Griffin Internet, the UK's leading supplier of Managed Broadband
organised an event with a difference in October called the 'Soft Switch
Shoot Out' at Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey. The event allowed hosted
telephony companies the opportunity to pitch their business solutions in
front of Griffin's key customers and prospects. A dummy RFI (based on
an actual company requirement) was created by Griffin, which asked the
companies to present a fifteen minute pitch followed by a short question
and answer session.
Affiniti, Gamma, Hipcom, Sywx, Teleware and Vanilla IP presented
their solutions at the event.
As one of the few suppliers of a 'voice ready' IP network, Griffin
is constantly asked to recommend telephony partners and the dummy RFI
allowed a unique opportunity for some of Griffin's customers to see at
first hand the different approaches that hosted telephony companies can
provide.
The RFI created for this event asks the telephony companies to
create the best solution for a fictitious home building company that is
constantly moving from one site development to the next, but needing a
more cost effective solution than installing and renting BT lines at
each development site. The presentations needed to demonstrate cost
savings but also how to guarantee a high quality of service.
All the presentations were scored by Griffin's partners against a
number of key criteria including the quality of the presentation and how
successful the proposed solution was in terms of addressing the needs
outlined in the RFI.
Gamma Telecom emerged as the outright winner based on five key
criteria:
- Best presentation
- Clearest channel proposition
- Value for money
- Meeting the RFI
- Most likely to partner with
Second place went to Teleware, with Hipcom in third position. Joint
fourth place went to Swyx, Vanilla IP and Affiniti.
Andrew Dickinson, Sales and Marketing Director said, "The event was
an incredible success and was oversubscribed three times with resellers
keen to attend. The last question we had on our feedback form was most
revealing in that we asked resellers if the currently sold hosted
telephony or were planning to do so. 60% said they were not selling
hosted telephony but of those 80% said they were planning on starting to
sell the application in the next six months."