Alianza Opens Channel, Hopes to Reach Smaller ISPs

The hosted VoIP provider is working with some other companies you know well—Powercode and ServerPlus—to provide a complete VoIP control package.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [July 3, 2008]

It's tough to stand out if you're offering VoIP. You may have a good product, but so do many other companies. When we first heard about Lindon, Utah-based hosted VoIP provider Alianza, what impressed us most was the list of features.

The company has more to say.

A key to the Alianza software, says Steven Jones, vice president of marketing and business development, has always been the application and feature server. While that used to be a third party product, Alianza acquired the code and brought it in house. The result, he says, is a real pricing advantage.

"Most of the companies in our space embed Broadsoft. That cost structure establishes an artificial market price for the industry, with an inflated floor. Our price point is 2/3 or less than a traditional VoIP offering, built off Broadsoft technology."

Jones says that Alianza had initial success in Central and South America, and is now ready to expand its global footprint. The company will be working with service providers who will host the service both directly for their own customers and also sell it to resellers.

So do you have a network? "We're in a data center in Lindon, Utah, south of Salt Lake City. It's the Fort Knox of the Rocky Mountains," Jones says. More POPs are planned, in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Another POP in Florida will help the company grow where it's already had success, in South America.

For the smaller ISP
Here in North America, the news is that the company has plans to offer services to ISPs with between 500 and 5,000 subscribers.

Jones says that the feature that ISPs are most interested in is provisioning. "We offer unified provisioning. You can administrate both users and devices with one portal. When we do [demos], people get excited about that. You can move with Alianza, from building to building. You can plug in a device and it works. Unplug it, put it in another port, and it works."

So, provisioning is the most important feature. The PBX functionality, Jones says, is also important to ISPs.

Third is white labeling. "We made it easy for service providers to manage their own white label service offering," says Scott Bell, Alianza CTO and co-founder.

The final issue is the challenge for all VoIP providers: delivering quality. "There are five components of VoIP quality," says Bell. "There's the device, the service provider's network, our alianza network, the public network, and our carrier network."

Enter Powercode.

More than a billing system
John Wright, president of Orem, Utah-based Powercode has been building lots of alliances recently. Last year, we reported that Powercode had teamed up with router maker ImageStream to work together. The goal: an integrated billing and routing system.

Now, a year later, Wright is working with Alianza to deliver a better VoIP experience by using the ImageStream integration and another partner, Orem, Utah-based helpdesk provider ServerPlus.

"I want to build a channel for the WISP," says Wright. If WISPs are to grow, or be aggregated, they need to be offering services like VoIP.

Wright says there are five keys to getting it right.

The first is a quality VoIP switch, which in this case is provided by Alianza. "There are probably 200 companies that offer a VoIP capability," Wright says. "And with Asterisk, there are even more. We chose Alianza as our preferred partner. We have to have a good quality VoIP switch. Alianza does hosted VoIP, not on premises. The customer just wants the phone to work."

The second key is a router capable of delivering QoS. ImageStream can take care of that. It's an open source system, so Powercode can access it, which is not possible with Cisco, which is a proprietary system. "We have to be able to talk to the router," Wright says. "ImageStream is the best for that."

The third key to service is a quality radio. At the moment, Powercode is working with Motorola and the Canopy product. It has plans to support other radios. But the radio must be up to date. "Old 802.11b equipment does not do QoS. We want to work with all of our customers," Wright says. "We don't say 'can't' or 'won't'. We just say that we prefer Canopy."

The fourth key is provided by Powercode itself: "It's the ability to seamlessly add VoIP customers and integrate their call records into a single customer bill; plus a network management system, with trouble ticketing and real time device status information to successfully manage the ongoing support for the VoIP customer," adds Martin Frey, Chairman and CEO of Powercode.

The fifth key is provided by ServerPlus: outsourced customer support. "Our first preferred partner on support is ServerPlus," says Wright."Layne Sisk is setting up his company to be able to take support calls 24x7 from WISP customers, offering tier 1, 2, and 3 support per call. We have trained ServerPlus how to do Powercode. ImageStream has trained ServerPlus on how to do ImageStream, and Motorola has trained ServerPlus on how to do Canopy. Thus, there's one place to call, and no finger pointing between providers. The cost is a couple of dollars per subscriber per month, or less, which is insignificant compared to the cost of having a support person on staff with all of that training."

He says he's been using a system like this at his own residence for a couple of years.

At the end of the day, this system can provide the technology, but the WISP must build the customer relationship. "Everyone has the option of choosing Skype for free VoIP service," says Wright. "The customer who pays for service wants a relationship with a company. One big thing we offer is a customer portal that allows the customer to see everything they're doing."

ServerPlus
On to the third partner, also in Utah. Some people think that the internet has destroyed distance, but I think that it makes sense for local companies to work together. Nothing can compare with a business partner who lives where you do.

Does it help to be local, I ask Layne Sisk, CEO of Orem, Utah-based ServerPlus.

"We're a bunch of companies working together who are just a few blocks from each other," he says. "John [Wright] put everything together so that the WISP will have less work to do to prepare for us to provide our services."

So what do you do? "We support end users who have issues with VoIP or wireless, and we also support the ISP owner on the Powercode software."

You had to do training? Did the geographical proximity make that easier? "Yes. And the friendship helped too. At ISPCON, we were walking people back and forth between our booths, sending the support and billing questions back and forth between our booths."

Sisk says ServerPlus has been supporting VoIP for over three years, from a number of different providers.

He says that Alianza distinguishes itself in the details. "With most VoIP provider, every DID number needs E911 service. Alianza can provide E911 service for a site, delivering a cost advantage."

Another detail. "The way that Alianza orders are provisioned into Powercode is very smooth. Alianza uses APIs and they are easy to interface with."

Why would an ISP choose this instead of something they can build for free? "Any WISP can go out and bill through QuickBooks and do their own support and build a service from their own Asterisk box, but when they do that, they spend all their time making sure it works and don't spend time growing the business. That's what I talk about at ISPCON. Do you want to own your own business or will you let it own you? We're able to provide that solution for people who know they want to grow their own business—and not be tied to it 24x7, but want to grow income for themselves and their families."

— End