Who: Bryan Martin
Title: Chairman & CEO, 8x8, Inc.
Where: Santa Clara, Calif.
Biggest Hit: The Packet8 broadband voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and video communications service which lets broadband Internet users add digital voice and video communications services to their high-speed Internet connection. Videophone users now account for almost 5 percent of Packet8's 74,000 lines, and are one of several drivers in the company's quarterly growth, up 54 percent in the most period to $6 million in revenue.
Next Big Thing: The company has been on a tear recently of adding new services aimed at enhancing its core market. On August 18, 8x8 announced the launch of interactive online community designed to create a forum for Packet8 subscribers and prospective VoIP users to share, communicate and learn from one another.
Excerpted from "Live and Dangerous" By Sean Wolfe
Special to IPInferno
Reprinted by permission
...Martin's firm has launched a new blogging/social network service for its users and resellers, and Martin, true to the leadership adage of leading by example, has his own blog where he holds forth on the issues confronting the VoIP space.
In our Podcast between IPInferno publisher Ted Shelton, and VOIP Magazine editor Bryan Richards, the pair wondered where the value was in setting up such a service. After all, with blogs now largely a commodity service, why launch a blog service of your own?
Martin responded to this and other questions in a telephone interview, and his answers may surprise.
SW: So the big question is why launch a blog service for your users. Where's the value in it for your users, and for your company?
BM: The original seed of this idea was that we sell these video phones as part of our Packet8 service. They're very popular, and our video phones are just flying off the shelves of our Web store.
Ken Pyle runs a newsletter about using these phones to do sit-down Q&As with other users; some people are using them as security devices, to do surveillance from their home. So we decided to open our site up as a general forum for a number of our users who are passionate mavens.
The impetus was to create a space where these users could meet other people who are video phone users, and meet folks who play with these new phones they bought. We saw a lot of interest in these users sharing best practices among themselves.
SW: But it's not just for power users, right?
BM: No. Some of the people using the site are resellers who find this a very cost-effective way to generate sales. I sympathize with that. Considering we run a retail channel, and retail has the worst economics I've ever seen, I think it's a very effective marketing tool. For us, it's just a further development in pushing marketing dollars into the Internet channel, which frankly, is where our customer is.
SW: To my thinking, that must give your PR people some sleepless moments. I mean, you have all these users, resellers, and so on. From a PR perspective, what's to keep the company's site on-message?
BM: Our PR folks are pretty forward-thinking. The fact is, the site is really designed for Packet 8 subscribers. It's a useful tool for them. And while it is moderated, we're not heavy-handed about it. If you come on and have a negative experience, we want that posted as well. Because another motivation for the site is to reduce costs of customer service.
SW: In what way, exactly?
BM: Of our SG&A [Selling, General and Administrative Expenses] budget, a quarter of it is dedicated to customer service. If there's a forum we can make available in a cost-effective way to solve these problems before they have to call us, and cost us money that way -- or worse, disconnect us, then everybody wins.
With the site, there's more two-way communication, and the users can feel like these guys are going out of their way to treat me well...
Read the full article on IPInferno http://ipinferno.blogspot.com/2005/08/live-and-dangerous-qa-with-8x8-inc-ceo.html