Distributors & Resellers

So...all the buzz right now is wondering about what will happen with distributors and resellers.

TAA is unique in that it has one distributor in the US, KBZ. Wow...thats a lot of risk for KBZ. They could turn up roses if Cisco leaves them... and it could turn up pretty bad if CSCO dumps them. Talk about a dicey situation.

Resellers I think are going to turn up different. Here's whats I'd do if I was making decisions... I'd start off by leaving things alone for the first 3-6 months and only allowing TAA certified resellers to sell the product. I'd develop a ATP program just for Tandberg and I'd try to get existing TAA resellers to get ATP certified. I'd promote to my existing Cisco resellers that if they want to sell TAA, they need be ATP certified for TAA.

Here's one thing for sure... TAA & CSCO need the expertise of the current TAA reseller community. They also want to add on new resellers...the existing CSCO ones... but, they need to be careful and not add on CSCO partners that dont know video. And..that is alot of them.

I know this because 1) CSCO recently told me this... and 2) I've gone into help tons of CSCO resellers that blew up even simple video conferencing installs of PLCM and TAA.

And the analysts say...

Polycom is in play...

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE5953VB20091006

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/tradingdesk/archive/2009/10/06/polycom-next-to-go-after-cisco-takes-out-rival.aspx

Even comments about Radvision!

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000503311&fid=1176

and wow...did they read my blog to get the following news???

http://www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker/2009/10/avaya_may_partner_not_buy_on_v.php

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7ce82002-b27c-11de-b7d2-00144feab49a,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html

Test post

Polycom hiring & firing

If you know people at PLCM... you might have heard..they're axing more. August was the time to axe sales management. At least 60 got the axe. Now, they're moving down the ranks and individual contributors are being shot. Account managers, channel managers, demo specialists, anyone that is either not performing or is located in the wrong spot.

I've also heard that PLCM is going to be hiring like crazy.

But...who knows... do you suppose they will continue that plan? or decide on something else? Well...I mean.. will the TAA sale make things happen differently? Probably not... PLCM needs to be aggressive. They have to count on something called "ABC". ABC is "anything but cisco"... and its a mantra that developed over the last few years. Unfortunately alot of the aggressive sales techniques often pissed often techies. Or bugs... or product lines that disappeared after only being available for less than a year. But..again..who knows. Random things do happen.

LifeSize Passport

http://www.lifesize.com/en/Products/Video/LifeSize_Passport.aspx

I see products like this one being one way the market moves. Its not for everyone, but it is a solution that SMBs, which are always the fast growing companies, are going to latch onto. Especially with the fact that the system will interoperate with Skype. Maybe with Silver Lake not getting Tandberg they might want to consider buying LifeSize to merge with Skype who they just purchased from eBay.

I haven't personally seen this product but cannot wait to see it. The price point is very exciting! $2500 for a 720p endpoint, wow!

Is there more coming?

Yes, I believe so. Just fairly recently Dell bought Perot Data Systems... but, why is that significant? Well, I think the proof point for a successful Tech company is IBM. Everyone wants to be IBM. Thats why HP bought EDS..and Dell bought Perot. They wanted professional services revenue. IBM also works because of size and because of depth and breadth.

I think the next expansion is going to be UC. I thought about this a week ago while reading an article in the WSJ that showed the top tech companies: IBM, HP, Oracle, Cisco, and Dell. It had categories like: pcs, servers, networking, and services. Whats missing from there is UC. IBM has a little, HP has a little, Oracle none, Cisco lots, and Dell none. But that could easily change. HP could pickup Polycom. Dell could pickup LifeSize.

I really think its going to be a mad dash to pickup the other two good companies. Yes, I know there is Aethra, Vidyo, and Sony. But... Aethra would most likely be picked up by a smaller player. Vidyo has a good chance of being picked up. They actually would be a good fit for Oracle... being a software company.

Lets see what happens!

Cisco & Tandberg..but what about Silver Lake?

Yes, I know, its already yesterdays' news, but if you were trying to enjoy the great day yesterday in the Bay area, maybe you tuned out and didn't hear that Cisco has made a tender offer for Tandberg of roughly $3B

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ffd5ca8-ae52-11de-8464-00144feabdc0.html

Three years ago we all thought this was imminent and I heard rumors there were talks, but that Cisco couldn't come to terms with TAA at the time.

What I think is possible different is that this might be a defensive move on Cisco's part. Silver Lake has long been known to be putting this deal to rest and to have merged together Avaya with Tandberg along with the peice they bought from Nortel into a company that go after Cisco.

Is Cisco the spoiler? or does this make sense? It certainly does. Tandberg products have always worked well with Cisco Call Manager. Sure, there is some overlap in product sets, but Cisco typically feels no remorse killing product lines. I think all of TAAs products work well..I can't see anything getting killed. But..who knows how that will line up.