Appia Makes International Managed Services and VoIP Push

I recently described how Appia Communications, an MSPmentor 100 company, promotes managed services to office complexes in Indianapolis, Ind. Now, I’ve caught up with Appia Vice President of Marketing Matt Siemens to learn where the company is heading next. The answer: Appia, based in Traverse City, Mich.,  has big plans for the international market. Here are the details.

“I think the breadth of our offer is what really separates us.” Siemens said. Appia offers hosted business VoIP, SIP trunking, MPLS networking, video and audio conferencing and hosted exchange mainly to small to medium-sized business (SMB’s) of roughly 250 seats. “We try to create services that let smaller customers flex their muscles like larger businesses.” Appia’s biggest presence is in middle-market, serving customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Appia boosted its national offering in August 2010 when it acquired Voxitas, an internet and telephony services provider, and all of Voxitas’ channel partners. Appia just completed integrating Voxitas’ technology in March 2011.

But Siemens said that Appia’s current focus is expanding its offering internationally: “We already have international customers. We’re on every continent except Antarctica, but we’re just now beginning to put a real focus on the international market.”

Siemens noted several reasons why Appia’s services are made for the international market. Above all, he said, is the company’s pricing scheme. “Appia is a prepaid service and often the international market is a prepaid environment,” he said. Despite finding its office complex niche in Indianapolis, Appia is not targeting a specific vertical, but some of it services are working particular well in certain industries. For example, its VoIP offering has been popular among call center clients and its video conferencing offering has been popular among education clients.

Back to Indy

Back to last week’s news: Why did Appia pick Indianapolis to extend its telecom services? “There was great community interest for it there,” said Siemens. “Our Vice President of Sales is there also, so we were able to gauge the interest and then expand.” Appia acquired assets of Connect Communcations, an Indianapolis, Ind.- based business communications provider, in February 2010. The Connect acquisition was also a catalyst in the Indianapolis expansion.

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