It sometimes comes down to leadership when tackling the many vested interests in the channel, according to Cerberus Networks Director Bob Hendy, whose mission is to help resellers confront, manage and profit from change.
A buoyant comms market is a sign of prosperity so must be good news for resellers. Most remarkable is a big surge in the uptake of VoIP, which is both welcome and disruptive, yet many resellers remain firmly wedded to old world technology, according to Hendy. "Clients are adopting VoIP in droves," he said. "Cerberus provides SIP and WLR3 BT telephony services, but in 2014 we saw a complete collapse in demand for ISDN in favour of almost 100 per cent adoption of SIP or hosted PBX for new telephony services. As a Microsoft hosting provider we are a great believer in UC, but still we find the more traditionally minded businesses preferring to play it safe and opt for a traditional voice-only comms infrastructure, even when based on VoIP. In our ideal world everyone would switch to a fully fledged UC platform and be enjoying next generation 21st century communications."
The attraction of well connected cloud comms will not pass and it is clear to see where Cerberus has hitched its wagon. Key partners in the connectivity space are BT Wholesale and Virgin Media, combined with systems from Cisco, Juniper and Fortinet to provide managed WAN and security solutions. In the cloud space Cerberus' key partners are Microsoft, VMware and Citrix. "We currently provide hosted computing services to the application hosting and enterprise markets based on technology from VMware," said Hendy. "However, the rich feature set is often not required by value conscious SMEs so we will shortly be rolling out a new value-focused variant of our MyCloud Computing service in Q2 this year to address this."
The widespread adoption of cloud services is disrupting reseller business models but Hendy has nevertheless seen many adapt to the new climate. "For resellers who want to build their expertise in this new landscape we offer a white label product that helps them better serve their customers," he said. "As we continue to put the right tools in the hands of our partners we know we are enabling them to succeed in a competitive and evolving marketplace. Resellers need to focus on building a strong portfolio of services underpinned by affordable and flexible connectivity to deliver on the promise of reducing complexity."
Cerberus is 're-targeting' channel partners this year and is bullish about the portfolio of services it offers to resellers for connectivity and cloud services. "We know we can compete against anyone on a like-for-like basis for broadband and Ethernet services, and for our IT VAR/MSP clients we offer a full-range service including hosted office applications, hosted computing, hosted desktop and online backup/DR," explained Hendy. "This makes us a one-stop-shop for many potential partners looking to consolidate and simplify how they provide a wide range of cloud services, all the time integrated with connectivity to get the best experience and most flexible and elegant solution designs."
When Cerberus was established in 2006 it brought together a team of colleagues from ISP Mailbox Internet and the networking VAR Topology. Both companies had been acquired as part of a consolidation process and Hendy found that some customers and staff were not well served by the new management. "We saw an opportunity to build a new business," he commented. "The initial mission was to provide managed Internet, network and security services to SMEs. The first turning point for the business was partnering with what was then BE Unlimited for our ISP services in 2006. This was a small provider at the time with a limited channel. Cerberus recognised the power of the unlimited ADSL2+ services that BE was offering and built a reseller channel around these services, providing resellers with ordering and service automation and wholesale access to a stand-out broadband product."
The next major development came in 2010 when Cerberus built its own network for the delivery of broadband and cloud services, still using O2 Wholesale's ADSL2+ products for broadband access (after BE Unlimited was acquired) and a new cloud computing platform. "Our vision was to deliver connectivity and services on a converged, integrated infrastructure to enhance the customer experience of both," added Hendy. "When O2 Wholesale left the broadband market we formed a partnership with BT and have a fresh and attractive portfolio of FTTC and ADSL services delivered on a unified platform."
Together with a refreshed portfolio of cloud and communications services Hendy sees this development as a new phase of the company's journey and a 'great platform' for growing the business. "We currently employ 30 staff across two offices," noted Hendy. "We aim to grow our headcount by 20 to 25 per cent this year. Likewise, while 2014 was a static year for us due to the changes we had to accommodate with O2 Wholesale leaving the market, we foresee growth of 15-20 per cent in 2015/16, building on our new broadband, Ethernet and cloud services."
An important component of Hendy's strategy is making services highly accessible and manageable for customers using the firm's portal tools. "We will continue to focus on this, making sure that partners have on-demand access to as many provisioning, order management and diagnostics tools as we can," he confirmed. "For many partners this is a key capability as it puts them in the driving seat when it comes to dealing with service requests and troubleshooting, shortening the time to resolution dramatically."
Cerberus has invested heavily in building its new network for the delivery of broadband and Ethernet services, as well as hosted security and tailored WAN solutions, extending its capability and expertise in this area. The company also created a 24x7 helpdesk team to deliver the levels of support that users expect of business-grade, mission-critical services, around the clock.
"We understand well the needs of the channel and the extra demands on these clients from their customers," said Hendy. "This is why we are continually developing our service management tools to make sure we offer as much control to resellers as possible backed-up by a 24x7 responsive support team."
In the year ahead Hendy's priority is to evangelise the new services in Cerberus' portfolio and the tools to manage them easily and efficiently. "This starts with our new broadband portfolio and the new management technologies we provide to partners such as QoS and TR-069 automated router provisioning," he added. "We also have a new generation of cloud services being delivered in calendar Q1 and Q2 of 2015 including online backup/DR services as well as our cloud computing platform."
Turning back the calendar, Hendy's first job in IT was with AppleCentre Kensington in 1998. He worked in the Apple channel for a number of years before moving into broader networking and security infrastructure with Topology. "I went from selling laptops to celebrity clients to designing and maintaining complex network and infrastructure solutions to businesses throughout the UK in a few short years," said Hendy. "It was a steep learning curve but taught me many important lessons that are still relevant today. During that time I saw the industry move from selling huge quantities of hardware at high margins to a focus on value add services and the cloud."
Hendy counts himself lucky to have developed long-term working relationships with 'great people who never stopped learning, who deliver on their promises, and who grow and adapt as the industry changes'. These are essential qualities in a competitive and demanding business, believes Hendy, and are a reflection of the core values of Cerberus.
"It's fascinating to see how technology has continued to up-end established business models and create new ways of working across so many industries," he said. "We are at the beginning of another big disruptive change as smaller companies take advantage of the confluence of connectivity and hosted technologies."
It is one thing to recognise change, it is another to be comfortable with it, and another again to make it your purpose. "I have learned not be afraid of change," stated Hendy. "While it is often disruptive, learning to manage the process and communicate decisions is key to taking people with you and discovering the positives. As long as you act with integrity and your decisions are based on the available information, you have a good chance of succeeding."•