Overview:

In recent years IP telephony has become mainstream technology. Almost
all organizations are doing something with IP telephony in the LAN, and voice
over IP in the WAN. For most, migration to VOIP opens the door to numerous
additional applications across the enterprise. IT leaders view the move as a
stepping stone towards a full unified-communications strategy that allows
voice, data and video communications to converge under a single network.
The business of selling IPT is stronger than ever. Enterprises continue to
replace end-of-life legacy systems. They also continue to expand their
operations and increase the number of branch offices, which requires new
telephony deployments.

This issue paper examines the business of selling IP-telephony products
and services. Although the vendors do, in some cases, sell their products
directly, the more common approach is through third parties, including
distributors, system integrators and value-added resellers (VARs).

Resellers have choices when it comes to which vendor products they sell.
Of course comparing profit margins from equipment sales plays a role in the
decision process, but margins from hardware sales are only part the equation.
With such a huge enterprise interest in professional and managed services,
resellers view IP-telephony sales as extended services opportunities, and
depending on their offerings, they can be quite profitable.

Author(s): Katherine Trost, Research Analyst

Keywords: IP Telephony, value-added resellers
(VARs), implementation costs, captial costs, operational, costs,
professional services, hardware sales, software sales, maintenance,
training and certification.

Vendors mentioned: AT&T, Verizon, EDS, IBM, IGS, Dimension Data, Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, ShoreTel, Toshiba, Siemens, CDW and Dell Computer.

Clients: Read this Issue Paper - The Business of Reselling IP Telephony

Non-clients: Nemertes Issue Papers are available to clients only. If you're not a
client and would like to receive a copy of the Issue Paper, please
contact us.