Newfound Taps Merrill as Reseller for Enhanced VoIP Apps

By Doug Allen

In what appears to be a highly complementary pairing, Newfound Communications, an enhanced VoIP app provider specializing in call recording, interactive voice response and dialing solutions, has announced a strategic reseller partnership agreement with Merrill & Associates, a full-service technology consultancy. The deal calls for Merrill & Associates to resell Newfounds entire portfolio, emphasizing flagship products such as Newfounds IP Call Recorder, VXML Dialer and MediaMixer. The addition of robust call recording and emergency notification products gives Merrill a potentially broader customer base to upsell.

Not that Merrills portfolio is exactly lacking. Although a self-styled full-service technology consultancy, the company is more of a soup-to-nuts communications provider, with a portfolio spanning VoIP, UC, converged voice/data, messaging solutions, video conferencing, contact center apps, and network connectivity. While doing business as a Platinum Avaya Business Partner, Merrill also partners with a wide range of networking and UC vendors to put together their broad-based communications packages.

Both companies clearly saw opportunities to pursue key vertical markets, particularly the call center, by expanding their go-to-market feature set with each others products and technologies. The partnership will enhance our ability to bring high-quality recording and notification products to our clients as we continue to look for ways to enhance their call center environments, said Andy Sherman, director of Sales and Marketing at Merrill & Associates.

For his part, Newfound President and CEO Kris Hopkins sees a major opportunity not just in the synergy between the two companys product suite, but also in Merrills ability to upsell enhanced VoIP capabilities, such as automated dialing and call recording, based on the companys support for SIP, CTI and integrated VoIP applications.

Resale agents will focus on three core Newfound products, at least at first, to drive more enhanced VoIP sales in the enterprise, carrier or contact center markets. Newfound IP Call Recorder captures each phone call, regardless of duration or time placed across any network. The tool allows managers to verify transactions, gauge performance and business processes, and evaluate contact center operations. The VXML Dialer sets up and manages outbound call campaigns and emergency alerts based on VoiceXML. And MediaMixer allows customers to create branded speech applications by overlaying a second channel of audio on top of a VoiceXML platform from Nuance.