[Asterisk-biz] Polycom

[Chris Tooley]

Well, this "preferred vendor" is what I'm pushing for.  I'm actually
trying to put together an organization of Asterisk Resellers to do
just that.  I initially wanted it to be an educational resource, but
it's definitely got some other more immediate potential.


On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 07:44:11 -0500, mattf <mattf at vicimarketing.com> wrote:
> We have also had a hard time keeping suppliers, we've had to buy them from 4
> different vendors in the last year because the vendors can't sem to get
> reliable supplies from Polycom.
> 
> About 10 months ago I talked extensively with Scott Wilson, the VP of sales
> for Polycom VOIP phones, and he stated that they would love to fully support
> Asterisk(even giving us our own engineer to talk to) if a vendor would
> become a preferred Asterisk-related vendor that they could work through.
> They hate dealing with end-user customers directly and that was the reason
> we've had so many problems. In the end, I was never able to get any Polycom
> reseller to agree to fully support Asterisk and I had to move on to other
> things because this endeavor had already taken up too much of my time.
> Because of that we only install Polycom phones in places where good
> speakerphones are needed, otherwise we install Snom phones which have a much
> better company support record with Asterisk.
> 
> All of the research and phone calls I made in this endeavor lead me to the
> conclusion that Polycom makes more profit per phone when Cisco or Avaya
> sells a phone(Cisco and Avaya license many Polycom technologies in their
> speaker-phone-capable VOIP phones) than they would if they had to support
> their own phones. That's why they don't really seem to care about selling
> these phones, they compete directly with another stable revenue stream, and
> becoming a bigger player in VOIP phones might put their Cisco and Avaya
> contracts in danger. Of course I cannot prove this, but all of the
> conversations I had with Polycom employees seemed to indicate this kind of
> thinking there.
> 
> In the end these are wonderfully capable phones that are heavily
> configurable and loaded with features and I plan on buying more in the
> future, but they will never be primary phones on systems I install unless
> they(or a reseller) start to offer Asterisk-end-user support, even if it's
> paid.
> 
> MATT---
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Rodan [mailto:asterisk at glitch.cc]
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 6:04 PM
> To: 'Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion'
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-biz] Polycom
> 
> We have configured and re-distributed at least 50 of these units to our
> customers and would be selling a lot more (hundreds) if we didn't have such
> a hard time obtaining them from resellers. We're just a small company but
> get more and more customers every day.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Steve Totaro
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:58 PM
> To: 'Chris Tooley'; 'Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion'
> Subject: RE: [Asterisk-biz] Polycom
> 
> I have sold many analog polycom sound stations and used an ATA.  Works
> great.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Chris Tooley
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:44 PM
> To: asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [Asterisk-biz] Polycom
> 
> I'm looking for some missed opportunities for selling Polycom phones
> because of the use of Asterisk.  I'm trying to get Polycom to provide
> support form Asterisk stable branch and am willing to do the work.
> However, some actually missed opportunities will help with the
> process.  No need to include end users name, just some unique
> identifier.  We're not going to try to contact them, I just need
> numbers of reasonable amounts for sales that could be gotten through
> the certification process.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> Chris Tooley
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