Comms Dealer

Permanent placements continued to rise in September but the rate of expansion eased to a two-and-a-half year low, according to the latest Report on Jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). 

The availability of staff to fill permanent job roles fell further in September. The rate of decline eased to the slowest in three months, but remained marked overall.

Temporary/contract staff availability also deteriorated at a slightly slower pace. 
 
Kevin Green, CEO of the REC, commented: "As politicians make their big pitches to workers and to business at the party conferences, the UK jobs market is entering a new phase. 

"Talent shortages are making it increasingly difficult for employers to find quality candidates. This is now at a critical stage in the construction and engineering sectors, constituting a major threat to planned rail upgrades and housebuilding projects."  
 
Clive Jefferys of recruiter JMA Network observed: "This hardly surprising. The long-expected skills shortage is finally biting hard on economic growth plans. The plain fact is that the UK does not have enough people of working age to meet business demand."

It's not about Wi-Fi technology per se, it's about how you approach it and apply the connectivity, according to Felix Gibson, founder and CEO of 802 Works and 802 Event Wi-Fi.

Listen and challenge, do things well first time, don't pick fights you can't win and learn to move on: These tenets and watchwords have served Gibson well and form the basis if his company's culture. They also underpin the successful development of his north Lanarkshire-based business, which is also known for sticking to a policy of chasing success instead of money while working smarter and harder.

These guiding principles catalysed a notable change in the company during 2012 when Gibson turned his attention to High Density Wi-Fi in stadiums and arenas. As a result, 802 Event WiFi became one of the first companies to successfully deploy Wi-Fi into a 54,000 capacity football arena at Ibrox stadium in Glasgow. This was one of only four 'bowl' deployments in the UK. Since then the firm has deployed many more HD Wi-Fi solutions at venues including Down Royal Racecourse (Belfast), Hamilton Park Racecourse (Hamilton), Milngavie town centre, Perth Concert Hall and most recently Albion Rovers FC.

"The product in itself is not the end game, it is the engineering knowledge and competencies that deliver the solution," added Gibson. "Our current priority is to push the 802 Event WiFi brand and position it as the provider of choice for all Wi-Fi related solutions."

An important aspect of Gibson's growth strategy is public Wi-Fi access and data capture. He foresees a closer relationship with third party value added providers and believes that specialisation is key. "The market has become fragmented with everyone doing everything," said Gibson. "Resellers should do what they do well and make it theirs, but involve other specialists to support their own expertise - why compromise?"

To fully realise the potential of Wi-Fi more information must become available through data capture, demographics and analytics. And the relationship between Wi-Fi and the client app needs to be further developed, believes Gibson. "In the US National Football League you don't install one without the other," he added. "The app works to monetise the network and pays the Wi-Fi investment."

How businesses promote a service or product and how they communicate with their target audience is key, and 802 Works sees Wi-Fi as an absolute given. It offers the ability to promote a product or service via an image or text to potential candidates wherever they are. It's no longer about a big fixed billboard in the town centre, but rather a message or video sent directly to a device over Wi-Fi. Nor is that all, demographic and analytical information forms the basis of reports for prospective marketers to match the target with a product or service. The technology also offers the promoter an enhanced ability to engage with their audience.

"It's all about the speed of change and the impact this has on how we do business, communicate and engage with others," stated Gibson. "I experienced the 'open' technology revolution in the early 80s and have learnt to embrace new technology as it emerges. We naturally encourage the integration of emerging technologies associated with High Density Wi-Fi. We believe this adds value to the overall customer solution and user experience. Growing up with the speed of change has also taught me to differentiate between product and solution."

Gibson founded 802 Event WiFi in July 2007 as a provider of fixed wireless radio solutions to the public sector. The proposition was to deliver substantial savings by replacing legacy low capacity leased lines with superfast cost-effective wireless links. "Some organisations were quick to embrace the technology with higher capacity bandwidth and huge savings," explained Gibson. "Others didn't, and still don't get it, which is hard to believe considering how far budgets have been cut."

802 Event WiFi continues to deliver wireless solutions to the public sector with 33 per cent of local authorities in Scotland in its customer base. "Although the public sector delivers fair revenue it is becoming more difficult to build trusting relationships due to procurement rules and processes," added Gibson.

"It is difficult for us to justify 'giving away' our intellectual property and then see it appear as part of a tender which is awarded on lowest cost submission. We will continue to work with the public sector but also develop steady growth in the private sector. This fits our style. We are brand agnostic, not a brand-led solutions supplier. We will deliver a solution that meets the demands of the environment, including third party products that deliver added value."

Gibson has witnessed growth in the private sector, particularly from the entertainment and arts industries. "The market is getting a little crowded with pop-up tick-in-the-box Wi-Fi providers and multi-vendor solution providers having Wi-Fi as an add-on or afterthought," he added. "This gives Wi-Fi bad PR in much the same way that poorly installed wireless radio links did 10 years ago. It's not about the Wi-Fi, it's about what you do with it and we need to educate the market."

The company's turnover last year topped £725k with further growth expected this year. In terms of staff, Gibson's strategy is to remain lean and agile. "We have four members of staff who do the jobs that are core to the business," he said. "The other activities we outsource. Our aim is to be recognised industry-wide as a stable, secure, financially sound business and a leader in Wi-Fi technology solutions. We'll get there through hard work, credibility, innovation and a bit of luck."

  Success in the channel is essentially about having agility, the power to adapt, innovation, determination and becoming a standard-bearer for impeccably high service, according to Mike van Bunnens, Managing Director at Comms365, who says there's never been a better time for resellers to assert their growth agendas based on these solid principles.

The genesis of Comms365 is a classic example of how an agile start-up can swiftly nip past well rooted industry megaliths afflicted by inertia. And having gained experience in software, managed services, telecoms and the Internet, van Bunnens soon developed the view that businesses were disadvantaged by the extended period of time it took the larger players to react to their needs during service delivery and post-sale. "I saw an opportunity to build an ISP with an agenda to be different," explained van Bunnens. "We set about educating customers on how they should procure mission critical communications more effectively."

It was back in 2008 when van Bunnens established Bedfordshire-based Comms365 alongside Director Shaun Nicholls and two other business partners who had the knowhow to fast track the fledgling business. But future success was by no means a dead cert. "The first years were tough," explained van Bunnens. "We made a decision to invest in building our own network without having the customers to use it. We spent significantly on equipment, space and power and initially saw little return. Slowly but surely, customers found us and through sheer determination and many sleepless nights we began to attract businesses that believed in our ability to deliver solid, dependable services."

Those early clients were the building blocks of a strong and loyal customer base, and Comms365's decision to build its own network soon became the driver for a growing number of business wins from customers attracted to the firm's ability to demonstrate end-to-end control of its services, as well as offer bespoke solutions. "The great thing about our business is that we don't actually have a typical customer," added van Bunnens. "We work with companies of all sizes. Some with one person and others with 80,000 people."

Comms365 has grown between 50-80 per cent year-on-year and last year the company achieved almost £2 million turnover. van Bunnens expects to add another £500k this financial year and he is particular proud because the company remains debt free. He attributes much of this growth to Comms365's collaboration with partners who have helped to generate large sales. "The channel is key to our future growth," he added. "Our key partners are other ISPs, solution providers, SIs, IT support companies and pretty much any company that offers communication solutions.

"We offer the usual ISP services such as ADSL, FTTC and Ethernet via our channel, but what sets us apart is our mobile data solution. This is available as either a reseller or wholesale model and we can offer partners a quick way to add this rapidly growing service to their portfolios. We will also build our channel by encouraging partners to harness the fast expanding M2M/IoT market. Our products are positioned to cater for the exponential increase in data that will be generated by this burgeoning technology."

Not surprisingly, the addition of mobile data solutions opened the door to new opportunities soon after Comms365 was formed. "We were asked to help a large retailer with a mobile data solution and almost immediately afterwards we were approached by a large international carrier that wanted to interconnect with us and sell our mobile data solution. Things snowballed from that point onwards."

The company is especially interested in partners that work in specific vertical markets, particularly construction, energy and healthcare where speed of delivery and remote access are key components of the complete solution. "We see resellers as underpinning our success," commented van Bunnens. "Our solutions are all designed to be adopted by the channel and we will continue to invest in developing rich toolsets to make selling our services easier. We aim to attract partners who wish to work with a company that is in this industry for the right reasons."

Comms365 employs 15 staff and has a number of contract team members. The firm operates lean processes, proprietary internal systems and a management portal called CommsPortal which simplifies its data services and gives customers and partners a granular level of hands-on management. A move to bigger premises this month will increase the firm's capacity to service the channel and also attract local people to work for the company.

The decisive move to new premises and the revving up of channel activity has raised a number of questions about the future direction of Comms365. Most notably, the rise of cloud services is a key ingredient in the mix. van Bunnens commented: "We constantly ask ourselves - are we an infrastructure provider or a one-stop-shop? Do we get involved in application development or reselling ourselves? Do we have the requisite skills to become a fully blown ASP or do we concentrate on what we do best, creating unique data services and managed services? We know that ongoing innovation will help us to grow and diversify, but it must be done in a controlled manner."

One recent example of Comms365's controlled development style was the introduction of more vertical specific products such as its Continuum bonded service. "We went back to the drawing board, worked with customers and designed and built our own solution," explained van Bunnens. "We then productised it, offered a number of sales options such as purchase, rental and emergency deployment. The initiative has been well received, attracting great customers and we picked up awards and nominations."

Because most of the services offered by Comms365 are not mainstream it has become known as a niche provider. For example, mobile data is different to fixed line data, it has a different set of challenges around support and diagnostics. It is not an exact science and this scares many companies from getting involved. "If we can remove that unknown and make it easier for partners to take a service from us and successfully integrate it into their own portfolios, then we have succeeded," added van Bunnens.

A resilient comms strategy should be top priority for all businesses, according to van Bunnens. "Communications underpins every company so why cut corners and implement consumer attitudes to Internet, phones and business critical infrastructure?," he asked. "Most businesses spend more on postage or stationery each month than they do on their communications. This is crazy. SMEs have no comprehension about the financial impact that service outages can cause, especially as they become more and more dependent on cloud applications."

Managed services such as those provided by Comms365 plug the SME technology gap. Mobile data, for example, can be complicated but customers appreciate the consultancy, advice and guidance offered by Comms365, through to configuration, deployments, site surveys and monitoring, in addition to the actual network piece. Another growth area noted by van Bunnens is short-term rentals with rapid deployment. This is what he calls 'comms in a box'.

With growth markets on his mind he urged resellers to get into the M2M space. "We can help partners sell and support M2M," added van Bunnens. "Resellers with M2M opportunities sometimes seek out the cheapest price to make the most margin, only to find that managing the service post-sale is time consuming and the margin soon disappears. We offer the right level of consultancy to deploy a sensible and manageable service."

Comms365 is on the road to becoming one of the channel's top managed mobile data service providers offering 'home grown must-have' solutions that companies would find it 'difficult to do without', believes van Bunnens. "We re going to get there through hard work, agility, determination and listening to our partners and customers," he added. "This way we identify what is really needed and create solutions to real world problems."

The future success of MSPs depends on their ability to resolve the prevailing 'analysis-paralysis' paradox, according to speakers at this year's Managed Services and Hosting Summit (staged by IT Europa, 17th September at London's Bishopsgate).

It could be strongly argued that the managed services environment is maturing nicely. But ironically, the evolutionary nature of this space could render it locked in a near-permanent status quo, unable to develop to its full potential. At one end of the spectrum a stream of stimulating new entrants and technology innovations will refresh the traditional IT industry anew. But on the other hand, customer inertia will prevent the sector from realising its full capacity for growth. Therein lies the paradox: Customers are holding back from making buying decisions because of the pace of change, a condition SolidFire's CEO Dave Wright calls 'analysis-paralysis'.

Changes in customer buying behaviours are influencing the development of emerging managed services providers as well as more established ones. Therefore the industry must reconsider its sales approach and customer engagement processes if it is to achieve its full potential. MSPs need to be smarter at understanding the technology needs of end users, as well as knowing how the different departments within an organisation use technology.

In a keynote address to delegates, Mark Paine, Research Director at Gartner (pictured), underlined these factors and cited research that illustrated the shift away from traditional selling methods like direct telesales towards engagement with a broader range of buyers who are more informed about the options available to them. 'Knowledge can be a dangerous thing', and selling to such customers can be a challenge with 45 per cent of IT spend already decentralised.

The 'empowerment' of end users could be interpreted as a baby step towards disintermediation, but the opposite is true, with fears over the possible commoditisation of the sector allayed by David Bellini, President of ConnectWise, who has been selling managed services for 25 years. He claimed a premium over other service providers because his people are 'better', they can resolve issues quickly and the solutions he provides are generally 'more reliable'. "The commoditisation scare resurfaces every few years and we've seen it off every time," he said. "Standing your ground as a MSP depends on improved management within the company. Everything has a ticket, including people."

The rising expectations of customers are a key point of difference, believes Bellini. In such a fast moving industry a new buzzword could within a year become mainstream language. Millennials are helping to catalyse the acceptance of new phrases into everyday speech. They expect always-on comms, constant innovation and are less keen on face-to-face engagement. They're even turning against voice and phone communication. As customers, millennials have different demands on MSPs compared to earlier generations, yet MSPs must still cater for the expectations of more traditional users.

The one common factor that bridges the generation gap is customer service. Mark Banfield, VP of International at Autotask, cited research undertaken by the company that underscores the importance of QoS, delivering on time, sticking to budget and specification, as well building a close working relationship with customers who want solid advice and a single point of contact. "Price should not become an issue if you get these things right," he stated. "This works for us. We are absolutely not the cheapest in the market, but we obsess about the customer experience."

The go-to-market philosophy advanced by Banfield is a proven antidote to the 'analysis-paralysis' scenario identified by SolidFire's CEO Dave Wright, who also affirmed that differentiation through good service is key. However, promoting stand-out attributes can be problematic. "In many cases customers can't identify differentiators so they go with familiar brands," he said. "Many MSPs are struggling to stand out and this can limit their success."

Comment
The Managed Services and Hosting Summit identified the primary determining factors that are likely to shape the future look and survivability of MSPs, whose longevity cannot be separated from their ability to unlock the status quo while keeping in touch with a traditional base. Their priority is to action a new approach to customer engagement that reflects changes in end user buying behaviours. Just as important is having the capacity to differentiate. This can be achieved through outstanding consultancy, faultless project delivery and impeccable after-sales service. None of this is rocket science, but turning the obvious into actionable strategy remains a challenge and until achieved the 'analysis-paralysis' paradox will remain unresolved.

CaféX's victory is putting true omnichannel communication into the hands of customers, claims Dave Phillips, Managing Director for EMEA and Asia, who is at the vanguard of the company's just-launched UK channel expansion campaign.

CaféX is no ordinary young up-and-comer. Founded in mid-2013 and unburdened by past practices the firm is fuelled by enough innovation to set the pace in meeting customer demands for omnichannel engagement. At the helm of the US-based company's push into the UK market is newly appointed Managing Director Dave Phillips who is in total lockstep with the march of CaféX's growth ambitions, which are based on its Live Assist solution and a well advanced channel strategy.

Live Assist enables enterprises to offer customers a seamless omnichannel engagement experience encompassing voice, video, mobile, web, self-service and other communication channels without the rip-and-replace of existing systems and platforms. A quick look at Phillips' past experience shows that he is the man for the job. "I delivered multi-channel customer solutions for retail and automotive sector clients as long ago as 1999," he said. "These capabilities have reached maturity level and customer expectations are driving demand."

The litmus test of any means of communication is whether it communicates efficiently, and CaféX passes the test with flying colours. A key element of the Live Assist solution is the melding of customer history and context from each service platform among all of the available engagement channels to ensure a smooth transition and a positive customer experience, regardless of which or how many channels a customer chooses to use. "Live Assist can be added to most mobile apps or websites with minimal effort, providing one or two-way in-app video without the need for plugins or downloads, and offering true co-browsing with rich annotation and document push capabilities, along with real-time contextual communications," explained Phillips.

Developing and nurturing communications channels, as well as creating synergies with next generation customer experience providers, will form the cornerstone of CaféX's growth strategies. Alongside its partners the company will initially target medium and large sized businesses that rely heavily on customer service. "We have the solutions and deep understanding of the UK market to be successful," stated Phillips, who has spent many years working on customer experience transformation. "Our partners know this market and have a solution that will resonate with businesses that are struggling to keep up with increasing consumer demands for omnichannel engagement."

CaféX plans to force a fundamental re-imagining of the end user experience and become the standard-bearer for omnichannel communication, according to Phillips. He believes that the value proposition of digital customer engagement has not been well understood, and aims to enthuse multitudes with CaféX's clarity of vision and straightforward propositions.

"Everyone agrees that digital customer engagement is a business imperative but in practice there is often little execution, mainly because the barrier to entry has been too high," he added. "CaféX has changed that. The overarching message is that it doesn't have to be hard. We have a proven methodology that brings the significant benefits of rich digital interaction to clients while leveraging existing assets.

"One of our biggest objectives this year is to release a wizard that helps developers and customers create their own best-of-breed WebRTC-based customer engagement solution. We have worked hard in the past to streamline these processes and plan to release new tools that will simplify development even further. This capability will be well received by both enterprise customers and developers."
CaféX provides a number of tools and development kits to ease the deployment of Live Assist in mobile apps running on iOS and Android platforms as well as all major web browsers. Integration with existing enterprise collaboration infrastructure also ensures that existing investments are protected. A priority for CaféX is to also simplify the consumption model for partners and customers.

"We are focused on delivering packaged offerings that enable companies to procure and overlay our technology quickly and cost-effectively," commented Phillips. "This model is particularly relevant for the commercial market where repeatable, high volume offers that leverage economies of scale are more attractive. Of course, we will continue to support the custom requirements of large enterprises through flexible solutions optimised for heterogeneous environments."

CaféX, which was established by CEO Rami Musallam and CTO David Jodoin as a spin-off of Thrupoint's software business, was founded with a mission to create the advanced business transforming software solutions already discussed. And, as we have also seen, the company believes it is necessary for companies to harness the opportunity sooner rather than later in order to gain a competitive advantage.

"The homogenisation of companies means they must differentiate through servicing," explained Phillips. "Companies of all shapes and sizes are looking at how they can do this, and many realise that it involves large scale transformation. Together with our partners, CaféX shines the light for these companies, guiding them through a faster, more results focused path to reach their goals."

CaféX employs over 90 people spread across locations in the US and UK where it works with a number of resellers and service integrators, as well as in Japan. Remarkably for a company in the flush of youth, in March last year the Live Assist solution was named Product of the Year at Enterprise Connect in Orlando, Florida, and has achieved similar recognition from the likes of Gartner and Frost & Sullivan.

Such high praise recognises CaféX's solutions that have been deployed in trial or live environments across many of the world's largest banks, several top US insurance providers and other Forbes Global 2000 companies. CaféX has also formed strategic partnerships with three of the leading contact centre equipment vendors with access to up to 75 per cent of all agent seats globally, claims the firm.

According to Phillips, the surface has barely been scratched. "From banking and insurance to blue light services and healthcare, none have truly harnessed services that reflect the move that has already happened," he said. "That gives CaféX and our partners a huge opportunity. On the ground, we see the successful resellers acting as advisors to their clients, with CaféX software as the tip of their spear enabling them to quickly impact the business, and in doing so establish relevance and credibility beyond their traditional sphere of influence.

"Brands are looking to bring together their traditional and digital channels to create a cohesive customer experience. Resellers have the opportunity to position themselves as the much-needed bridge between those two worlds. Even better, this is a replicable model."

CaféX has evolved into a consultative sales organisation to better serve partners. Resellers also have no choice but to evolve to meet market demand, according to Phillips. "This is a critical point," he said. "Changing customer requirements drive innovation, and savvy resellers have taken this philosophy to heart and are positioning themselves as consultants that guide businesses through the labyrinth of new technology, as opposed to just selling products. There are no short cuts in this process. We have to really understand the business context in order to meet the specific needs of individual customers."

As well as consultancy, the continued growth of smartphone adoption is also fuelling CaféX's expansion. Consumers now have more choices to engage with their preferred business and service providers, and the overwhelming majority of these companies do not have the technology in place to efficiently manage these divergent communications channels.

"CaféX allows organisations to add full collaboration capabilities to their current infrastructure, enabling them to serve evolving consumer demands without having to make substantial investments in new technology," affirmed Phillips. "We have a strong foundation, a dedicated team and field tested solutions. All of the necessary ingredients are there - now it's up to us to execute."

If you think M2M and IoT opportunities only happen way beyond your back yard then think again because they exist right under your nose. The big question is how far this opportunity will be realised, according to Pangea's Managing Director Dan Cunliffe.

The reseller channel is heavily populated by outstanding opportunists but one of the biggest opportunities to come their way may soon go begging. Despite big advances in M2M and IoT the channel has been slow to enter this world, largely due to a lack of knowledge about the opportunity at hand. "Many people struggle to understand how the channel can make money from connecting a toaster to a fridge," commented Cunliffe. "Clearly, this is a misconception that separates resellers from what could be their biggest ever new business opportunity."

There is far more to M2M and IoT than first meets the eye, and Cunliffe is on a mission to bring these opportunities to the attention of M2M naysayers who are, perhaps ironically, perfectly positioned to drive this evolving market. "There are exciting and relevant opportunities for resellers," he said. "Many of our partners use their existing capabilities to generate business in the M2M space. One partner is particularly successful at selling fixed connectivity across various sectors as part of its WAN offering, especially in the construction vertical."

Citing this partner, Cunliffe noted that Pangea has introduced a productised version of a mobile WAN that complements what the partner already does so well in the fixed space. The mobile WAN can easily be deployed using Pangea SIMs that adhere to the same set of network rules as an existing WAN. "This solution has been quoted out with the partner to support several thousand end points for the construction company as a blended fixed and mobile WAN solution," added Cunliffe. "Traditionally, you wouldn't consider this to be an M2M or IoT solution, but it is. Just as importantly the solution dovetails with the work already being done by ICT resellers up and down the country."

This is just one instance of a Pangea partner moving into the IoT space using M2M and mobile data technology. "These are real examples where revenue and margin benefits are being realised," said Cunliffe. "The next step for the channel is to consider all of the opportunities within the M2M space and understand how they fit within their existing model to drive new revenue streams."

Industry players are regularly told that the M2M market is developing at a rate of knots. Such messages are often characterised by hype when applied to technologies that are proving popular, primarily to create a sense of urgency and motivate a new market. But there is a difference with M2M. The adoption rates are significant with growth across all sectors, most reaching circa 30 per cent adoption in 2015. "The implementation of M2M solutions is changing how industries operate, improving productivity, customer service, accelerating the decision-making process, cutting costs, gaining competitive advantage and being more innovative," explained Cunliffe.

He cited figures that highlight the energy and utilities sector as the highest adopter at 37 per cent, followed by the automotive sector (32 per cent). The retail sector has also experienced growth during the past year, reaching an adoption rate of 32 per cent. The healthcare sector is another key M2M market with uptake rising from 19 per cent in 2014 to 28 per cent this year.

"The energy and utilities sector has the highest adoption rate due to Government regulations on smart metering in many countries," commented Cunliffe. "The main benefits of M2M in this sector are reducing energy demand, managing patterns in demand and supply and driving innovation."

Pangea is helping partners delve deeply into the M2M market which, believes Cunliffe, is a mine of opportunity enriched with almost limitless potential. "M2M is more than just data and applications, it's about integration across the whole piece," he commented. "The market is expected to contribute $6.2 trillion to the global GDP over the next 10 years, so we are urging resellers to get involved and not miss out. In a short period time we have enabled partners to secure deals across various areas that they wouldn't normally have even considered. We are helping partners exploit new revenue streams, and we hold fresh conversations with their customers because of the new opportunities in Smart connectivity and M2M."

Cunliffe makes a point of talking up the Smart connectivity aspect because the mobile data and M2M products Pangea provides are delivered via its real-time cloud-based platform. This provides a detailed and clever overview of the entire estate and enables partners to control, activate, de-activate, set usage limits and view accurate data readings all in real-time. Pangea's own billing offering is integrated with the platform and Cunliffe believes the solution to be a key differentiator.

As we have seen the IoT creates new business models, so it should come as no surprise to learn that challenges are also inevitable. The biggest hurdle has been concerns about security which have slowed the adoption of M2M in the past, but a secure cloud-based platform overcomes this primary issue. In fact, noted Cunliffe, the Security of Things is also a new revenue opportunity.

All doubts about the relevance and potential of M2M will be swept aside by real world examples of important market successes, according to Cunliffe. To underscore his argument he referred to one partner that scooped a fleet management contract covering 15,000 vehicles with a deal value of £5.4 million. Even better, another Pangea partner picked up a UK council deal to measure and improve transport, environmental and road systems, with a total contract value of £24 million. "There are many more such deals in trial and under review," revealed Cunliffe. "We have achieved incredible results with our partners since we started in Q1 this year."

Pangea was launched by Cunliffe (the former Head of Partners and Strategy at O2 Wholesale) with backing from a team of investors and its expansion story is an apt reflection of the M2M growth narrative. The firm has quickly become a global Tier 1 provider of Smart connectivity and applications and is an Authorised dealer within O2 Telefónica's M2M Global Channel Partner Programme with the buying power and ability to provide any number of SIM cards across any amount of data over any network on a global scale.

The company has projects in the EU and South America with similar opportunities emerging in Australia and Africa. "We may have an international reach but we are focused on our partner channel in the UK," added Cunliffe. "Many of our direct competitors are larger and may have been in the market longer than us. But Pangea is young and eager to do business, especially with the channel. We demonstrated our commitment and flexibility with a partner who urgently required SIMs, so we hand-delivered them. We are not afraid to go outside of our comfort zone and do this regularly for our partners."

Pangea has four primary white label applications and product areas to support partners: A fleet and telematics service, network surveillance and CCTV, mobile WAN and Mi-Fi (Wi-Fi on the go and pop-up office). The company has agreed four global partnerships in renewable energy, health, Smart cities and community transport systems, and is able to supply connectivity in over 200 countries.

"We are hungry for growth and this is only achievable through collaboration with partners," added Cunliffe. "Partners have a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on the M2M space and realise new revenues within their existing markets. Our commercials are dynamic and designed to empower partners to create their own opportunities. The scope is endless and all of the market analysts point to sustained and rapid growth."

From a modest regional start-up 20 years ago Zen Internet has risen in stature multifold, and according to Stephen Warburton, Managing Director for Channel Partners, an internal restructure, infrastructure projects and heavy investments in portal development signal a new high watermark in partner engagement and channel expansion.

Hard to believe now, but 20 years ago the big question on the lips of many entrepreneurs looking for the next big opportunity was, 'will the Internet take-off?'. One such visionary was Zen's Chief Executive Richard Tang who acted with conviction and used his life savings to set up the company in 1995 as a provider of dial-up services to local businesses in the north west.

During the course of 20 years Zen has grown into a £50 million turnover business - through recommendations rather than acquisitions - and is forecasting significant growth at seven per cent this year to £54 million. Its headcount of 400 staff cater for 63,000 customers and 500 channel partners, with the channel contributing 30 per cent of Zen's overall revenues. "I see our channel business growing by up to 50 per cent over the next three to five years by sticking to the formula that has driven our growth for the last 15 years," said Warburton. "Our focus will be on providing a premium and personal service that partners can rely on."

This growth will, in no small part, be facilitated by an organisational revamp of the company that is now sub-divided into three distinct business divisions - Small Business and Residential, Corporate Mid-Market and Channel Partners. Each is headed up by a Managing Director and management team with dedicated resources for sales and marketing, operations, product and systems. "The restructure enables faster decision making and allows us to more deeply understand the needs of our customers and partners," said Warburton. "We can respond quickly to their suggestions and work more closely with them to shape the future."

Another driver for growth is the widening spread of Zen's exchange footprint following an investment of circa £3.5 million in 2013 to install its own equipment in 250 UK exchanges supporting copper broadband, fibre broadband and Ethernet. "This gives Zen greater control over the end-to-end service and allows us to offer more competitive pricing," stated Warburton.

Zen offers dealers, resellers and wholesale partners a portfolio of data, voice and hosting services. "We are clearly moving to a position where channel partners rightly expect to buy data and voice services from one provider as we shift to an all IP world," commented Warburton. "We have built a strong reputation as a data provider and we are looking to build a similar high profile for voice, investing heavily in this area to make sure we are a credible choice for partners who are looking to consolidate their supply chain."

In terms of customer engagement and solution selling the transition to IP has had a significant impact on Zen and its channel partners. "The way we sell, deliver and support services is changing," commented Warburton. "It's an opportunity, particularly for data resellers, but also a threat. To meet this challenge we plan to bring to market later this year exciting developments in our voice portfolio."

Also topping Zen's current agenda is the ongoing development of partner portals that will help the company live up to its mantra of being easy to do business with. "All of our activity is geared around that goal," commented Warburton. "Heavy investments in our portals will give partners the tools to self-serve rather than having to call our teams to action requests. This will become an increasingly important factor when resellers are looking for a partner to work with. We have been collaborating closely with our partners, involving them in focus groups and trials."

According to Warburton, Zen's portal investment will be a key differentiator and its stand-out attributes are largely based on a stream of fresh ideas for new feature enhancements. "It can be a challenge prioritising which new features to develop first, but we collaborate with our partners to shape our roadmap," explained Warburton. "It is critical we give our partners the tools to manage their services online and we will continue to invest in this area."

He said Zen will also continue to expand its portfolio, focusing on depth as much as breadth of service, ensuring the firm is able to respond to technology changes and offer partners choice, flexibility and value. "It's important for resellers to be clear about where they add value to minimise the risk of a customer consolidating the supply chain and moving all of their services under one provider," commented Warburton. "If they add sufficient value their services will be retained.

Right technology fit
"It is also important for partners to recommend the right technology for their customer's needs. Sometimes we can all get swept along by technology hype, but it's critical for the industry to be clear about how technology will add business benefits. We must be confident that the technology will cope with the demands of a company in terms of technological maturity and stability."

Warburton's interest in the relationship between IT and business showed an early appearance and was to define his career path. Like many people working in comms he 'fell' into the industry and landed on his feet at Zen after studying Business and Computing at university. "I've always had an interest in IT and how it could be used in business," explained Warburton. "The majority of my career has been spent at Zen. I've seen the industry change from the Internet being a niche service mainly for technical users to a critical service in nearly every home and business. In essence, a fourth utility."

Ignite Business Communications has turned clarity of vision into an exemplary growth strategy, according to Andy Portlock, Commercial Operations Manager, who is at the vanguard of the company's ambitious expansion strategy.

Ignite's rolling campaign convoy is going places. The Romford-based company has extended its reach into London and the south west and all eyes are fixed on realising an ambitious set of targets. Within three years the company hopes to double in size and generate revenues of over £6 million, and Portlock expects Ignite to quadruple in stature by 2020 with revenues of £12 million-plus. "Our expansion will be driven by a number of catalysts - organic growth and acquisitions will all play a part," stated Portlock.

The company recorded its highest growth last year with revenues up 52.2 per cent to well over £3 million. EBITDA rose 283.2 per cent to just over £513k. Also in the ascent are DD collections which increased 127.8 per cent from 180 clients to 410. The firm's headcount doubled to 10 with employee retention at 100 per cent and client retention sitting at 98 per cent. You don't need to be Einstein to figure out that Ignite's winning formula is adding up.

The firm's itch to grow has been partly scratched by the launch of a south west office in February this year. Based in Cirencester the new operation offers local businesses consultation around telephony, connectivity and managed services, and is supported by Ignite's HQ which absorbs the administration and support burden. "This gives Ignite great reach to market," added Portlock, who is looking for more strategically placed offices to build or acquire. "We have launched an aggressive acquisition campaign and want to talk to company owners who have built successful businesses but now want to take time out and enjoy their hard work. The acquisition options with Ignite are endless and we will tailor an offer for the right business."

This month Ignite opens the door to its London base located at Bishopsgate close to Liverpool Street. "This office will house up to 15 staff in its first year and allow us to develop our proposition to city-based clients," added Portlock. "During the past year we have transformed from being a traditional telecoms company to one that provides fully managed cloud, managed services, hosted telephony and on-premise phone systems. Our product portfolio includes solutions such as managed firewalls, email filtering, business continuity and disaster recovery. This proposition has resulted in truly remarkable growth and profits."

Ignite works with organisations of all sizes to deliver telephony, connectivity, managed services and cloud computing solutions. "We manage every aspect of our customers' business communications, from lines and connections to telephone hardware and the managed services that drive the collaborative power of an organisation," stated Portlock. "We regard these services as business critical and view them in terms of what they help our clients overcome, achieve and create."

Ignite is owned by the same board of directors as Utilize, which ironically is where Portlock began his career in comms 12 years ago in a junior role but quickly rose through the ranks. "I progressed through the business to the Group Service Manager role before moving on to lead the procurement and e-commerce teams," he explained. "I spent six years with the business and had fantastic guidance and mentoring along the way. A subsequent move to a north east-based ICT company augmented my knowledge and understanding of the industry. Then, 15 months ago I joined Ignite Business Communications to head up the Commercial and Operations of the business."

Utilize provides traditional IT support and services to SMEs, but a growing number of client requests for connectivity, telephony and managed services prompted the owners to create a separate dedicated business geared up to meet these requirements, and Ignite Business Communications was launched. "I now have responsibly for product and supplier selection and management, building a commercial proposition and working with the senior management team on our best of breed end-to-end solution," said Portlock. "Having a passion for what you do is the only way to succeed. I've always had a keen interest in technology and the pace of technological change, so the opportunity to join a growing tech firm was a no-brainer."

Converged voice and data, hosted telephony and SIP are all 'in the air', noted Portlock. "We are also seeing the push towards UC, video and of course mobility," he observed. "Today's customers ask for much more than in previous years, and as the consumer markets develop Generation Y will continue to challenge us. Who knows what Generation X will demand."

X marks the spot - and Portlock believes that the management team's growth strategy is the definitive blueprint for achieving the company's targets. Not surprisingly a key component of his game plan is setting goals. "This can be challenging and is overlooked by many companies when they first start out," he added. "From the outset Ignite had a clear plan for what it wanted to achieve and everything fell into place. Our business is now committed to well-defined business goals and objectives."

He also believes that inter-company communication is paramount and has implemented systems that encourage staff to share relevant information and work together more productively rather than individually. They also know their figures. "All members of the management team and staff understand what they need to achieve, the things they need to improve and the budgets they have to work with," added Portlock. "If you know your figures you know your company.

"Through ongoing self-development and attending numerous training courses we learned that successful businesses are those that balance profit with quality staff and cash flow. Without profit you cannot build a business but without quality staff you cannot achieve profit. Without cash, you cannot do either.

"We also recognise that our biggest assets are our staff and our company culture, all geared towards the common goal of improving the effectiveness of our customers' communications. Strong self-esteem and self-confidence are vital in leading and inspiring others to achieve great things. Everybody wants to be part of something that is positive, and we believe that the natural enthusiasm, optimism and drive that flows from our management team is contagious within the organisation. Our DNA for Success is a company document written by our people. It sets out in their words the reasons we want to grow, how we can achieve this growth, our vision and our values."

Aurora's rebrand this summer was more than a simple name change. Underpinned by long-term strategic planning the new package carries far more weight than first meets the eye, says Managing Director Derek Watson, who provides an update on developments since the revamp was made official.

In June this year billing firm Aurora Kendrick James signalled the next phase of its development with a company name change and a rebrand. Known simply as Aurora, the move included the launch of a new website that offers customers login access 24/7, a new corporate logo and software developments to the billing platform which was rebranded as the Affinity Software Suite. Aurora also re-categorised Affinity into six core modules. "These changes not only reflect the business we have become, but have been designed in line with what we know our customers and their customers require to operate efficiently and successfully in an increasingly complex and competitive market," said Watson.

The strategic timing of this development was significant. With the communications landscape and channel rapidly diversifying, Aurora's services and software needed to reflect these changes, according to Watson. "No longer do our customers sell just one product. In fact, 70 per set of our customers bill multiple products, so it was crucial that we moved in line with the industry to secure the trust of our customers."

Since these developments in the early summer Aurora has gained traction and multiplied opportunities for its partners through the initiative. "We have had a positive response to our brand revamp with the focus being on our fresh and contemporary new website," added Watson. "Our customers have been impressed with the re-categorisation of the Affinity suite which has made understanding and using our full modular platform much easier. Also, by offering our customers a new online resource centre they now have all the tools required to use our billing platform to its full potential. This is a core component of the site and has many new features including software and industry webinars along with 'how to' videos."

Watson's main focus at this point in time is to ensure Aurora's customers continue to create business opportunities, improve efficiency and grow. "We do this via our Affinity platform as this helps existing and new customers to be the best that they can be," he added. "Affinity helps businesses increase revenue, integrate easily and get into new markets quickly, and our customers have reaped the benefits just by using the platform."

While Aurora will always be able to offer sophisticated and bespoke solutions it is also focusing more on roadmap growth items with capabilities that will be adopted across the base. This means that as a customer of Aurora a reseller has the opportunity to gain from its expertise and consultative input. "On a functional level we have added further capability for mobile supplier integration and mobile management. This shows how we enable our customers to compete and deliver effective customer service to their customers," said Watson. "We will continue to apply this concept to entering new market areas allowing our customers to offer more diverse products while continuing to streamline the user experience."

Aurora has always been on the radar screen of resellers seeking to bill complex products such as mobiles and switch-based SIP trunks, and Watson has witnessed significant gains in these areas where customers have sought larger, more complex billing solutions able to support a wider range of products. "The concept of a single entry point for new customer data entry and no re-keying is a major benefit for resellers using the Affinity platform, and our provisioning integration capabilities are a key part of this," explained Watson. "The integration with larger carriers reduces our customers' reconciliation burden down to a minimum. Strong billing capabilities remain a distinct advantage, and our tackling of age old industry issues such as supplier reconciliation, provisioning and customer management keep us ahead of the curve."

Watson also noted that customers are diversifying, and there is more emphasis on mobile billing from previously fixed line-only resellers. CPs are also moving towards more complex product bundling options as margins erode on calls. "Telecoms resellers are also diversifying into other IT products," added Watson. "This means that Aurora can't stand still as our customers rely on us to provide leadership and guidance as they go through this evolution.

"This approach will also nurture higher growth levels for our partner base by offering them better facilities to sell and manage higher margin products, and providing the tools that allow our partners to grow efficiently. The evolution of our software platform means that all stages of the reseller operational life cycle, from quote to billing, can now be managed by the Affinity platform.

"This capability makes it easier for our customers to win business and manage it through a single solution. And for resellers seeking to incorporate our solution with other in-house systems we have enhanced our integration capabilities. The flexibility to offer both options means that Aurora can offer solutions to meet the requirements of sophisticated resellers."

The success of the comms channel in a resurging economy has been reflected in the UK's leading barometer of fastest growing technology businesses.
A dozen UK channel firms have made the 2015 Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 list announced last month, which rates the fastest expanding technology business in the UK.

The highest ranked are comms resellers offering cloud-based solutions and three are network service providers that have developed their businesses on channel-centric models.

Top ranked in 40th place is Comms Dealer's Reseller of the Year IP Solutions, which has increased sales by more than 500% from £1.6m in 2011/2012 to £6.4m in 2014/2015 (annual average growth of 73.7%).

Andy Lockwood, Chairman of IP Solutions, said: "We have seen a consistent increase in businesses adopting cloud-based solutions.

"With our 'customer first' approach we analyse the specific needs of businesses and deliver bespoke solutions. This approach will allow us to grow even stronger in the future."

Close behind IPS is Olive Communications which has risen for the third year in a row to number 48.

Olive has shown 65.55% three-year rolling growth and employs 160-plus staff across its offices in High Wycombe, Hatfield and Towcester.

Olive's CEO Martin Flick, said: "This clearly illustrates that UK business is changing the way it procures communication services. Britain's PLCs are embracing the communications revolution."

Service Provider Channel Telecom, which won Marketing Team of the Year at this year's Comms Dealer Sales Awards, has entered the Tech Track for the first time at number 65, having seen sales increase to £5.6m and its partner base grow by 72%, recruiting on average 10 new partners each month.

Clifford Norton, MD, said: "We have had a fantastic 2015 thus far and this achievement cements what a truly great year it has been."

Comms Dealer's Service Provider Team of the Year, Fidelity Group, stormed into the Tech Track last year at No 8 (the highest placing for a telecoms business) and has retained its place on the top 100 at No 74. Founders Alan Shraga and Simon Payne are channel veterans whose former business Cable Telecom was also placed in the Tech Track in 2003.

Shraga believes that the success achieved by channel businesses should not be understated. "The channel has shown extraordinary character to adapt and embrace change as they take their businesses, partners and customers on the joined-up journey," he commented.

"Our commitment to offering great products alongside outstanding service and services is at the heart of our success."

London-based Virtual1, listed for the third year running, is the highest placed network provider with an overall ranking of 78. In the financial Year 2014/2015 Virtual1 achieved sales of over £12.5m, showing an increase of around 35%, year-on-year, and a three-year increase of over 250%.

Tom O'Hagan, CEO, stated: "As a technology company with a strictly wholesale sales strategy we are committed to developing the innovative products and services our partners need to develop their businesses."