Comms Dealer

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: Dirty databases are on the up! New research shows that an increasing number of consumers are intentionally giving false information to mess up databases.

The main reasons are that they have concerns about their privacy and are getting fed up with adverts everywhere they look.

The stats are an interesting read and some motivations for dirtying the data are rather entertaining (source: Verve). The top reason is to protect privacy but here are some of the others: ‘To track how companies are using my information, ‘To prevent online advertising', and ‘Because I like messing up company databases'. While these are primarily focused on consumer marketing it is worth keeping in mind when you carry out your own call-arounds to verify data. Whether cleaning up a purchased database or investing time in building your own, remember that one third of people admit to giving fake email addresses.

Companies need to focus more on educating or at least persuading individuals to part with their details and that of their colleagues. Why should the receptionist confirm that the IT director still works there and that their email address is still correct? What benefit will they receive from helping you validate and collect data for your own gain? Brand recognition and an understanding of your company's USPs will help with this conversation.

Clear messaging on how your company can help theirs is a starting point for building trust. Sharing information in the form of blogs and white papers further reinforces that your company is knowledgeable and that information sharing is a two-way street.

In the channel's leadership race, Tim Radford, Chief Executive Officer at Timico, could be the one to beat.

With an impressive and punchy track record under his belt Radford was fast out of the traps to set up Timico in 2004 alongside a small but ambitious team, some of whom he'd worked with previously at Project Telecom, a company Radford set up in 1987. Project Telecom shone brightly as a classic service provider reselling mobile services from the major networks but with an added personal touch to the way customers were looked after. "It was an incredible time to be in the mobile industry and our hard work culminated with the business floating in 2000, expanding into fixed line services, achieving revenues of £330 million and ultimately being sold to Vodafone in 2003," commented Radford.

The experience greatly advantaged Radford but despite the £155 million Vodafone deal he wanted Timico to be different. His strategy from the outset was to up his game further and become a leading provider of next generation Internet and comms services to businesses. "We developed and branded our own range of offerings, making life easier for customers by fully integrating fixed, mobile and Internet services and supplying the whole package as a one-stop-shop," added Radford, whose interest in comms was sparked by an encounter with an early System 4 mobile phone, a moment of truth that inspired the formation of Project Telecom. This was one of a number of 'Projects' Radford was considering as a next step having sold his first business, a hospitality and event management company in the late 80s.

Radford's dynamic backstory is a great asset and Timico's growth shifted up a gear soon after the launch of its converged channel proposition in 2006. Since then, the move towards next generation networks and greater mobility has catalysed runaway growth in data consumption and cloud adoption. "These trends continue to shape our strategic direction and our expansion aspirations," added Radford.

With his foot on the accelerator Timico burst into the Sunday Times Tech Track for four consecutive years up to 2011. The company's growth has, and will, continue to be achieved organically and by strategic acquisition, emphasised Radford. "We've made nine acquisitions in our 11 year history, the most recent being Wirebird, the IT support and managed service provider, and the telecoms interests of Coms," he explained.

The fast growing company is still privately owned, has a 350-strong team and is based in Newark with five other offices across the UK including its channel business, Timico Partners, operating out of Fareham on the south coast. The group turned over £42 million in 2014 with expectations of circa £60 million by the end of 2015.

"We've pursued a twin track growth strategy that focuses on steady organic growth complemented by strategic bolt-on acquisitions," said Radford. "I'm expecting our strategy to push us to £100 million in revenue for 2018."

Hand-in-hand with the financial gains of an acquisition comes the sometimes painful integration of various systems into the business. With an ethos of great customer service at the forefront of how Timico operates, the incorporation of those systems and business processes to ensure fast and effective service is essential. "Senior staff and a project team have been working on this for the past six months and we're committed to investing in the best solutions we can develop," said Radford.

In terms of operational structure, in 2013 Timico divided the company into four distinct centres of excellence - managed networks and connectivity, cloud and hosting, unified communications and mobile solutions - to focus its expertise and deepen relationships with technology partners. "Our range of services enables us to work with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to FTSE 250 enterprises," noted Radford. "We service more than 15,000 UK business customers including their international requirements in more than 20 countries."

Last year Timico significantly bolstered its channel business and re-branded NewNet to Timico Partners with a new, distinct brand, a bigger team and additional investment in its PartnerEye portal, all with the aim of attracting new partners. "The channel is a fundamental part of our growth plan and we're aiming to get to 150 partners on the PartnerEye by the end of 2015," said Radford. "The Coms telecom acquisition increased our partner base and gave us a new audience through which we can provide our products and services and who will also be key to the launch of our new hosted voice product, Synergy, in September. The feedback we've received during the consultation period with our partners suggests it will be a great alternative to the BroadSoft platform."

Synergy will be delivered through Genband and via Timico's Solution Builder tool which has been designed with back-end intelligence and automation to ensure partners get the order right first time. "Couple this with our aggressive pricing and a dedicated training facility to ensure partners are confident with selling Synergy and we have a great opportunity to win a sizeable share of the hosted voice market," stated Radford.

He wants Timico to be a leader in the provision of self-service through its portal, helping partners to be masters of their own destiny by managing their business from any device, at any time and from anywhere. "The development of our PartnerEye portal has been a vital part of the strategic plan for some time, and it's clear that with the new release at the end of August we're going to be ahead of the game."

Last year Timico shelved plans to list on AIM with an initial market capitalisation of about £55 million, hoping to raise circa £15 million to fund growth and increase the size of the business. But Timico remains a privately owned company with 100-plus shareholders. "The original intention with the

IPO was to fund growth by acquiring new business and double the size of the company over the next few years," explained Radford.

"The market conditions weren't favourable last year and we have a duty to our existing shareholders to ensure that the success of our IPO isn't eroded by recent IPOs performing less well than expected. Hence we made the decision to postpone our process. We decided that the shareholders would fund this growth themselves for the time being but we will be keeping an open mind on whether we use an IPO in the future."

Radford's current priorities are based on the enlargement of Timico through the on-boarding of new high growth partners and servicing them impeccably. "We are doing this in a number of ways, including the introduction of innovative new products to market, automating the self-service of those products through the PartnerEye, challenging the market with competitive pricing and providing a training programme to ensure effective sales," noted Radford.

"It takes considerable time, resource and investment to implement new products in the PartnerEye, but we know it's our differentiator. We're committed to making it easy to do business with us and that's why we're prepared to devote so much of our attention to making the PartnerEye as slick and intuitive as we can."

Potential new portal developments could involve the evolution of Timico's channel mobile proposition, M2M and IoT. "Getting services like this to work with our PartnerEye portal is important, enabling access to whatever we develop so that partners can manage everything from one place," commented Radford.

"These areas need careful thought and discussion and they already form part of our product development roadmap. Personally, I like to keep abreast of exciting new technologies and embrace conversations around them to see what we could do and where they would fit into our portfolio."

All of this neatly dovetails with Radford's passion for 'good, old-fashioned service'. "The key to good service is building personal relationships with our partners and customers," he said. "We want to be seen as a true partner that can add strategic value to a customer's business rather than just a run-of-the-mill faceless supplier. It's all about having the drive and determination to deliver on our promises, no matter what. I'm lucky to be surrounded by a talented, experienced bunch of people but it hasn't happened by accident. Having fire in one's belly is a pre-requisite to joining Team Timico."

As a mix of rugby and soccer, Gaelic Football is a fast, rough and exciting sport and Joe Murray, the new Channel Director at essensys, is as passionate about the game now as he was when he ran out at Dublin's famous Croke Park to take part in the All Ireland minor championships in front of 20,000-plus raucous fans.

Murray well remembers the adrenaline rush of that memorable day, but prefers to forget the result. "It was the semi-final and we lost - nothing worse - and it just proves that you should never take anything for granted," he said. "But I'm proud of what I achieved in the game, and playing in that team gave me an enormous sense of pride and a real understanding of teamwork and leadership."

His high level Gaelic football experiences gave Murray the mind-set to develop a successful career in IT and telecoms and he's not in the least fazed by the challenge of building a reseller channel for London-based essensys because he has the pedigree and passion, plus what he believes is a rock solid proposition to take to market.

Murray's life in IT/telecoms started when he gained a sponsorship from BT for university. Since then he worked in corporate sales at BT Global for seven years and sold undersea cable systems for Hong Kong Telecom and Telstra before becoming a founding member of Viatel's channel division where he signed and grew Vodafone as its largest reseller before taking management positions as the business grew through the MDNX, Griffin and Easynet acquisitions.

"Extensively, I have been in channel for over 10 years," he said. "Before joining essensys, my team were responsible for growing a channel consisting of over 1,000 resellers with revenues in excess of £50 million. They are all exciting businesses at different stages of development and that's what makes it a fabulous industry to work in."

Murray has known essensys CEO Mark Furness for 10 years and has '100 per cent' bought into his cloud evolution vision and giving resellers the capability to self-serve their services on a fully automated software platform. "Mark's knowledge and confidence in the channel has enabled me to push wholeheartedly into getting the proposition perfected for resellers," added Murray. "Fifty per cent of essensys staff are software engineers. Based on requests from our customers, essensys rolls out updated functionality of our software platform almost on a weekly basis.

"My previous position granted me a broad view of the market. The key aspect was joining a company that was going places and knowing I can have a real impact on the future performance. essensys works in an intelligent way, from both technology and customer focus perspectives."

Recent Gartner Cool Vendor and Tech Track 100 accolades have rubber stamped essensys' reputation and now Murray is aiming to scale up the company's outreach by taking its managed services proposition to new markets via channel partners keen to step up their game. "The deciding factor in working with Mark at this stage was perfect timing," commented Murray. "essensys has performed brilliantly over the past decade in building its proposition and is primed for the channel.
"We have now opened in the US which demonstrates how our core business is fast growing and expanding. I will also continue to drive innovation in essensys by recognising what business problems can be resolved using technologies within our control.

"The channel knows that the market is evolving. Likewise the players who will be successful in the market will evolve. essensys offers a wide ecosystem of services that is truly cloud-based, meaning that end users or resellers can self-serve their requirements on an automated platform. Resellers need to decide if their traditional suppliers are the suppliers that will ensure they can defend and grow their revenues in the next three years."

So what's the big opportunity for channel partners working alongside essensys? Murray firmly sees the mid-market as a prime goal for partners to aim at. "Medium-sized enterprises are acknowledged as being under-served," he explained. "The large service providers focus on the FTSE 250 while many resellers service the lower end of SME. Cloud technologies now allow resellers to scale in a manner not previously possible. essensys has a history of delivering to sites with hundreds of seats and we are now offering channel partners the opportunity to grow expansively using our innovation."

Murray is seeking dialogue with ambitious resellers who can change their sales mentality, understand that IT and telecoms are merging and that customers want one supplier to 'do it all'. "The sales role has changed. Customers often know what they want; they want it all and they want it now. Empowering the end user is the valued service and self-serve platforms are the enabler. Owning hardware means managing the decline of a physical asset. Resellers should now sell profitable services from the cloud. "

"We're also looking for resellers who think big. Software is most powerful when services are required across large customer estates. You do not have to target customers that have an average of 12 seats. This new way of working allows scale that was not possible previously. We have small resellers working on opportunities up to 700 seats."

Murray believes the channel should recognise that they own the digital infrastructure that enables the Internet of Things, or more specifically, the SMART Office. He added: "Why stop at telco and IT? essensys is investigating expanding our capability of delivering the digital office beyond our current core focus. Watch this space!"

Resellers would be doing themselves a big favour by working more closely with their market-making distribution partners, according to John Bird, Head of Systems and Support Services, Exertis VAD Solutions. Here, he puts forward a strong case for 'open book' relationships.

Even those comms resellers steeped most in tradition can succeed as modern day solution providers, believes Bird, but only if they ditch their transactional dealings with distributors and forge stronger links rather than persist with the antiquated status quo of a supplier-only arrangement. Encouraging this jump towards closer working partnerships is top of Bird's channel agenda, and Exertis' impressive credentials as a full blown service and support partner lend considerable weight to his argument. "If I could change anything in the industry it would be for the reseller channel to see distributors as colleagues or partners rather than suppliers," commented Bird.

Exertis is a wholly owned subsidiary of parent organisation DCC, Ireland's fourth largest company. In the UK it operates from six logistics centres but all this will change following the completion of a project to consolidate into a single purpose built National Distribution Centre. The new facility expands to over 650,000 square feet and accommodates 65,000 pallets, a 50 per cent increase on current capacity. Nor is that all: A company-wide project to update and improve the internal IT and CRM systems represents a total investment of approximately £60 million.

You would be a brave person to bet against the success of these developments. They build on years of experience and expansion - and getting things right has become a trademark that is reflected in the company's enviable growth history, a journey that began over 34 years ago. In its most recent financial results Exertis posted £2.35 billion revenues with operating profits of circa £50 million. Just ten years ago revenues stood at £500 million, but organic growth and acquisitions multiplied the numbers.

Today, Exertis employs almost 2,000 staff across 11 countries. Recent acquisitions include CapTech, the third largest distributor in Sweden, and Computers Unlimited, a connected home consumer electronics distributor based in the UK, France and Spain. Alongside these investments Exertis has been busy modifying internal structures to better meet the requirements of resellers. Much of this activity was prompted by the astute acquisition of Cohort Technology in October 2013.

Six months later Exertis introduced two B2B divisions called Volume (headed by Director Phil Brown) and VAD (led by Cohort Technology Managing Director Grahame Smee). The VAD structure is based on four areas - Network Security, Specialist Software, Unified Communications and Professional Services. Specialisation of the VAD business enables resellers to succeed and catalysed greater gains in key growth markets.

"Exertis VAD handholds resellers though the complex sales cycle," explained Bird. "The services include demonstration assistance, proof of concept, site surveys, installation and maintenance support, all underpinned by an in-house 24x7x365 technical support and network operations centre. We add real value by technically and commercially supporting our reseller channel."

In a separate but integral restructure Exertis aligned its hosted VoIP unit with the VAD Division, bringing on-premise and hosted UC solutions under one management team. The move is a response to hosted VoIP's similarity to on-premise voice - the only difference being an off or on-site server. "The expertise in our VAD team allows us to expand our hosted VoIP proposition with other cloud-based services, such as hosted PBX or hybrid-based solutions," added Bird. "Our ultimate goal is to provide an unbiased, consultative approach to all UC system enquiries. One size does not fit all: The best solution may be on-premise, cloud or a hybrid of both. Our pre-sales and proof of concept services team can recommend the most suitable solution."

More broadly, Bird has witnessed significant revenue growth across UC systems. He attributes this uptick, in part, to the acquisition of Cohort Technology that, at a stroke, added ShoreTel, Oak, ipcortex, snom and Gigaset Pro to the UC range. The core SMB portfolio has also seen significant year-on-year growth, with Samsung revenues up 20-plus per cent and NEC up 40-plus per cent. In recognition of this achievement Exertis collected the NEC Fastest Growing Distributor in EMEA award in June. As for the Devices division, new vendors have been on-boarded such as AudioCodes and Logitech, while long-term key vendors Plantronics, Yealink and Panasonic have all grown.

"Distribution is no longer a box shifting business," noted Bird. "It's essential for a distributor to offer a comprehensive portfolio of value added services that a reseller can tap into. We help resellers move into new markets and new technologies by leveraging our expertise. We also educate resellers to deliver these solutions themselves and increase order values by deploying desktop applications, CRM integration, call management, call recording and mobile integration. Applications such as these result in a clear RoI for the end user and help our resellers stand out from the competition."

Not for nothing did Exertis collect the Comms Dealer Sales Awards Distributor Channel Account Team of the Year accolade two years running in May. The reseller support offered by Exertis has also spurred uptake of desktop CTI applications and jolted a rise in mobile phone attachment rates. With BYOD, the VAD team manages mobile security and helps resellers to deliver BYOD solutions. "To succeed the infrastructure needs to be capable of supporting a BYOD strategy," added Bird. "The core essentials - networking, security, firewall protection etc - all have to be taken into account. Exertis covers these bases, and more, to make it easy for our channel to adopt and deploy BYOD."

Acquisitions of importance, inter-company structural modifications, fully rounded reseller support propositions and big investments in logistics all converge on Exertis' policy of putting resellers first in a fast evolving market. "Technology has advanced significantly over the last 10 years but many resellers have not adapted to this change," added Bird. "They should work more 'open book' with distribution and not be afraid to use a distributor to help them grow their business."

The momentum behind HighNet's cross-border expansion grows as it mounts a challenge south of the wall, according to Sales and Marketing Director Paul Gibbs.

Gibbs is seeking to extend the reach of HighNet far beyond Scottish territory. The company, which has restructured for growth, has a headcount of 44 based mostly at its Inverness office, and a customer base of 2,500 businesses ranging from start-ups to multi-national 350 site organisations. HighNet is aiming for a £3 million revenue boost this year with a target of £14 million, building on last year's £2 million rise to £11 million. Gibbs hopes the company will reach £20 million-plus within five years with new offices in the central belt of Scotland and potentially London.

"The opportunity to help HighNet drive for more growth was too good to turn down," said Gibbs who joined the company in May this year following a five year stint at Gamma as Head of Channel. "With approximately 100 partners in Scotland it's now time to take the brand and message south of the border to recruit more, strategically selected partners."

HighNet has a strong pedigree as an early adopter of new technology. The company has been providing hosted telephony for more than 10 years and blazed a trail with its creative bundled billing options. Its product and services proposition includes hosted telephony, business grade connectivity, mobility, WLR solutions, video conferencing and satellite broadband. "We have invested heavily in our data network to ensure that it is resilient and able to manage the complex demands of convergence and greater cloud adoption," said Gibbs.

The company clearly means to stir things up and has invested £1 million in its network capability and is in the process of rolling out a voice-centric next generation network with a 10Gb optical core through London, Manchester and Edinburgh, with new links to Aberdeen planned for later this year. HighNet is adhering to a dispersed data centre policy that takes the DC capability closer to customers and channel partners. "UCaaS and full cloud infrastructure are key in the evolution of our business," explained Gibbs. "HighNet is aiming to provide diversified rack space hosting all the way through to the end-point on the desk that can integrate fully with the customer's CRM."

Structural changes within the business include the move of David J Siegel to Managing Director and David Siegel to Chairman and the creation of an Operations Board to develop future leaders. Gibbs' remit is split into two areas: He wants to add more partners in Scotland while looking to recruit strategic partners 'south of the wall'. "All of our business comes through channel partners," he said. "I see little point in recruiting hundreds. I prefer the boutique approach to a few key partners. The main challenge is scalability and maintaining the customer experience."

According to Gibbs, HighNet's concept is to work closely with partners on an open book basis to help grow their sales. The company deploys trained sales people into partner businesses who essentially act as a white label sales engine. "We also bill, support and manage the partner's customers as a fully white label service," added Gibbs.

While sales specialists oversee partners' customer engagement strategies HighNet's Technology and Innovations Director David Alldritt keeps an eye on trends and weighs up the potential of future opportunities for the company and its partners. "We have a diverse mix of partners that operate in a broad spectrum of verticals so it's about which technologies will blend well into these and how we integrate the HighNet service wrap," explained Gibbs. "Service is the most important part of what we do so before anything is implemented into our portfolio it's all about skilling up our teams to make sure we can deliver our level of service."

Cloud is the most significant trend for HighNet, including hosted telephony. "The demand for high quality bandwidth continues to grow as organisations use more cloud-based applications, many of them mission-critical," added Gibbs. "Our ability to deliver resilient converged connectivity underpins the services that we and our partners provide. Growth in Ethernet and hosted voice has been high and we expect this trend to continue.

"We're also interested in fixed-mobile convergence and the increasing demand for mobility solutions. We're winning mobile business this way rather than fight over the lowest cost using a network that gives the best coverage. Our future growth will come from providing a high quality network and a product portfolio that enables our partners to present a compelling business case. To do this we need to be innovative while maintaining quality through everything we do."

Understanding the cloud and how it will impact on businesses differently is vital, emphasised Gibbs. He said: "Resellers must consider the mix of public and private cloud services, how they will be introduced, how they integrate with existing infrastructure and applications, the demands on bandwidth, managing mobility, knowing the benefits and risks of disaster recovery and business continuity planning, data sovereignty, security, LAN and WAN architecture - the list goes on. Successful resellers and SIs will understand the whole picture. If they don't have the full skill-set they will engage with specialists to plug the gaps. Success will depend on partnering well to deliver value to the end user through long-term relationships and demonstrable RoI."

Intuitive Systems and Networks (ISN) Director Simon Rance took the only sensible decision when the odds seemed stacked against him.

When Rance decided to set up ISN in 2008 the onset of recession yawned before him. But despite the unfavourable odds and an inner voice urging him to shelve the idea, he remained loyal to his tactically sound business plan and weathered the storm. This year ISN relocated to new offices in Royal Wootton Bassett to house its growing team. The company is on target to achieve £3.2 million and recurring revenues are also on the up, derived from managed help desk and NOC services. ISN has been awarded a Gateway for Growth grant by Wiltshire Council to develop its monitoring platforms and the firm is involved in Network Service Frameworks via Crown Commercial Services.

"Optimising the opportunity is our next challenge," said Rance. "ISN has many public sector clients but having a Government approved route to market is something we can develop and shows how an organisation like us can compete with the usual suspects who are awarded these opportunities. We'll struggle on some and we'll lose a few bids, but we're different and in the current climate many organisations want to work with a company like ISN."

Rance describes ISN as a 'fairly typical SME integrator' but less typical are the large and complex technical solutions it delivers to customers, despite the apparent odds against it in terms of company scale. "We're overturning industry expectations by having a small, flexible and cost-effective team able to hold our own against the bigger IT providers," said Rance. "We're relaxed and we're friendly, we're approachable and cost-effective. We're good at what we do."

ISN's approach to support and service has remained the same since its inception in 2008 when Rance and his colleagues operated out of bedrooms. They were approached by large corporate clients that had got to know them through previous engagements when they worked for a top end IT firm. "As a home run business we were servicing FTSE100 customers, NHS trusts and emergency services clients on critical infrastructure projects," said Rance. "Our background, proven track record and the excellent jobs our technical guys had done in the past had followed us. We saw a method of operating with bigger organisations in a more streamlined, simplified and agile way."

Rance's work experience began when he worked with his father who was Technical Director at a large ISP. This was a formative period and Rance went on to work for a Reading-based ISP where he developed its partner programme. This soon became the most successful part of the business which grew from a home user ISP into a business focused service provider. "After a few years the ISP was acquired and I joined one of my resellers," explained Rance. "I discovered a world beyond reselling circuits, including what goes on the end of them, what they're used for and how important they are. Truly understanding the end-to-end service and working with real-life customers put the whole picture together.

"After a further acquisition went sour I was certain that the smaller, more responsive way of servicing customers was the right way for an integrator to succeed. In 2008 my co-directors and I moved away from our roles in a large corporate IT company and simplified the offering that our clients wanted - we started ISN."

The consultancy firm became an implementation house, which then developed into a managed services company and network operations centre. "By 2012 we were in our own offices and now we've moved to our own building with nearly 25 staff," said Rance. "The growth has been controlled but all successes refer back to the faith our existing clients had in ISN by moving with us in our early days."

ISN also operates on-site for certain customers, filling the role of the network or systems team with the wider ISN team in the NOC available for escalation. It is a model that many other SMEs would struggle with, but ISN's skills and a relatively flat technical structure enables it to successfully deliver these services to customers. "Ideally, we would have an on-site presence at all of our clients," added Rance. "We should be at the heart of everything they do and the key technical decisions that are made."

Rance currently works with a variety of data centre suppliers, break/fix maintainers and various ISPs to pull together a best of breed approach. "Our long-term view is to build our own core data centre and start running our own SLAs while increasing the margin," he said.

Over the last 12 months ISN has been selected for CCS Frameworks. This, along with applying for the necessary ISO compliancy (27001 and 9001), has placed process and best practice further up the agenda. "Throughout these changes we must always be mindful of why people do business with us, and the challenge to keep the same approach as we grow is always top priority," he stated. "ISN needs to stand out. Best practice gets us a long way, but on top of that our future growth will always be based on what is new and exciting in the marketplace and how ISN can make these solutions easy to engage with in a simplified and bespoke offering."

Rance's two fellow Directors, John Broadway and Richard Titheradge, are techies at heart. They know a good product when they see one and they can tell a good service when they find it. "If these are available we'll have no issue at all in working with that vendor or partner to see how it fits into the wider ISN offering," added Rance.

ISN is happy to sit on the fence as both a systems and network provider with its core skills traversing both sides of the divide. From a network point of view the company is primarily Cisco with skills in Checkpoint, Juniper, Extreme and F5. On the systems side ISN is a Microsoft house working on upgrade, virtualisation and help desk projects. The company also runs a successful medical imaging division and has its own voice platform. "The clients we service are diverse and the decision to specialise in a vertical is a challenging one," commented Rance. "Our broad experience of technologies and sectors benefits our customers because we are able to offer a diverse set of options that show what a deployment might look like."

Rance has witnessed many customers move to the cloud, and ISN adds value by helping them to define the nature of their particular cloud. This engagement shows ISN in its best light and depends on its knowledge of a fast evolving market. "Briefing sessions with the likes of Cisco and F5 make you realise how much things are going to change as security, wireless and collaboration move forward, and the day-to-day things we used to worry about become less important as they are centralised," stated Rance. "As long as we keep our finger on the pulse of where the market is heading and have a good network of third parties to support us we're in a good place."

The ISN NOC (monitoring and help desk) and its data centre solutions have been the largest growth piece during the last 12 months and within five years Rance expects ISN to have its own data centre and a support team three times the size. "Our best fit client will be largely the same," noted Rance. "There will be more of them and the ISN name will be better known in the wider marketplace, not just within our own network. Our larger clients all signed up this year for a further three to five years so our current successes will continue to grow. We just need to shout about them more and encourage others to shout for us."

Rance was on garden leave before starting ISN, and the credit crunch hit big time. "I had to sit on my hands for six months," he said. "The temptation to give up on the plan and take a new sales role was huge, but we stuck with it. It was a crazy six months but staying true to our plan in that period was the key to everything we've done so well since."

Philip Carse, Analyst at Megabuyte.com, reports on the recent performance of leading companies in the comms space during the last quarter.

The Telecoms & Networks peer group continues to out-perform in share price terms, with a three month gain of 7% versus -2% for the FTSE All Share and a one year gain of 25% versus +3% for FTSE. However, the performance is broadly reflective of UK tech stocks, and in fact is slightly less than the broader Megabuyte Taylor Wessing index of tech stocks. The highlights of a relatively quiet period include Fidelity's proposed take private of COLT, Ofcom's major strategic review which will consider the structural separation of BT, and well-received results from Adept Telecom and Redcentric.

The biggest recent gainer in the last three months has been multi-utility reseller Telecom Plus, up 40%, though this is only a recovery of sorts from a share price battering caused by a profits shortfall from warmer weather, strong energy supply competition and gas billing bad debts. The shares are still down 15% over the last year. Likewise, Pinnacle Technology shares are up 37% on a positive trading outlook, but are still down 28% year on year due to the company suffering from previous poor acquisitions.

COLT makes a rare appearance near the top of the share price gainers, after its founder and majority shareholder Fidelity announced a 190p per share (2.34bn euros) enterprise value offer to take the company private. COLT subsequently announced a strategic exit of IT services (hosting, storage and cloud) to focus on networks, voice and data centre services. It will exit the 68m euros revenue IT business at a cash cost of 100m euros. Despite COLT's independent directors opining that the bid undervalues COLT, a current share price of 188p suggests it's a done deal.

Business comms provider Adept Telecom has risen 20% in the last three months and is the leading share price performer over 12 months, at +72%, off the back of a return to revenue growth assisted by the April 2014 Bluecherry acquisition, with revenues up 6% to £22.1m and improved margins in the year to March 2015. The outlook is also positive, assisted by the more recent acquisition of unified comms and managed service player Centrix.

The share price of BT (+6% over three months) has shrugged off a potential enforced structural separation of Openreach, one of the issues for debate in Ofcom's major Strategic Review of Digital Communications. While Ofcom notes BT's inherent conflicts and Openreach's Quality of Service issues, it states in the discussion document that structural separation may not necessarily improve the situation in the absence of competition. Perhaps surprisingly, the share price of competing fibre to the premise builder CityFibre (-16%) has not responded to Ofcom's potential increased focus on local access competition.

At the other end of the league table, Coms plc has the worst three and 12 month performance as new management grapple with a poorly executed buy and build strategy. The company recently sold its Telecoms division to Timico for an initial £2.5m in cash to buy some breathing space. Timico also recently acquired Wirebird for its IT skills. This follows a frustrating 2014 for Timico, when the company failed to IPO and new accounts show 2014 revenues and EBITDA both down marginally in contrast to more bullish IPO forecasts.

In contrast, the shares of Gamma, which did succeed in IPOing in 2014, are up 35% since October 2014 off the back of solid trading. Also noteworthy is Redcentric (shares up 44% over one year), with the accounts to March 2015 highlighting the success of the company's buy and build strategy, combining elements of Redstone, Maxima and InTechnology. Revenues and EBITDA rose 8% and 32% in organic terms to £94.3m and £21.4m, with cash flow to match.

The other M&A news of note was the completion of Daisy's £184m bid for Phoenix IT, boosting its EBITDA by an estimated 42% before synergies and, more importantly, creating an unparalleled £200m revenue business selling IT and telecoms services to the UK mid-market as part of the £500m revenues of the whole group. Meanwhile, Vodafone and Liberty Global are discussing asset swaps which could involve a merger of Vodafone UK and Virgin Media under one or other owner, as a response to the proposed BT/EE and 3/O2 deals. Vodafone has also come to the aid of cloud partner Outsourcery with a £4m loan, replacing £1.7m in existing facilities.

Finally, we were intrigued to read the plans of Angie, a Dutch start up which is attempting to raise 1.6bn euros at a 3bn euros valuation to finance a new UK next generation fibre and mobile network. The company believes it can build a 8.6bn euros revenue, 4.8bn euros EBITDA business by 2022 with just 1.5bn euros investment, defying all market logic. Eating hats springs to mind.

What should be the channel's role in the digital age? The industry's big question can't be divorced from the need for total communications supported by an impeccable customer experience, according to Rob Mukherjee, Head of Vodafone Partner Services.

The question is not whether resellers will be able to react to current and future market forces, the real question is the extent to which they can catalyse these trends as prime movers. "Our job is not to predict the future, but to enable it," said Mukherjee. "The market is going towards total communications, not just fixed or mobile. We and our partners need to facilitate the future for our customers with technology that helps them access new market opportunities, find better ways of working and differentiate. This will ultimately help them to be successful in the long-term."

A more general question follows from this and applies to all resellers whose strategic thinking moves in inverse proportion to market developments. "Partners need to transform their businesses to meet the requirements of today's customers," added Mukherjee. "Customers who buy into these principles - as opposed to those who buy on price or are just looking for a product - will ensure that our partners have sustainable businesses."

The demand for resellers to adapt and grow does not mean they have the capacity or ambition to do so. They may reassure themselves that there is no urgent imperative to change, but it does not seem that way to Mukherjee who also suggested that traditional sales incentives, as well as 'old world' outlooks, are tantamount to an economic fallacy. And defining the boundary that separates resellers who are transfixed by a dangled carrot and others who embody a non-incentivised desire to make a difference lies close to his heart.

"Resellers should transform their businesses not because they are incentivised to do so but because they want to and truly believe it is the right thing to do," stated Mukherjee. "The transformation may be difficult and a challenge. Some may not see any good reason to change. But they have to because society and the market demands it. Businesses of today and tomorrow are depending on us to enable their futures. Partners need to change because they want to. We believe the new iteration of our partner programme is absolutely the right way to do it."

Partner programmes are realistic only when they take the form of a collaborative ethos that strengthens the partner's ability to deliver total communications, which says Mukherjee are the founding principles of Vodafone Partner Services which launched in 2010 when it united its partner channel with the Yes Telecom business acquired by Vodafone in 2006.

"We've had a consistent dialogue with partners," said Mukherjee. "We work with them to evolve the partner programme and make changes where necessary. We've supported well over a hundred partners to sell our converged services; and following Vodafone's acquisition of Cable&Wireless Worldwide we've added more than 200 fixed partners into the programme during the last two years."

Vodafone began with two partner accreditations within its three tier partner programme (Platinum, Gold and Silver). In 2012 it introduced a Solutions Specialist designation (for convergence capability and performance), followed by Solutions Pioneer (recognising total comms sales capability and performance) in 2014.

Vodafone's new emphasis on customer experience excellence, both within its own business and in the partner channel, was introduced during its annual partner conference last month (St John's Hotel, Solihull, 9th July) when details on Capability tiering were outlined - planned to be launched next summer. "The new tiers will recognise and reward partners on their success and expertise in selling and delivering total communications solutions and their ability to provide customer experience excellence," explained Mukherjee.

"We want our partners to focus on the things that matter, driving converged technologies and providing a fantastic customer experience. The upcoming changes to the programme will be key to enabling the future for both our partners and our customers."

Mukherjee hopes the influence of Vodafone's partner programme will be strongly felt, strengthening partners' ability to be prime movers both now and in the future. Another influencing factor on Mukherjee's thinking and style of approach are the characteristics and achievements of one of his role models - Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel who is often referred to as the father of Silicon Valley. "It's not so much his phenomenal contribution to technology, but more the brand new management style he brought to the business world," explained Mukherjee.

"He encouraged teamwork and openness over hierarchy, risk over stability, jeans over suits and introduced a less structured, more relaxed working environment. He shunned private jets, fancy corporate cars and other executive perks. And I love his rallying cry, 'Don't be encumbered by history. Go off and do something wonderful'."

A young Mukherjee himself disencumbered his career history to enter the comms industry. His first sales role was working in the chemical sector. While scanning the jobs pages to unearth potential career opportunities for his brother, something caught Mukherjee's imagination. "It struck me that there was a plethora of sales opportunities in telecoms and very little in chemicals," he recalls. "I spotted an advert for account managers at Marconi, applied and got the role. Since then, I've worked at Cable&Wireless as Head of Partner Sales, then as Head of Sales at Yes Telecom, and following that as Head of Operations for Vodafone Partner Services, all of which have been invaluable in leading up to my current role as Head of Vodafone Partner Services."

Mukherjee places a high value on prioritising the advantages of a community-based channel policy, an approach that comes naturally to him. "I love a sense of community," he said. "This comes from a combination of my Bengali heritage, Merseyside upbringing and lifelong Everton obsession. That love of community, along with my ingrained belief in customer experience and customer ethics, attracted me to the partner community, to Yes Telecom and now Vodafone Partner Services. Those core values remain with me today."

The community urge is a manifestation of cultural values and shared interests, the glue that binds Vodafone to its partners who are destined to play a greater role in the provider's business strategy. "Partners are increasingly dealing with businesses of all sizes and across all sectors," Mukherjee stated. "Our research shows that 45 per cent of businesses would consider buying from a partner for their total communications needs, so the value of partners to our organisation and to business customers is meaningful."

As well as end user buying behaviours the three other primary factors influencing Vodafone's enterprise business and partner programme - convergence, customer experience and collaboration - cannot be over stated. "Technology is changing and so is our attitude towards it," added Mukherjee. "The focus has shifted from fixed and mobile to unified communications and converged products such as One Net. This focus on total communications is set to continue and increase within our own direct sales channels and in our partner channel.

"Since we launched One Net we've enhanced and expanded the product by adding new functionality and capability, acquired a valuable fixed asset (Cable&Wireless Worldwide), and increased our emphasis on complementary services such as cloud and M2M. The winners in this new phase of the industry, and even in our channel mix of direct versus indirect, are going to be those who embrace change and sell a broad mix of services. That's where our focus is and will continue to be."

But having best-in-class technology is only one part of the story. That's why Vodafone is investing time, energy and money in customer experience. "Our business customers, and their customers in turn, are becoming more demanding and expect a faster response across all communications channels," commented Mukherjee. "We, and our partners, need to ensure we are providing businesses with a quality level of customer experience and with the communications services to help them deliver a better service to their own customers. We won't just be measuring success on sales, but also on customer experience.

"Our relationship with partners is totally collaborative and they are at the heart of our strategy. We need to work with them as we change our own organisation and drive towards total communications."

A man steeped in IT expertise and business acumen - step forward Neil Cross, Managing Director of Advanced 365.

For three young visionaries - Nick Gerard, Phil Buckingham and Maurice Sutton - the rise of the PC was a moment of opportunity when ambition could be allowed its freedom. They established Advanced 365 in 1987 having identified a gap in the market to supply hardware to the City when PCs first appeared on desks. Then known as Business Systems Group (BSG), the company developed services to wrap around the products and became a purveyor of managed server and networking infrastructure.

BSG was acquired by Advanced Computer Software Group in 2009 and Advanced 365 was born, selling off the hardware resale business to focus on managed services which are the core of the business today. These include outsourcing, cloud computing, application development, support and data cleansing. "The decision to provide more services was a key turning point," said Cross. "We continue to work with organisations within the private, public and charity sectors where we help to improve their operational efficiencies, control costs, enhance productivity and enable growth."

In 2009 the company employed 100-plus staff and the core managed services business turned over circa £15 million. Today, the firm has a 350 headcount and is nudging towards £50 million. "Over the past six years we have consistently demonstrated 15-plus per cent year-on-year growth," said Cross. "By 2020 we expect Advanced 365 to more than double in size. Over 70 per cent of all services we deliver will come through the cloud and a similar volume will be consumed by mobile devices. What we have accomplished is impressive and exceeded my expectations and we have no intention of slowing down."

Consolidating a number of bespoke client platforms into a single 'build it once' cloud environment was a smart move that contributed significantly to Advanced 365's growth. "The way we worked before was simply not scaleable," commented Cross. "When we created Advanced 365 out of BSG we were still building bespoke solutions for all of our customers. But acceptance of the cloud prompted us to adapt our approach. In some cases bespoke remains the right solution, in others we host clients on our own cloud platforms, and in others we use the public cloud. We see ourselves as a service aggregator rather than a sole provider. Some of the services we aggregate include those we built for our customers while others come from our partners. We do not have a pile it high sell it cheap proposition."

One of the main drivers for growth was Advanced 365's entry into the public sector. "As we are based in the City we have a strong financial services bias," explained Cross. "But a few years ago we realised that the skill requirements to succeed in this space could be applied to the public sector which is not dissimilar. After initial success with a significant London Borough we extended our reach to a point where our business is now 50/50 between commercial and public sector engagements."

Cyber security is another growth area that Cross says is on the to-do list of all CIOs. "We are busy extending our cyber practice and shaping the company to support our growth for the next five years," he explained. "We are redefining our cloud offerings and investing significantly in new technology right across the board. Cloud and cyber security are key trends and areas where we are seeing an increase in demand from our customers. My goal is to ensure that Advanced 365 is best placed to deliver the right services at the right time for both our current and future customers."

For Advanced 365, customer loyalty is about the quality of engagement, both for clients and staff, with great service delivery breeding sticky customers. But, According to Cross, having to deal with unreliable comms firms is an industry bugbear that rankles and has become the 'curse of the project', made worse by the absolute need for the infrastructure they provide to underpin the technology that customers want to use.

In a call to hasten the day when reliable service delivery triumphs, Cross urged: "Telcos need to get into the 21st century. Everything we do is about connectivity, but getting it delivered when required and in the shape we need it is always one of the biggest project-based challenges for us. I have lost count of the number of times I have had to apologise because a telco simply did not keep their promises."

Although trouble and strife is not behind, the good news is that Cross believes there will always be a place for resellers. "However, unless they differentiate in this era of transparent purchasing they will find it difficult to turn a solid profit," he warned.

That said, ahead lie the sunny uplands for SIs able to grasp an opportunity to strengthen their proposition. "Ultimately, cloud aggregation and switching cloud providers will become a consumer activity," stated Cross. "In the meantime the industry still needs intelligent people to glue all of the components together. We all need to keep abreast of the industry. That is why I still love it. Change is constant and you never know where the next curve ball will come from."

O2 Business has announced the first winners of its 2015 Customer and Digital Excellence Awards, following the re-launch of the O2 Direct Partner Network on 1st April.
 
The new awards are indicative of O2's new approach as they reward a partner's overall capability to provide 'world-class' customer support and high level of digital knowledge and expertise, instead of grouping them by their scale and size alone.
 
The O2 Customer Excellence Award focuses on partners' overall capability to provide world-class customer support and service, and to retain customers. The O2 Digital Excellence Award focuses on digital knowledge, capability and performance and covers O2's partnership with Microsoft and other digital providers.
 

The 2015 O2 Customer Excellence Award winners:
· ADSI
· Cellular Solutions (North East)
· Fleet Mobile
· Corporate Wardair
 
 
The 2015 O2 Digital Excellence Award winners:
· Aerial
· Cellular Solutions (South)
· Chess Telecom
· Carphone Warehouse Business
· Daisy Direct
· Maintel
· Vivio

Ten partners achieved both the 2015 O2 Customer and Digital Excellence Awards:
· Active Business
· Active Digital
· Annodata
· Atlas
· Challenger
· Pure Telecom
· Signal
· The One Point
· Uplands
· 8020
 
 
Winners receive new excellence award branding, additional commercials and further marketing and digital consultancy to help develop their business.
 
Jason Phillips, Head of Partners for O2 Business, said: "These awards represent a significant shift in the way we work and we are rewarding partners who have successfully made that shift with us.

"We will continue to work closely with all our partners to deliver above our customers' expectations while build on our success and momentum in the SMB market."
 
A year in the making, O2's biggest evolution of its indirect channels in the last five years saw the launch of the O2 Direct Partner Network on 1st April. 

The move to replace three-year partnerships with five-year partnerships has been well received by the partner community.
 
Phillips added: "Partners are now recognised not by their scale and size alone but also by their ability to focus relentlessly on the customer and be capable of diversification. Partners are now rewarded on customer experience, churn, value and digital product adoption - real recognition that the market has changed."