TelePacific Celebrates 10 Years

Facilities-based carrier TelePacific Communications marks its 10-year anniversary in 2008. The company provides voice and data services on TelePacific-owned switches and network infrastructure, and manages more than 75,000 customer accounts throughout California and Nevada.

The company was named the 14th-fastest-growing company in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal; and prior to that, the company was among the top 100 fastest-growing private companies in America according to Inc. magazine.

TelePacific also reports reaching its one-millionth access line in fourth quarter 2007. The millionth access line speaks to our ability to sell effectively in a very competitive marketplace, but just as important, if not more important, to our ability to retain customers with very low churn, explains Ken Bisnoff, TelePacifics senior vice president, strategic opportunities. Growth is a combination of the two. You can sell wonderfully, but if your customers are leaving you at a rapid rate, youre not going to get to the type of growth that is marked by a milestone of a million access lines.

Seventy percent of the CLECs sales comes from referrals from the agent and vendor communities, as well as from customers. That type of reputation is driven from service, Bisnoff says. Our ability to maintain our customers comes from our ability of taking care of them for all their data and voice needs.

Bisnoff, a founding executive of the company, says the transformation from a small organization back in 1998 to a $400-plus million company with 1,300-plus employees today has taken TelePacific through several changes. The most notable metamorphosis is a shift to data-centricity. Bisnoff says agents and customers are driving their data products, such as SmartVoice Trunking, which uses SIP technology, and RemoteStor, an off-site data storage product, and so on. And in 2008, TelePacific plans to launch a SIP handoff offering, now in beta testing, to complement its dynamically allocated integrated voice-data product offerings.

The TelePacific channel program is experiencing the shift to data, and perhaps leading that change. Our sales, led by the agents, are data first, voice secondary, says Bisnoff. The changes in the program represent the changes that are occurring in the marketplace.

Bisnoff reports that 2007 was a very successful and busy year for the partner program. Our agent channel has consistently generated 35 percent to 40 percent of all new revenues, noting it has a very sophisticated, demanding agent base, that like us, has a customer-first attitude. Bisnoff also says the company is very excited for Amir Hojjatnia and Hilary Corno, two TelePacific channel managers, who were named to the PHONE+ Top 15 Channel Manager list in the magazines Channel Program Guide published last fall. I think both Amir and Hilary are first-rate professionals and were very fortunate that we have 20 first-rate agent managers, he says. Its a great representation of the quality of people we have here at TelePacific.

As a matter of fact, Bisnoff says the success of the company relies entirely on the quality of the people the companys been able to attract and retain over the years. Bisnoff cites the addition of CEO Dick Jalkut approximately five years ago, along with some senior executives that came to TelePacific from acquisitions such as Arrival Communications and Mpower Communications, as keys to the companys success. Weve attracted first-rate professionals who have come aboard based on our earned reputation for customer service, our extensive footprint in California and Nevada, and our product suite, Bisnoff says. At a service organization, its the people that take us to any level that weve been able to get to and the continual addition of higher-quality people really speaks well to what the future holds here at TelePacific.