Response Point Team Blog : VAR

2 Free VOIP Training Webcasts for Partners from TechEd's Top Speaker!

sprague — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:45:00 GMT

Introduction to Response Point Analysis with Wireshark (Part 1 of 2)
October 6th, 2009, 9:00 - 10:00am PDT
MRP01PAL

Registration URL: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&ActivityId=552695

This online seminar provides the foundation for troubleshooting Response Point communications with Wireshark, the open source analyzer, or other analyzer products. Beginning with the troubleshooting methodology and the tips/tricks to locating the cause of network problems related to VoIP communications, Laura demonstrates the visible evidence of the most common network infrastructure problems. If the infrastructure isn't performing properly - no network-based applications will perform properly. That includes Response Point.

Response Point Analysis and Troubleshooting (Part 2 of 2)
October 28th, 2009 9:00 - 10:00am PDT
MRP02PAL

Registration URL: https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&ActivityId=552698

This online seminar follows the Introduction to Response Point Analysis with Wireshark event with a focus on issues that affect Response Point communications. Beginning with the overview of telephony protocols and typical communication processes, Laura delves into the numerous issues that affect the visibility and performance of Response Point systems, walks through a series of Response Point trace files and demonstrates how to use Wireshark's telephony-specific troubleshooting features. Finishing up this event is a summary of problems that may be caused by firewall issues and add-on service problems.

Books We Are Reading … :)

RexBackman — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:55:07 GMT

Well sort of… Actually we are working on some small projects here in Redmond with Ray Horak. Ray’s a very savvy technologist with a focus on the telecom space. He is the author of some popular and well respected telecom books – a dictionary and a handbook on telecom and data communications. If you want to refresh your technical skills check out Ray’s books at your favorite book-buying location.

March 18th Microsoft Canada Response Point Webinar

RexBackman — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:20:00 GMT

Hear from SBS MVP Jeff Loucks, Trent Johnsen of SMB Phone and the Response Point team on the opportunities in selling Response Point to your customers.

We will also have some SPECIAL OFFERS from our Response Point Partners for those who attend the webinar.

To register go HERE.

New !!! SP2 Learning Resources and Quick Guides

RexBackman — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:54:00 GMT

Please feel free to take a look at the new new technical Learning Resources, White papers, and Quick Guides that are now available for Response Point v1.0 SP2.

You can find them HERE.

Videos, transcripts, and white papers are available to help your Response Point engagements and ongoing support.

The 10 Step Response Point Partner Playbook

RexBackman — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:03:00 GMT

1. Select Your Hardware OEM:

Aastra, D-Link, or Syspine

2. Choose Your Service Provider:

Bandwidth.com, Cbeyond, NGT, Junction Networks, Packet 8, SMB Phone, TotalTel

3. Know the Response Point Peripherals:

Quintum for Gateways, ClearOne for speakerphones

4. Get Smart:

Read books – from Harry Brelsford and Joe Schurman

Take online training from the RP web

Take Microsoft Learning course #74-675

5. Stock Up:

Get a permanent demo unit at a discount from your OEM

Use it for demos and hot swap backups for your managed services

6. Get Involved in the Community:

Read the Response Point team blog; visit Telephonation.com; join the Response Point LinkedIn group

7. Market Yourself:

Get a Yellow Page ad in the TELEPHONE section; do a direct mail piece; put on an event; join local professional organizations

8. Get Those Leads:

Get to know your local Chamber of Commerce; know your local moving companies; Extend your SBS installed base with Response Point; investigate sba.gov for local angles and opportunities (i.e. monthly SCORE meetings…).

9. Sell the Solution:

It’s all about communication and collaboration. Leverage your SBS and Outlook skills with the client. Customize the RP toast with SP2, customize the auto attendant….

10. Manage that New Customer:

Deliver regular maintenance; sell remote management; network assessment health checks; Response Point customization. All are good ‘links of revenue' that add up overtime.

Syspine Announces Canadian Master Distributor - Williams Telecommunications

RexBackman — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:49:00 GMT

The Response Point ecosystem coninues to grow. Today, our OEM partner Syspine announced their Master Distributor for Canada. Their press release is below:

(RENO, Nev., Aug. 27, 2008) — Quanta Computer announced today that Williams Telecommunications Corp. will now be serving as a master distributor of the Syspine® Digital Operator Phone System throughout Canada.

Syspine, an advanced IP phone system designed for small businesses with up to 50 employees, was created for ease of use, low costs and integration with other technologies. Featuring Microsoft® (Nasdaq: MSFT) Response Point™ technology, Syspine has a powerful voice-recognition system that can be linked with a company’s internal phone directory, as well as an individual’s Microsoft Office Outlook® address book.

“Williams Telecommunications is a well-known and respected name in the telecom industry, so we are very excited to begin working with them to increase our presence in Canada,” said Syspine director of sales and marketing Robert Gordon. “It’s a win-win situation. Williams’ network of dealers and resellers will be able to introduce Syspine to an untapped market, while this is an equally great opportunity for Williams to deliver an affordable VoIP phone system with Microsoft Response Point technology to small businesses in Canada.”

Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Williams Telecommunications is recognized as the premier independent worldwide distributor of telecom equipment and supplier of information and customer service. Williams distributes products from manufacturers such as Nortel Networks, Avaya and Mitel, as well as a complete line of peripheral products. From telephones, voice mail systems and headsets, to highly advanced call answering centers, Williams Telecommunications meets the needs of businesses of all sizes. Williams Telecommunications also serves clients worldwide with its state-of-the-art repair and refurbishing facility.

For more information on the Syspine Digital Operator Phone System, visit www.syspine.com, Williams Telecommunications can be found online at www.williamsglobal.com.

Voice Mail Converted to Text. Extending the Response Point Ecosystem

RexBackman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:53:00 GMT

We often hear about our Microsoft VARs doing some interesting things during their Client's Response Point engagements. This week a common thread popped up for 'Voice Mail to E-Mail' conversion services. Simply put this is a service offered by several companies that converts your voice mails to textual e-mail messages. This is good for firms that need to maintain records of calls for example. One of our VARs on the East Coast, Dave Bainum of RiteTech LLC, offers this feature as an add-on 'service' for his clients Response Point systems. He uses the service from PhoneTag (www.phonetag.com) though there are many other offerings in the market, too. Some of his clients simply use the transcription services. Others integrate the transcription service into their applications such as Ticketing Support systems, where support phone calls are automatically incorporated as text into new trouble ticket entries thus speeding up and improving the client's overall workflow.

CI Gear New Syspine Distributor in Canada. Discounted Demo Kits Available for Canadian Partners

RexBackman — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:32:00 GMT

The following came to use from Quanta Computer:

We are pleased to announce that CI Gear is the Canadian Distributor for Quanta Syspine Microsoft Response Point Phone Systems.

They are inviting interested Response Point Business Partners across Canada to experience the benefits of the Syspine Digital Operator System.

CI Gear has informed us that Quanta Syspine has extended its limited time Demo Kit promotion. Canadian Response Point Partners can purchase a Demo Kit at a tremendously discounted price. For under ~$1,000, the Demo Kit has everything you need to get started and see for yourself the advantages of adding Response Point to your product line. This is a great way for Canadian RP Partners to get trained and begin using the system for live demonstrations in-house or at a customer's location.

Order your Demo Kit before they're all gone! Contact CI Gear at sales@CIGear.com or 1-866-924-4292 to place an order.

CRN's Scorecard on Response Point 1.0

Xuedong David Huang — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:16:00 GMT

Since we shipped RP 1.0, we have received a lot of wonderful feedbacks from so many of our customers, partners, and analysts. It is gratifying to see RP 1.0 is loved by so many people! I know there are still lots of things we can do better and improve. I want to thank so many people who supported us along the way in creating the best telephony solution for SMB!

CRN’s recent scorecard on RP 1.0 is a good summary on RP 1.0. We are working agressively to achieve all 5’s from Features to Profit Potential. We hope to do this rapidly for our customers and partners in RP’s future releases. Thank you again!

Response Point SP1 Training is Now FREE w/Promo Code

RexBackman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:23:00 GMT

The Response Point SP1 12 city USA training tour kicks off this week here in the Seattle area. This training can be attended free-of-charge if you register with the promo code: RSPFW01. Taking this SP1 training will prepare Response Point Specialists for the upcoming Response Point assessment cirriculum that is currently under development and planned for a summer '08 deployment. Registration and detailed information on the 12 city event can be found at this LINK.

Microsoft Response Point Training Schedule

4/17/2008 Bellevue
4/21/2008 New York
4/24/2008 Wash DC
4/29/2008 Houston
5/2/2008 San Francisco
5/7/2008 Waltham
5/12/2008 Chicago
5/16/2008 Denver
5/22/2008 Ft Lauderdale
5/28/2008 Minneapolis
6/2/2008 Atlanta
6/5/2008 Nashville

Join Us at the SMB Summit in Dallas

RexBackman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:04:00 GMT

The SMB Summit kicks off this week in Dallas with close to 500 Microsoft SMB VARs attending. The Response Point team will be well represented at this event which will feature presentations and discussions on VoIP, Response Point, Cougar, Centro, and many other technologies and solutions. Sunday night will feature a Response Point partner case study by Allen Miller of Allen Miller Computing Consulting. Our partners such as D&H and Syspine will be present in the Exhibit Hall. For more information on the SMB Summit visit their LINK. Please note that the event is close to capacity.

SMBNation Webinar next week

sprague — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:34:28 GMT

We were happy to have Harry Breslford, from SMBNation, join us yesterday for a morning of brainstorming and discussions about Response Point and the opportunities it's opening up for the thousands of specialists and consultants that make up his "SMB Tribe". I'm pleased that we'll be participating in his next webinar, to be held on Thursday, January 31 from 8-9:30am PST.

You can join the event by registering at:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/317941194

Harry's calling this a deep dive, so I'm working on a short presentation for the event that will include some things I bet you don't already know about Response Point.

The webinar is free, but there's a limit on the number of attendees, so be sure to pre-register to ensure you'll get a spot.

Response Point and Small Business Server

sprague — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 01:28:09 GMT

If you run Small Business Server (SBS), you want Response Point to take advantage of the powerful event handling and remote monitoring capabilities that come with your system. You already get integrated email, and we've hinted that more features are possible, but this week a bunch of new possibilities arrive now that we've released the new Response Point Status Monitor.

The Response Point Status Monitor is a free download (click here to get it) that runs in the background as a service to replicate the Response Point event logs to SBS and augment them with other events as needed (for example, the status monitor detects a fault in the Response Point deployment)—so that the
SBS automated monitoring reports can monitor Response Point. See instructions in our Windows Small Business Server Integration white paper.

Like everything else with Response Point, this service was designed to be super-easy -- so easy in fact that you might not think anything's happening (right, Mark?) But don't worry, it's just quietly humming away, waiting for some kind of event that SBS can respond to. You may want to test it a few times (try unplugging the base unit, for example!) to see what happens.

If you've set up a Response Point system for somebody in another location, we hope you find this utility helpful. As always, let us know if you have questions or would like more information.

How Response Point Makes Irate Customers

sprague — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:48:50 GMT

Sure, Response Point is easy to sell but in the interest of fairness we want you to be aware of the downsides too. Consider this post by Allen Miller this week, describing his experience selling Response Point systems:

One customer said that there was "only one problem" (oh boy, now I'm going to hear it). He told me he had shown his Response Point system off to several of his business partners, non-IT people, that had been visiting his offices. Every one of them was pissed that their IT staff had not gotten this system for their companies! They were angry that they had paid so much more for their systems that were so much more difficult to manage and use!

I know, I know, it can be very hard to hold yourself back, but we'd like to ask our customers to please hold off on your gloating. The super-easy setup, the rock-solid speech recognition, the easy expansion -- yes, those are some of the advantages you get with Response Point over other phone systems, but please remember what your mother told you about the importance of humility. No boasting, please.

Response Point Training Tour Begins!

bobtaniguchi — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:45:00 GMT

We just met with Joe Schurman, our RP Training Instructor extraordinaire, and received email from several Small Business Specialist Partners who attended the Denver training session on Monday, sounds like a great beginning for our 16 city tour! Thank you to all Partners who attended, and to Joe!

Just a reminder, we still have space available for San Francisco on 10/10/07, Houston on 10/25/07 as well as seats in our newly added cities of Salt Lake on 12/3/07, Ft. Lauderdale on 12/7/07 and Bloomington MN on 12/13/07. You can find more information at http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=6508

Those of you attending the Bellevue session tomorrow, keep your eyes open, you may have some surprise visitors from campus!