Benefits of Selling Audio, Video, and VoIP
Mike Ferney, vice president of sales for ScanSource Communications, talks about selling collaborated communications in an exclusive interview with Business Solutions magazine President Jim Roddy.
Length: 11 min, 33 sec
BSM: When our company first got into (using) video conferencing, it was extremely expensive, the quality was terrible – you almost had to set aside the first 10 minutes of your meeting to try to get everything working the right way. But it’s become easier to use. Has it also become easier to sell for a reseller?
Ferney: Absolutely. There’s more “gotchas” in this technology then for example just selling a commodity product, so you need to know what you’re doing. For most videoconferencing, for example we sell a Polycom solution, there’s certification required and authorization. We’re the largest distributor in the world for that technology, and we’ve become experts at helping people get into the technology.
The other thing that’s made it easier to sell is it’s come down market. If you were to go back 5-10 years, this was really just the province of large enterprises, and nowadays it’s come down market. So for a couple thousand dollars, someone could put a solution in a remote office and be able to really tie that remote office back in.
BSM: What’s one new thing that you’re seeing in audio that resellers might find interesting?
Ferney: There’s a cool new audio enhancement product out there from Panasonic. Panasonic’s been in this space for a long time as an OEM, and they just this year started branding a solution – a Panasonic enhanced audio solution for classrooms. It’s really targeted at the K-12 space. Anybody who’s in there will find that these classrooms need the technology. It’s basically a pendant microphone that connects via infrared back to an amplifier and amplifies the sound throughout the room. It increases test scores in classrooms and it also reduces teacher absenteeism through voice strain. It’s a great ROI for classrooms. Only about 5% of the students in classes nowadays have this technology, so there’s still tons of opportunity in that space.
This is only a portion of this exclusive interview. For the complete video, go to the media player at the top of this page.
Length: 11 min, 33 sec
BSM: When our company first got into (using) video conferencing, it was extremely expensive, the quality was terrible – you almost had to set aside the first 10 minutes of your meeting to try to get everything working the right way. But it’s become easier to use. Has it also become easier to sell for a reseller?
Ferney: Absolutely. There’s more “gotchas” in this technology then for example just selling a commodity product, so you need to know what you’re doing. For most videoconferencing, for example we sell a Polycom solution, there’s certification required and authorization. We’re the largest distributor in the world for that technology, and we’ve become experts at helping people get into the technology.
The other thing that’s made it easier to sell is it’s come down market. If you were to go back 5-10 years, this was really just the province of large enterprises, and nowadays it’s come down market. So for a couple thousand dollars, someone could put a solution in a remote office and be able to really tie that remote office back in.
BSM: What’s one new thing that you’re seeing in audio that resellers might find interesting?
Ferney: There’s a cool new audio enhancement product out there from Panasonic. Panasonic’s been in this space for a long time as an OEM, and they just this year started branding a solution – a Panasonic enhanced audio solution for classrooms. It’s really targeted at the K-12 space. Anybody who’s in there will find that these classrooms need the technology. It’s basically a pendant microphone that connects via infrared back to an amplifier and amplifies the sound throughout the room. It increases test scores in classrooms and it also reduces teacher absenteeism through voice strain. It’s a great ROI for classrooms. Only about 5% of the students in classes nowadays have this technology, so there’s still tons of opportunity in that space.
This is only a portion of this exclusive interview. For the complete video, go to the media player at the top of this page.
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