Fonality PBX System now available from Dell
Submitted by kerryg on Wed, 01/23/2008 - 5:55am.
A few years ago when I decided I wanted to break into the telephony business there were two primary reasons I went with Asterisk@Home.
1. There was no real barrier to entry. Most commercial systems expected me to purchase thousands of dollars of demo equipment.
2. I couldn't find anything I really liked
One of the more interesting ones was PBXtra but it didn't quite seem to be the right fit for me. 14 months ago I came to work for Fonality and shared my thoughts with Chris about why, as a reseller, I didn't use PBXtra. It wasn't long afterwards that the beginnings of trixbox Pro began coming together. I'm not taking full credit here, many other resellers had very similar feedback. The road to trixbox Pro was not easy as many die-hard trixbox CE people took stabs at us for commercializing the trixbox brand name but we felt that it was closer to CE in ideaology with being able to use your own hardware and provision your own phones. I am quite the convert myself these days with my last clients being on Pro systems and my house even running on Pro now. The biggest hurdle has been explaining the hybrid-hosted model to people and getting them to understand the value it represents. Well today couldn't be any better for us with Dell now selling a system using the Fonality hybrid-hosted system. Talk about getting recognition for everything we have done for the past few years and especially this past year in building trixbox Pro. For trixbox Pro resellers this is huge news as now the same system they sell is offered by the largest computer company around.
I'm sure there will be plenty written about it that will go into all of the nitty gritty details, suffice it to say I am very excited about this and what it means to the entire SMB market.
Yes, it was important to Dell to have installers as an option
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 2:44pm
James,
As simple as we have tried to make our hybrid-hosted model, Dell was candid in stating that some customers "just want it to work". This means they want installers as an option. We are putting together a plan for them right now.
Not sure if they will use our plan or do it on their own, but they did ask us for an installer plan. We are going to be recommended our base of certified trixbox Pro resellers to them later this quarter.
dell installer
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 2:59pm
If Dell follows thru like they do the other parts of Dell's business then Dell will be dispatching
Monkey tech's for most installs.
a Monkey Tech is just some hands and eyes in the field, no real skills.
I do some higher end service work for Dell in MS / Ala / La.. when a Monkey tech can not do it or screw they it up.
So if I where Chris I would demand that the tech's go thru fonality training first, so as not to cast a bad light on the product when the monkey tech messes up.
2 week's ago I had to go out and recover almost 80 gigs of data because of a dell monkey tech not knowning what the heck they where doing.
So remember just because the Name is "Dell" does not mean it will do right.
I am in Bubba's boat (Shrimping perhaps...)
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 5:38pm
I get called in "after" a dell tech was just "there" about four or five times a year. So, I too recommend doing something about the training. Even if it is Editorial Control. If they do it you stand a good chance of having your name soured. Their customer service has been slipping for 3 years or so now. I am just saying...
More Info...
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 6:41pm
http://vonmag.com/editorial/web-exclusives/fonality-teams-with-de...
Don't know how I feel about this just yet...
Greg
Quote:Don't know how I feel
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 7:12pm
Quote:
Don't know how I feel about this just yet...
For me it's direct competition from one of the largest computer vendors in the world. I got used to that with computer system years ago, and handled it by not selling computer systems anymore. Make of that what you will.
Sure, it's great for Fonality. It remains to be seen if I'm going to get the whole "but I can get the same thing cheaper from Dell" when I price out a system. I'm not sure how much more this camel can carry.
I too, am wondering how
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 7:48pm
It benefits Fonalities
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 8:01pm
It benefits Fonalities hybrid hosted solution and gives it more legitimacy and perhaps they can get more resellers on board so more power to them.
There will still be plenty of businesses that won't go for the hybrid hosted solution so I don't think it changes things much for 'us grunts'.
KodaK, you have identified
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 8:30pm
KodaK, you have identified at least one of the elephants in the room. The part that you are giving too much credit is Dell's service (no offense). The state of this technology is the same as in IT. I believe that is why there are so many IT guys on this forum. You have to understand the network aspect as well as the telephone aspect to be competitive. This DOES remind me when Dell started taking my box sales away... but, I also realized way before that that the labor would be much more expensive than the hardware. And, it takes more skill. Dell doesn't have it and probably never will. So you compete on the base system and then show why you can run circles around it by customizing and supporting the client (VAR).
Anybody remember COM2001?
Wed, 01/23/2008 - 8:38pm
This was Dell's first foray into Telephony, and it was a spectacular failure - one of the true failures in Dell's history that I know of...
Even if Dell doesn't sell very many Fonality boxes, I don't think it will hurt Fonality much, if at all - this is a huge "credibility" endorsement - Gravitas so to speak - and I think Fonality will come out ahead regardless - Unlike COM2001, Dell is not pouring tons of money into this, so for both of the the partners, there doesn't seem to be much downside.
For us? Still don't know.
We shall see...
Greg
Dell and you "resellers"
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 2:26am
One of the best things that happened around here for my pay scale was when "The Geek Squad" and the circuitcity "firedog" crowd came to town.
I was able to double my first hour rate...
Why??
well because those two sets of clowns could not fix the smallest issue in less than 5 hours and in many cases not without selling the customer 100.00's of bucks in crap parts they did not need.
So when I walk in and fix the issue in the first 15 mins, and spend the next 45 cleaning up the mess, they want to kiss me and buy me lunch as well as pay me.
This will apply to anyone who "Knows what they are doing" in the PBX sales.
If you have the Rep with the skills to do it right, then the Dell name will help you sell some customers, as with some (as a gateway /hp fan) maybe it will hurt.
BUT your biggest assest is your Rep (Skills), as has been stated above install a VOIP PBX takes a little more than "plug it in and turn it on".
Remember they are YOUR customer, but some times YOU need to be the boss when it comes to hardware / software.
From a sales perspective
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 7:09am
Surely you understand that
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 7:34am
Surely you understand that some of us have reason to be concerned, right? I'm not just saying this just to say it, I'm saying that I have real concerns about how this will impact me. Luckily I've got a weird gig going on where I'm pretty set, but if I want to grow I need stuff like this. If I tell a customer "well, Dell sells it" there's absolutely nothing stopping them (nor would I want to) from going and getting a quote from Dell. I can't compete with Dell's pricing, there's just no way, so then I'm faced with even more of an uphill battle trying to convince this person why they should buy a system from me for 10%-20% more instead of just getting the "same thing" (which it wouldn't be, because I wouldn't sell Pro*) from Dell. I want to re-iterate that this is just speculation of the worst case scenario, I have no idea how it's actually going to pan out, but that doesn't mean I can't express my concern.
* nothing against Pro, but my value add comes from the customizations I can make to the system, and I can't do that with Pro.
Also, I'm not in any way saying anything like "Fonality should never have done this!" or anything. It's an awesome opportunity for them and I do wish them the best of luck. I certainly wouldn't have turned it down if I were in their shoes. Unfortunately, I don't live in a vacuum. (I wouldn't fit, unless Hoover makes a really big one.)
If you aren't selling Pro
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 7:58am
If you aren't selling Pro then you are selling solutions based on CE which is not what Dell is selling so the client would not be comparing apples to apples. I am not sure what customizations you make that you feel you can't make in Pro so I can't address that. The fact is that one of the largest computer manufacturers is getting behind an Asterisk-based product (if it hasn't been Fonality, it would have been someone else) and this has to be good for the community in general as it proves that the core technology you are pushing is accepted at that level of the market. None of my IT clients was buying solution products from Dell so I don't feel that would have hurt my IT business at all.
My business partner and I
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 11:55am
My business partner and I often comment on how we make much more money when someone buys a Dell instead of buying one of our systems. In fact, we often encourage potential customers to look to Dell or HP if all they want is a cheap PC. We don't sell cheap PCs, but we sell quality systems for a reasonable price. Look elsewhere for cheap.
We get a lot of Dells in our shop, but rarely see one of our own systems. Makes me kind of winsome actually. Seriously though, Dell selling these boxes is a huge opportunity to make money off service -- they will can the installation (if they do it at all) and it will probably need to be redone properly once you receive it. So, you could make a couple of hours off the bat for stuff you would have done anyway had you built the machine.
Plus, you face zero liability for hardware failures and can bill, bill, bill for every bit of troubleshooting on their shoddy hardware. Then bill for the time you spend on the phone with their Indian tech support, bill when you have to supervise their tech replacing the part, bill when you have to clean up after him (or her). Hours and hours of lovely potential Dell billing.
You guys are much to quick
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 4:19pm
You guys are much to quick to kick dell to the ground. They do make quality pc's, but like everything else it just depends on what KIND of dell you are buying. Mammoth i'm willing to bet you fix ALOT of dimmensions, but I will also bet that you fix very little optiplex's.
This is a good thing for the market, for me I see it as a way of going to my customers and showing them that the product i'm selling them is sold by dell as well. We have very loyal customers so i'm not worried about them jumping ship, it just solidifies to my customers that i'm selling a quality product.
Dell taking the
Thu, 01/24/2008 - 4:44pm
Dell taking the responsibility for hardware warrantee is the primary reason we sell Dell. If you work with a Dell rep., you can buy direclty from them, sell to your client for the same or even less than Dell's specials and still make some money on the hardware while not having to worry about hardware repair. Dell selling PCs and server really helps our data business and I don't see why it won't do the same for telephony.
I also agree with kspare above that there is a huge difference in quality between what Dell considers home equipment as opposed to their business lines. We don't sell dimensions.
On a similar note, I received an e-mail from my Dell rep today announcing the availability of the Nortel product but it didn't mention Fonality. I''ve copied it below. I've sent him an e-mail asking about it.
"Dear Doug:
Get connected. Dell is now offering Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions from Nortel. Nortel™ VoIP can help you lower your company's voice communications costs and increase your effectiveness by taking advantage of your existing network.
VoIP can:
Lower costs for remote and mobile workers — and even external businesses — when used with VoIP service providers
Give you the capacity to serve up to 500 users
Allow your users to be connected virtually anytime, anywhere
Help ease network management with simple and efficient system management through Nortel's Web-based interface
Call me today to discuss how Dell can help connect your business."
Doug
www.vbcnetworks.com
my post was obviously meant
Fri, 01/25/2008 - 8:04am
my post was obviously meant to be a bit tongue in cheek. but you are right, more dimensions than optiplexes come to the office. The optiplexes usually get repaired in the field by the dell tech. That's when we usually have to go clean up behind them.
Ever had a hard disk replaced by a dell tech in an optiplex? yep, here's your disk -- call support if you need help putting your os on. RAID card crap out and cause data loss on your server? Here's your new raid card -- good luck restoring from backup....
honestly, it's not that I mind. I seriously make good hours on their stuff.
The problem if you are a
Tue, 01/29/2008 - 9:54am
The problem if you are a Dell Partner, which we are, and you have been for a while, which we have, then you know Dell reps will go out of there way to screw the channel partners. We have had several large installs of over 500 PCs that we worked out all the paperwork on and spec out/plan installs for only to have Dell step in and say we can do it cheaper if you buy directly from us. Sure you can can make more money off services, but when Dell steps in like that and stomps on your credibility, now you have customers telling there friends and neighbors about how much money you tried to screw them out off that's a different story.
We have since moved on, but if you are currently a Dell reseller I would seriously watch my back because they definitely do NOT have their channel partners best interests in mind.
Yes having a name behind a product gives it credibility. Just watch your Ps and Qs and don't let them step on the quality of the product, because they WILL try.
my point of view is that of
Mon, 02/04/2008 - 10:13pm
my point of view is that of bdis and others - while not ever wanting to be associated with any channel of Dell's, I still cannot help but think how customers will say "really, Dell sells it, hmm, I have a real good Small Bus account with them, they give me huge discounts on all my workstations and servers, I will look over your phone system and call you if I'm interested" - gee wonder what happens next???
I am with Kodak - refer tons of pc clients to Dell - I just cant compete with them there, and dont need to, something goes wrong I can happily bill the client and blame Dell. They are a commodity item, PBXes - I hope it will be some time before they are.
Dell installer
Mon, 03/17/2008 - 7:56pm
I have been trying to find out who to talk to about becoming an installer for them. I went thru your training in Miami and live in Houston. I love to talk to someone about getting my company to become an installer for them.
If anyone has any ideas let me know.
michael mosier
houston
Member Since:
2006-05-31