The Telecom Vultures and What Every MSP Should Guard Against
Not too long ago, the telecom world was divided up nicely. Everyone had their place and 
played their role. The phone system manufacturer made premise-based hardware business phone systems. Carriers ran lines into those systems and billed the customer directly. ISP’s handled internet access, and Managed Service Providers handled the LAN. Even the copier folks only fixed copiers. Everyone was happy and everyone got paid for managing their little piece of the communications pie.
Enter 2017 and that landscape only mildly resembles what it did as recently as five years ago. Today, everyone is stepping on everyone else’s toes for a bigger slice of the same pie. The telecom space has become more cutthroat than ever and both large and small businesses are feeling the effects in different ways.
Managed Service partners are becoming especially vulnerable. We frequently hear stories from MSP’s that sound like this:
“We were performing our quarterly review with our client when they suddenly dropped six quotes in front of us for cloud-based services from their phone company. Our relationship with our client went from strong to jeopardized in less than a minute.”
It’s the state of the industry these days and MSP’s everywhere are scrambling and scared. What they viewed as strong relationships are cracking because of what we call the Telecom Vultures.
The big guys are scrambling just like the little guys. Cable TV subscribers are cutting the cord at an alarming rate. Fewer and fewer families are keeping dedicated home phone lines. Competition has forced price reductions on internet access services. Meanwhile, aging infrastructure is forcing big expenditures to upgrade from copper to fiber. The big Cable and Telecom companies need to replace that revenue with something, so they move into residential and business VoIP and Managed services.
The owner of a large MSP vented his frustration in a recent conversation. He shared that his clients were being inundated with requests from the major carriers to speak with them about managed services.
“Their pitch to the client is, ‘you already have your phone lines and internet with us, so let us talk to you about managed services. We’ll bundle it all together and you’ll save X across the board on all of your services.”
He further went on to say, “They show me the price and ask why I’m charging them twice as much. Then I have to explain how they’re charging the same in reality, but reducing other costs on the telecom side to make it appear as though they’re getting a deal on managed services. It’s smoke and mirrors.”
It’s an every day occurrence, and one which is costing MSP’s big. So what’s an MSP to do? We’re finding more and more MSP’s are choosing to partner with companies like ours because we’re able to cut the carrier out almost completely. As an ITSP, N2Net works with carriers to deliver access lines, but the bills come from us. Most importantly, the MSP regains control of the client relationship and has new options to add revenue on the voice side for that client.
Don’t get caught in that meeting after being shown six different competitor quotes for services you already provide. Partner with a company who will help you grow your business, not poach your clients.
If you’re looking for a truly vendor agnostic VoIP partner who can do it all, talk to one of the voice and data experts at N2Net. Designed with MSPs in mind, N2Net’s service is one of the most reliable options in the United States. Contact us today to learn more.