Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, provides insights into the evolving mobile market and says the opportunity is far bigger than meets the eye.
Too many resellers are missing opportunities associated with mobile, claims Parven, from being able to add simple business voice to their portfolio to integrating mobile connectivity with their existing product set. "There is a fantastic opportunity to create greater entanglement and enhance customer loyalty," he stated. "For many, there is a misconception that mobile is complicated, too risky and somehow unsavoury. However, the reality is far from that. Mobile is the great enabler of converging markets, bringing together the previously disparate environments of fixed, ICT, hosting and services - something that resellers need in their portfolios if they want to grow."
Parven has witnessed a big shift in the market over the past two years as mobile is integrated within the ICT infrastructure and is becoming more integral to everyday business applications. "A mobile seller today can no longer be satisfied with just providing an airtime service and supplying hardware," added Parven. "They must look at how the service is being used to realise its true value. In a world of revenue share, this is what sets the successful partners apart from those yet to realise the market and channel has moved on."
As a mobile distributor, it is important Daisy Distribution has the ability to predict changes in customer demand and technology and ensure that it evolves accordingly. "The internal infrastructure and make-up of the sales and support teams will undoubtedly change to up-skill our current resource, as well as attract new skill sets from other areas within the ICT spectrum," added Parven. "The biggest change on the horizon is likely to be the appointment of Daisy Distribution as the first line support for mobile partners taking their first steps into the rapidly evolving converged marketplace."
The main issue for resellers wanting to develop a mobile strategy is their ability to adopt new technologies and services beyond their historical core business. "The three key challenges associated with this are desire, capability, and longevity," commented Parven. "Tackling these is a continual process. The desire to change needs to be addressed with a continuous reinforcement of messages around how change is necessary for partners to secure their business' future. We have found that capability can be enhanced through ongoing learning and development with the distributor. By employing specialists to guide the partners through the transition, as opposed to leaving them stranded after a single training session, you are able to instil knowledge and allow them to flourish.
"The longevity of a partner's commitment is often determined by how successful they are in the early days. We believe that the most successful way of building them up is through continual support from the distributor. They must have the depth of knowledge required to act as the partners' first line support."
Daisy Distribution's proposition is based on providing partners with freedom of choice when it comes to airtime carriers. "We look to support them in creating opportunities within their existing customer base and ensure that new complementary products are introduced as the network providers roll them out," explained Parven. "Most recently, our current areas of growth are those that straddle varying product areas. Our Microsoft Office 365 product, which is billed along with the mobile airtime, allows partners to combine traditional mobile with the hosted Microsoft solution from simple IM and collaboration to full Outlook integration.
"Similarly with Vodafone, the One Net Business solution which we offer allows partners to present a fully hosted, flexible UC proposition billed as a mobile sale with no capital outlay for the customer. This type of solution strikes a chord with organisations today that are looking to manage their overheads and control expenditure, while delivering efficiencies and productivity benefits."
Parven's mid-term strategy for delivering growth is to continue with the secondary product sales mix, to facilitate the inclusion of mobile into the portfolio of non-mobile resellers and to promote aligned sales strategies using products such as Microsoft Office 365. "The partner programme within Daisy Distribution supports resellers from all sectors of the channel," he commented. "With a purpose-built onboarding process we aim to help partners with the inclusion of mobile by upskilling their teams in sales, provisioning and management of business mobile accounts. Once established we provide support via our sales teams and product specialists."•