Microsoft Corp. said Friday it has partnered with Cbeyond Inc. and New Global Telecom Inc. (NGT), to provide SIP trunking and other VoIP services along with its Response Point IP PBX, announced in October 2007, beginning this summer.
The partnerships will enable the respective channel partners of the companies to offer a CPE-service bundle geared to small businesses between five and 50 employees.
The two VoIP providers are the first to pass interoperability testing with the Microsoft IP PBX and will be included in the Microsoft Response Point Service Pack 1 when it is released this summer for sale through Microsoft Small Business Specialists, one of the software company’s indirect sales channels.
While Cbeyond already has an agent program of its own, NGT, a wholesaler, has developed the Digital Voice Partner Program specifically for the Microsoft Small Business Specialists selling Response Point. While the providers will be working to woo Microsoft’s VARs, they also will be able to introduce Response Point to channel partners, such as telephony agents, that might be selling SIP trunking products.
Interested channel partners can become certified to sell Response Point after a single day of training and an online assessment. Microsoft is beginning a 12-city training tour next week that includes not only sales and positioning for Response Point, but also for sales of VoIP services from NGT and Cbeyond. Cost for the training is $95. Partners that pass the test are listed on the Microsoft Response Point Web site and able to share in the leads.
Partners also must be agents of the VoIP providers in order to receive compensation for the service. In NGT’s case, becoming an agent is a simple matter of signing up via a Web-based form.
“Because voice over IP is so easy to learn for people who have backgrounds in networking, this is a great way for Microsoft Small Business Specialists to bring in a new business,” said Ben Brauer, senior product manager for Response Point at Microsoft. ”To sell a phone system is a cool concept for our small business specialist. Bringing a service into the mix makes it even more enticing. We already are getting a lot of interest from our VAR community, but I think this is going to make it even more interesting.”
