Take out the feature set Brochure
• Note that there are Three type of competing
Architecture.
• Determine which of these type you competitor
is and use the feature comparison grid to see
where they fall short
The Way People Work has Changed
• Companies have spread out and outsourced parts of
their organization
• More and more employees are working from their
homes
• The cell phone has become an important part of the
business communications process
• Broadband Internet access is now serving most small
to midsized businesses and has become another
important part of the communications process
• There is now an anytime, anywhere expectation for
The Only Thing That Has Not Changed
Is The Phone System. Even After these
vendors have converted them to VoIP.
The Traditional Phone Companies Have
Changed but for the Worse
• Degrading analog lines
• Customer Service unaware, uncaring,
and under-staffed
• Overpriced
• No new features in the last 30 years • People are Angry
• The Carrier Idea of VoIP is to have no
customer Premise PBX which is really a poor architecture.
• Why would they think to do it this
How do You Train a Flea Circus?
• It is simple:
• Catch some fleas (the hard part)
• Put them in a jar with a lid but air holes so they can
breath
• Wait 2 days
• Pour them out onto a table and they will stay exactly
in the space of the jar and not jump more than a few
inches
• To feed just put your hand in there for a few minutes
There Are 4 Ways to Deliver Phone
Service to a Business
1. Traditional phone service and a phone
system (PBX) from a third party
2. VoIP PBX from one company with Internet
phone service from another company
3. Hosted VoIP PBX over the Internet
4. End-to-End Competitors
1. Traditional Phone Service and
PBX Competitive Analysis
Traditional Phone Service and a Phone
System (PBX) From a Third Party
Traditional phone service and a complex, expensive
traditional business phone system (PBX) from a third
party lack features and costs tens of thousands of
dollars. They have missed the Paradigm Shift of
Outsourcing, Home Offices, Cell Phones and the Internet
– Even after converting many of their product to do VoIP
Competitors
• Traditional PBX Manufacturers
• Mitel
, Nortel, Toshiba, ESI, Cisco, Lucent,
3COM, Shoretel,
COMDIAL
, NEC, Siemens
• Traditional Carriers
• Verizon, ATT&T, COX Communications,
Key Disadvantages
• Features cannot interoperate between
locations: IVR, Remote extensions, Call
Routing
• Very Expensive
VoIP PBX and 3
rd
Party Internet
Service Provider Competitive
Beware of the Consumer Grade, Mom and
Pop and Broker Providers
• VoIP, better known as Internet Phone Service, has been offered
to consumers as a cut rate service from companies such as Vonage, Comcast and Skype.
• These consumer grade services save money but lack the
VoIP PBX from One Company with
Internet Phone Service from Another
More recently you could purchase a VoIP PBX from one company and tie it to Internet phone service from another company. This
approach is more of a science project than a solution and lacks features as well as quality and reliability. So much so that many PBX manufacturers are recommending more expensive traditional
phone service with their products.
Company A Turns a PC Into a PBX Company B Provides Internet Phone Service at Some Level Internet
Competitors
• New IP PBX Mfg
Internet Phone Co’s
Fonality
Vonage
Digium
Proximiti
TrixBox
Broadvoice
Apetela
Compartners
Foundry
Point One
Voxter
Teleiax
Key Disadvantages
• Not end-to-end
• Features do not match up
• PC Disk drives, power supplies & fans break
• No End-To-End QOS or 729a CODEC
• No failover system
• No Monitoring
• Science project – will be hard to ever get this
to work 3000 settings between phones, PBX
and Service provider that need to match up
with many networking issues
Disadvantages
• Not End-To-End Which leads to:
• Features do not match well between vendors
• Lack in quality no end to end QoS or CODEC
pairing
• No way to monitor
• No Fail Over – No reliability
• Science Project (will never work)
• No single point of accountability (on neck to
crush if it does not work)
Hosted VoIP PBX and Internet
Phone Service Competitive
Hosted VoIP PBX Over the Internet
A third option is a completely Hosted PBX with VoIP
Phone Service over the Internet but this requires an
expensive T1 line with one phone line per extension and
does not save any money.
Competitors
• COVAD
• Packet 8
• Pocket Rocket
• Ceybond
• Speakeasy
• Calltower
Disadvantages
• You must go out to the Internet and come back using
two channels of bandwidth just to speak to the person
in the next cube – Bad Architecture
• Multiple phones and PC competing for network
bandwidth on the customer network and across the
Internet without any controlling PBX and router
prevent QOS and result in very low quality which then
requires an expensive T1
• Expensive, You pay for a T1 and per phone per month
for PBX functionality, sometimes even more for
particular features like Voice Mail
Key Competitor Profile – Packet 8
• PACKET 8 - Packet8 is a broadband telephone
and videophone service. Designed with both
residential and business customers in mind,
Packet8 is a hosted PBX and needs T1
connectivity to work correctly. It is costly and
if system goes down you have no back up
system to keep you up running.
• System is expensive $90 per month per line
with inbound/outbound call 2000 minutes. If
system goes down no back solution
The World’s Most Reliable Business
Grade Internet Phone Solution
End-To-End Competitors
• Whaleback
• LinksysOne
Disadvantages
• Whaleback – Small under-funded Startup, No QoS,
Proprietary Software only 2 developers, $50 per phone,
cable only, 2x our cost, bad quality, requires separate
cable, work only through cable companies which is a
weak connection
• LinksysOne – A Year late .. So far. $62 per phone per
month, Cheap hardware, Voice mail reside on each
phone, cost because they have 3 tier selling, provider,
dealer, distributor, promised to delivery
• Star2Star - Better Features Quality, Reliability and
Introducing Star2Star
The World’s Most Reliable Business
Grade
We Make the World’s Most Reliable Business
Phone PBX Called the StarBox
Starbox 2100
• Up to 100 Users
• Supports DSL, Cable or T1 • Powerful Features
•Solid State (no moving
parts) • Monitored 24x7x365
Starbox 5500
• Up to 500 Users • Supports Up to 4 T1 Lines • Powerful Features•Solid State (no moving
parts)
Star2Star Supports Analog Phones, Fax
Machines…Even Other Phone Systems
Star2Star Data Center
Our Data Center houses the core telecommunication infrastructure for
Star2star Communications. Located on the 16th floor of the Lykes Tower (Colonial Bank Building) in downtown
Tampa. Originally built by GTE to house its telephone network core for
Southwest Florida, this building has become one of the nation's most active carrier neutral communications
facilities, housing more than a dozen major communications companies and having multiple redundant fiber loops connecting the entire region to
Around the Clock Monitoring
and Service Desk
Online System Monitor Automatic Detection of Quality or Reliability Issues
Service Tickets Can Be Created at Anytime by Automatic Detection, From Our Web Site or By Calling our Around the Clock
Data Center Reliability
100% Redundant Cisco Network at Tier-1 Data Center
Powered by Redundant Connections
Inergen Gas Fire Suppression System
Redundant Environment Control System
Star2Star Nationwide Network
Our service extends far beyond our core infrastructure in the Data Center. When
you make a call, Star2Star determines the best quality route
for your call and sends your call through that route
to guarantee the highest possible
Find-Me/Follow-Me
Call Routing
You can have as many phone numbers as you
wish. You can have multiple companies,
departments or
personal numbers and each can behave differently when people
call. You can also specify different
behavior during or after business hours for each day of the week.
Voice Menus
You can quickly create an unlimited set of voice
menus leading to
individuals, departments, recordings, custom applications, or other
menus.
We can even have these menus professionally
Ring Groups and Call Queues
You can create groups where the phones all ring together or where calls are automatically distributed to
Customize Music On Hold
You can upload your own MP3 or WAV files
to customize Music On Hold.
We can even make custom recordings for
you to communicate to your captive
Integrate With Outlook and Your PC
You can integrate your phone system
with your PC.
By right clicking on any contact we will call them and also call your extension at the same time so you
do not even have to dial the phone.