TMCnews Featured Article

Small and mid-sized businesses have recently begun experiencing a phenomenon that previously have passed them by — a battle for their business by vendors, resellers, and partners that have traditionally focused on other target markets. In addition, those vendors that have always sold to the SMB space are introducing new, enhanced products to meet the evolving needs of their customer base.

 

Unlike the large enterprise space, however, the SMB market poses a significantly greater challenge in reaching a significant percentage of the population — simply because of the sheer number of SMBs in existence today. Because reaching so many businesses — and because the profit margin is slimmer — it critical for vendors looking to have an impact in the space to have a solid reseller network.

 

Seeking to ensure its reseller network is up to the challenge, Switchvox, which manufactures IP PBX (News - Alert) systems for the SMB market, has added IT solutions firm Switchfast to its list of partners. Switchfast already offers various technical support services to the SMB market, which frequently results in queries about phone systems as well. By offering IP phone systems in conjunction with its other services, Switchfast will be able to meet its customers’ demands at once, without having to direct them to other sources for their phone systems.

 

Switchfast agreed to become a Switchvox (News - Alert) reseller because of the combination of a rich feature set — one that includes most of the features typically found in enterprise IP PBX deployments — and ease of deployment and use — which as crucial to a successful SMB product. SMBs typically do not have the human resources to dedicate to phone system management — at least not on a full time basis — yet they still require a full feature set that will enable them to conduct business effectively, a phone system, like Switchvox, which includes conferencing, call control features, integrated voice mail, IVR, call monitoring, and more, is an optimal solution for all. It is a sound investment for SMBs; it allows Switchfast to round out its solution set; and it provides further means of penetration into the SMB market for Switchvox.

 

“As a network integrator, we are able to provide our customers with custom Web site development, creative design services and general IT support, but we needed a solution to meet the phone system requests we were constantly receiving,” said Chad Hosfield, telecom manager at Switchfast. “Switchvox is an ideal solution for the SMB market. The appealing price point and seamless integration with commonly used business applications make the transition from a traditional phone system so much easier for our clients.”

 

With the Switchvox system, SMBs gain an enterprise-class phone system that is flexible enough to meet their changing needs and scalability requirements. Furthermore, because Switchvox supports unlimited IP or analog extensions, businesses are free to transition to an all-IP system at their own pace, and need not replace all of their office equipment with IP-based hardware all at once. The Switchvox system offers SMBs a complete turnkey system that is both easy to install and manage, yet won’t break the budget.