Cisco, Neutral Tandem Launch White-Label Hosted Collaboration Through VARs

Chicago-based Neutral Tandem is currently trialing the service through select Cisco VARs, Cisco confirmed Monday. It offers everything from integrated messaging and presence to video calling and WebEx integration as a hosted service. Cisco VARs and systems integrators will be able to sell single-site, multi-site and hybrid-premise-based versions of the service under a branded, monthly subscription model.

As a roughly $200 million service provider, Neutral Tandem provides service to wireless, cable, competitive landline and VoIP service providers, and operates the largest tandem and SIP routing network in the U.S. It's been in trials with select Cisco partners for about a month months, according to Ian Neale, vice president of product and management at Neutral Tandem, and the service will become generally available early in 2012.

"Others want to wrap it in more of a managed solution and some just want to kind of put it out there with a premise-based solution, but we've got a very wide array of [options] for how VARs are going to take this to the market," Neale said. "Everyone is in their sweet spot, and one of the differentials with Neutral Tandem is that we are willing to work with VARs to put adjacent applications alongside the HCS. That creates the differentiation they need."

A lot of the hesitation by VARs to sell hosted versions of UC and collaboration services is going away thanks to greater acceptance of the as-a-service model and the flexibility it provides certain customers, said Richard McLeod, senior director, collaboration sales in Cisco's Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO).

"These are complementary services," said McLeod, referring to the hosted model versus premise-based collaboration and UC. "I think our partner sets are becoming much more clear on how this is becoming good for them, and it's not a scary thing."

The services through Neutral Tandem will be available to Cisco partners that have Cisco's Advanced Unified Communications specialization -- already required for Cisco Gold partner status and optional for Cisco Silver partner status.

Cisco will also apply its various incentive programs, from the Value Incentive Program (VIP) to the Opportunity Incentive Program (OIP), to partners selling the hosted collaboration offering, which will be provided as a monthly subscription in a per-seat, wholesale price through Neutral Tandem. Partners will own the billing relationship with the customer.

McLeod described the HCS offering as "phase one" of an expanding relationship between Cisco and Neutral Tandem, one that will encompass other hosted services, such as deeper WebEx integration and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)-related services, in the future.

Nexus Integration Services, a Valencia, Calif.-based solution provider and Cisco Gold partner, is among the early trial VARs for the HCS offering. Mike Heiman, vice president of engineering for Nexus, described the offer as a "great program" and one that will differentiate what Nexus can offer for service options versus what other VARs offer.

"We are particularly impressed by Neutral Tandem's detailed understanding of the market and network neutrality. Our customers have been asking for a solution like this and Neutral Tandem's network neutrality is what drew us to their offer," Heiman said in a statement.

Cisco's research pegs the hosted unified communications and collaboration markets as major opportunities, with hosted collaboration expected to be an $8 billion market by 2013.