XO Communications Inc. is kicking off a three-year strategic plan in 2012 that involves streamlining its product offering, including eliminating most TDM services, and shoring up its service delivery with better tools and processes, according to Ernie Ortega, the company's executive vice president of sales and marketing.
Ortega and other top XO executives shared the CLEC's strategic plan with about 20 PlanetOne agents in a meeting at XO's offices in Phoenix Thursday, the first stop in a multi-city road show targeting the company's indirect sales partners. Since XO became a private company in fall 2011, few details about the new direction have been shared.
Ortega was joined by Mike Cromwell, senior vice president -- business services; XO's channel chief Shane McNamara, vice president of indirect sales; Jim Ferguson, vice president -- West region; Rich Gannon, national channel manager; and Cheryl Vick, national director of operations for the channel.
In an interview following the presentation Ortega told Channel Partners that XO already has begun shedding its TDM services with the October shutdown of all wholesale long distance services. No other services have been turned off, but executives are discussing those plans and timelines with an end date at the close of 2014, he said.
Ortega explained that some products like dialup Internet access and DSL will go dark while some will sunset, meaning the company will not terminate the service but will no longer sell it. In addition, there are a few non-core services, like PRIs and private lines, that the company will continue to offer.
Cromwell noted that new products were being developed that specifically target the small and medium business. He added that one of five vice presidents will be focused on that target market. The others are McNamara for indirect channels and three regional vice presidents, including Ferguson.
Ortega said the changes impact north of $300 million in revenue, so where possible XO will attempt to migrate affected customers to other IP-based products. Meanwhile, he said the strategic products will grow in revenue (presently tracking $100 million year over year), so the company performance will remain somewhat flat through the transition.
