We Had to Say No…

We just hate turning down business. And as an entrepreneurial company managed by its owners, we are lucky that we don’t have to do that very often. Everyone here is a problem solver by nature – able to go outside of usual boundaries to get something done.

Recently, after working for quite a while to craft a fairly complex proposal for a new client, we ultimately had to turn down their business. At least for now.

Our recommendation was for a cloud-based IP phone system to serve multiple locations. Today the locations are served by a standard phone system and tied together with fairly expensive trunks. (A trunk line is a dedicated link connecting two voice switches or phone systems.)

But the company’s phone system was relatively new, and that can make it hard to just write off the investment and go with new VoIP phones. We understand that. And usually we are prepared to serve traditional phone systems with the same level of service as for VoIP phone customers. But not this time.

The type of connection needed for the premise-based phone system required a virtual circuit traveling over an Internet connection at one end that we can’t control or even know much about until their service would be cut over. Likely it would have worked fine, but there was no way for us to properly test it prior to simply cutting over their services. And once cut over, there was no easy way of going back.

That’s a risk some companies are willing to take. But not Avid. We said no to the new revenue because it was the right thing to do for the customer.