As a journalist at Australian Reseller News:
A new road show is offering resellers an opportunity to learn about the hardware and services aspects of VoIP.
VoIP Solutions Systems for SMBs will travel the East Coast from October 31 to November 14. The events will be co-hosted by networking and communications equipment distributor and manufacturer, Alloy Computer Products, and broadband phone service provider, engin.
Presentations will cover system trends, implementing infrastructure, underlying technology and opportunities for reseller revenue streams.
The two companies have been collaborating on road show presentations at 3-4 month intervals since March, according to Alloy marketing director, Karl Baker.
"Our objective is to educate our existing resellers with a more hands-on approach and attract additional interested resellers," engin marketing operations manager, Naomi England, said.
Baker said IP phones and PBX devices offered higher margins than traditional hardware like PCs and printers. Furthermore, these devices typically required specific technical expertise to implement and maintain.
"VoIP is a rapidly expanding market and, when it achieves mass penetration, it will be an area no reseller in the IT or telecommunications industry will be able to ignore," he said.
Despite the size of the market opportunity, he claimed a lot of integrators with basic data networking skills still lacked a strong background in VoIP technology.
