David Lafferty, director of sales at Dallas CLEC Call One, said there’s a learning curve associated with working with the larger carriers. “We have existing reseller relationships with MCI and other carriers, but I would be concerned [about joining Linksys One] if we didn’t have that relationship already in place.”
The new Linksys One all-in-one service routers, IP phones and VoIP gateways are the cornerstone of a new SMB business unit within Linksys, a move to expand beyond its traditional consumer/SOHO focus.
At the same time, Cisco itself sees so much potential that it is creating a new Advanced Technology dubbed Hosted Small Business Systems around the product line, its first new one in 18 months. Advanced Technology is Cisco’s designation for product groups it expects to grow into billion-dollar annual businesses.
For solution providers, the new model should prove more profitable, as they no longer have to take title of hardware and can reduce investments in high-end technical skills, said Nigel Williams, president of service provider and channel operations at Linksys. For service providers, the strategy opens up the channel as a means of reaching the SMB market, he said.
“The end-user relationship absolutely is still with the VAR,” Williams said. “Our go-to-market strategy is built on my belief that service providers will move from direct to indirect [SMB sales].” The “sweet spot” for Linksys One is companies with five to 50 seats, he said.