Telcoinabox Blog

5 Real Reasons Why Running a Business and a Sailing Boat are More Similar Than You Think!!!!

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 00:11:00 GMT

At Telcoinabox we’re proud to be the official sponsor of Airlie Beach Race Week 2012 but what on earth does running a telecommunications company (or indeed any business) have to do with sailing? Oh no, I hear you cry, not another one of those articles filled with management guff about how the whole crew needs to work together and there can only be one skipper. Far from it. After having the pleasure (although perhaps honour is more appropriate given the conditions) of being aboard Telcoinabox Merit as she completed the 2010 Sydney to Hobart race and with the whiff of the Whitsundays in my nostrils I thought I’d give you my top 5 real reasons why running a business and a sailing a boat are more similar than you might think and what lessons we can learn from this…

1. One man’s fun is another man’s fear

We all have a different appetite for risk. Some people enjoy sailing down 50 foot waves at 30 knots, other people are scared witless by the very thought. Just as I started thinking that the next wave was going to knock us over the more seasoned crew members were considering putting on their waterproofs and putting down their cup of coffee. Some business leaders (seemingly particularly those in large investment banks) enjoy leveraging their company to the hilt and hoping that a gamble on a new market or product pays off, others like to maintain a strong balance sheet and plan every opportunity to the nth degree. A crew full of gung-ho adrenalin junkies is likely to break the boat (and perhaps a few bones). A crew full of actuaries will probably never get out of the marina, let alone win the race. Any crew or business needs a healthy mix of risk appetites to be successful and the wellbeing of your people (be they employees, customers or shareholders) should always be your number one priority. Our CEO has a saying that “businesses thrive on the edge of chaos” and I, for one, think he’s right.

Learning : Make sure you have a good balance of caution and risk in your leadership team

2. Small stuff can really f*** you up

I used to work in retail (we Brits are, after all, a nation of shopkeepers) and one of the earliest business truisms I ever heard was “retail is detail”. Fortunately for me (and less fortunately for those I work with) I like detail – perhaps a little too much. But how often have you heard a CEO or executive come up with an idea only to dismiss any questions or challenges with “that’s just the detail”? A boat, like a business is made up of many moving parts (details) and each of those parts has a role to play. However some of these parts are more important than others and it’s not always the obvious ones. At risk of stating the obvious the mainsail is pretty important (and can cost up to half a million dollars on a super-maxi) and having a mast is also quite useful (so much so that to insure a boat for the Sydney to Hobart most insurance companies will require you to get the mast x-rayed – not an easy task when it’s 30 metres tall). But what about the small graphite rods (about the size of your little finger) that assist the header car (and therefore the mainsail) to run up and down the mast? These things cost about $20 but when one breaks (with an almighty bang) the mainsail comes down and is useless. If you don’t have a spare (or can’t fashion one from an old pencil – see below for improvisation) then you’re buggered.

Learning : Don’t get too removed from the detail. Understand what the really critical “moving parts” are for your business and have a plan for what to do if they break.

3. Survival is often about improvisation

How often have you heard someone in a business complain that they can’t do something because they don’t have the resources? How often have you automatically put in a bid for more resources to get a job done? Being on a sailing boat in the middle of the ocean is a classic example of dealing with scarce resources. No popping out to the hardware store for supplies, no calling in a tradie to get a job done. If something breaks you have to fix it as best you can with whatever you have to hand. This takes skill, tenacity and lateral thinking but many a crew has been spared from disaster through jury rigging a solution to get them to the nearest port. Bear Grylls eats lizards entrails and scorpions, sailors plug holes in the hull with sails and make a sea anchor from virtually anything (except, hopefully the crew). What have you done recently to really improvise in your business?

Learning : Next time you’ve got an issue, problem or challenge to address get your best minds to come up with some ways to improvise a solution.

4. You need to make the most of change

Conditions at sea are constantly changing. Sea state, wind direction, wind strength, visibility and tide are just some of the many variables that sailors have to deal with. While keeping an eye on the important details is important (see above) you have to balance this with keeping your head out of the boat and being aware of what is going on around you. Most importantly look to where the change is coming from, not where it has gone. The best sailors are great observers of what is ahead. They anticipate change and plan for it rather than reacting to it after the fact. Sometimes this anticipation is aided by the latest technology but sometimes it comes down to a gut feeling borne from years of experience.

Learning : Make sure someone looks “out of the boat” in your business, has the right tools to help them do it and lets everybody else know what’s coming.

5. “Winning” is a subjective thing

One of the best dinghy sailors to ever have competed, Paul Elvstrom, said "you have not won, if in doing so, you lose the respect of your competitors".

Learning : Substitute the words “your competitors” for "those around you" and the same applies to business and life generally.

Most importantly when you get to port make sure celebrate your safe arrival. Mine’s a Mount Gay - roll on Airlie Beach.

Cheers

Paul Line

COO - Telcoinabox ANZOC

The FCA and You – Now that you are a Franchisee...

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:00:00 GMT

In the first article of this two part series, I wrote about the pitfalls of relying on the Franchisor being a member of the FCA (Franchise Council of Australia) and some suggestions on what you need to do to perform your own due diligence. In this follow up article I will explore what you can use the FCA for.

Click here to read the full article

The FCA & you - buying a franchise

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:00:00 GMT

In this first of a two part series, Telcoinabox's Damian Kay explores how to utilise the Franchise Council of Australia (FCA) when buying a franchise and what to do once you become a franchisor.

Click here to read the full article

Organic growth or acquisition - which way to grow?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT

In part one; we explored growth by acquisition as a means to gain economies of scale and size. Part two, we will explore organic growth - the act of growing your business in two ways - winning customers and getting more out of the customers you already have.

Click here to read the full article

Thrive on chaos to succeed

Mon, 17 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Telcoinabox founder Damian Kay says successful businesses must learn to love chaos

Click here to read the full article

Franchisor vs Franchisee?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Telco in a Box managing director Damian Kay says there are several steps to producing successful – and less stressful – business relationships within franchises

Click here to read the full article

Little Change from Telstra Separation

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT

The debate around the functional separation of Telstra presents a very varied set of opinions. This depends on who is making them and what their interaction is with Telstra. As a pure reseller customer of Telstra Wholesale (TW), Telcoinabox enjoys a strong relationship with Telstra that is pro-active and mutual.

In many ways the functional separation of Telstra will make absolutely no difference to the relationship or how we operate on a day to day basis. Currently we have access to all levels of Telstra Wholesale from the GMD through to The Executive Director of Sales, the Sales Director, our account manager and in addition, access to the marketing team. We choose to have an “open book” relationship and we get the same in return. Whether Telstra is forced to separate or not, as interesting as it is to try and predict what changes it would bring, is not really the issue. Commentary on this subject shows that people think just because Telstra is separated they will be able to have a better relationship with the Telstra Wholesale. Separation will not change the relationship a provider has with TW, it is the way that providers engage with TW that will change the relationship. If a provider fully engages Telstra then they deserve to get (and demand) the same in return.

Separation however may change some of the ridiculous, bureaucratic and rigid policies that prevail within the Telstra wholesale. A number of systems that would allow TW to gain more business are not allowed to be provided by the wholesale division as they are considered “retail differentiators” but in reality it would lessen the manual processes by both the provider and TW. It is simple things such as this, that one would hope would change under separation. Then there is the big one, access to Next G. As a wholesale aggregator, this has been a disappointing decision by Telstra but understandable. Would this really change under separation? Who knows, but one thing that I do know is that I have a choice, I can choose to use another carrier that will provide the systems required to manage extra products and we have very successfully launched Optus 3G mobile. Separation may also allow wholesale partners to use the Telstra logo to show they partner with Telstra just like Cisco and other vendors allow. It is an antiquated view and one that would change with Separation I am sure.

The pressure on Telstra to separate is growing and inevitably it will. If Telstra looked internally and voluntarily removed the highly inefficient roadblocks TW has due an outdated "retail only" policy that only costs the business money, along with other aspects, the pressure may not be so great. Sometimes Telstra is their own worst enemy and do not look at the bigger picture. The wholesale division and the Telstra partners get frustrated at pure bureaucratic/legal idiocy..

How much would really change, I think not too much of real substance depending on who you are and for us this would be the case.

Damian Kay

Welcome to the Third Edition of Engaged

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Welcome to the third edition of Engaged. It's been a while since you last heard from us but we wanted to give you all time to recover from your seasonal festivities and Australia Day celebrations and get well and truly over your back-to-work blues. It's been a fairly hectic few months at Telcoinabox since the last edition. Among other things we've gone out all guns blazing with our largest product launch ever on Optus mobile, wireless broadband and Blackberry, signed an agreement with a master franchisor for our New Zealand operation, sponsored a yacht in the Sydney to Hobart race and conducted our first ever global business review in London (taking in the GSM expo in Barcelona and the slopes and après ski of St Anton in the process).

While you were tucking into your left-over turkey I hope you were sparing a thought for Damian Kay (our managing director) and Leo Rodriguez (the owner of Voice2net and one of our franchisees) who formed part of the crew of Telcoinabox Merit for the world-famous Rolex Sydney to Hobart yacht race. If you missed the extensive newspaper articles and television coverage of the heroics that this crew got up to you can catch up on the amazing exploits and tales of derring-do in Damian's first-hand report of what it's really like to sail in one of the toughest offshore ocean races in the world (although from the sound of it the post-race celebrations in Constitution Dock were more of a survival challenge than the race itself).

For those of us back on dry land we were coping with riding the peaks and troughs of a major new product launch. The response to the new Optus products has been phenomenal and has enabled some excellent growth, in particular the wireless broadband and timeless plans which have sold like proverbial hot cakes. One of our service providers that has really thrived on the new Optus products is IF Telecom. In this edition of Engaged we put IF Telecom in the spotlight and find out just what they're doing to achieve their success.

As with any launch it hasn't all been plain sailing (pun firmly intended). There have been a few hiccups along the way and as a result our support teams have been placed under a huge amount of pressure. I'm glad to say that on the whole they have come through the experience with flying colours although it may take a while for the mental scars to heal. We're continuing to work on those areas that still need fine-tuning and are preparing for our next major launch (ADSL2+) early in the new financial year.

Across the ditch we've been busy setting up our New Zealand operation with Shannon Fisher (one of our successful Australian franchisees) coming on board as our master franchisor for New Zealand and re-locating to Wellington and Zac Crofts (Stepping Stone Team Leader) about to become our second international transfer from the Australian operation. Read more about the progress of the New Zealand operation in the article from Laura Jacob who's been closely involved in getting the business off the ground.

If you're reading this as one of our franchisees you will recently have received (and hopefully completed) our annual Franchise Relationships Institute (FRI) survey. This is your opportunity to give us your feedback on all elements of the franchise system. We take the results extremely seriously and they guide and direct our strategies for continuous improvement of the business. We'll be sharing this year's results with you all shortly but in this edition we managed to grab a quick chat with Debb Lowe, the Operations Director with the FRI, who gives us her take on what's going on in the world of franchising.

So what else has been happening in the industry? Well the big news back in February was that Hutchison (3) and Vodafone announced a merger that will take the number of mobile carriers in Australia from four to three and see the '3' brand gradually phased out. The deal was kept closely under wraps until it was announced and will result in a combined market share for the new entity (Vodafone Hutchison Australia - VHA) of 27%, a close third behind Optus (32%) and Telstra (41%). So what does this mean for Telcoinabox? Since neither party is a major wholesale player the ramifications are more likely to be at the retail level. Mergers of this size are notoriously difficult to manage and it could result in both parties taking their eye off the ball while they focus on it. If anything it's likely to make the retail market more competitive as VHA seeks to take 2nd spot from Optus but, on a positive note, if Optus responds, as I'm sure it will, then it will result in an even more competitive product offer from them which we are well placed to take advantage of through our wholesale relationship.

As I write the latest news is all about Telstra's decision to start charging for national (STD) and international calls in 30 second blocks. This comes off the back of another set of impressive results for Telstra and the not entirely unexpected announcement of the departure of CEO, Sol Trujillo. When combined with the tightening of the Australian economy (and the use of the dreaded 'R' word) this news is a great for our service providers who now have an even better opportunity to pick up some disgruntled Telstra retail customers by offering plain and simple good value with no "smoke and mirrors" or hidden catches.

So sit back and enjoy the latest news from us here at Engaged and, as always, please let us know what you think and what topics you'd like to see discussed in future editions.

Author: Paul Line
Email: paul@telcoinabox.com

Mission Hobart - Writing the script

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Who would have thought that when I agreed to sponsor Leo Rodriguez in the 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht race that 1. I would participate in the race and 2. the "Telcoinabox" name would be exposed through every newspaper, radio and TV station in Australia. You could not have written the script that well. Initially I was not to participate as it was possible that Tash and I would be on our way to London with the boys in February, when this changed I eagerly joined a great bunch of guys on one of the most dangerous ocean races in the world. Given my sailing experience was limited to racing "Lasers" as a kid, a few corporate sailing events and a couple of bareboat charters, I am not ashamed to say that I was more than a little anxious. Tash was incredibly supportive of my decision to partake in the race and this made it a lot easier as I had someone to talk to about what I had agreed to do.

In the months leading into the start on December 26, I was racking my brain on how I could maximise the investment. I figured that unless we sank, or we won it was going to be difficult. Even after getting out the heads, with Spinnaker flying and sitting on the rail, I was trying to work out what I could do. I obviously had not factored us saving 14 people from a stricken boat would solve my issue.

On race day the buzz around the CYC was awesome, with people everywhere including boat crews making last minute preparations and the general public on the dock for a gawk. Leo made strict instructions for everyone to meet for breakfast at 7.30am at a nearby hotel. When Leo turned up at 8.30am because the alarm did not go off, I knew things were going to be interesting. Once we got the boat out onto the harbour everyone relaxed and the concentration was needed due to the incredible number of boats. After hoisting our storm sales for the Race Committee which was the last safety check requirement, we started positioning ourselves for the start. Now that is a thrill. 15+ tonne, multi million dollar boats tacking a manoeuvring in what is a relatively small space was mind blowing. We missed the start by a couple of boat lengths but given it is a 700 mile race nobody was particularly worried. We got our self close to the heads and we missed a boat under us which had right of way, so as a penalty we had to do a 720 turn which dropped us further behind the leaders.

Once we got out Sydney Heads and hoisted the kite we were truly on our way and we found ourselves catching the boats that passed us due to our penalty manoeuvre. By about Wollongong we had caught up and were running about 20th.

At 6PM the 3 hour rotating watch system started with 1/3 of the crew on Deck, 1/3 of the crew either on Deck or below fully kitted up ready to assist if required, and 1/3 of the crew sleeping. Around 10.30pm I was on deck when I heard Leo shouting "@$#%, @$#%, @$#%"and came on deck to take over the helm. As it turned out we were the closest boat to a mayday call from a sinking boat. The Radio operator on the stricken boat, "Georgia" a Farr 53 ocean racing boat sounded very stressed as she was at the radio/nav station with water up to her waist. In heavy seas and a blowing wind there was no doubt that they were in trouble. They could not bail out the water fast enough and were losing the battle to stay afloat. We hauled sails and motored to the aid of Georgia. I must add that Leo was not pissed off at going to the aid of the boat, it was an initial reaction as he knew exactly what it would mean to our race plan. At no stage did he hesitate or was upset at our task ahead. By the time we got to Georgia the bow and Stern lights were 6 inches off the water and the boat sinking was inevitable.

Leo ordered the Georgia crew to launch their life raft and we would take the crew in two batches of 7. The experienced crew of Telcoinabox Merit jumped into action and in a text book procedure rescued the crew of sinking boat. I got to hold a torch :). Within 10 minutes of the rescue and after we "knifed" the life raft, Georgia sank in 500 metres of water. They had hit something which had ripped out their rudder which then pulled through the deck of the boat allowing the water to rush in. Within an hour and a half the police rescue boat met up with us and due to heavy seas and a very dark night we motored for over 6 hours toward shore and they crew were transferred at about 6.30am. We resumed our race, but had slipped back from 19 place to 74th. Despite losing our weather pattern and being 30+ miles off course we managed to haul in 46 other boats and cross the line in 28th position. That in itself was an incredible achievement.

Once in the Bass straight later that day, we enjoyed reasonable conditions and allowed the 7 experience skippers to have some fun surfing waves in a 27 knot wind while reaching. The boys managed to get the boat up to 28+ knots surfing down some great waves with the stern of the boat at the top of the wave and the bow at the bottom. Definitely an experience that I will not forget. I got some great footage of this.

We were lucky enough to get a great wind just after lunch on the third day to get us up the Derwent river. Tash, the boys and my parents were at the finish line very excited to see us and be part of the experience. The dock was packed for our arrival in recognition of our exploits at sea which was a massive thrill as you can imagine. When we docked we were met by reporters and cameras which was exciting. I think over the next 2-3 days Leo did 25+ interviews. The better thing though was the crew of Georgia had arranged an enormous amount of piss to meet us at the finish line. Awesome!!!

After cleaning up the boat we all went to the pub where we found out that an international race panel had taken our submission that took into account that we had lost our weather pattern and we were a long way off course. We were awarded a very fair 18 hours and meant that we officially crossed the line in 16th place, we won our Division (PHS Division 1) and the Overall PHS category. What a result!!!!

At the awards, Leo and the crew also won a seamanship award or the rescue.

Leo in his first Sydney to Hobart race, did one that he will never forget, Telcoinabox had the biggest amount of exposure that I could have ever dreamed of, I got to participate and 7 of the crew had promised for years to get together and do a Hobart race as they were great mates. What a great result all round.

Author: Damian Kay
Email: damian@telcoinabox.com

Telcoinabox New Zealand

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Telcoinabox continues its global expansion with the establishment of an office in Wellington, New Zealand and has appointed Shannon Fisher as CEO.

Shannon Fisher was previously Managing Director of Creative Telcom, a privately owned Telecommunications Solutions Provider based in Australia as well as held prior roles with Alcatel, a multinational Telecommunications company. Whilst with Alcatel, Shannon held various positions in the management, sales, solutions and delivery areas of this organisation in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Belgium.

With the plans to expand the Telcoinabox model globally, New Zealand was identified as an untapped market with a lot of potential and was perfectly positioned for Telcoinabox to enter the market and take advantage of the ground floor opportunity to take its position as a market leader of innovation in the telecommunications wholesale and franchise industries.

The launch into New Zealand is progressing very well, with signed carrier agreements with Telecom NZ and TelstraClear. Telcoinabox NZ has also signed its first Wholesale Service Provider and have another 4 Franchise Service Providers in the pipeline, staying right on track for a launch date of April 1st 2009.

Stay tuned for further exciting updates!

Author: Laura Jacob
Email: laura@telcoinabox.com

Supplier Profile - Debb Lowe, FRI

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

In each edition of engaged we catch up with key people from within our supply base. This month we thought we’d eschew the usual telco people and focus instead on Debb Lowe, Director of Operations for the Franchise Relationships Institute. Here’s what Debb had to say.

Engaged: Debb, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your background and how long you’ve been working at the Franchise Relationships Institute (FRI)?
Debb: I spent 13 years with McDonalds in operations, training and senior people development roles including Professor of McDonald’s Hamburger University (I am not joking, there are 6 around the world) I have also held senior people development roles with Foodco (franchisor for Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue) and Krispy Kreme. Greg and I met when I was working at Foodco 5 years ago. I was very passionate about developing effective field manager training for our team and he ran a session for our team That was 5 years ago. I started working at FRI 18 months ago.

Engaged: Can you tell us a bit more about what the FRI does? Do you have a mission or purpose?
Debb: Our mission is to help franchisees and franchisors create profitable partnerships. We have been in business for 17 years helping franchise companies to better manage their people issues. We have developed specialised publications, tools and processes for the franchising sector. Everything we do is aimed at helping franchisees and franchisors to work together constructively so they can create happy customers, build brand value, make a reasonable profit and enjoy their work. We believe these to be worthwhile goals of a franchise system.

Engaged: We met your managing director Greg Nathan at one of our conferences and he seemed like an interesting person to work with. How would you describe the culture at FRI?
Debb: Some of our core values include being creative, sensitive, making a contribution, having courage and never giving up. We also like to stay grounded and keep our sense of humour. Our business is about helping to develop more confident, caring and competent people — franchisors; franchisees and our own team.

Engaged: And what kinds of things have you been working on with Telcoinabox?
Debb: Telcoinabox uses our scientific Franchisee Selection tool, the Nathan Profiler and we are in the process of conducting a Franchisee Satisfaction Survey which helps us understand the health of the culture, and will inform the Telcoinabox management team of the areas that are working well and areas of opportunity for improvement.

Engaged: You’ve worked quite closely with Telcoinabox for a couple of years now. What would you say are some of Telcoinabox’s strengths?
Debb: The leadership and vision of the senior management team, the determination to ensure that they have the best system and processes to ensure the franchise system is successful and the genuine commitment to be the best (and I wasn’t bribed to say these things!).

Engaged: And on the flipside are there any areas you feel Telcoinabox should be focusing on to make improvements?
Debb: While I don’t really know the business well enough to comment on specifics I’m sure that any areas for improvement will be highlighted in the results of the latest FRI survey that we have completed for Telcoinabox. On a positive note, I think it’s good that Telcoinabox is open about that the fact that they’re not perfect and actively seeks feedback on areas for improvement.

Engaged: What trends are you seeing in the franchise industry and are there any other franchise systems that you think are setting a really high benchmark?
Debb: Those franchise systems that have a genuine interest in franchisee profitability and the health of the culture are the franchise systems that do well in the long term.

Engaged: You work with lots of franchise businesses. What’s the FRI’s view on the outlook for franchising in the current economic climate?
Debb: Our recent research survey suggests that the franchising sector is in good shape, this is where the power of franchising really kicks in; collaboration, the sharing of ideas and knowledge and a genuine interest in helping each other.

Engaged: And if you could give one piece of advice to our franchisees to help them maximize their opportunities in the current economic climate what would it be?
Debb: Focus on the basics and keep your eye on the game… share your ideas and knowledge, keep your passion alive.

Thanks Debb, can’t wait for the survey results to be published this year to see how we’ve fared. For more information on the Franchise Relationships Institute visit www.franchiserelationships.com

Author: Paul Line
Email: paul@telcoinabox.com

Success Stories - IF Telecom

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

In this edition of Engaged we took the time out to have a chat with the hard working Rich Branson of IF Telecom. Rich gives us a little insight into what it takes to run a successful franchise, why he chose the Telco Industry and how the Credit Crunch has affected them.

Company : IF Telecom Pty Ltd

Location : Central Melbourne – 462 William Street

Who is Richard Branson? : I am 26 and moved over from Bristol in England in September 2005.

What were you doing before Telco and what made you give Telco a go? : Before getting into Telco I completed a Marketing Degree in Bristol, England. After a few months off catching up on festivals I dropped everything in the UK and moved to Melbourne. Since then I’ve not looked back.

How long has IF been running for? : The IF Group of companies has been running since October 2004, IF Telecom since October 2005.

Tell us a little about IF Telecom, How it started and how many people you have on board? : Both myself and brother Andy run the business. Andy takes more of a sales role, and manages the sales team while at the same time running a very successful campaign for NAB selling merchant services. The NAB campaign has led us to recently open a sales office in Adelaide – this will soon lead to a base for some IF Telecom sales staff.
We currently have 5 full time office based staff managing IF Telecom Customer Care and Sales Support for both the IF Telecom and NAB campaigns. At present the IF Telecom sales team comprises of 4 full time staff – 3 on the road doing face to face appointments and 1 on the phones. Plans are to constantly expand both teams in the near future.

What was the hardest thing to get your head around? : Some of the annoying procedures Telstra have to manage their lines. Understanding the money go round and the importance of good financial planning.

So what made you approach Telcoinabox? : Telco In a Box gave us the opportunity as newbie’s in the Service Provider game to offer a wide range of products and services. All factors including Billing, Printing and Technical Support were instantly sorted.

Key factors to your success? : I think a number of things have led to our success. Initially it was not spending much money on marketing materials, websites etc. and solely focusing on selling and getting customers on board. As we grew and brought on staff it’s been important that we have had a team atmosphere and a fun, friendly working environment.

By running multiple sales campaigns it has meant that we have had a busy office, even in IF Telecom’s early days, full of people motivated to do well. Andy’s experience in Sales and Sales Training has meant we can bring someone with little or no sales experience to become a ‘Sales Gun’. Opportunities and progression within the company has led to staff being with us for 4 or more years!

How has Telcoinabox contributed to your success? : By offering support when needed and by delivering a billing platform that we simply could not have done on our own.

What is a typical day like for Rich? : On a work day the alarm goes off at 7am – quick shower – then a 5 minute walk to the office – i’m very lucky that I’m not in the rat race of traffic jams and early morning road rage. Usually at my desk with a coffee at 7.30ish.
Mornings would involve checking payments, making sure the guys have their list of collection calls. Then the day to day huge range of different things that crop up with managing 1000 business customers. Luckily we have a very good team to help – and things have changed considerably from the days of taking customer calls on the mobile while shooting around town.
At the moment I usually have a quick lunch, continue working for the afternoon before finishing up in the office at 5 or 5.30pm.
In the evenings I try and fit in some sport – swimming, squash and we have our 5 a-side indoor football (soccer) team. Then of course there are the odd midweek drinks, nights out and the likes Melbourne has to offer.
Weekends are very different. :)

What is the best thing you like about running a Telco? : I like the fact that it is a very changing market. Technologies across the board are always moving forward and developing. It’s a 24 hrs business, so whether you’re in the office, at the pub or on the beach – people are always making phone calls! The opportunity is still absolutely massive!

How has the credit crunch affected you and what measures have you implemented to survive it? : To date I think it has opened up more avenues to sales. Cold calling b2b is now a viable option, when at one stage it seemed exhausted - businesses are keen to save money! It has however meant that we have to keep an even closer eye on collections – and regular contact with customers is needed to understand how their business is going.

What other advice would you give to new Telco Franchisees? : Focus on sales, as without customers there is no-one to care for and no money coming in! Don’t go nuts with salaries & expensive handsets as you won’t make money from a customer for at least 2 months! And don’t be afraid to bar a customer – as they’ll generally pay you the same day!

Where do you see IF Telecom in 5 years? : In 5 years we want IF Telecom to have kept growing at the same fast rate that it is now. Hopefully billing in excess of $1 million per month. More sales staff and more customer service staff. We’ll need another new office by then – with a balcony!

How can we get in touch with you for more info? : Email is probably the best method – as I’m never that far away from them – rich@iftelecom.com

Author: Bill Kang
Email: bill@telcoinabox.com

Chains of Controversy

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Managing director of Telcoinabox, Damian Kay writes about his speaking appointment at the Franchise Council of Australia's national convention in Sydney.

5 February 2009 - BRW Copyright 2009 Media Monitors Australia Pty Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Click here to read the full article (PDF)

NBN and the reseller opportunity

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:00:00 GMT

The National Broadband Network (NBN) presents an interesting situation for players in the $40 billion telecommunications industry and to some degree it will level the playing field between network operators and resellers.

Telcoinabox is a wholesale, value added aggregator, supplying more than 110 retail resellers in the industry and as such relies on its relationships with the major networks. Telcoinabox accesses networks from the carriers and then adds value and on sells to its resellers’ who in turn on sell to the end user (predominantly SME/SMB).

Regardless of the network (Telstra, Optus and AAPT) we use, we find we end up competing against their retail divisions which in many situations is at pricing less than we can buy from their wholesale channels. You have to wonder how this is the case. Our total spend with the carrier is infinitely more than the individual end user buying from their retail divisions, so how do they justify this? They can't; A classic example is Telstra, 2 years ago increasing the wholesale cost of residential line access higher than its retail price. We save Telstra money by managing the line, wearing the bad debt and having to bill the line, yet we pay more for it, go figure!

Given that the premise of wholesale business for the carriers is that it is cheaper than retail to supply and is one of the main reasons that it represents nearly all the EBITDA of AAPT despite how poorly Paul Broad runs the business. AAPT is notorious for selling at retail, less than we can buy at wholesale. Given their profits come from wholesale it is hard to rationalise.

So where am I going with this?

The NBN opportunity (in theory) levels the playing field, and depending on how wholesale access pricing is determined, everyone has the same opportunity for access and revenue.

This effectively means that say Telstra wins the right to build the network, Optus, AAPT and other major networks will access the network on the same terms as resellers in the industry.

Then it comes down to what each provider chooses to put down the network, e.g. converged voice and data which theoretically should be cheaper than supplying a fixed-wire service (copper) and a “2nd lined”/fixed DSL service that are separate. In other words it comes down to innovation and good management.

What an opportunity!

The added opportunities are the value-adds such as ‘hosted voice’ which removes the need for in-office CPE/PABX hardware and expenditure.

It does not get any better than that.

Damian Kay

Account Management - How crap is it?

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:00:00 GMT

We all know that it costs infinitely more to acquire a new customer than to retain a customer. If this is the case, why is the Telecommunications industry so crap at account management. It forms the corner stone of any business that has high value customers (or for that matter any customers). Businesses can be made or lost on the quality of their account management.

As an example we pulled a multi million dollar annual spend from AAPT and moved it to Telstra due to poor account management. When we "pulled" the traffic, AAPT hardly battered an eye lid. In the end we were taken for granted. Now this obviously did not hurt AAPT to a massive extent, but just to maintain their volumes they need to find a few million a year in revenue. How much will this cost them? It could have been avoided through good account management.

We see it time and time again. Even our major competitor in the market has no idea (we are a customer of theirs also) with little to no follow up and getting a return phone call is all but impossible. Yet, our experience at Telstra has been sensational to say the least. For a massive beast of a company they seem to have got it right. It is a major focus of theirs and they seem to nurture good people.

I used to argue with our previous billing house that they just did not get it, and why?, they never took the time to understand our business or understand our expectations despite many attempts by us. In the end we left and found an alternative solution. At one stage we had a great account manager but their opinion was that she "over serviced" her customers. In the end she left and worked for me :)

Coming from a FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) background such as Colgate Palmolive, Mars (Masterfoods) and others probably taints my view as everything is about account management, but surely the fundamentals that have made this industry so successful translate to our own beloved industry. Many operators just don't get it. We have seen so many times, the only time we hear from our account manager is if we are 1 day late in paying our monthly invoice.

As I often ask rhetorically, where am I going with this?

Nobody can deny, we are coming into tough times. Reducing our overall costs while maintaining growth and reducing debtor days is key. So if retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring customers, why does account management in telecommunications seem to be a lost art (in general)?

Who knows. In any case, this begs the question, what is good account management?

Successful account management is more than making a scheduled phone call, sending them their monthly reports or ringing them looking for payment? It is about immersing yourself in your customers business, understanding their business, knowing their people and forming a relationship at all levels within their business (account penetration). By doing this, you form a true partnership and can better make informed decisions on how to grow and make more money out of that account. A good account manager is the one that fights for their accounts cause within their own business and goes beyond the call of duty to find solutions for their customer. In some situations a good account manager will play business coach and other times will just be an empathetic ear to the concern of their account.

By building a strong rapport with an account is gives the account manager the ability to push back on their account when they push too far or they do the wrong thing. This is because they will have the respect of the account and done in the right way will not damage the relationship.

I would personally speak with our Telstra account manager 3-5 times a week and I know that she also speaks with our General Manager, National Operations Manager, Business Development Manager, Product Manager a number of times during a week and she makes the effort to speak with our admin person every time she is in the office. We will present an opportunity to her and she will fight like a bulldog within the Telstra business until we get an outcome whether positive or negative (more often than not positive). In the whole process she keeps us updated by phone call or email. Communication is key to building a successful relationship.

If you want to know if someone is a good account manager, ask them when was the last time they were driving or having a shower or on a train and suddenly they had a great idea or the solution to a problem for an account came to them and they just had to ring their account immediately. Also ask when was the last time they rang their account and just said "hello" with no agenda or reason.

So what do I think of our business and our account management. Without being too detailed, we are average. We have a great framework and "tool chest" of tools and internal training for our account managers, as well as systems and processes, but we could be much better at building lasting relationships of respect and a complete understanding or our customers businesses. We go someway in immersing our self in our customers business but not deep enough. We do not get the level of respect that is required to truly help grow our accounts. The good news is that we know this and we are working on improving our performance all the time.

I will say that we piss all over our competition and most of the carriers, but as always we are never happy and want to be better. As the Managing Director, I cannot ask any more than that.

Damian Kay