Several huge contracts with major chain stores can make the difference between rankings. But total sales figures are not huge Avaya's total CPE systems shipped on the low end comes under 10,000. Under 40 extensions, Avaya ranks first, followed by NEC, Panasonic, Nortel, Comdial, Vodavi, Toshiba, and Inter-Tel. After Toshiba, Eastern Management places Inter-Tel second, Avaya third, NEC fourth, and Nortel fifth in the 41- to 100-station system shipments for 1Q2002. Price is how the NECs, Inter-Tels, and others first chipped away at (then) Lucent's and Nortel's share in the small business marketplace. These feature requests – all extremely price sensitive – typify today's small-business customer. But if it's a radiology group, say, you can front the auto attendant with, “if you're looking to pick up a film, press 1 if you're looking for directions, press 2.” Says Riche: “When you get into an obstetrics or geriatrics practice, they want a live person to answer. In Extel's case, this involves intimate understanding of verticals within verticals.
To make up for the price pressure in hardware installations, resellers like Riche are forced to embrace the consultative, long-standing relationship. Particularly in medical practices, doctors are trying to do more with less staff, so they put in a small call center so that any worker can log in at certain hours to answer phones if needed.”
“We can now put a small ACD and management reporting software on a system for $5,000.
His typical 20- to 40-extension customer bought a phone system from him in the 80s, has already bought into auto attendant and VM, and is beginning to ask for conferencing, UM, plus the ability to record-to-voicemail on demand.Īnother big draw for his typical customers is the informal call center. He says his aim is to recreate the one-stop shopping relationship customers once knew with The Phone Company, providing phone systems, local and long distance through reseller agreements with carriers, and structured cabling. Riche sells Toshiba's Strata DK line and its new replacement, the Strata CTX. Tom Riche, (pronounced “Ritchee,”) is president of Extel Communications (Ridgewood, NJ – 20, a major and exclusive Toshiba reseller. How well do the impressive features and options of today's SMB phone systems map to the real needs of buyers? What are vendors and dealers learning as they try to sell PBXs in a down economy? We spoke with analysts and real-world resellers to find out.Īccording to research firm Eastern Management, Toshiba (Irvine, CA – 94, had first place in 1Q02 for shipments in the 40- to 100-station category, and seventh place for two to 40 stations. And every manufacturer has an IP offering and/or roadmap to consider – adding fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Some significant ones, such as voicemail, come standard. The products they're buying – even at the “key system” level – have basic features comparable with those of the biggest and best PBXs of the mid-90s, plus options galore. These are the most-quoted reasons why small businesses (for our purposes, firms with 100 or fewer seats) are buying new phone systems, today. The old phone system quits the company grows (or acquires a competitor) the sales team is dying for a key application somebody wants to build a small call center.