The Extreme Sport of Technology Solutions

I have lived in Minnesota all my life, and I will be the first to admit that sometimes we go to the extreme. Just the way I like it.

Saint Paul is hosting the season finale of the Red Bull Crashed Ice cross downhill competition. We draw crowds of more than 140,000 people who hang out under the Cathedral – no matter how cold it is – to take in the high-speed action. Skaters compete in four-person heats in a race to the bottom of the 600-meter hill. The track is filled with obstacles.

It does not get much more extreme than that!

You want in? You could have watched live in Canada, Germany, or Jyväskylä-Laajis, Finland. Now all that is left is the finale in Saint Paul, February 26-27.

Check out this video. Intense, right?

Our industry is changing at about the same speed as the crashed ice athletes fly down that hill.

Recently, CallTower and SoundConnect announced a merger and the new company will carry the CallTower name. According to Channel Vision, between them, these organizations have implemented more than 70,000 customer licenses worldwide over the past decade. Providing unified communications cloud services, these two companies are combining their efforts to deliver better solutions for their clients. Go here to read more about the merger in a solid article by John Casaretto.

Meanwhile, we must consider how the change in the landscape affects Avista and our clients. In reality, the effect is only indirect. However, the implications are significant.

Here were two independent solution providers that each had niche markets. They must have seen what we see at Avista: clients want a total managed solution. They do not just want to buy isolated products. In response, CallTower and SoundConnect combined their platforms to create one product set under unified communications.

Avista is remarkably like the company created by this merger, though our scale is smaller, our clients are in a different niche, and our method is unique. Our aim is to collaborate with our clients and provide them with the most strategic total solutions. That is what they need, and that is what they want. Then, we stick around for the long haul and manage the solutions we have designed. Our partners need us, too. We fill the space between the solutions our clients need and the products our partners provide.

The big difference between Avista and the Crashed Ice competition?

Ours is a team sport, and we are always racing to the top.