It seems cable TV is just one sof everal surprising services that small and midsize companies are buying from their telecom and wireless carriers.
You probably think that cable TV - home of cooking shows and Ice Road Truckers - is for consumers, not small businesses. Verizon says you're wrong. Turns out that SMBs buy all kinds of unusual -- and less-unusual -- services from their carriers.
I recently spoke with David Frendo, director of small business products and services at Verizon, who told me that "there is more than some interest" in video among SMBs. Many analysts estimate that 30% to 40% of small businesses have some application for cable TV services, he said.
So what are they using it for? Many small businesses have immediate information needs that makes cable TV service, especially weather channels and financial and news networks, of great value. As Frendo puts it, how news is affecting the markets can be a big deal to many small companies.
The retail business is another place where cable TV has grabbed a foothold. It's all about "that waiting room experience," as Frendo says. Finally, cable TV is very popular in bars and restaurants. "For that tavern experience, Frendo says, "It's an absolute requirement."
He's not making this up. For example, until recently, TechWeb's home office in Manhasset New York had CNN running constantly on a couple of flat screen monitors in the reception area.
TV in the waiting room of a San Francisco auto glass installer.
Landlines Not Going Away
Although SMBs may resemble consumers in their interest in cable TV service, Frendo says brick and mortar small businesses are lagging the consumer trend to ditch landlines in favor of going all mobile. "We're not seeing the move to all wireless at the pace you're seeing it in the consumer space." For small businesses, Frendo says, "the landline is still your lifeline."
"Consumers can take a little hardship if they're mobile service isn't working, but for a small business, if that phone doesn't work one lost sale can make a big difference." Just because you're having a power outage, he says, doesn't mean your customers are having one - and they're not likely to forgive your business for being unavailable.
What Else Do SMBs Want?
Ironically, Frendo says that Verizon takes a different approach to small business customer than do many of its competitors. Instead of treating small businesses as "consumer-like," Frendo says, Verizon offers additional products to differentiate its offerings. "It starts with the network," he says, and "is moving toward bundles" that offer discounts on various services. Rather than complete solutions that could cause sticker shock, Verizon allows customization to fit the customers' needs.
Needs vary by industry, of course, but popular additional SMB products include online backups, secure document encryption and professional networking services. In fact, the company has just added a new service, Encrypted Docs, which lets users encrypt files and folders and determine who can access, read and write to the file or folder. The new service complements Encrypted Mail service, which has been available since December 2005.
Both services are based on encryption standards such as PKI, X.509, adnd S/MIME. They're best suited for businesses facing government compliance regulations and companies with remote employees. Both services are included in Verizon's Data Protection Premium, which starts $9.99 per month for Encrypted Mail, Encrypted Docs, and the Verizon Internet Security Suite for up to 3 PCs, plus Online Backup and Sharing.
Meanwhile, the Verizon Collaboration Center, Frendo says, can facilitate virtual meetings and offers discounts on other services such as FedEx shipments and Chase Paymentech.
Broadband Rules
Obviously, broadband has many uses, but Frendo points out the value for small retailers, where it can speed credit card transactions from 60seconds to 3-to-5 seconds.
The difficulty is the current economic environment is that customers are dealing with "a certain amount of fear" and may not be ready to spend money even if they can make money doing it.
That could help explain the relatively slow pace of Unified Communications adoption. "There is some great stuff out there from a technological perspective," Frendo says, but before they buy, many small businesses are asking themselves, "What am I trying to accomplish with it?"
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Fredric Paul is publisher/editor-in-chief of bMighty.com and SmallBizResource.com.
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