© 2014 METASWITCH NETWORKS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.WWW.METASWITCH.COM

INTRODUCTION

EATEL, based in Gonzales, Louisiana, has grown over the years from its roots as a small, independent Telco founded nearly 80 years ago, to a modern communications company offering advanced services to business and residential customers. EATEL has made several acquisitions over the past several years, including Vision, another independent phone company, and Venyu, a cloud services company providing managed hosting, virtualization, and data protection solutions.

EATEL’s operations mirror those of many service providers: it is the incumbent, local telephone company in Ascension and Lafourche Parishes, and it also provides business services as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in Baton Rouge, LA. As a CLEC, it uses both fiber assets and UNEs to deliver services. Until recently, its product portfolio mostly targeted small business with trunking and dedicated Internet access services.

Like a lot of other independents, EATEL was seeking new revenue streams. A key part of its strategy to grow revenues is augmenting its business product portfolio beyond services like business lines and Internet access, which have become increasingly commoditized. Like many service providers, EATEL finds itself now competing with over-the-top providers, MSOs, other CLECs, ILECs, and VARs in the business market. EATEL knew that expanding its product portfolio and competing aggressively would be critical for its future success.

MOVING FORWARD

EATEL knew where it wanted to go. Launching a Hosted PBX offer was a logical first step in moving the portfolio forward. Hosted PBX can provide excellent margins (60-80% are not uncommon), has a receptive marketplace (a large percentage of businesses surveyed prefer it over a “premises” based PBX), and is a good fit with the rest of its product portfolio.

As a long time Metaswitch customer, EATEL had the technical capabilities and product platform; however, Hosted PBX can be a complex solution to implement, with many customer touch points, internal handoffs, and potential system impacts. EATEL wanted an expert resource to help launch a Hosted PBX product quickly and efficiently.

“We had a number of customers asking for the product, and we knew our competition was readying their efforts,” claims Heather Hewitt, Product Marketing Manager at EATEL. “We knew we had to do it right the first time.”

Metaswitch’s MarketVisions Go-To-Market program was there to help and bring a team together to assist EATEL with its goals.

THE IMPLEMENTATION

The project to launch Hosted PBX was broken into two phases:

• In Phase 1, Metaswitch’s Go-To-Market experts conducted an assessment of EATEL’s internal capabilities and target markets. The team interviewed key stakeholders from a number of functional areas of the business, analyzed the market and competitive environment, built a business case for the new product, and recommended a go-forward strategy for launching the product.

• In Phase 2, the joint EATEL/Metaswitch team implemented the recommendations of Phase 1. A complete Go-To-Market plan was developed and implemented, including offer structure, operations, systems, marketing and sales.

MARKETVISIONS GO-TO-MARKET PROGRAM CASE STUDY

EATEL QUICKLY LAUNCHES BUSINESS HOSTED VOICE THROUGH THE METASWITCH MARKETVISIONS GO-TO-MARKET PROGRAM

“WE KNEW WE HAD TO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.” HEATHER HEWITT PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER AT EATEL

© 2014 METASWITCH NETWORKS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.WWW.METASWITCH.COM

Phase 1 took about two weeks, followed by a face-to-face read-out with EATEL’s executive team. The Go-To-Market team presented a forthright assessment of EATEL’s capabilities with gaps that would need to be addressed in Phase 2. A detailed competitive landscape was presented, including product packaging, promotional offers, and price points. The business case tool that was developed allowed EATEL to perform sensitivity analyses to evaluate the impact of various price points on both profitability and revenue. Finally, the team developed a project plan that detailed the steps necessary for EATEL to have a Hosted PBX product in market in 3 months.

Upon approval of Phase 1 findings, the project moved into Phase 2. Some of the key items implemented in Phase 2 were:

• A pricing and packaging scheme. Paired with EATEL’s regional market knowledge, the Metaswitch Go-To- Market team assisted in designing an offer that was simple and easy for customers to understand. This also made it easier for sales to position the product, and easier for operations to implement.

• Equipment. A standard configuration was developed including IP phones, switches, and routers.

• Development of an end-to-end process flow. Since selling and implementing Hosted PBX can be a complex process, much rigor was put into process flow. The Go-To-Market team worked with EATEL to determine the optimal process for its company and staff, making trade-offs when necessary to favor speed-to-market versus full automation.

• New process documentation and methods and procedures. Along with optimizing the process flow, the Go-To-Market team worked with EATEL to develop all of the forms used to gather information and track activities from customer contact, through installation, and Day 2 support.

• Marketing and customer-facing materials. The joint EATEL/Metaswitch team developed a complete set of documentation including sales collateral, user guides, and web content. In addition, custom-branded tutorial videos and an interactive product demo were developed.

• Sales Training. The Go-To-Market team developed and delivered training to the EATEL sales team that included an assessment of the market and likely customers, product positioning, and offer details.

• Project management. All along, the Go-To-Market team managed the entire initiative, keeping it on track for an on-schedule completion.

THE RESULTS

In a few short months, EATEL had a new product in market and was actively and successfully selling to prospects. “We really liked the process-driven approach to getting Hosted Voice quickly into market,” says Hewitt. “MarketVisions Go-To-Market brought a tremendous amount of expertise and capabilities to help us be successful.”

METASWITCH HELPED EATEL BUILD ITS CUSTOMER AND MARKETING DOCUMENTATION

“MARKETVISIONS GO-TO-MARKET BROUGHT A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF EXPERTISE AND CAPABILITIES TO HELP US BE SUCCESSFUL.” HEATHER HEWITT PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGER AT EATEL