ChannelVision Magazine

ICYMI Up until now, Bluebird Network has lacked an agent channel. But according to president and CEO Michael Morey, this is no longer the case. “Something’s changed in our busi - ness strategy,” Morey explained when we sat down with him at Metro Connect in Miami. “We’ve created a methodology where we identified our near-net fiber buildings and determined how much it will cost us to get to these. Now, if (an agent) can get somebody who wants to buy these speeds at a certain location, they can go do it.” As it turns out, Bluebird now has more than 70,000 near-net buildings, along with a new simplified ordering pro - cess. The company updates its list four times a year, which it currently provides in the form of an Excel spreadsheet – a process that’s also about to change. Ac - cording to Morey, Bluebird will soon put their KMZ file onto the web to simplify the search process for agents. “If you’re an agent, and you are look - ing at a certain area, you’ll be able to go on our website and take a look to see if we’re near your destination,” Morey said. “Then you can go to our spread - sheet and see whether or not that ad- dress is there. Every agent will have an assigned account representative that will work with them.” If something doesn’t qualify for the simplified order process or standard re - pricing, “we will in fact do a special quote for it – going back to the old days,” he continued. “We’ll take a look, determine what the cost is, and get back to you.” The company also is expanding its scope. “Bluebird has historically been fo - cused in Missouri and Illinois, and we’re using a strategy we call ‘dig in.’ In other words, we’re looking to go deeper and deeper into Missouri and Illinois and edge out, which means we’re going to start trying to grow into the surround - ing states. We already have services in some parts of Kansas, some parts of Iowa, some parts of Kentucky, some parts of Tennessee, and some parts of Indiana. And we plan to expand into Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin.” While Bluebird traverses many rural areas, the company doesn’t necessarily classify itself as a rural network provider. “We build fiber across rural areas to get to many second, third, and fourth tier cities, and so a lot of people say that Bluebird has a substantially rural network,” Morey continued. “And it’s true, we do cover a lot of rural areas – in fact, so much so that in the state of Missouri, we’re the second largest provider of internet access to second - ary education schools. So, we’re in a lot of places where other people aren’t. If you want to go to Kirksville, Peoria, the Quad Cities, Jefferson City, Colum - bia or Springfield, Illinois or Springfield, Missouri, you’re going to go through a lot of rural places to get there. But in places like Jefferson City, we are build - ing our fiber deep and long.” So, a sales agent in Jefferson City, in other words, will have an abundance of resources to expand and grow its network. “Our goal is to have 80 percent of all the potential businesses in any densification market to be one of our near-net, simplified order process build - ings,” Morey said. “That’s now the case in Jefferson City and Springfield, Miss. We’re hopefully going to be finished with Joplin, Miss., soon. And we have about 20 to 25 other cities that we plan to announce this year and next year that we’ll be doing additional densifica - tion work in.” In addition, Bluebird offers a powerful data center in Springfield. “It’s a substantial data center,” Mo - rey continued. “It is now full, and we are building 11,000 square feet of white space, so it’ll have 26,000 of white space. The facility itself is about 80,000 square feet. But if there’s somebody in Southwest Missouri looking for a lot of space, it will be coming online shortly. And we will pay agency fees on data center sales as well as fiber sales.” CoreDial Announces Integration with ConnectWise Cloud communications provider CoreDial has launched a new integra - tion with ConnectWise’s PSA (profes - sional services automation) solution. The integration allows CoreDial part - ners to synchronize data between CoreNexa Account Manager and Con - nectWise Manage, one of the most widely used business platforms in the managed service provider marketplace. CoreNexa Account Manager is a foundational platform in CoreDial’s ecosystem of UCaaS solutions, em - powering its partners to sell, deliver, manage and invoice for cloud commu - nications services. ConnectWise Man - age automates business processes for MSPs in areas such as sales, help desk, support, finance and human re - sources. The CoreNexa-ConnectWise integration automatically updates information across both platforms, letting partners select either solution as their primary point of data entry. It also allows MSPs to choose which data elements to sync and delivers a single, consolidated invoice for UCaaS and CCaaS, among other offerings. According to CoreDial, these cus - tomizable options increase productiv - ity, save time and labor, reduce the potential for human data entry errors and allow MSPs to effectively manage business accounts. “CoreDial is always looking to cre - ate more value for our partners by developing efficiencies that enhance business practices and allow them to focus on their highest priority — the needs of their customers,” said Ken Lienemann, chief revenue officer at CoreDial. “Today’s MSPs use a range of applications to run their business. As a core offering of our solution, it’s key that we make it as simple as pos- sible for them to integrate CoreNexa Account Manager with those applica - tions, to eliminate potential friction and duplicate work whenever possible.” Bluebird Looks to Grow its Agent Channel 76 CHANNEL VISION | March - April, 2020