Competitive Analysis

Take out the feature set Brochure

• Note that there are Three type of competing Architecture.

• Determine which of these type you competitor is and use the feature comparison grid to see where they fall short

The Way People Work has Changed

• Companies have spread out and outsourced parts of their organization

• More and more employees are working from their homes

• The cell phone has become an important part of the business communications process

• Broadband Internet access is now serving most small to midsized businesses and has become another important part of the communications process

• There is now an anytime, anywhere expectation for staying in communication whether we like it or not

The Only Thing That Has Not Changed

Is The Phone System. Even After these vendors have converted them to VoIP.

Why?

The Traditional Phone Companies Have Changed but for the Worse

• Degrading analog lines

• Customer Service unaware, uncaring, and under-staffed

• Overpriced

• No new features in the last 30 years

• People are Angry

• The Carrier Idea of VoIP is to have no customer Premise PBX which is really a poor architecture.

• Why would they think to do it this way?

How do You Train a Flea Circus?

• It is simple:• Catch some fleas (the hard part)• Put them in a jar with a lid but air holes so they can

breath• Wait 2 days

• Pour them out onto a table and they will stay exactly in the space of the jar and not jump more than a few inches

• To feed just put your hand in there for a few minutes every few days and they stay alive

There Are 4 Ways to Deliver Phone Service to a Business

1. Traditional phone service and a phone system (PBX) from a third party

2. VoIP PBX from one company with Internet phone service from another company

3. Hosted VoIP PBX over the Internet

4. End-to-End Competitors

1. Traditional Phone Service and PBX Competitive Analysis

Traditional Phone Service and a Phone System (PBX) From a Third Party

Traditional phone service and a complex, expensive traditional business phone system (PBX) from a third

party lack features and costs tens of thousands of dollars. They have missed the Paradigm Shift of

Outsourcing, Home Offices, Cell Phones and the Internet – Even after converting many of their product to do VoIP

at the customer premise.

Competitors

• Traditional PBX Manufacturers• Mitel, Nortel, Toshiba, ESI, Cisco, Lucent,

3COM, Shoretel, COMDIAL, NEC, Siemens

• Traditional Carriers• Verizon, ATT&T, COX Communications,

Bright House, COMCAST

Key Disadvantages

• Features cannot interoperate between locations: IVR, Remote extensions, Call Routing

• Very Expensive• Angry customers too big to care

VoIP PBX and 3rd Party Internet Service Provider Competitive

Analysis

Beware of the Consumer Grade, Mom and Pop and Broker Providers

• VoIP, better known as Internet Phone Service, has been offered to consumers as a cut rate service from companies such as Vonage, Comcast and Skype.

• These consumer grade services save money but lack the feature set, quality and reliability that a business requires.

VoIP PBX from One Company with Internet Phone Service from Another

More recently you could purchase a VoIP PBX from one company and tie it to Internet phone service from another company. This approach is more of a science project than a solution and lacks features as well as quality and reliability. So much so that many

PBX manufacturers are recommending more expensive traditional phone service with their products.

Company A Turns a PC Into a PBX Company B Provides Internet Phone Service at Some Level

Internet

Competitors

• New IP PBX Mfg Internet Phone Co’s

Fonality Vonage

Digium Proximiti

TrixBox Broadvoice

Apetela Compartners

Foundry Point One

Voxter Teleiax

Ipitomy go-to-call

Key Disadvantages

• Not end-to-end• Features do not match up• PC Disk drives, power supplies & fans break • No End-To-End QOS or 729a CODEC• No failover system• No Monitoring• Science project – will be hard to ever get this

to work 3000 settings between phones, PBX and Service provider that need to match up with many networking issues

Disadvantages

• Not End-To-End Which leads to:• Features do not match well between vendors• Lack in quality no end to end QoS or CODEC

pairing• No way to monitor• No Fail Over – No reliability

• Science Project (will never work)• No single point of accountability (on neck to

crush if it does not work)

Hosted VoIP PBX and Internet Phone Service Competitive

Analysis

Hosted VoIP PBX Over the Internet

A third option is a completely Hosted PBX with VoIP Phone Service over the Internet but this requires an

expensive T1 line with one phone line per extension and does not save any money.

Internet

Competitors

• COVAD• Packet 8

• Pocket Rocket• Ceybond• Speakeasy• Calltower

Disadvantages

• You must go out to the Internet and come back using two channels of bandwidth just to speak to the person in the next cube – Bad Architecture

• Multiple phones and PC competing for network bandwidth on the customer network and across the Internet without any controlling PBX and router prevent QOS and result in very low quality which then requires an expensive T1

• Expensive, You pay for a T1 and per phone per month for PBX functionality, sometimes even more for particular features like Voice Mail

• Minimum fail over and monitoring

Key Competitor Profile – Packet 8

• PACKET 8 - Packet8 is a broadband telephone and videophone service. Designed with both residential and business customers in mind, Packet8 is a hosted PBX and needs T1 connectivity to work correctly. It is costly and if system goes down you have no back up system to keep you up running.

• System is expensive $90 per month per line with inbound/outbound call 2000 minutes. If system goes down no back solution

The World’s Most Reliable Business Grade Internet Phone Solution

End-to-End Competitors

End-To-End Competitors

• Whaleback • LinksysOne

Disadvantages

• Whaleback – Small under-funded Startup, No QoS, Proprietary Software only 2 developers, $50 per phone, cable only, 2x our cost, bad quality, requires separate cable, work only through cable companies which is a weak connection

• LinksysOne – A Year late .. So far. $62 per phone per month, Cheap hardware, Voice mail reside on each phone, cost because they have 3 tier selling, provider, dealer, distributor, promised to delivery

• Star2Star - Better Features Quality, Reliability and Lower Cost $23 per phone per month.

Introducing Star2Star

The World’s Most Reliable Business Grade

Internet Phone Solution

Star2Star Components

We Make the World’s Most Reliable Business Phone PBX Called the StarBox

Starbox 2100

• Up to 100 Users

• Supports DSL, Cable or T1

• Powerful Features

•Solid State (no moving parts)

• Monitored 24x7x365

Starbox 5500

• Up to 500 Users

• Supports Up to 4 T1 Lines

• Powerful Features

•Solid State (no moving parts)

• Monitored 24x7x365

Phones Offered By Star2Star

Star2Star Supports Analog Phones, Fax Machines…Even Other Phone Systems

StarService

Superior Quality With StarPath

Star2Star Data Center

Our Data Center houses the core telecommunication infrastructure for Star2star Communications. Located on the 16th floor of the Lykes Tower

(Colonial Bank Building) in downtown Tampa. Originally built by GTE to

house its telephone network core for Southwest Florida, this building has

become one of the nation's most active carrier neutral communications facilities, housing more than a dozen

major communications companies and having multiple redundant fiber

loops connecting the entire region to the Internet backbone.

Around the Clock Monitoring and Service Desk

Online System Monitor Automatic Detection of

Quality or Reliability Issues

Service Tickets Can Be Created at Anytime by Automatic Detection, From Our

Web Site or By Calling our Around the Clock Support Center

Guaranteed Reliability

Data Center Reliability

100% Redundant Cisco Network at Tier-1 Data Center

Powered by Redundant Connections

Inergen Gas Fire Suppression System

Redundant Environment Control System

Star2Star Nationwide Network

Our service extends far beyond our core infrastructure in the Data Center. When

you make a call, Star2Star determines the best quality route

for your call and sends your call

through that route to guarantee the

highest possible call quality.

Powerful Features

Find-Me/Follow-Me

We Provide Powerful Features Such As Find-Me/Follow-Me

Call Routing

You can have as many phone numbers as you

wish. You can have multiple companies,

departments or personal numbers and

each can behave differently when people

call. You can also specify different

behavior during or after business hours for

each day of the week.

Voice Menus

You can quickly create an unlimited set of voice

menus leading to individuals, departments,

recordings, custom applications, or other

menus.

We can even have these menus professionally

recorded for you.

Ring Groups and Call Queues

You can create groups where the phones all ring

together or where calls are automatically distributed to

the next available agent.

Customize Music On Hold

You can upload your own MP3 or WAV files

to customize Music On Hold.

We can even make custom recordings for you to communicate

to your captive audience.

Integrate With Outlook and Your PC

You can integrate your phone system

with your PC.

By right clicking on any contact we will call them and also

call your extension at the same time so you do not even have to

dial the phone.

911 Support

We Fully Support Making 911 Calls From Your Office

Phone and Remote Extensions

Star2Star Savings

We Cut the Typical Business Phone Bill in Half