I caught this write-up by Don Panel on Telephony World this morning, and caught myself saying "Amen brother" under my breath

VOIP OUTSIDE OF THE BOX - A NEW WAY OF THINKING?
By Don Panek, TelephonyWorld Editor
One of the parts of my job that I've always been fondest of is the many conversations I get to have with people from all over the world and from all manners of business. I get to discuss everything from problems setting up small office and home office phone solutions, to multi office worldwide call centers. I've been in heated round-table discussions about what emerging technology will have the shortest ROI and provide the longest overall cost savings for years to come. I've hosted webinars, seminars, demonstrations, and spent countless hours at trade show booths extolling the virtues of telephony and VoIP till my throat was raw. But I love every minute. I guess you could say that beneath everything, I have a pure desire and passion for sharing, teaching, helping and problem solving. And that's really what selling Telephony and VoIP to businesses is all about. It's about problem solving.

That's the opening, but here's where Don makes the real point -

Business owners and executives today are not sitting around board room tables discussing their existing phone systems, services, or expenses. They're not thinking about VoIP or Telephony and what it can do for their bottom lines. They're discussing real business problems and looking for real solutions to those problems.

And his closing drives it home yet again -

I think the time has come to stop talking about VoIP and Telephony and start talking about applications and solutions. Solving problems. And at the end of the day after the order has been signed, we can then mention that all the phone calls will be free or virtually free! And how is that done? Well the solution has VoIP built in!

I couldn't have said it any better. There's been an ongoing focus for some time in the VoIP sector, that started to carry as unification of commucations technologies gained momentum. Vendors and developers often get sidetracked into the idea of how their products can interoperate...how they can build a platform.

Customers don't care about a platform, and don't care what you're doing under the covers. Customers care about their business problems and solutions to those business problems. And the solution providers who provide solutions rather than platforms are the ones delivering on their promises. They're the ones who will win in the market. Don't get distracted into platforms. Focus on solutions to real problems.


Technorati Tags: Solving problems, solutions, platforms, unified communications, VoIP