Digital Planet Selects Telesphere for Delivery of Managed Cloud Communications Services to U.S. Businesses

PHOENIX and SAINT PAUL, Minn., Aug. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Telesphere today announced that Digital Planet will market and sell its private, hosted voice, data and video services to businesses throughout the U.S. market. Digital Planet is the latest member of Telesphere's master agent network, which spans the contiguous 48 U.S. states and has driven 52 percent annual customer growth over the past three years.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110330/MM74500LOGO)

Under the agreement, Digital Planet customers, agents and partners now have access to Telesphere's portfolio of business-grade, cloud-based services including videoconferencing, unified communications, VoIP, Internet connectivity, WAN management and call center solutions. Telesphere's team of dedicated network engineers and indirect channel managers will support Digital Planet agents and partners to enable fast provisioning and a consistently high-quality user experience.

"Digital Planet's decision to invest in hosted communications solutions highlights that it's a progressive master agency," said Jeff Savage, Telesphere vice president of sales. "We're excited to work with a company that's so aggressively pursuing the cloud opportunity and, just as important, understands that business-grade hosting is key to attracting and retaining business customers. We look forward to working with them and their family of sub-agents to help bring our products and services to their customers nationwide."

"Cloud communications is where the industry is headed, and Telesphere is leading the way with innovation," said Shawn Schmidt, Digital Planet president and founder. "Telesphere is a great addition to our portfolio and enables our agents and partners that currently lack an equipment offering to now offer a complete communication solution to their clients. As communications technologies converge, if your offering is not complete, you are not going to survive."

Over the past decade, many master agents and their sub-agents have attempted to shift their customers to communications services hosted by a third party, only to find that their partners were unable to provide the level of engineering support, sales support and quality of service that those customers demand. Telesphere enables its master agents and sub-agents to meet those expectations by providing:

• A nationwide network, with points of presence from New York to Los Angeles, capable of supporting customers in every state and city where facilities exist – not just major cities.
• A private, fully managed MPLS network designed to ensure reliable, high-quality services.
• A rapid, cost-effective and simple way to deliver one of the mid- to large-business market's most requested services: videoconferencing/telepresence.
• A portfolio that enables a variety of service bundles to minimize churn and create up-sale opportunities.
• 24/7 live support from two geographically diverse U.S. locations to enable an immediate response to end users.
• Comprehensive, hands-on engineering and sales support, including a Web portal where master agents and their sub-agents can get circuit quotes quickly – often instantly – to build proposals, validate geographic capabilities and check customer tickets and project milestones.
• The ample revenue and finances – including more than $50 million in funding over the past five years – necessary to fund network upgrades and pay master agents in a timely, straightforward manner.
• More than a decade of experience in serving the enterprise market, with a churn rate of less than 1 percent and an average customer life of more than eight years.

Customers can connect with Telesphere at www.telesphere.com/Contact_Us.html or:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/telesphere

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/telesphere

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/telesphere

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/2102

About Telesphere

Telesphere is a nationwide managed cloud communications provider for businesses delivering an innovative package of Unified Communications, hosted VoIP, Internet connectivity and video conferencing services to businesses throughout the United States. As one of the first companies to offer hosted, enterprise-level communications as a service (CaaS), Telesphere allows businesses to enjoy all the latest voice and data features of large enterprises without costly investment in on-premises equipment. Telesphere's more than six years of CaaS experience to businesses throughout the United States places it at the forefront of companies that specialize in the convergence of office PBX phone service, cellular phones, PCs and Unified Communications features. Telesphere fully manages its customers' services over a private IP facilities-based network.

About Digital Planet

Headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Digital Planet is the only National Master Agency with an exclusive VAR and Interconnect focus specializing in the delivery of solutions that integrate telecom network services, phone equipment solutions and managed IT services. Digital Planet offers the largest selection of telecom carriers in the nation, and paired with our vast knowledge of equipment solutions, we can design complete solutions to fit any customer in any industry. Like its valued Partners, Digital Planet has an industry proven reputation for quality and customer focus.

SOURCE Telesphere