Covad Communications Company, a national provider of voice and data communications, has launched into its indirect sales channel with the new Covad (News - Alert) Integrated Access service. This new innovative online quote and order system is designed to streamline pre-qualifications and speed the sales process.

“Covad Integrated Access service combines affordability and reliability with a new simplified ordering and provisioning process that lets our sales partners concentrate on selling, not paperwork,” said Jake Heinz, vice president and general manager, Covad VoIP, in a statement.

“Covad’s focus on flexibility means our sales partners can build offerings that work for even the smallest businesses, while our nationwide network means they can count on Covad to be wherever they — and their customers — may be.”

Covad Integrated Access service is positioned as an affordable, all-in-one and Internet service that will allow businesses with as many as 35 employees per location to simplify their operations by dealing with one vendor, one bill and one contact for support.

This service from Covad is delivered over a powerful voice-optimized T1 line and works with customers’ existing phone systems so businesses can leverage their investment in their equipment and its features.

An intense process of evaluation and network improvements was undertaken by Covad to produce this new offering. These activities were initiated to better meet the combined phone and Internet needs of small and medium businesses.

Now, customers with as few as four phone lines can get started. In addition, new lines can be added one by one, rather than in the traditional “blocks” offered by many competitors. Covad’s approach is designed to make it easier to grow the product with their companies.

To get ready for this service offering, Covad completely overhauled its ordering process. The new online ordering system handles quotes, pre-qualification and contracts all in one place and in real-time.

Partners have the ability to store and manage quotes and orders through the website, and can check potential deal-killers – such as number portability – at the beginning of the process, instead of at the end.

“This is the voice and data service we’ve been asking for. The new online ordering system is easy to use and lets us know right up front that we can make a deal work,” said Dan Keane (News - Alert), Director of Partner Sales with Keane Telecom Consulting, LLC, in Atco, New Jersey, in a company statement.

Integrated Access from Covad now uses SIP trunking and support a wide range of IP, digital and analog PBXs. Covad’s voice-optimization technology is also used to dynamically allocate bandwidth between voice and data. Prioritizing voice traffic and automatically allocating remaining bandwidth to data traffic allows for maximum call quality and data throughput.

Covad is taking a proactive approach to ensuring that customers and channel partners have speedy access to the services they want and real-time information to make purchasing decisions. Such an approach helps to create a better user experience, while also streamlining internal processes to better control the cost of doing business.