Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Cbeyond's Strong Competitive Strategy and Outstanding Technical Implementation in VoIP Access and SIP Trunking Services Market

Cbeyond's Customer Focus and Direct Sales Overcome Intense Competition and Market Consolidation, Drive Organic Growth

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, Nov. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) access and session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking services market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBEY), the technology ally to small and mid-sized businesses, with the 2012 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Competitive Strategy Leadership. Faced with threats from both the largest of telecommunications carriers and other incumbents, Cbeyond's use of direct sales and a steadfast focus on its core customer segment has resulted in steady, measured growth and market share success.

Cbeyond ranked among the top five competitors in the 2012 North America VoIP access and SIP trunking services market.

"As one of the pioneers in the space, Cbeyond has firmly established itself as a thought leader in the VoIP access and SIP trunking services market," said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Michael Brandenburg, Industry Analyst. "A strong customer base serves Cbeyond well as it provides customer and competitive insight, which the company uses to evolve its offerings, identifying new service opportunities in key customer segments."

Similarly, the close relationship that Cbeyond develops with its customers through direct sales gives the company a unique view into its customers' strategic plans to evolve their own capabilities. These relationships not only help Cbeyond address customer needs, but also monitor competitors that might be attempting encroach on its customers.

Finally, Cbeyond leverages available market research to identify the latest market trends, for third party validation of emerging opportunities and threats to its core markets, as well as to understand the greater affects of macro market forces on its initiatives.

"We are proud of our heritage as a pioneer in Voice over IP technology, and we leverage that same heritage to bring value and innovation to our customers every day," noted Chris Gatch, Cbeyond's chief technology officer. "Cbeyond is the right partner to help small and mid-sized businesses make the jump to SIP Trunking and hosted telephony services, and to derive the maximum benefits these services provide."

The direct "feet-on-the-street" sales approach makes the service provider very recognizable in the metropolitan markets in which it operates. Cbeyond's ability to concentrate on customers has also resulted in a unique services set. Unlike many VoIP access and SIP trunking service providers, Cbeyond's offerings go beyond voice and data access services to include hosted unified communications applications, hosted exchange email services, and hosted application services including data backup, desktop security, fax to email, and Web hosting.

A rich portfolio of applications presents opportunities to bundle for the varying requirements of their customers. As a result, Cbeyond has seen higher attachment rates of these value added services than many of its competitors. A bundle of services employs an economy of scale, offering value to the customer while maintaining a healthy ARPU for Cbeyond.

Based on all these factors, Frost & Sullivan is pleased to present Cbeyond with the 2012 Competitive Strategy Leadership Award in the North American VoIP access and SIP trunking services market. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has leveraged competitive intelligence to successfully execute a competitive strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning and customer satisfaction.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Cbeyond

Cbeyond, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBEY) is the technology ally for small and mid-sized business.  Our private, proactively-managed IP network connects customers to voice, data and enterprise applications hosted in our award-winning cloud data centers.  Since 1999, Cbeyond has served the unmet needs of businesses through technology and service innovation.  We were the first company to build an all-IP network specifically for small businesses and among the few to offer consultative sales and service professionals onsite.  Today, our expanded portfolio helps customers reduce the burden of outlaying capital and manpower to manage infrastructure.  Creating an exceptional customer experience is in our DNA.  It's why more than a third of our approximately 60,000 customers come from referrals.  For more information on Cbeyond, visit http://www.cbeyond.com and follow Cbeyond on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Cbeyondinc.

About Frost & Sullivan

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