Posted: 11/2001
Partner Channel
Brand Spanking NUI: Company, Agent Program Debut
By Tara Seals
These days, market newcomers are few and far between, but reseller NUI Telecom Inc. has decided to give it a go. The company, a subsidiary of Atlantic seaboard energy giant NUI Corp., launched its "Solutions Express" agency program aimed at expanding its local, long-distance, wireless, prepaid and data/Internet markets.
"It's what we call a 'Prosperity Partnership,'" says Tom McCrosson, executive vice president of sales and marketing. McCrosson oversees product development, implementation and the overall revenue generation for NUI Telecom. The company says its bedrock principle is to "maximize business' communications dollar while meeting their changing technology needs."
Marketing on discount rates is nothing new, of course, but the company hopes to differentiate via one-stop service. It provides consultative needs assessment and IT outsourcing solutions along with its suite of products.
That product suite is extensive. It features local and long-distance voice, calling cards, operator services, fax, voicemail, conferencing, wireless, prepaid, Internet, web hosting and design, paging, DSL, IT outsourcing and data storage.
With so many options, and from various underlying carriers, the company also is positioning itself as a broker for the customer.
"We eliminate confusion and hassles faced by clients juggling multiple carriers," says McCrosson. "And NUI Telecom is experiencing significant growth."
The reseller says it aggregates traffic and uses large volume commitments to get a wholesale discount of up to 30 percent. It also says it will match any competitive offer.
It places business with Verizon, Sprint Corp., AT&T Corp. and Qwest Communications International Inc., among others.
Behind the scenes, the agent program offers customized terms, so agents can participate on a part-time or full-time basis, with no commitments. The reseller also gives agents reports on the status of orders, new accounts and their usage, customer traffic levels, problems at-a-glance, slow or non-payers and commissions.
Its service program includes distributor orientation and training, sales manuals, presentation materials, product literature, vertical industry references, affinity member and agent recruitment materials and proposal-generation services.
On the back-office side, NUI Telecom maintains real-time electronic connections to its vendors for provisioning. Customers receive a single statement for all services. The company allows customers to customize their bills according to their accounting needs with summaries of costs and usage, or delivery on paper, computer disk, CD-ROM or magnetic tape.
