atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Allworx Telephones & Systems Allworx ??

I think the Bizfone has a stripped down feature set. Allworx can confirm if this is correct. I did check out the allworx website and it does appear like they have doing better at protecting the channel by not revealing prices etc. We might look at them again.

I got my HelloDirect catalog today. The Bizphone version was well displayed. It won't be hard to figure out it's an Allworx box from the pictures.

When we looked at them the Bizphone had same features. No way I'm, going to sell a product that shows up in Hello Direct or Bizphone marketing!!


:bang:

I heard that! :thumb:

Again, just to reiterate...we OEM our solution to Bizphone. Its the same exact system, except without the Message Center feature (our proprietary software email/calendar application) and without our name on it.

How many of these things does Bizphone sell - or buy from Allworx?

We dont get that figure from Bizphone. We ship them a certain number of units each month, and its up to them to sell what ever they have to, to their dealers. And as for how many units we send to Bizphone, we dont disclose that information to the public.

Spoke to Bizfone today. They sell to dealers only and admitted that Hello Direct is one of the dealers. This would be OK if they would know how to define "dealer". Anyone who cannot dispatch an onsite tech is not a dealer IMO.

Managing a dealer channel must be complicated. Rarely do you hear of a telecom product manufacturer setting the dealer's resell price. As I see it, Allworx still has some issues to work out. Taking the list price off the web site was a good idea. Not selling to end users is another good idea. Asking dealers to not sell above list is a bad idea. Haveing an OEM product that is obviously the same thing being sold on the internet and through Hello Direct is not a good idea either. WHen I say not a good idea, I mean not a good idea if you want to get dealers like us to flock to the product. However, even though it might not look just right to us small guys, it might be working very well for Allworx. But I bet they're still trying to find the right combination. For example, now they sell through AllTel Supply. That seems kind of odd since the trend is to go direct to the dealer and get away from distributing through supply houses. Allworx is also suffering from our pasts experiences with other equipment suppliers. A lot of promisses and really bad follow through. "You're the only guy in the area". "Don't worry about that quota thing. It's just a technicality." "you'll never see our product on ebay." Aweaver, am I right?

Mark you have found the golden BB for their product line. Hello direct is perceived as a consumer products provider. Cheap stuff that you can plug in yourself. The last post of "we don't sell direct and their has only been a few instances in the last year where we did" is a contradiction. You do or you don't. I hope they really figure out the way to support a dealer channel. Looks like a pretty cool product but right now every dealer I talk to is very apprehensive about their distribution model. I see it listed on Ebay. I have had customers receive post cards about the simple do it yourself system.