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ClearlyIP Acquires Telrad Technologies Group: A Dynamic Harmony

Breanna Fernie

ClearlyIP Company Harmony

Most great songs are a mix of melody and structure. Most great companies are a mix of Structure and harmony, and a little innovation. ClearlyIP recently acquired Telrad Technology Group and it seems like a hit! Let me give you a little backstory, kind of a Behind the Music.

 

Intro

The year was 1980 and Queen’s Hit – “Another One Bites The Dust” spelled the End of Bell Canada’s Telephone Monopoly….and the telecom wars were on! That same year my family moved from Jasper, Alberta to Vancouver, where my railway engineer father decided to start a phone business! A phone business that’s lasted 40 years! With that decision, much of my early childhood was spent at the office. Sitting with my Bell Canada Pink Princess Telephone on the desk next to my dad’s answering pretend client calls and taking notes. While I didn’t know it at the time, I was in training.
MELODY… 1981 – 1989

Call Me by Blondie was the song of the decade! (I could not make that up!) And on April/21st 1981 it was ruled that Canadian companies could sell phone systems, not just handsets. And did we call! Our first sale that month was a $30K [Mitel] PBX, for us, the potential was endless!

In November 1985 BC Tel was allowed to compete with direct sales to clients and subsided their monopoly line services revenues, nearly wiping out all private phone companies’ sales of PBX & Key Telephone systems.

But we were innovators! We bought old Nortel phones from BC Tel surplus and refurbished them, making an even better profit margin. Many other private phone companies were not so resourceful and 14 ended up having to close their doors.

In 1986 we cemented our friendship with Telrad USA and their amazing phone systems. We became the Canadian Telrad Distributor and Dealer Direct, and Telrad Canada was born! It proved to be our ticket to success for the next 35 years to today.

 


In 1991 Everything I Do by Bryan Adams was top! And the Telrad Digital system was introduced and we did everything for our clients, leading the Telrad N.A. team in sales from such clients of the The Vancouver Art Gallery to Raincoast Books (the publisher/distributor of the Harry Potter Books) …..we didn’t discriminate, we took on all clients including Mama Gina Pizza parlor next door We would order their pizza for the sales team every time we sold a big system.

 

REFRAIN… 2000 – 2009

2000 – 2009 The top song of the decade was We Belong Together by Mariah Carey. It was obvious that I belonged in the business! In 2000 my dad asked me to join the business full time. After 10 years of successful Telrad sales I joined the team. With Y2K, every business believed their phone systems clocks would stop phone systems from working, so our sales went through the roof with over 30,000 end users on our systems.

In 2004 Telrad introduced its first [VoIP} IP Phone system appropriately named the TVSE – Telephone Voice Exchange card that would work in all the existing Digital systems by way a simple upgrade. clients loved that they didn’t’ have to change their system out to get remote workers or branch offices connected to the system. They knew they belonged with us!

By 2008 The Telrad VoIP solutions had really evolved, enableing 1985 Telrad clients to upgrade to Digital while retaining the use of their Telrad Analog Key-Bx sets with Digital and even the IP sets with our release 8 software level. No other manufacturer offered such a migration and retention of assets.

Then in 2010 as Telrad USA changed its operations to product development & manufacturing exclusively to Israel- Telrad Canada took over the North America Distribution USA office, offering sales and support to over 300 historical dealers In the same year Telrad introduced our Pure IP Vision IP Service based system with our Futuro IP sets and they were a huge success! It was about that time I took over operations.

 

CHORUS…

For 2010 to 2019 the top song was Earned IT by The Weekend. By 2015 I knew premise based systems would soon become obsolete so my team and I developed our first “cloud based systems” still supported by our Futuro IP sets….and clients loved this as they eliminated the need for on premise systems singing their praise for Telrad, we felt that we earned it.

 

Lets Rock! – 2020+

Now it’s 2020 and According to billboard, Blinding Lights is No.1 for popularity so far. I put on my sunglasses and looked forward, It was time for more growth. As Telrad CEO, I began looking for a bigger partner to grow the business and after meeting the Clearly IP Principals, they quickly became the partners of choice! Innovation is key in this industry and It became very clear to me that Tony Lewis, the CEO of ClearyIP has nothing but a proven success track record in the industry and a strong desire to lead & develop the next generation of superior technology. Plus, with his energy, he was just fun to talk to! Sharing in his big picture plans, you could say he had me at “hello”.

The ClearlyIP Executive team is a Powerhouse of Innovation and Entrepreneurship- Tony, Luke, Bryan and Preston are the four amigos that really offer a unique skill set that got me so excited I didn’t sleep for weeks leading up to the Acquisition and when I am privy to hearing the banter on the innovation I get goose bumps, It’s thrilling stuff!

 


So here we are! And let me make one thing clear…we are going to blow up this industry with innovation like no one has seen before. I don’t quite know what our theme song will be at Clearly- but my vote is “We are the Champions” by Queen as it’s a classic and one of the greatest songs of all times. Which is how I feel about this Acquisition and Telrad uniting with Clearly… it will be epic, and I am so proud to be part of it!

 


Breanna Fernie

Chief Marketing Officer