Connect it all

Filed in archive Venture Capital on July 23, 2004

Venturewire reports about a series F (!) round of 10 million for Allconnect. Allconnect is describing their business model as follows:

"The process starts when a person moving into a new house or apartment calls their regional electric company to activate service for their home. This request for service is processed as normal by the regional electric company until the very end of the call at which point the call center agent asks the customer if they need to activate any additional utilities like phone or cable. If the customer responds yes, a brief explanation of the Allconnect service is provided by the call center agent followed by a secure transfer of both the customer's phone call and data record into the Allconnect call center*.

The incoming call is answered by an Allconnect Personal Advisor ((PA)) who verifies the accuracy of the incoming customer data before proceeding to review with the customer the additional utility and communication services needing activation. During the call the PA discusses with the customer various service options and features while providing advice on which plans best fit their service needs. The incoming call is typically answered using the electric company's brand name (i.e. "Duke Power Connections, how can I help you?")."

While I think the business model is indeed quite unique and charming I honestly doubt about that the market and the rate of cable/ phone orders placed on the phone. Does this market justify such investments? It seems it does ....