Press room

Telecommunications wholesaler and aggregator Telcoinabox has signed a wholesale agreement with NBNCo with plans to launch NBNCo services to its 100 service providers the first quarter of 2012.

Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line indicated that engagement with NBNCo had begun early on.  “The time is now right for us to take this product to market.  Many of our service providers are in regional areas covered by the latest NBNCo roll-out plans and it’s critical that they are ready to connect their customers when the network goes live in their area.”

“We welcome Telcoinabox as a Service Provider on the NBN.  NBNCo will continue to work with Telcoinabox over the coming months to facilitate its on-boarding to the NBN,” Ben Salmon, NBNCo Sales Director said.

Network testing is planned to commence in January 2012 with an expected product release for April next year.

According to Line the roll out of ubiquitous high-speed broadband will be a massive catalyst for adoption of hosted voice technology in the SME market.  This has been one of the drivers behind Telcoinabox’s launch, this month, of its first cloud-based, hosted voice product, branded MyPBX and targeted at the small to medium enterprise (SME) market.

Telcoinabox signed a deal with Australian-owned and publically listed VoIP provider, Engin, in January this year to gain wholesale access to its Broadsoft platform and, since then, has been working on product development.

Line believes that the launch of MyPBX is a logical next step into ‘next generation’ products for Telcoinabox and it will translate easily into an NBN environment.  “Traditional voice is where we first built our business so it makes sense for our first cloud-based product to be a voice application.”

The product will initially be offered over Telcoinabox’s existing ADSL2+ or SHDSL access products but will be relatively easy to migrate to NBN access as it becomes available.

“The SME market hasn’t really adopted this technology with the vigour of larger enterprise clients. Many current VoIP providers focus heavily on cost-savings but, while these can be significant,  we feel there is an opportunity to educate smaller business operators on the added flexibility , mobility, scalability and efficiency benefits that a fully hosted solution can offer.”

Line believes this product will provide further growth opportunities for existing Telcoinabox service providers and attract new distribution partners for the company, particularly in the system integration and IT managed services space.

For comment, please contact: Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line on 0409 752 582. For information, contact Andreina Garofali on 02 9130 5747 or 0410 434 227.

8 September 2011        

Newly appointed CFO - Tony Crossley and Group Product Manager - Jeanette Slack

Telcoinabox gears up for growth with four new major Australian appointments starting this month at the Telcoinabox Australian and New Zealand Operations Centre (ANZOC).   

Appointments include Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Network & IT Manager, Group Product Manager and Sales Manager.  

“We have some ambitious goals for the company,” says Telcoinabox managing director Damian Kay.  

“Our vision is to triple our revenue over the next five years. To achieve this our plan is to strengthen our financial position through raising capital, growing our current service providers by launching new and improved voice, mobile, data and internet products, and adding to the mix, non organic growth options.   

“Hiring the right people in strategic positions will allow us to achieve these goals and free up the management team to concentrate on potential acquisition opportunities and actioning our NBN strategy.”  

The newly created position of CFO will be headed by Tony Crossley who will join the senior management team.  

He comes from Mortgage Choice Limited after ten years. His vast experience in funding and risk management of a 400 franchise network will assist in setting up the foundations for the next growth phase and leading the company’s micro-acquisition program in a financial management capacity for all service providers in Australia and New Zealand.

  On the IT front, Ahad Aboss joins the company as Network & IT Manager.  A network engineer with over ten years’ experience, he has worked for iGreen and Swiftel and recently Exetel.

As the company expands into layer 2 DSL, SHDSL, VoIP, hosting and cloud technology, Ahad will lead a team of three engineers into this phase along with managing all internal IT requirements.

  Jeanette Slack joins the team as Group Product Manager responsible for product management, development and strategy.  Jeanette has 14 years telecommunications experience, and brings with her an in depth knowledge in mobile, VoIP and fixed line. She was previously with Veda Advantage then Optus and ACN. 

  The sales team will be bolstered by the addition of ex-AAPT Adrian Atherton as Sales Manager. His focus will be to target ISPs, small telcos and existing telco dealers looking to expand their product folios or increase their customer base incorporating the Telcoinabox model.  

“Finding good people can be a limiting factor for high-growth companies like Telcoinabox,” says Telcoinabox Australian CEO Paul Line.   

“With these recent additions to the team we are in good stead to maintain our vision to be the number one telecommunications reseller in Australia.”  

Recently Telcoinabox was recognised as one of Australia’s best places to work according to a BRW survey.

Media release
23 June 2011

Telcoinabox ranked one of Australia's Best Places to Work

For the first time telecommunications wholesaler and franchisor, Telcoinabox has been recognised as one of Australia's best places to work following its listing in today's BRW survey.

The company is the only telecommunications listed and is also ranked 5th overall of 50 companies on the 'pride' metric where Telcoinabox employees are proud to tell people where they work.

"We work in a highly competitive industry yet despite the business challenges we have always put our people first. They are the drivers of the company at the end of the day," says CEO Telcoinabox Australia, Paul Line.

Telcoinabox was recognised for its "superstar" employee of the month program, giving employees their birthdays off, a $5000 budget per employee for external training and 12 weeks paid maternity leave.

The company was listed with some of the world's best known brands and some local, including Google, Net App Australia, Deloitte's and Red Balloon.

Telcoinabox employs 50 staff in its open-plan Sydney office with crèche and employee playroom and is currently recruiting for a Networks and IT Manager.

For comment, please contact: Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line on 0409 752 582. For information, contact Andreina Garofali on 02 9130 5747 or 0410 434 227.

About Telcoinabox Telcoinabox is a telecommunications wholesaler, reseller and franchisor which packages telephony products that are distributed through its wide franchisee and service provider network nationally. Telcoinabox has over 110 service providers which are individually branded, owned and operated. Franchisees are located in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA NT, WA and Tasmania. www.telcoinabox.com.au

Media release
7 February 2011    

Telcoinabox makes acquisition the focus for 2011

• 2011 the year of innovation and reinvigoration for the business
• Three opportunities add rapid business growth potential for service providers and core business -

1.  micro-acquisition

2.  new data product releases

3. easier entry to become a service provider

Telecommunications wholesaler and franchisor, Telcoinabox, has launched into 2011 with a focus on micro-acquisition to ramp up service providers’ individual businesses.

Acquisition targets will be small to medium telecommunications companies, in particular Internet Service Providers (ISPs), experiencing sluggish business growth and margin squeeze.  

Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line says 2011 is the year of innovation and reinvigoration for the business. 

“With consolidation of ISPs accelerating we see an opportunity for our service providers to acquire players considered too small for the larger ISPs to approach.”  

Telcoinabox has created a dedicated team to work on the initiative and has employed external business brokers to facilitate service providers’ negotiations with potential takeover targets. 

Telcoinabox will also provide the financing to ensure deals get across the line efficiently.
 “Devising innovative ways to build our service providers’ businesses is important to both their wealth creation and ours. When they succeed so do we.
 Our service providers are essentially entrepreneurs so it makes sense to play the role of ‘venture capitalist’ as well as infrastructure and product provider.”

A pilot of the strategy has already started to pay dividends with the recent acquisition of Mobile Office, by Airlie Beach service provider Voice2net. A number of other acquisitions are currently under negotiation.    

Also in store for the business in 2011 is the launch of a new suite of pre-packaged ‘over-the-top’ data products.  Following the recently signed deal with Engin to provide VoIP and hosted voice services, Telcoinabox will extend its product suites to include web-hosting, remote back-up, anti-virus, VPN and net filtering services.

“Developments in data services’ convergence and commoditisation mean it’s critical we focus on the revenue and margin per connection that we can drive from additional services provided over the underlying network.  A further benefit should come from improved network efficiency and utilisation of unused capacity during off-peak periods.”

Mr Line adds that capitlising on their existing infrastructure is part and parcel of the company’s strategy of being the ‘one-stop-shop’ for their customers, with the added bonus of a one-bill solution for a diverse range of products and services.
The first wave of off-the-shelf data products will be available in the third quarter of 2011.

In addition to acquisition and new product launches, the underlying thrust of the business plan for 2011 is to ramp up the number of Telcoinabox service providers.

The company currently has 110 service providers on its books and aims to add approximately 20 by the end of the calendar year.
“Our recruitment strategy this year is to reduce the current barriers to entry. Areas we’re looking at include accreditation of our franchise model by the big four banks, vendor financing new franchisees and outbound targeting of specific niche markets, such as PABX suppliers and maintainers

“We want to sell the benefits of owning your own customer base rather than being a dealer for another telco.
“Satisfaction management is our 2011 goal. We are in effect consultants to our service providers. When service providers are well equipped to grow their businesses then it’s a win-win for everyone.”

For comment, please contact: Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line on 0409 752 582. For information, contact Andreina Garofali on 02 9130 5747 or 0410 434 227.

About Telcoinabox Telcoinabox is a telecommunications wholesaler, reseller and franchisor which packages telephony products that are distributed through its wide franchisee and service provider network nationally. Telcoinabox has over 110 service providers which are individually branded, owned and operated. Franchisees are located in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA NT, WA and Tasmania. www.telcoinabox.com.au

Media release
31 January 2011    

Telecommunications wholesaler and franchisor, Telcoinabox, has implemented new Customer Relationship Management technology, SugarCRM, to assist in streamlining its service providers’ sales processes and customer management.

This open source technology will allow service providers to execute email campaigns, generate leads more easily, better manage customer acquisition and retention and run real-time customer reports.

“Our primary focus is to continually search for ways to improve our service providers’ business workflow and processes so they can focus on generating sales,” says Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line.

“We anticipate even stronger turnover improvement among our service providers with this new system in place.”

Telcoinabox recruited a dedicated manager last year to research the market for the most powerful CRM system. 

“SugarCRM Professional came up as the only one on the market that was flexible enough to allow us to write our own code and create our own workflow modules.”.

Telcoinabox has customised the system to include a billing collection module which connects their current billing system, Utilibill, to the service provider’s CRM. This gives the service provider a transparent view in real-time of customers’ billing and payment status.

The system will go live tomorrow, 1 February 2011 and is available to all service providers through a licensing arrangement.

SugarCRM will be rolled out to all service providers globally, including New Zealand and the UK. The new system will be included in the business package for all future service providers and is hosted locally within Telcoinabox’s private cloud.

For comment, please contact: Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line on 0409 752 582. For information, contact Andreina Garofali on 0410 434 227.

About Telcoinabox Telcoinabox is a telecommunications wholesaler, reseller and franchisor which packages telephony products that are distributed through its wide franchisee and service provider network nationally. Telcoinabox has over 110 service providers which are individually branded, owned and operated. Franchisees are located in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA NT, WA and Tasmania.

www.telcoinabox.com.au

About SugarCRM SugarCRM is the world’s leading provider of open source customer relationship management (CRM) software. Over 6000 customers and more than half a million users rely on SugarCRM to execute marketing programs, grow sales, retain customers and create custom business applications. Clients include: Coca-Cola, Red Balloon and Corona Medical. www.sugarcrm.com

Media release
17 January 2011

Telecommunications wholesaler and franchisor, Telcoinabox, has signed its most significant deal for 2011 with Australian-owned and publically listed VoIP provider, Engin.

The deal enables Telcoinabox to resell SIP trunks, consumer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services and a hosted PBX solution to businesses.  The white-label products will be available to all of Telcoinabox’s 110 service providers nationally by April 2011.

This new product release puts the company in prime position to respond to the upswing in demand for next generation products and prepare its service providers for the NBN world. 

 “This is our most important product launch yet,” says Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line. 

“While VoIP and hosted PBX technology is not new, adoption to date has been strongest among residential and enterprise markets and slow among SMEs, which is our service providers’ major market.

“In fact, following an internal survey, over 90 per cent of our service providers felt that the time was right to go to market with these products.  Given their emphasis on quality customer service, they have a great opportunity to guide customers through the VoIP minefield to a cost-effective and reliable solution. “

“Our service providers are now equipped to offer the SME market with an internationally-recognised platform for VoIP services at extremely competitive pricing that significantly reduces the SME’s need for capital investment and does away with old-school onsite systems that take up office space and chew up cash.”

After an extensive review of potential wholesale vendors, Engin was selected for its reliable platform, clear development upgrade path, full B2B connectivity for provisioning and service management, flexibility to white-label and cultural fit between the two companies.

“We like what Telcoinabox offers and see them as a partner more so than just another customer. Telcoinabox has a unique and very successful go-to-market model, which prioritises both customer service and value for money, which we are very pleased to support,” says general manager sales Engin Limited Jack McKeon. 

The two companies are in the process of identifying additional opportunities to work together, including joint venture arrangements. 

Services will initially be delivered over Telcoinabox’s existing ADSL2+ and SHDSL network and will migrate to the National Broadband Network when available.  

The platform for the VoIP products is Broadsoft, used by 425 service providers worldwide and 15 of the world’s top 25 carriers. Features include: fax to email, mobility license and iPhone/android integration, outlook integration, web click to dial, conference centre, call centre, 1300 incoming call routing and customised on hold messages.

The hardware and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) will be provided by Cisco, Netcomm and Polycom.

For comment, please contact: Telcoinabox CEO Paul Line on 0409 752 582. For information, contact Andreina Garofali on 02 9130 5747 or 0410 434 227.

About Telcoinabox Telcoinabox is a telecommunications wholesaler, reseller and franchisor which packages telephony products that are distributed through its wide franchisee and service provider network nationally. Telcoinabox has over 110 service providers which are individually branded, owned and operated. Franchisees are located in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA NT, WA and Tasmania. www.telcoinabox.com.au

About Engin Engin Limited is an Australian owned and operated telecommunications provider listed on the Australian stock exchange (ASX:ENG). Engin specializes in delivering advanced VoIP services to residential and small/medium businesses. www.engin.com.au

Seven in 10 franchisors intend to recruit more franchisees in 2011 as their optimism returns to pre-GFC levels, new research has revealed.