Back in June, George BVoIP of BVoIP talks to Dan Baldwin of Telecom Association about how he used his experience as an MSP to develop BVoIP, a hosted VoIP phone solution that allows other MSPs to bundle phones into their customer's IT stack.
To listen to the interview please visit https://soundcloud.com/icta/george-bardissi-of-bvoip-on-how-converged-is-converged-enough-for-smbs
Following are the time stamped questions from the interview:
00:00 - Introduction
00:28 - Q1: While operating your MSP company that services the IT needs of SMBs you described how problematic it was for you as a service provider to be responsible for making a customer's IT system work with different VoIP phone companies. Can you please describe how this was a weak link in your customer's "IT stack" and how you overcame this.
02:58 - Q2: For SMBs unfamiliar with how an MSP like BVoIP Enterprises service a complete IT stack, can you describe the business model, the individual services in the stack and normal retail rates that cost justify an SMB's decision to outsource their IT stack.
06:45 - Q2a: When an MSP takes over a new account, how often are you taking over from another MSP and how much of what you're taking over is already in the cloud?
10:40 - Q3: Now clearly you recommend converging IT & phone equipment into a single invoice and helpdesk, what about carrier services including dial tone and internet connectivity? Do you take trouble calls for it and do you bill for it - why or why not?
13:30 - Q3a: BVoIP takes over the phone equipment & programming but not the actual SIP dial tone, right?
16:10 - Q4: With your company BVoIP you've created a converged vendor company that allows technology solution providers the ability to duplicate for their SMB customers the success BVoIP Enterprises had with their customers. How has the reception been from solution providers and what do you tell them when they ask how your solution differs from other telephony convergence opportunities they have from whitelabelers like CoreDial, other IT stack providers like iAreaNet or even Microsoft Lync/Skype?
20:55 - Q4a: Are you running into MSPs that want to add Skype for Business or Lync as the phone system for customers already in an Office 365 environment?
23:30 - Q5: Number of end-users supported per MSP & # of MSPs participating so far?
27:15 - Q5a: Is it the PSAs AutoTask & ConnectWise that is making it easier for MSPs to finally pick-up telephony?
30:15 - Q5b: Is hosted VoIP telephony harder for MSPs to take on than other IT cloud services?
33:33 - Closing remarks