Updated 11/4/10 By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email

TA launched our monthly "Solution Shootout" webinar series in October 2010 to give Telecom Association members (telecom agents, channel partners, computer equipment VARs, network systems integrators and managed services providers or "MSPs") a way to easily understand the competitive differences between voice and data technology solutions that may seem similar and hard to differentiate. The ultimate goal of the shootouts is to educate TA's members which vendor solutions are right for which customers and under which circumstances.

Each shootout involves five players; a telecom agent, a business customer, a moderator, a solution vendor and a subject matter expert ("SME") judge. The telecom agent and business customer are represented by the 3,800 TA members who experience the shootout live or via recording. The scenario assumes the agent and customer think they need the solution being presented to solve a business problem but are not sure how to select the best solution vendor.

The moderator is played by me, TA's executive director Dan Baldwin. I organize the shootout by consulting with all players in advance to make sure an objective presentation outline is created, that vendor presenters or "shooters" are appropriately matched and that knowledgeable subject matter expert judges are selected to turn the vendor solution information presented into information the agent and customer can act on.

Each vendor presents their competitive argument via webinar not to exceed 25 minutes for all the judges to view. Once all solution vendors give their presentations, the SME judges convene on their own audio conference bridge to share their advice to the agent and customer as to which vendors the customer should consider in any order as well as any other information the agent or customer should consider when selecting among vendor solutions in this category. The judges will also complete a judging scorecard that TA will use to rank "shootout winners" as appropriate.

All shootout content is recorded and published to a blog so all TA members can consider the content and then share it as appropriate with their own end-user clients and prospects. TA members, solution vendors and SME judges are invited to ask follow-up questions via the blog and upload additional information that is relevant to helping agents and customers make prudent solution decisions. the entire shootout will be repeated and revised in the future as new content demands.

Solutions presentations can be presented by any paid TA vendor in conjunction with a live shootout event or uploaded to the archive of a past shootout event. TA reserves the right to decide which categories any vendor solution presentation is suitable for. Vendor presenters deemed "miscast" in a category by other vendor presenters may be asked by TA to present in anther category.

5. After the initial webinar recording is published you will be able to add additional text or links or replace the webinar with a new webinar later. If you are unhappy with how the recording is published you may request that TA make appropriate changes. If TA is not able to make changes you find acceptable you may request that TA unpublish your recording.

Solution Judging Guidelines

Solution shootout judges can be any TA member that has experience helping agents and multilocation business end-users choose the best business technology solutions from among multiple solution vendors. Judge "candidates" deemed inappropriate or unqualified by other judges may be asked by TA to withdraw.

1. Each judge will be given 3 minutes to comment on the specific merits of the vendor solution presentations. If you hold a preconceived opinion about a vendor solution please give the vendor the courtesy of confirming the validity of your opinions before the shoot-out so that the vendor my address your opinions prior to the event or during the event. Please do not "blind side" the vendor with your comments during this three minutes.

Please contain your comments to "Based only on what the vendor presented I would recommend to my customer that they look at _____, ______ or ______ in this order (qualified this way) because of ___________."  If one or more of the vendors did not earn your "recommendation" it is permissible to say, "Before recommending _______ I would need to get this extra information ___________."

2. After each judge gives their first 3 minute "who won the shootout and why" initial overview, each judge will be given 3 more minutes to "free lance" as in, "Mr. Agent and Mr. Customer, based on my experience in BYOB hosted VoIP, here's what else you need to consider."

Pretend you're a consultant hired by the agent and the consultant to give your best three minutes of advice on BYOB hosted VoIP. During this second 3-minute period you're able to mention other vendors whether they're TA vendors or not. Please present the other vendor as follows, "I've worked with XYZ company in the BYOB hosted VOIP area because they do (this or that) very well. Make sure whomever you do business with does (this or that) very well."

3. This event assumes that the agent and customer understands that BYOB hosted VoIP is different than VoIP not using the public Internet. Please don't suggest that businesses not use BYOB hosted VoIP.  In December and January we'll have the shootout for mid-level VoIP (using a dedicated T-1) and high-end VoIP, using MPLS throughout.

4. This entire exercise is a bold effort to give TA's members what they most want - an understanding of how to select BYOB hosted VoIP vendors in general and if one of these TA vendors vendors comes close enough to being good enough - and if all three are good enough which one's best and which one's second best - qualified any way that's appropriate.

Shootout Participation Recognition for Solution Presenters and Judges

After TA publishes the recordings of the presentations and the judge's scores and comments, TA will award appropriate participation recognition to both presenting vendors and judges. Solution Shootout recognition for vendors and judges will include a press release that judges and vendors can use to announce their shootout recognition as well as appropriate recognition artwork that vendors and judges may use in their sales and marketing materials.

Judges and vendors may republish TA's press releases unchanged without further approval from TA. If any press release is materially rewritten in whole or part please share the rewritten piece with TA prior to publication. TA artwork is approved to be used by participants as they wish so long as the participants remain TA members or vendors in good standing. In the event that TA requests that a participant cease using TA artwork the participant will honor TA's request.