Mike Chase Joins AireSpring as Principal Solutions Architect
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 AireSpring is pleased to announce that Mike Chase, a veteran cloud expert with decades of experience both as an engineer and executive, has rejoined the AireSpring team in a new and expanded role as Principal Solutions Architect. Before joining AireSpring, Mike co-founded several successful cloud ventures, including dinCloud, an award winning cloud service provider where he served as CTO. He is also a published author of many online magazine articles, columns, and blogs. He brings a high level of technical expertise, as well as practical knowledge of how to navigate the cloud landscape and bring the best in cloud solutions to you and your customers. Mr. Chase holds more than 20 industry certifications, including the prestigious CCIE #7226, Linux LPIC2, WMware Certified Professional 3/4/5 and many more. AireSpring is proud to have such an accomplished team member, and we encourage you to reach out and take advantage of this incredible new resource!
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Customer Case Study: Commodity Systems Inc.
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Commodity Systems Inc. (CSI) is an information vendor of summary world financial market data, servicing thousands of customers from California to England. Frustrated with their premises-based PBX, Commodity Systems Inc. was ready to upgrade their phone system. Their previous vendor provided ineffective customer support and each system upgrade took days, creating lag on their operations and negatively affecting their ability to service customers. Distracted from focusing on their business goals, CSI turned to Jerome Plummer at Business Class Solutions for advice. Jerome recommended AireSpring to transition from their premises-based PBX to a modern cloud phone system.
AireSpring's AirePBX Cloud Business Phone System provided CSI with a host of features that enhanced business operations and increased staff mobility. CSI loved the ease with which they could upgrade and make changes to their new cloud delivered phone system. With the Accession Mobile App, their remote staff could make and take calls whether they were in or out of the office. Not only that, but AireSpring made the transition to a new PBX easy and hassle-free. "I told the AireSpring engineers what I wanted, and we had everything we needed for implementation and turn up without a hitch," stated CTO, Eric Jaffe.
Between the ability to easily make changes, the hassle-free installation and turn-up, and AirePBX's unified communications capabilities, CSI is now equipped with a phone system that enhances, rather than hinders, their business operations.
For more AireSpring success stories, click here.
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April Promo: Noise-Canceling Commissions by AireSpring
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There's a lot of marketing noise out there cluttering your inbox. Providers are always coming up with new, flashy offers and deals - but once you get past the pretty pictures, the money isn't as good as it seems. AireSpring SPIFFs are simply the highest and most lucrative in the entire industry. Where else do you get 6x MRC on any Voice/Cloud services? Where else are you spiffed on renewals whether you're involved with the account or not?
Click here to learn more.
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May Partner Training: New Innovations in Long Distance Services
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Tens of thousands of businesses around the world continue to use long distance voice for large-scale call center operations. Contrary to what you may think, this is still a booming business and a much in-demand service. Long Distance may not sound sexy in light of all the new technology such as SD-WAN, A.I. and IoT, but it is still a lucrative industry. New innovations continue to emerge to serve this huge market. Not only can AireSpring offer your customers the best LD rates in the industry, AireSpring recently introduced new capabilities to its own long distance services and AireCare online portal, allowing customers to track voice traffic data in real-time, perform real-time routing of toll free numbers, added text capabilities and much more.
Join Sales Engineer, Chuck Long, and Sr. Channel Manager, Michael Nesci, at 1PM PDT on May 25th, as they discuss the New Innovations in Long Distance Services that customers are clamoring to get their hands on and the MRR they can bring your business. Be the first to introduce these new capabilities to your customers and take control of the long distance market.
Register Here
Stay to the end and fill out the survey for a chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card! Congratulations to James Bond of Datatel Solutions on winning in April!
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See AireSpring at These Events!
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Intelisys Dallas Mindshare
Cowboys Golf Club, Dallas, TX
May 10th
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WTG Tee & Sea
Monarch Beach Golf
Dana Point, CA
May 10th - 12th
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ITW 2017
Swissotel Hyatt
Chicago, IL
May 14-17
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Telarus TIC San Diego
May 18th
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Sandler Partners
Chicago Partner Summit
May 25th
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 Welcome to the latest edition in our series of profiles where we shine the spotlight on AireSpring's amazing partners. This time, we're speaking with Jerome Plummer of Business Class Solutions.
To begin with, Jerome, tell us about your career history and how you got started with Business Class Solutions.
After working successfully in real-estate for several years, I was recruited to work at a master agency to sell telecommunications solutions. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was giving up a good part of my commission to work for someone else, so I made the risky decision to give up my hard-earned deals and recurring commission and start my own agency. It paid off in the end. Now, as the owner of Business Class Solutions, I have the freedom to do as I please and make a handsome income while I’m at it.
When I came into the industry, I noticed that most agents wanted to “partner” with the standard mega-carriers. I followed suit at first, but soon realized that you couldn’t get true partnership through those carriers. To set myself apart, I wanted to arm myself with select carriers that I could trust to be responsive and agile. That’s when I found AireSpring.
What do you like about working with AireSpring?
I consider AireSpring a channel partner because we share a real partnership when it comes to closing deals and supporting customers. I can get hosted VoIP from anyone these days. What is harder to find is a team of professionals who have proven resilient and willing to solve my customers’ issues, no matter how painful it gets. AireSpring has an amazing team of technicians, engineers, and project managers that I know by name and who I trust. My customers notice these things, too. When AireSpring first launched its hosted VoIP solution years ago, we had a rocky experience trying to service one of my customers. While my customer experienced issues, they also saw the desire from AireSpring to make things right at all costs. At the end of the three year term, they renewed and stayed with AireSpring. I think that says something.
Of course, AireSpring isn’t only good for its responsiveness and support. AireSpring also has national reach and carrier relationships that make providing connectivity incredibly easy. Finding that connectivity is even easier. AireSpring’s QuoteSpring quoting tool allows me to source multiple connectivity options at once and all on my own. QuoteSpring is a great example of AireSpring’s agility. By providing agents like me with the ability to get pricing and options on my own, I don’t have to wait for someone else to do my job or close deals.
What advice would you give to agents starting out in telecom?
This business isn’t a way to make a killing in twelve months. So if that’s your plan, then you aren’t ready for the amount of work that telecom demands of you. I would say that it will take five years until you find yourself in a comfortable place. For entering sales guys, working for carriers may be attractive – and for good reason. If you’re new to the industry, and you had to choose between a six-figure salary and pay by commission, most would go for the steady channel job. But after about five years, those who chose the agent route will find that they have more freedom, more autonomy, and in some cases, a lot more income.
I believe that I am successful because I found a strong set of carriers with which I partner, and because I know my customers well. Depending on the customer, I recommend different carriers. This goes far beyond products and services. I recommend carriers based on the culture of support they offer and their compatibility with a customer’s business style. For example, I have a carrier for when I know my customer need boots on the ground and hands-on help throughout provisioning and turn up. I also have carriers that mesh incredibly well with my more savvy and technically-minded customers. As an agent, it’s not my job to bring a product to a customer. It’s my job to connect them with a dedicated carrier that they enjoy working with to receive top-quality telecommunications services.
What do you think is on the horizon in 2017?
I think the change in administration could have a positive effect on the economy. I’ve noticed that businesses are already beginning to gain more purchasing confidence across the board, which is often a key barrier to closing deals. I have carriers who suggest cutting prices or offering free services to win customers, but I tell them to be patient. Often times, businesses don’t care about marginal differences in price, or a flashy service offering – they just aren’t ready to make a financial commitment. As that uncertainty decreases and confidence in the market grows, I believe we’ll see some very lucrative quarters ahead of us this year and going forward.
I am also seeing growth in the call center business. Many businesses that wouldn’t traditionally request call center software are now looking for inbound toll-free solutions and blended seats such as offered with AireSpring's AireContact solution. This bodes well for us, since a blended seat with video, voice, and chat is much juicier than just a hosted VoIP seat.
What do you do in your free time?
I have been happily married to my wife for 30 years, with whom I have eight children. The youngest is nine years old and the oldest is 29, so I’ve been a busy father for quite some time now.
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 At AireSpring, we know that it is our dedication to customer service that sets us apart, and customer service begins with great employees. Here is your chance to get to know the AireSpring team that oversees your orders and delivers great service every day. This time, we are speaking with Jonathan Still, Chronic and Escalation Repair Manager.
Hi Jonathan, please tell us about your history and how you got started in telecom.
One of my first professional jobs was at the Holiday Inn Reservation Center, taking calls and scheduling reservations for patrons nationwide. It didn’t take long for me to move up the ranks to Planning Analyst, where I became responsible for routing call traffic between our nationwide reservation centers to ensure that no single call center would be overwhelmed. This was my first experience managing and monitoring nationwide voice traffic – in many ways, I was running a nationwide call center.
Then, telecom giant MCI moved into Cary, NC and jobs opened up by the hundreds. I took a position at MCI as customer service representative and officially began my career in telecom. Although I was in customer service, I was positioned near the data engineers and I gradually picked up more and more technical knowledge. Eventually, the tech teams would let me handle technical issues far beyond the purview of a standard customer service rep, and it wasn’t long before I became a data engineer myself. Over the course of 20 years, MCI became Worldcomm and Worldcomm became Verizon, but I stayed and served in several technical repair and management positions in all three companies. Toward the end of my tenure, I ran the chronic team, which served as the final stop for sensitive, high-priority cases that no one else could solve.
As much as I loved my job, I loved my wife more and she had her eyes set on Southern California. Arriving on the west coast with 20 years of experience under my belt, I quickly found a job consulting for TelePacific. After I helped them set up a chronic team similar to the one I ran at Verizon, I went to look for a full-time position where I could continue to deliver technical customer service and manage a team. I interviewed at AireSpring and became Chronic and Escalation Repair Manager in 2014.
What do you like about working at AireSpring?
If my two decades of dedicated service don’t make it obvious, I love working as a repair tech in any capacity. But it is rare to find a company whose philosophy of care aligns with your own. I found that here at AireSpring. Here, we truly care about our customers in a way that I confess I have never witnessed before in my career. I have worked for the biggest companies in telecom in countless customer service and repair positions, and I have never worked for a company that delivers the same dedicated customer care we do here. I can be myself at AireSpring, and because this company values customer care the way I do, I am rewarded for it!
What do you do when you’re not in the office?
I live with my wife and her young twins here in Southern California, but I have an adult son living back in Cary, NC who I am excited to see this summer when he visits. Many people have their guilty pleasures, mine happen to be concerts and Hot Wheels. I go out to see live music more than my wallet would like me to, but I am a huge music fan and I intend to spend the time I have enjoying it as much as possible!
I also have an enormous Hot Wheel collection. Initially the idea was to do something with my newborn son, but 20 years later, he's not into Hot Wheels anymore and I'm still collecting! Of all the thousands of Hot Wheels I own, my most cherished is my Hot Wheels Edition Camaro. Yes - I even drive a Hot Wheel, that's how obsessed I am.
Thanks for sharing with us, Jonathan!
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WTG Tee & Sea
Monarch Beach Golf
Dana Point, CA
May 10th - 12th
Intelisys Dallas Mindshare
Cowboys Golf Club
May 10th
ITW 2017
Swissotel Hyatt
Chicago, IL
May 14-17
Telarus TIC San Diego
May 18th
Sandler Partners
Chicago Partner Summit
May 25th
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