MDNX acquired Griffin in August last year and has invested heavily to boost the development of its network, systems and product range. We caught up with Head of Sales Lee Broxson and Head of Marketing Cherie Howlett who gave us the heads up on the firm's next growth phase.
Following the acquisition Griffin has now integrated its networks and is busy migrating partners across to an enhanced quoting, ordering and support platform called MATRIX. Furthermore, Griffin partners will soon have access a wider range of connectivity products including DSL, FTTC and Ethernet. "Our customers will be able to quote services from all of the major carriers and diagnose and repair faults," explained Broxson. "The system includes a monitoring portal that can be extended to end users to track usage and help diagnose issues. Users can also view their order inventory and invoices online. The feedback we have received so far has been positive. Partners have been impressed with the quick Ethernet quoting functionality from multiple carriers and the simplicity of the automated ordering process."
Broxson predicts a significant rise in demand for faster and more reliable connectivity in 2013. Prices will continue to fall and resellers will need a supplier that can provide a competitively priced, wide choice of connectivity with a smooth order delivery process. "As SMBs take advantage of Ethernet's faster speeds and competitive pricing, ADSL in the business market will give way to Ethernet and the cloud will finally start to take off," stated Broxson. "Our aim is to take our channel as smoothly and profitably as possible through this process."
Griffin has been trading for over 20 years and achieved significant growth over the last eight years by building a successful channel of resellers. With a 15-plus year stint at Griffin under his belt Broxson has witnessed much change but, he noted, the organisation's ethos remains the same. "Our job is to make it easy and profitable for resellers to buy a wide range of connectivity and data network solutions at the best possible pricing from one integrator," he stated. "We understand that our channel pays our wages and that we only achieve success when they are successful, so we work hard to get the best rates we can from the carriers, invest in automated systems and strive to provide the best possible service. We don't always get it right but we listen to our customers to understand the difficulties they face and implement solutions quickly."
Broxson made particular note of Griffin's sales and marketing programmes, all designed to help resellers identify and close connectivity and data network solutions within their base. "We have been around long enough to know how to identify the quick wins and how to avoid the common pitfalls and we share this knowledge with our channel," he said. "We run two programmes, The Ethernet Sales Generator and The Data Revenue Generator. One is a five step programme and the other a six step scheme taking resellers from a standing start to making Ethernet and MPLS networks a valid and profitable revenue stream. To kick start our programmes we run nationwide events."
Howlett joined Griffin over eight years ago and she continues to be instrumental in developing the sales and marketing programmes that prove pivotal in driving revenue growth throughout the Griffin partner base. "We help our resellers upgrade their broadband customers to faster circuits when they need to, leading to complex data networks when end users are ready," she said. "There is no doubt in my mind that Ethernet is the new breakthrough product of this decade. In just a couple of years we have gone from selling no Ethernet circuits to over 150 a month. End users are demanding faster, more reliable connectivity to the Internet and to the cloud and new carriers have entered the market improving coverage and driving down prices.
"The recent introductions of innovative new Ethernet products like EFM and FTTC Ethernet have further fuelled demand. End users will soon be able to buy a symmetrical 20Mb product almost anywhere in the UK for under £200 a month and have it delivered in weeks rather than months. We can help our resellers with an efficient process of identifying and closing these opportunities without spending a fortune on marketing."
According to Howlett, she is set to motivate the market further as Griffin prepares for its next growth phase. "We are gearing up for growth," she said. "Once all of our partners have access to our new ordering platform our mission is to help them upsell their DSL bases to Ethernet and upgrade their Ethernet partners to private networks. We are working on launching key products in demand from our customers such as TTB FTTC Ethernet, VoIP, QoS and advanced monitoring and security add-ons. We have more training events in the pipeline and will continue to roll out our two sales and marketing programmes to help our channel benefit from the current boom for faster more reliable Ethernet."•