple customers under a same CU ID, make sure that you only give the SIP PASSWORD to access control panel.

The PM PASSWORD will be under customer info and SIP PASSWORD will be found next to the virtual number, both on ACCOUNT INFO page.

Reseller: How do I transfer call credit to a virtual number? Should I click on TRANSFER CREDIT?

VarPhonex: You cannot transfer credit to a virtual number, you can set a limit. In order to do that you will go to ACCOUNT INFO and next to the desired virtual number, in the field CALL CREDIT, you will type the desired amount and UPDATE. Once the customer starts using the call credit the amount of credit will get lower until it reaches $0.00. Once the balance of credit reaches $0.00 your customer will stop making calls. You will only click on the TRANSFER CREDIT button if you want to transfer call credit from one account (CU ID) to another.