Speakeasy shops Best Buy success

The crowded field of companies chasing the small to mid-sized business owner keeps getting more interesting. A week after Speakeasy announced higher-bandwidth services based on ADSL 2 links it purchases from Covad Communications, the Best Buy subsidiary is announcing more flexible pricing for its voice-over-IP service to accommodate small businesses and more VoIP phone choices as well.

The announcements are part of the company’s newest push to attract small businesses, now that Speakeasy is part of Best Buy and its Best Buy for Business program. Being on the shelves of Best Buy is only an enhancement to a distribution network that already includes 5000 independent IT consultants, which may be the secret sauce that Speakeasy brings to a competitive market.

“A lot of people want to focus on small to mid-sized businesses and say they are going to focus there,” said Speakeasy President and CEO Bruce Chatterley. “Very few have cost-effective channels of distribution. They haven’t figured out how to reach these customers. We have created a really unique partnership with over 5000 independent IT consultants nationwide.”

Many small businesses turn to “the computer guy or the phone guy” to make their technology decisions, Chatterley added. By working with those independent consultants, Speakeasy has an automatic “in” with the SMB market that is enhanced by its presence on the shelves of parent company Best Buy and the recommendations it gets through the Best Buy for Business program, he said.

Being owned by Best Buy has another perk – Speakeasy has financial stability, something not all competitors can claim, Chatterley said. And now the company is rolling out new services and packages of services to attract new SMB customers.

The ADSL 2 service announced last week positions Speakeasy well against the cable companies, who are also courting SMBs with VoIP and high-speed data offerings. The company offers services with 1 Mb/s uploads plus 8 Mb/s downloads for $149, 10 Mb/s downloads for $179 and 15 mb/s downloads for $189.

The new EasyVoice Office plan lets small businesses save money by reducing the per-employee cost of a VoIP package from $29.95 to $19.95 plus the cost of large buckets of minutes that are shared across the country and can roll over, Chatterley said.

“What our customers have asked us for is a little more flexible pricing that allows them to customize the pricing plan,” he said. “They want predictability, but they also want to eliminate the risk of paying for something they don’t use. Now they can pick from among five different calling plans (number of minutes), and they won’t pay for minutes they don’t use.”

In addition, Speakeasy is adding Polycom phones to its roster of offerings, which currently includes Cisco Systems and Linksys phones.

Chatterley sees Speakeasy benefiting from the current fallout in the VoIP industry with early players such as Vonage and SunRocket faltering and, in the latter case, closing up shop.

“We have been the recipient of fallout in terms of increased business,” he said. “Companies are looking for a financially stable alternative that has good service at competitive price. With Best Buy, there is no issue on our financial stability. Our parent company is as strong as cable or the ILECs. We are known historically as having the best customer service in the industry. So the negative fallout has been a positive for us.”