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THE CONFERENCING INDUSTRY PORTAL: AUDIO - WEB - VIDEO |
MONDAY, AUGUST 18 2003 |
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| THE BIGTIME INTERVIEW |
Bonnie Belvedere: What's the funniest thing you've ever seen happen with a conference call in your career in this business?
Mike Burns: One of the
funniest things that happened in my previous company was an
operator-assisted call where two departments of the same company were
hosting simultaneous calls. As the conferees dialed in, they asked to
be placed in the company call, not knowing that there were two calls
going on. One of our operators also did not know that there were two
calls going on for the same company. Therefore, many of the conferees
were placed in the wrong call. What was funny was that when you
listened in to the call, the conferees were trying to make sense out
why they were all in the call. The confusion lasted for about 20
minutes until one of our operators figured it out. They quickly
replaced the people into their correct calls and everything turned out
okay, but it was a stitch for a while listening to mass confusion. |
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BB: What's the one word that describes A+ Conferencing the best?
MB: Flexibility. To
elaborate, we feel that we have to be very flexible in meeting the
needs of every master agent, reseller, and customer. We are willing to
explore any possible relationship to realize revenue opportunities.
BB: Is A+ Conferencing primarily a wholesaler of audio conferencing services?
MB: We perceive
ourselves as wholesalers and we work hard at developing master agent
and reseller relationships. In actuality, if you examine our revenues,
the alternate channel brings in about 50% of the revenues to A+. The
other half comes from advertising and telemarketing.
BB: What percentage of revenues come from private-labeled resellers?
MB: Less than 10%. Most of our revenue from the alternate channel comes from master agents selling the A+ brand.
BB: How does your own A+ conferencing service compete with your resellers and their private-label services?
MB: This is one area
where A+ has a nice fit with the alternate channel. A+ does some
advertising, web marketing, telemarketing, and some trade shows. We do
not have any direct sales people on the street. Our direct sales force
is our agents and resellers. We defer to them. If there ever is a
conflict, we always side with the agent/reseller.
BB: Which PSTN audio bridging systems do you use, and why?
MB: We use the
Multi-Link 700 and the Voyant (Octave 1000) platforms. We started with
the Multi-Link platform because we were familiar with these systems at
Conference Pros. We then added the Octave bridges. We feel that these
bridges are the most reliable and have the best price performance.
BB: Which web-conferencing technologies do you use and why?
MB: At A+, we have a
concept called "the web conferencing store", where a customer can come
to our web page and shop for the technology that they are looking for.
We offer Raindance, WebEx, Placeware, LoudEye, and WebDialogs. We have
a lot of customers that come in and are familiar with a certain web
technology and we want to be able to accommodate them.
BB: What do you do when your customers want video conferencing services?
MB: We outsource our video conferencing to a specialized vendor; however it is not a large part of our business.
BB: What does A+ Conferencing do for the "high-touch" operator-assisted requirements in conferencing?
MB: We have our own
operator services department here at headquarters in Houston. Our
operators have an average of 8 years experience in handling high-touch
Q&A calls and investor relations calls. We also use outsource
vendors on occasion, when the traffic warrants an extensive use of
operators. Our operator services traffic is growing, but is a small
percentage of the business compared to reservationless service.
BB: What's the organizational structure at A+?
MB: Our major
departments are agents/resellers, telemarketing, operations, billing,
and MIS. We are very light at the top and we believe in empowering our
department heads to run their shops as they see fit. "If you've got a
problem, fix it!" Don't worship the process and seek permission to act.
"Forgiveness is better than permission!"
BB: Can you take vacation and not call in?
MB: Yes, but they always seem to find me. These cell phones reach everywhere.
BB: What's your view of price erosion for automated audio and web conferencing services?
MB: Price erosion is a
fact in the industry. You can simply look at what has happened to long
distance rates and predict that the same will occur in the conferencing
space. That being said, there are some ways that providers can combat
price erosion and protect their margins. One way is to provide more
value added services, like teleservices, seminar registration &
fulfillment, affinity programs. These are programs that differentiate
your service from the 100 one-person websites out there that offer
generic cheapcalls. Another way is through creative pricing
methodologies, like flat rate pricing, where you give the customer
unlimited usage for one price per month. What we are finding with flat
rate pricing is that it is like " the health club plan". The customers
pay you each month whether they use it or not. We are amazed at how
many flat rate customers we can stack onto a bridge and not busy it
out.
BB: How will price erosion affect your business and the businesses of your resellers over the next three years?
MB: I think that price
erosion is having an effect on our businesses now, but with our efforts
in providing value added services, creating new pricing methods, and
adding new services, such as voice messaging services and desk top
video, we will do fine in the future. Price erosion also forces us to
examine our expense structure continually in an effort to remain a low
cost provider of services.
BB: How do you
compete against the larger conferencing services companies? What are
the differentiators of A+ Conferencing in the market?
MB: I feel that A+ is
effective in competing with the larger service agencies in terms of
flexibility - the philosophy and corporate culture to meet the
customer's needs on their terms; value-added services - providing extra
services that larger companies do not offer, and pricing alternatives -
offering flat rate pricing, port leasing plans, and bridge management.
BB: What's your
opinion of VOIP technologies, and when will it have an impact in the
market? What is A+ doing now to deal with the prospective impact of
VOIP conferencing?
MB: VOIP has been
evolving for quite some time now and it is currently being deployed in
carrier networks. At A+, we use exclusively PSTN services because of
the high quality. Also, pricing for long distance services on PSTN is
now in the sub two cents per minute area so why not have the best
quality service available at an equally low rate as VOIP. My concern is
the quality level of 500 conferees on a conference call over VOIP. I
think the quality will eventually be there and we will be monitoring
its development.
BB: What's your take on Microsoft's Live Meeting as a competitive threat to A+ Conferencing and the entire conferencing industry?
MB: I think that
Microsoft's purchase of Placeware placed a gold stamp on the legitimacy
of the conferencing market. It has emerged from a niche market into
becoming an everyday tool in the business arena. Even if Microsoft were
to give the service away for free, there would still be a need for
audio bridging, operator assisted calling, and future services such as
desktop video.
BB: What about FreeConference.com? Do you think they are a long term threat to the conferencing industry?
MB: I compare the free
services to the likes of NetZero, who used to give away internet access
for free until they went bankrupt with the dot com bust. NetZero now
offers internet service for $9.95 per month, like the rest of their
competitors. I don't consider them to be a threat in the industry.
BB: What's the long
term growth plan for A+ Conferencing? Are you going to continue growing
organically? Will you acquire other companies or be acquired?
MB: We plan on growing
A+ Conferencing organically, both wholesale through acquiring new
agents and resellers and retail through telemarketing. I think that in
2004, M&A activity will pick up in the telecom and conferencing
area. Our eventual strategy will be to be acquired by a larger company,
but in the meantime we are having a great time enjoying the business
and growing it like mad.
BB: So what's the price to acquire A+ Conferencing?
MB: "Show me the money!" as so eloquently stated by Rod Tidwell in Jerry McGuire.
BB: What's another company out there in the conferencing space that you admire and why?
MB: One company that I
have always respected is Premiere Conferencing. They have always had a
great reputation in the industry and their sales force is recognized as
one of the best out there. They provide quality service with quality
personnel.
BB: Hmmm. I'm
having an image of Bo Jones showing you his money over drinks at the
Ritz Hotel in Buckhead, but I digress. What's the best thing about
living in Houston, Texas in the summer?
MB: Air conditioning.
BB: Well then, I
guess you could take your air conditioner to Atlanta. Thanks for the
interview, Mike! Like the nuns used to give me in grammar school, you
get an A plus! Good luck with A+ Conferencing.
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