Telecom Agents Seek Managed Services Opportunities
A quarter century ago, there were computer VARs and telecom consultants and they existed mainly on parallel tracks. Telecom convergence slowly began to change that situation. Launching in the 1980s, the Integrated Services Digital Network pointed the way toward a voice/data future. IP telephony, unified communications and multimedia networking have done more to get computer and voice people working together. The voice and data businesses have something else in common: margin pressure. Eroding hardware profits helped push VARs into the MSP space. Similarly, voice specialists are encountering shrinking margins in carriers’ voice/data services.