NECSI Board meeting – 6/5/2003

The board met at 6pm. Members present were: Gordon Maccani, Ed Mikesell, Greg Osler, Lawrence Sosna, Garry Laxdal, Chris Jackson, Mark Duckworth, & Steve Autor. Members absent were: Sheldon Allen and Sean Campbell

President Maccani announced that the next Meeting will be in San Francisco on October 9^th and 10^th. NEC will have a sales workshop (Staffing by Design) the day before.

A. Minutes from the previous meetings were passed out. Motion to approve was passed.

B. Financial report was presented. Current checking account balance of $16,201 and money market account of $32,177 for a total of $48,378. Revenue is down $4000 from budget projections primarily with lower participation with Business Partners. Expenses will be lower with only having 3 meetings, plus one conference call so far.

C. The following agenda was prepared for the meeting with NEC:

1. Backorders of Products.

2. Product issues

3. Aspire – update status, future of key systems?

4. IPS – numerous software problems and patches- cost to go out and update numerous systems, clock problem at noon etc.

5. Elite VM failures – cost to replace and reprogram, warranty extended?

6. Upgrading existing 2000 customers to new CPU, buying software over again?

7. Training Issues – Knowledge Sync

8. National Accounts – Dead for now?

9. Advantage future? NEC User Group?

10. Lead Generation Program – end of year report on sales/costs

11. Web pages – help from NEC (competitive info, link to NEC product pages like dealers)

D. Next the board started working on National Accounts. Steve Autor presented a draft version of a revised Multi-Location Program. Autor asked for help from the members present with rates. Osler arrived and suggested that we use Toshiba’s rates and agreed to send rates to Autor. Note: rates have been received and are lower than the current rates we use. NEC later passed out a presentation comparing rates between NECSI and Toshiba.

E. Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm for dinner.

NECSI/NEC Meeting Minutes

St. Louis – 06/06/03

NECSI went through their issues first.

Product backorders were a primary concern. NEC responded that most of the issues were addressed as of second week in June. Wade Irwin reported a $3.4 million dollar backlog had developed. Most problems were shipping as the demand for airplanes increased due to the longshoreman strike.

Elite Mail DOS problem. Problem occurred when flash memory filled up and hits the end of the memory. Caused problems if users didn’t clean out mailboxes. Dealers should load patches on all FMS VM’s affected. Ram will provide info on which machines need the upgrade.

Problems with Elite Mail hard drives was explained by Ram. New software causes hard drives to spin down to prolong the life of the hard drive.

The issue of more clear forecasting of projects makes the issue of backorders easier to deal with if we have better info to order product. NECSI suggested advanced orders based on run rate (This refers to bulk orders with discounts). Dealers should send PO’s in advance when possible. NEC AMs should present a forecast template for listing new projects and updating active projects. AMs need to be more proactive dogging projects and assisting. Other suggestion was that Dealers to issue PO in advance with delayed delivery dates.

1. Using MQ to use for forecasting projects. The anonymous names and repetitive quotes on same job are a roadblock. Rosen and Autor to investigate.

2. Forecast template development - Aievoli and Duckworth

3. Ability to adjust MQ to add or change parts list after it is locked for order.

- Rosen / Autor

3a) When dealers mark MQs as sold, they can not get back in to make adjustments, and receive system discounts, when as typical for large systems configurations change before installation. Autor suggested more options in MQ. Autor said he typically knows he has a sale, but may not place the order for several weeks on larger systems as he typically has department meetings with customers and typically does a final thorough site survey before placing an order. Perhaps more options in MQ that give the dealer the opportunity to give a real status report as quotes are being worked.

3b) Suggest system packaging – ie. Nortel KTS with voicemail (10 mailboxes).

3c) Dealers want to have access to Harte Hanks prospect recordings.

4. When dealers receive orders with long term installation dates, dealers would be willing to enter POs if they were confident that they would not receive early shipment and/or early billing.

Product issue:

NEAX 2000 IPS When a CPU is replaced out of warranty, the software has to be repurchased with the board because of the certification process.

- This creates a delay to receive board

- Software is tied to board

- Request a download software key with automatic billing.

NEAX Mail

- Security key delivery on the AD-XX series

- Too many steps in the AV process for NEAX mail products as opposed to direct Active Voice products

Elite Mail

- Need to update and replace “1 or 2” instructions and create shortcuts to make it more efficient and convenient to use.

- Overtime labor to upgrade patches

- Patches need to be downloadable

- NEC needs to notify dealers of new patches

- NEC needs to publish clear reload procedures

- Question: Can you buy InProtect for just one piece of system ex: VMS board?

- The U30 board offers a Flash Card slot in addition to the hard drive as a backup for future enhancement.

- The FMS/CMS does not include a modem. Council unanimously agreed that a modem needs to be added to the FMS/CMS w/ marginal price increase ($35), it is necessary.

- Consider packaging the IPK with a VM board. NT packages a 4 x 8 with VM for $1,600.

Aspire

- Becoming an Aspire dealer – can dealers be approved for both (depends on region, existing Aspire dealers). You get a separate quota for Aspire product in that case.

- Biggest problem is dealer differentiation of both being “NEC”. All product lines appear the same to uninformed buyer. Suggestion was made to classify dealers as NEC ‘Elite’ Dealers and NEC ‘Aspire’ Dealers. Suggestion to label phones as NEC Elite and NEC Aspire so that when Aspire customers call in wanting service, we don’t waste service calls going out to fix a system we don’t have parts or manuals for. Need a way to clarify choice to buyers

Note: BSSD has about 300 dealers and USSD (Aspire) has about 220 dealers. USSD dealers are typically smaller dealers.

6. Create a clear and distinct identity of each of the product lines. IPK, NEAX, Aspire, I Series, and DS1000. Espy, Rosen, Duckworth

National Account Program – Tabled until profitability and market resumes strength.

Concern: NECSI is looking for some help and guidance with their web site.

- They want to emulate the NECAM web page

- They want to increase the interaction among members using their web site.

- Create a “Dealer Community”

9. Create a “Dummy or artificial Dealer” Cul de Sac for NECSI.

Rosen

Need competitive info to be posted on NECSI web site

Offer competitive webinars

Would like “Winning Proposal” templates ghosting the competition

Link NTAC news to NECSI web site

Product managers pointed out that NEC announced a major product release for wireless at the Users Group. Dealers can preview this in Knowledge Sync at “Wireless Product Review”. The first release will be a IP based wireless system for wireless LAN and phones using a SpectraLink handset and Airspace OEM’d. No license required. The wireless will be bandwidth managed ( no more 3 units per transceiver) and the NEC product will allow wireless phones to have automatic hand-off. First release is scheduled for September. That will be followed with NEC phones (Jan 2004) and PDA’s etc.

The new real time Wireless LAN offers enormous advantages over any of the competition including but limited to:

- complete radio space control, such things as load sharing between access points and dynamically control access point's power levels and control channels make this solution the best of breed.

- one place for all changes a NMS, (network management system), provides instant access to the entire wireless network proving your customers complete control

- 16 WLAN (equal to SSID (system security ID).  Allowing your customers to control wireless users rather locking them out.

Problem: Information Portal is very difficult to search for documents

Suggest that AMs do more Portal training and make sure all dealer personnel are signed up. Make sure the owners/managers are signed up and understand how to navigate the Portal. Should be part of dealer start up process.

Matworx – Maintenance software follow up. Matworx is on track.

11. Suggestion: offer free Dterm Assistant to all dealer offices to encourage use and create more expertise of use.

Lead Generation follow up.

The program hasn’t worked well for everyone, but there are some dealers having success. But dealer feedback through the website is minimal and needs more participation.

The study information showed the program is having more success is currently documented and has future potential that can be projected based on the study data.

12. Request process for “recorded” file of lead for verification of quality.

Espy

Dealer Training resources

13. Is SmartForce online training coopable? Need to issue enrollment forms.

Espy

Everyone agreed that a sales certification would incent and motivate the dealers to use Knowledge Sync more regularly.

Make copies of “Discover” CD for NECSI board. Autor has a copy and will try to make copies and distribute to DC members.

14. Unified Messaging competitive comparison of Cisco to AD-120

Rosen, K. Riggs send to C. Jackson for posting on NECSI web site.

Tech support for Voice Mail products. Specifically from Osler difficult to get help.

Mike Prescott presented the Active Voice ppt to go over the new products and addressed the Council’s concerns on security.

15. How to promote and launch E-Vantage? We discussed topics and frequency. NECSI agrees to list. Subjects listed for the E-Vantage for 2003 were appropriate, there were no other additions.

The AMs need to make sure that their dealers are aware of the times and subject matter of the E-Vantage modules to make sure they get viewed. It is not critical they view them at a specific time. Rather that the AM follows up to make sure they were viewed.

16. Need to raise awareness of process of how to use the Contact Center Support team.

AMs need to introduce team to their dealers.

The Advantage was discussed. NECSI wanted to know if NEC would have an Advantage next year. M. Rosen explained that we intended to have an Advantage in 2004 as long as profitability returned. The consensus was to make the Advantage a “Business Process” meeting. The E-Vantage presentations should be carried over into 2004 to cover areas not addressed in the Advantage and make them available to all dealers.

A Staffing By Design workshop will be conducted at the front of the NECSI meeting in San Francisco.

Misc.

1. Dterm Training Tool – Updated Dealer Council members on current status and pilot launch plan for NEC Interactive Telephone simulator. Purchase of credits via Web is acceptable and number of credits to be included with original equipment shipment – between 10 to 25. This needs to be monitored and adjusted based on field demands.

2. IPK beta plans – Discussed IPK pilot beta program using IP CPU. All NECSI council members are interested. We will start the program initially with them and then extend to all dealers.