Comms Dealer

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."

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: It should come as no surprise that much of our work is focused on promoting hosted telephony and explaining the benefits of cloud-based technology to end user businesses.

Today's workforces are becoming ever more agile and employees expect their employers to offer workplace flexibility and improve their work/life balance. This development got me thinking about how far marketing agencies such as Blabbermouth can push the virtual workforce concept.

When discussing briefs and presenting concepts I find that so much feedback is gained from body language and non-verbal cues. For example, tangible expressions of enthusiasm from design and marketing teams are important when assessing the thoughts behind marketing activities and bringing projects to life. Can conference calls really capture the vision of the marketing team or the true reactions of the client?

Brand personality is a large factor in reinforcing messaging and maintaining brand consistency. Call me old fashioned, but I find visiting the offices of clients and meeting the team and seeing their environments first-hand gives me the clues and pointers I need to ensure that the desired corporate perception is consistent with the reality.

The upside of remote working is that teams can comfortably work off-site and design briefs can be relayed back to base immediately after client meetings with a fresh impression of the passion and thinking behind the marketing plans. Agency teams can spend the working day at client sites progressing projects and immersing themselves in client life.

In conclusion, cloud computing is actually allowing us to use our time more efficiently rather than reducing the time spent at the client offices.

By Anton Le Saux, Head of Connectivity and Partner Sales at O2 Telefónica UK: Three or so years ago we were talking about how the IoT would transform the relationship with products we buy and how it would drive business sustainability. These opportunities continue to be explored and developed, with some products like Nest making it into consumer consciousness.

But there are many more operating already throughout global supply chains, hidden from public view but helping businesses use less fuel and energy, improve the lifespan of their assets, reduce waste and improve security and safety of both assets and people.

The knock-on cost and time savings associated with this means that more time and money can be reinvested elsewhere in the business. There are also less tangible benefits to improving your sustainability, from improved customer perception to employee advocacy and loyalty, which bring positive impacts to both the top and bottom lines.

No matter what industry you're in there will be a M2M solution already on the market or in development which can help you operate in a more sustainable way. Whether you are a retailer looking to reduce the costs of transporting or holding stock, a farmer looking to track and manage livestock more efficiently, or a manufacturer looking for better ways to track pallets in order to use them again, the IoT brings a new perspective to solving these operational issues, and I would urge every business to start their M2M journey (if you haven't done so already).

The thought of implementing a new technology could be a daunting prospect, but it doesn't have to be difficult, time consuming or expensive to implement.

(anton.lesaux@telefonica.com – partnersdigital.telefonica.com) 

The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) underscored a variety of European IT market growth trends during a session at the Canalys Channels Forum.

GTDC members are successful technology distributors driving more than $135 billion in annual product sales across the globe.

The GTDC and its subscription database partners, GfK and CONTEXT, monitor technology industry sales trends and other related market conditions in Europe. The organisations aggregate actual sales of IT distributors and corresponding attributes in a multitude of categories.

The CONTEXT SalesWatch Distribution database, which covers 190 distributors and over 600,000 resellers for 90% of the European IT distribution market, reflects consistently higher weekly sales trends for the countries tracked on a fixed-exchange-rate basis.

For the past three months ending in August, highlights include the following growth rates compared to the corresponding period last year: Data centre and networking sales up 15% in Germany; telecom revenue in France accelerated 77%; server business grew 26% in Italy; storage sales increased 19% across Nordic countries; and software revenue jumped 14% in Spain.

Tim Curran, GTDC CEO, said: "Europe got off to a relatively slow start in 2015, following a strong 2014 driven by the PC refresh cycle. However, we are encouraged by accelerating growth in recent months across a broad spectrum of products, categories and geographies.

"We're also excited about how technology distributors continue to transform their business models during this time of dramatic industrywide change."

NG Bailey's IT Services division has teamed up with vendor partner Mitel and analyst firm Ovum to create 'The Disconnected Enterprise', an eBook of articles and infographics exploring how cloud-based UC can help enterprise CIOs retain strategic control over their IT assets, drive corporate mobility initiatives and build a connected workplace of the future.

The article and infographic series takes a frank and pragmatic look at a number of major initiatives currently challenging CIOs and enterprise IT departments, and explores how UCaaS can be leveraged to their strategic and operational benefit.

Topics covered include digital transformation, enterprise migration to the cloud, bring/choose your own device, IP-convergence management and workplace flexibility.

"Many enterprises remain caught in a 'mobility mismatch' which has, to date, been the cause of more collision than collaboration," said Indi Sall, technical director, NG Bailey - IT Services.

"But once they have harnessed the power of UCaaS, delivered via the cloud, many CIOs are able to reconcile these problems, finding they suddenly have the operational and fiscal flexibility to manoeuvre.

"They can begin to claw back control over their IT assets from other departments and release internal expertise that has, for too long, been consumed by helpdesk requests. With this new agility they can push on with more transformational initiatives and, in the process, win back the confidence and respect of the next generation of tech-expectant workers.

"We thought it was time to tackle these issues head on. This is why UCaaS holds so much power to help CIOs take meaningful steps forward in their roles."

Growing confidence in cloud security has prompted 29% of IT buyers to spend on cloud services, according to a study by Technology Business Research (TBR).

"Throughout the study, we noted the largest customer concern was outside breach of data - there is a customer expectation that cloud solutions should have security embedded to address such issues," said TBR Cloud Research Analyst Molly Gallaher Boddy.

"Yet there was also a desire for tailored security solutions, offering consulting and managed services vendors a chance to help customers gain the security specificity they require.

"Because of this, the cloud security market is led by multiline companies that provide a range of cloud security and private cloud services that ultimately give customers cloud security packages with the option for additional add-ons."

Though customers expect CSPs to offer comprehensive security, survey respondents sought additional security options from third-party providers that offer vertical and workload-specific solutions.

As the cloud market matures, end users will purchase additional managed security services to help them customise their cloud environments, creating a rich opportunity for cloud consulting firms, systems integrators (SIs) and third-party providers, says TBR.

Given the state of the market, TBR believes CSPs that offer a range of customised cloud security services alongside private cloud options, such as current leader IBM, are best situated to win in the cloud security market.

TeleWare has appointed Nigel Simpson as Global Sales Manager whose remit includes the management of the firm's channel partner strategy.

Simpson has worked across a number of international brands including WorldPay, BT Global Services and Cisco. Prior to joining TeleWare he was the VP of Corporate New Business Sales at Barclays (within Barclaycard Global Payment Acceptance).

TeleWare CEO Steve Haworth said: "Nigel brings extensive experience and expertise in building collaborative relationships with both channel partners and customers across a wide range of vertical sectors.

"His appointment is an important part of our strategic plans, as Nigel brings added depth to our sales team along with a proven ability to enhance partner relationships and deliver growth."

Simpson added: "TeleWare is at an exciting point in its journey and positioned to support partners with new regulatory challenges such as MIFID II and Dodd Frank. I look forward to helping the company and our partners achieve their business objectives across the UK and the rest of the world."