snom Adds New VoIP Phones for SMB Partners, Customers
In the world of VoIP, you can’t forget your most basic need: The telephone. It’s internals have evolved, but the purpose remains the same — reliable voice conversations regardless of the customer’s budget. Snom knows that, and is launching two new VoIP phones to give SMBs the power of enterprise phones, without the big price tag. The VAR Guy spoke to snom’s COO Mike Storella about the phones and snom’s channel focus…
Snom’s two new phones — known as the 720 and 760 — are VoIP business phones that snom has designed to be cost effective and feature rich, the company claims. The 720 is a more basic phone, with an array of buttons and a small gray-scale screen, while the 760 is a higher-level device, with a bigger color screen that provides a multitude of functions. Storella said that these phones are the fourth generation of snom phones and represent “…our platform going forward as we refresh our line.”
Both phones offer the following features:
- Gigabit Ethernet with no impact on network performance
- Optional Bluetooth dongle to support external peripherals
- Optional WiFi dongle to support wireless networks
- Easy to configure function keys
- Automatic provisioning
- HD voice capabilities
- snom 760’s large screen can support “visual functions” via XLM data
- snom 720 supports URL dialing and “all standard VoIP calling features”
Channel Partner Considerations
The 720 and 760 have an MSRP of $219 and $329 respectively. So where do they potentially fit into your channel lineup? Our resident blogger was sure to ask what snom was offering their partners. Storella said that, “…the biggest thing we do right now is offer demo products for the VARs. We offer free training on our all products. We [also] pass out leads to our certified partners and VARs.”
Snom also provides a cloud-based service, dubbed “snom Active,” which allows VARs to remotely configure and maintain phones over the Internet. Storella also said snom focuses on helping partners make “good margin” selling the phones, in conjunction with a wide array of Internet training at www.snomchannel.com.
Not sure if snom is right for you? Storella said that their products connect natively to Microsoft Lync. Assuming the 720 plays nice with a variety of VoIP platforms, The VAR Guy thinks there’s certainly some potential to have snom mixed and matched into any UC deployment.
