Named the ISDN Scrappage Scheme Channel Telecom MD Clifford Norton said " The idea came to me whilst driving to work one morning listening to a radio advert. There are all these other industries outside of ours who are doing some really innovative things and when I started thinking about the car industry it just hit me. Why don't we do a scrappage scheme for ISDN?! It was in the summer when it came to me so I have been busy putting all the necessary in place since so we can take it to market."
Channel Telecom is offering £1000 for every Ethernet ordered which can be used to absorb some of the costs of moving services from traditional ISDN to Ethernet. Norton said, "it is down to the partner and customer on how the cash incentive is used, some people are using it as an internal sales incentive, some put it towards equipment, but really it doesn't matter. The point is the ISDN switch off is still eight years away and as an industry we aren't doing enough to encourage people to make the switch. This could really help ignite the market."
The scheme is set up with a leasing company where the customer pays a monthly rental over the three year contract of the Ethernet order. This is unique in the market as it presents partners with zero risk over the term of the contract. It also enables Channel Telecom to provide partners with large upfront payments for the entire contract value.
"The phone is already going bananas as partners want to know more" said Norton. "I really believe this could be a game-changer, we have had a partner recently who would normally get a few hundred pounds a month in commission on Ethernet but because of this scheme and the additional hosted services he put on the back of it, we just handed him an upfront payment of £10,200! For partners it’s so simple, do you want to keep getting small commissions every month or do you want the big upfront payment, with no clawbacks?”
Norton continues, "At the moment it's important for partners to get their heads around the £1000 ISDN Scrappage Scheme, but when you look beyond that and all the other services that can be sold over hosted it really all starts to add up as an industry changing proposition. For customers it's great too as they get to do away with a lot of the upfront costs associated with going hosted, they get a good price and the partners are happy... it's win win. I think the opportunity is so big I even trademarked the name!"