October 31, 2006

Bright House Business: A Voice Partner in Tampa

By Justin J. Junkus

On the heels of the SCTE Business Services Symposium in Chicago, last week Bright House Networks announced a new commercial services line designed for both large and small businesses.

The Enterprise Services arm of this new unit, Bright House Networks Business Solutions, is aimed at large and data-intensive organizations and includes services and technologies such as Metro Ethernet, managed networks, and data protection service, while the Small Business Services group is set up to serve home-based, small and mid-sized businesses.

Tampa-based Loan World, a mortgage origination firm with 15 employees, would fall into that second category. This firm’s experience in acquiring both voice and data services by way of an interesting Bright House collaboration suggests that small doesn’t mean skimpy.

Business voice case

When Loan World Manager and Owner James Deschamps was looking for a high-speed data connection, he chose Bright House Networks to provide a broadband line. During the planning stages, however, Bright House also saved him more than $13,000 in hardware costs and $400 in monthly charges by hooking him up with managed service provider Whaleback Systems for hosted PBX services.

Loan World services three regions across the United States. When Deschamps relocated his company to Tampa, his first inclination was to investigate leasing or purchasing a PBX to provide telephone service and use high-speed data service for his data systems. During the order process for the high-speed line, the Bright House customer service representative who serviced Loan World recalled a presentation by Whaleback Systems and put Deschamps in touch with Ken Stess, Business Development vice president for Whaleback.

The Whaleback alternative to a customer premises PBX is a network-based hosted solution. "For a flat monthly fee of $49.95 per ‘seat’ and a $10 per line activation fee, Loan World employees have access to all the features of a PBX, without the hassle of maintenance, software updates, and scaling issues," said Stess. "The monthly fee includes all U.S. usage. International calls are extra, at about $0.03 per minute."

Remote access to features and scalability are key benefits of the Whaleback offering. Stess pointed out that a hosted fax feature allows system users who are on the road to be alerted of incoming faxes at their PDA, and they can then re-direct the fax to a hotel fax machine. Deschamps added that as he grows his business, remote offices can piggyback on the existing system without the expense of another processor.

Win-win

"This sale is an example of how partnerships can open new commercial service business to an MSO, in an environment where each partner wins," said Stess. The link to Whaleback is a second Bright House high-speed data line, which is part of the monthly package.

Installation of both lines and the on-site station equipment was performed by Bright House's contract installation firm, Kablelink Communications. Kablelink Communications also trained Loan World employees on the use of the system. Stess notes that Whaleback can work with any cable systems operator and its contracted installers to create a similar program, where the operator's customer service representatives refer voice system needs to Whaleback, which completes the sale and coordinates installation and training with the contract firm.

Whaleback Systems now has about 700 seats in service, averaging about 14 seats per customer. Its system is resident on Sonus switches, and it partners with both Bay Ring Networks and RNK Telecom for carrier services.

- Justin J. Junkus