Comms Dealer

International hosting company Storm Internet has picked up the Best Business Use of Cloud accolade at the 17th Internet Service Providers Association (ISPAs) awards.

The award followed the launch of StormCloud Private in March, a new private cloud initiative.

The firm was also a finalist in the Best Business Customer Care award.

The ISPA judges were impressed with Storm Internet's case study which showed how businesses can rely on their cloud provider, with IPv6 support and additional RIPE addresses in particular getting the judge's attention.

Salim Benadel, CEO and founder of Storm Internet, said: "The entire Storm team worked tirelessly on the launch of StormCloud Private and continue to ensure our customers' websites are always up and running.

"This is a brand new award at the ISPAs so to be the first hosting company to win this is an honour."

This is the third ISPA award bagged by Storm Internet: Already in the trophy cabinet were Best SME Business Host 2013, and Best Dedicated Host at the 2014 awards.

Federated collaboration, rent-to-rent and a call for greater channel intimacy: Welcome to the first Comms Vision round table debate on the big themes shaping our digital world and why the channel must react proportionately to the scale of these influential trends and market demands. By Stuart Gilroy...

From the smallest resellers to the biggest telcos, all know they must adapt or suffer the consequences of their inaction. They must adjust their strategies to suit the business environment and bring ingenuity into their evolution. No longer can resellers survive as creatures of habit. Traditional structures have been dismantled and context-adaptation is the new curriculum in a digital induced revolution. Modern comms-speak ordains that technology is 'disruptive'. The word is used for good reason, because an age of stability is unlikely to dawn any time soon, making it strategic naivety to ignore the tech-driven upheaval that is reshaping the landscape, evidenced by the uptake of hosted.

"This is the fastest growing part of our business with 5,000 to 7,000 seats a month," said Graham Kedzlie, Head of SIVAR Sales at Gamma. "We are aligned to the Microsoft Lync story, and see local resellers carving out their own markets to provide niche services and bigger partners addressing verticals. We are moving into the IT space now by simplifying product bundles and making them transactional. IT companies are also buying into this."

Today's constant banging of the digital drum exposes sales people who are unable to make the adaptation that is often most important - an ability to talk the customer's language during discussions about removing their capex problem. The push from customers to know more about their options reopens the vexed question of the quality and ability of sales staff. It is folly to assume that ICT purchases still follow a formal procurement process based largely on predefined needs. Unstructured demand, where buyer requirements are far more fluid, is a different can of worms. The battle to address this evolution continues. David Aldritt, Technical Director at HighNet, commented: "At the sharp end, sales people need to have more commercial understanding. They need to be capable of working through financial models and explain business outcomes. The industry needs these skills in sales teams."

Curiosity is an instinctive reaction to an excess of technology and the end user's flight towards pools of knowledge indicates a willingness to dip their toes in. Resellers who swim in this pool stand to gain most. The others are likely to sink. "There is a push from the end user compared to 12 months ago and we are not having to sell the cloud concept," said Steve Ellis, Managing Director at 365iT. "They don't want to own CPE. Resellers who don't provide off-premise solutions will not be able to have this conversation. Resellers need to give users what they want, or someone else will.

"Customers want to be sold to and educated. They are receptive. It may be a step too far to put everything in the cloud, but a hybrid solution starts the journey. Customers are happy to have their back-up in the cloud as a first step, and if you can hold these conversations it's a door opener. Then it's about leveraging the customer relationship and selling services."

Resellers should not be so distracted by their challenges that they fail to prepare for the future - and, more worrisome, stick their heads in the sand. The channel's opportunity is for positive leadership, and business leaders must act now to minimise the risks and maximise opportunities. In a guiding message, Keith Bartlett, EMEA Director for Business Development, Distribution and Inside Sales at ShoreTel, singled out for applause the German method whereby sales people must firstly qualify as an engineer; and in France, two ShoreTel partners transitioned to the cloud by setting up new operations with new sales people and no legacy. Both quickly grew to become bigger than the parent companies.

That the digital revolution embraces new business models with huge potential, deeper conversations with the customer and more productive channel relationships will come as no surprise to the chameleons that already adapt to their environments like ducks to water - they will not be supplanted. But no matter what ambitions a reseller has for their company, they may be constrained by their limitations when trying to give customers what they want. "Microsoft and Google are raising awareness of the cloud," said Matt Tomon, Managing Director at Green Fields Technology. "People aren't knocking our door down, but they do understand the concept. The next step is to talk about the transition."

The digital phenomenon, for users, embodies a belief in immediacy, flexibility, real-time experiences and the opex model. Servicing this strong requirement for contextual communications - any combination of devices providing a common experience - can only be achieved through becoming creatures of context rather than habit.

Alternative Networks is one such chameleon. "We come from an annuity background," explained Neil Rampe, Executive Director. "This is important to us and a big advantage because it takes away the capex problem immediately. With the annuity model, by laying over a service level customers don't come back to you on price. You have to re-market the company to end users and educate them. When they see we can take the capex problem away they take the lead. We need to give customers low inertia and low involvement decisions, it's hard for them to get out of this."

Technology has given us connectivity, mobility, clever devices, the cloud and much more besides, and these glories are irreversible. "We are reaching a tipping point where terminology around the 'cloud' becomes less important," noted Pete Tomlinson, Director, Sales, Marketing and Product at Eclipse. "It's just another delivery mechanism that is showing a level of maturity. In the UK SMB sector 40 per cent of Microsoft's revenue is recurring. An inflection point is predicted within 18 months. It's not just about the financial model, people consume as a service and are no longer mindful of refresh cycles. How we market and position ourselves has changed in recent months. Customers mostly understand the business benefits and what they want to achieve. The big question for them is how to do it. The industry needs to get better at answering this question rather than why it's a great solution."

Businesses and their customers may trade digitally but with every revolution an antithesis follows - in comms it's the end user's in-built resistance to a glut of automation. Self-serve may be the preferred option at low market levels but a reseller's trump card is their potential to consult and build integrated solutions at a practical level. "People buy from people," added David Axam, Director of Hosted Communications at BT Wholesale. "On the hosted journey there must be trust and knowledge in the relationship. The whole premise of cloud is flexibility and pay-per-use. Once delivered, the power of the channel model to provide solutions comes to the fore. As the markets converge towards a utility model we can concentrate on driving more value into services."

Current wisdom is increasingly putting an emphasis on a services-based model. The rise of SaaS, like the sales challenge, usually involves more than first meets the eye, especially for product development. Tomlinson noted: "Eclipse has transferred from a product model to a services one, and we now tread a continual development path and a constant state of refresh. We have to manage the ongoing development and roll outs. As long as the first phase is robust and adds value we can introduce it and develop from there. And because all aspects of a solution are interdependent the conversation with customers must not be narrow. There are different domains within an organisation. It can be hard to get them synced up on the sales journey."

A finger in the product development wind shows us where the market is heading, and a big challenge for vendors in the move towards cloud was pointed out by Bartlett. "The next evolution of cloud will be rent-to-rent, not ownership," he said. "Vendors need to find a way to provide partners and the channel with a rent-to-rent solution for hardware and software. A product release in August will be ShoreTel's last big one. Looking ahead, there will be regular updates. This model aligns with consumerisation and sales and marketing may struggle here. In terms of supply chain management and rent-to-rent, it's all about federated collaboration. It's also about the organisations we can't see today. New companies from the UK, Silicon Valley, New York, developing software that is disruptive and takes off."

The reach of digitalisation is so spectacular it is making unprecedented demands on the nation's resellers, and channel relationships could be condemned to atrophy by a lack of 'intimacy', suggested Axam. "It's difficult for people to work in the channel," he said. "There's not just telephony, there's IT and mobile, and it's incumbent on us to make it as easy as possible with TCO tools. The middle ground is about channel support and intimacy. Our success entirely depends on resellers winning deals. It's all about how you breed intimacy. You should be demanding that support."

Axam's intimacy-fuelled call for partner support is a pursuit also encouraged by Alexandra Tempest, Director of Partners at TalkTalk Business. "We all need to make sure we're supporting our customers at every stage by offering them solutions to the problems they face, not just getting excited about the latest developments in technology," she stated.

"It's vital that account managers have the tools and experience to build relationships with customers. CIOs are looking for partners they can trust to help them make the right decisions for their business. It's about delivering tangible value to the customer, and they need to feel the benefit."

Pro-partnership policies such as those advanced by Axam and Tempest need to be vitalised across the board with some urgency, alongside product simplification. This would ease the burden on resellers who may be prompted to pursue overly ambitious objectives that exceed their capacity to deliver. Axam added: "There's just two elements to a product - the features and how the platform is engineered. Once that's done, it's all about the wrap, ease of use and exposing the richness and functionality. To do this in a simple way is difficult, and it can be surprisingly costly to make the processes shorter and easier. We are on that journey."

The bias in favour of greater TCO will be to the advantage of resellers able to demonstrate it. Customers that were once safeguarded and ring-fenced are now thrown into play as they seek flexibility and pay-per-use solutions. A window on IBM's world, provided by Aidan Piper, Managing Director at Welcomm, proved insightful. Every goal is directed at cost-cutting, and tens of thousands of staff are served by a relatively small number of seats that are flexed when needed. "All of the talk is about driving down costs," he commented. "The question is how we do this with more flexible voice, where the end user has a number of licenses and dips into them when needed."

The overriding reason to evolve and adapt is the bridge between old world communications and the new digital era, suggested Tomon who is serious about empowerment through adaptation. "The market has been product-based for years," he said. "The engagement needs to change because you can't sell a solution over a portal. Channel partners have to use their resources to help with solution design. We changed our business model this year. We've done cloud and support. Now we're doing integration, bringing it all together and building score cards with the customer, getting the information together and making use of the data."

The debate offered scope enough for thought and action. None of this means there will be an immediate conflagration of stick-in-the-mud resellers crashing and burning. It does mean that the future for them is finely balanced and the initiative should be grasped with both hands. At the very least, the imperative at such a time is to ensure that baby steps are taken, however tentative.

Meeting strong demand for hosted telephony was not in the business plan when LA Connect was established. But as the comms arm of LA Micro Group the company could not have been better placed to give customers exactly what they want.

End users who are receptive to hosted solutions play into the hands of LA Connect, according to Director Lee Waller, despite the market demand coming out of the blue. "When LA Connect started out we were focused on mobile technology services and our mobile licences," explained Waller. "Hosted IP telephony has had a big impact and there is an element of this in almost every deal we are doing. This wasn't planned but with an IT side to our business we are able to deliver hosted solutions."

There is a natural affinity between IT and telecoms that is not always addressed, pointed out Waller. "For example, in cases where a customer is looking to implement a mutli-figure IT solution there will be an element that relates to telephony, so LA Connect approaches the customer with a telephony proposition and brings a different set of resources compared to a typical IT supplier," he said.

LA Micro Group has grown from £1.2 million in 2009 to over £13 million this year and was recognised by the Sunday Times in its Virgin Fast Track listing of the UK's fastest growing businesses in December 2014. Waller's relationship with Dave Bell, the owner of LA Micro Group, goes back 20 years. Before university Waller worked on network distribution for Bell. Following university, Waller started his first telecoms company which was sold in 2004 to Fresh Media Group. He then collaborated with Fresh Media Group to deliver VoIP into Soho. This project was called Devil 7, and following an MBO the company became Keylime Group which was sold to Nine Telecom in 2010. Waller joined Nine to head-up its mobile division. In 2013, with a family and a new baby, an opportunity to join the LA Micro Group presented itself.

"LA Connect's main achievement has been the delivery of our original plan," stated Waller. "We are not an average reseller looking to grow organically, working with products and networking and selling locally, our main concept was to go for acquisitions and work with partners to deliver enhancements on services to situations where customers were using legacy products based on calls and lines."

LA Connect has completed two acquisitions - Billericay-based Puma IP and Maidenhead-based Addition Communications. More strategic buys are in the pipeline. Its market sweet spot is SME businesses with 10-30 seats. And having dabbled in IP telephony previously and been successful, Waller knew that the biggest issues were going to be data, cost and connectivity.

"There is a revolution in the SME market," he added. "Cash is King and people are open minded about their options. Most users are moving away from copper and fixed lines and all of the customers we talk to have no objection to IP. We have seen that change in the last 18 months. The biggest single factor is the cost of connectivity. An 80MB broadband connection is now only £40 per month. This allows us to deliver VoIP solutions to any customer on an indefinite scale. Two years ago, this wasn't viable. There is a big game change happening now."

As well as acquisitions another key element in LA Connect's growth strategy is embracing new technologies. "Because of our technology strategy we can continue the successful growth of resellers who are no longer investing in their business and are thinking about retiring," added Waller. "Typically, it will be a company using older technology, but which has done it well. In a case like this we can serve the customer base and take it to the next technology step.

"We introduce services to our customers based on calls, lines and charging, but delivered as an integrated solution. In the days when we used to provide customers with just billing, the main driver was cost. Now we are delivering economic benefits and a better return by integrating land lines and mobile connections. We also provide one point of contact for reporting faults. The customer relationship is key. We want our customers to view us as a partner and not look around for any other supplier."

Some technologies have attracted a bad reputation purely because of a misunderstanding about their nature, noted Waller. "Take VoIP for example," he said. "So many people confuse it with Skype. We like to demystify the technology and be open with customers, even if this means telling them they don't need something. After all, much of telecoms is just copper and fibre cables in the ground."

There are big market opportunities, believes Waller, because so much is changing in terms of affordability. In particular, IP is now within reach of most businesses. "We haven't had any enquiries for ISDN lines on their own for two years," said Waller. "Customers often don't know what they need, but they soon see the advantages of IP when they realise the benefits and reliability. Early adopters may have moved on, but the mainstream is now ready to take this technology. The orders are flowing."

Justice Secretary Michael Gove (pictured) could spark a gold rush for ICT resellers if he gets funding to update the 'creaking' justice system in England and Wales.

Central to Mr Gove's plans is the introduction of new comms technology to eradicate 'waste and inefficiency' in the system. In a speech at the Legatum Institute at the end of last month he said too many cases were derailed by the late arrival of prisoners, faulty video links and missing paperwork.

"It is the poorest in our society who are disproportionately the victims of crime, and who find themselves at the mercy of this creaking and dysfunctional system," Mr Gove said.

In a report last year, senior judge Lord Justice Leveson said the criminal justice system in England and Wales needs wide-ranging change to make it more efficient and cheaper to run.

He recommended greater use of video and conferencing technology in court rooms.

These innovations must be 'implemented with all speed', said Mr Gove, and concluded by saying he was confident he would get the £700m he wants from the Treasury to fund his overhaul of the courts to make better use of technology to speed up trial procedures.

Welcoming Mr Gove's initiative, Keith Purves, MD of London-based IP Solutions, told Comms Dealer: "British businesses are now more efficiently servicing their customers and making significant operational savings from investments in conferencing, video and UC.

"Michael Gove is right to want these benefits for the judicial system."

Unify has expanded its routes to market following a distribution agreement with ScanSource Communications, the first distributor signing since the annulment of its relationship with Westcon and the instatement of Nimans as sole UK distie in October 2013.

The partnership will focus on the UK from the outset and kicked off with a partner event staged at Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey on May 15th. The deal also presents Unify with an opportunity for expansion into Europe where ScanSource operates extensively. Under the agreement, the full range of Unify's UCC technologies become part of the ScanSource portfolio. The move builds on Unify's existing modus operandi in the UK with Nimans, giving partners more choice.

"Nimans is a well respected, experienced and professional distribution partner that is used to operating in a competitive market," said Tony Smith (pictured), the vendor's UK&I Channel Sales Director. "Unify's decision to partner with ScanSource Communications will not affect the strong and professional relationship we have built up with Nimans. The decision to expand our routes to market in the UK is based on market conditions and our evolving strategic aims. The time was right for both parties, and most importantly the reseller community."

According to Smith, Unify will continue to invest in partnerships where it makes 'commercial sense', but he has no further plans to expand the vendor's distribution relationships at this time. "In the UK, our focus over the next year is to pursue a disruptive channel recruitment drive based on quality rather than quantity," added Smith. "We want to recruit high calibre partners not just from the traditional voice space, but also IT and software partners that can drive virtualised solutions and our new SaaS offering, Circuit."

Smith has witnessed strong demand for software-led communication and collaboration technologies driven through the channel. "We believe it's the right time to invest in partnerships such as the one with ScanSource Communications where both sides will benefit from enhanced competition in the market," he added. "The timing also aligns with our drive towards a more channel centric model and the expansion of our partner community. Both parties believe that this is a strong relationship that will deliver great mutual growth benefits in the future."

The need to address the changing face of the market today is a strategic driver that Unify has not ignored, noted Smith. SaaS is becoming prolific and Unify's portfolio is positioned to allow partners to leverage this trend and ultimately make more long-term, profitable recurring revenues, he emphasised. "We have to ensure that we are addressing the UK partner community sufficiently to support this opportunity," commented Smith. "There is no exclusive focus for such opportunities. Unify and ScanSource Communications' joint expertise enables us to support partners and customers in small, medium and enterprise categories across all verticals."

Unify will also benefit from ScanSource Communications' function as a distributor that provides the full suite of value added services including trained technical and pre-sales support, financial assistance in expanding resellers' purchasing power, in-depth training and education and channel marketing solutions. ScanSource also has a track record in helping partners scale across multiple countries, driving efficiency and expertise into relationships that deliver additional value to partners.

"Working together, we believe that Unify will greatly benefit from ScanSource Communications' access to the broader pan-European market," added Smith. "As the relationship develops, and as market conditions prove suitable, we will expand into other European territories. Any territory we move into will fall under the same distribution agreement that applies in the UK. The agreement enables us to engage with new partners, boost our European presence and in time will ensure a significant increase in market share."

This is a viewpoint shared by Phil Boyd, Vice President of Merchandising at ScanSource Communications Europe, who reaffirmed: "Unify's portfolio of products and services, coupled with ScanSource's knowledge, value added services and support, will enable resellers to effectively meet the needs of their end users."

Unify aims to drive business for partners through its software portfolio which has already seen impressive growth of 25-plus per cent and rising. "The profile of what we and our partners sell today will be the biggest change we will see over the next two years," commented Smith. "We have also invested heavily in generating leads for our partners. This activity is one of our core strategic objectives and we will continue to invest in this area to ensure our channel grows and profits from their partnership with Unify."

In other developments, Unify has expanded its UK channel team. "This ensures that we, in conjunction with our distributors, offer high levels of support to our partners," added Smith. "Working closely with ScanSource and our channel partners Unify is helping to address the business world's long-time challenge of how to enable greater flexibility, new ways of working and increased collaboration.

"This is an exciting time for us all. However, the evolving market not only presents opportunities but also risks to those that do not move with the times. We are well placed with our partners, our distributors and our portfolio to ensure we maximise on this opportunity."

Opus Team completed a round of acquisitions in May that signalled the start of a campaign to double revenues in two years, according to Managing Director Mark Castle.

Two months ago the surrey-based ICT solution provider bagged Phipps Communications and BTNS's customer base. According to Castle's growth strategy eight more acquisitions are in the pipeline. Opus Team's expansion capabilities have been developed over a period of time in which the company aligned its products and services to the requirements of today's end users. There is a clue in the company's name - 'Team' - because teamwork between three distinct divisions will enable Opus to fulfil its ambitions.

Castle introduced a 'three-in-one' ethos following the acquisitions of an IT business and a mobile company in 2011, and the creation of Opus Secure which augmented Opus IT and Opus Mobile. "The lack of understanding within many owner-managed businesses about cyber security threats is staggering," he said. "This led us to develop a suite of security products through Opus Secure. There are only a handful of mid-size companies like Opus Team that genuinely service all three industries properly. The evolving needs of our customers and prospects meant that they were looking for solutions rather than singular products and services. This helped to push us towards our 'three-in-one' business technology solutions ideology and the beginning of Opus Team. We will continue to grow organically through cross-selling opportunities while acquiring complementary businesses."

His experience of telecoms companies that 'dabble' with IT and mobile, and vice-versa, is that they don't have the resources, skills and experience necessary to provide a complete and satisfactory service compared to a business that only deals with that particular area. "We didn't want to fall into this trap, so we acquired two specialist companies," added Castle. "We have a flexible approach to acquisitions which means vendors could potentially become employees, exit the business immediately or derive an ongoing revenue from their customers."

During its growth path the company's product portfolio has developed to reflect evolving customers needs, and this evolution has enabled Opus to deal with bigger clients while retaining existing customers. "We listen to their feedback," added Castle. "We constantly refine and review our business model and our product portfolio to ensure we have the correct products and services available. We place great emphasis on keeping up to date with new technology and business trends. A good example is the growing adoption of BYOD and the increased threats and risks this trend has brought, creating the need for Mobile Device Management which we have been offering for 18 months."

Castle began his comms career at the age of 19 in a sales role with three months basic salary at £500. "I had to learn quickly how to communicate, listen and close a deal," he said. "That made me agile and focused. I've used this experience with my team, encouraging them to adapt and look at every opportunity with open eyes. Coming from a sales background, it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that success will come from focusing purely on getting as many sales as possible and underestimating the importance of finance and operational processes. In hindsight, I would have invested sooner in advanced IT solutions and quality people who can make a significant improvement to the bottom line."

He founded Opus Telecom in 2000 with three other shareholding directors (subsequently all bought out). The company typically services organisations with 25-200 desks. "While we work with businesses of all types, we are particularly successful with organisations in the following sectors: Charitable, recruitment, fund managers, healthcare and education," explained Castle. "There has been a shift from selling phone systems on cost justification to selling technology solutions that enhance productivity and ultimately profitability. This is partly why we moved towards selling solutions rather than products. As part of this in the last couple of years our focus has switched from selling phone systems to more of our connectivity, hosted applications and security products. These have better margin opportunities, increased reliability and stickiness with customers.

"As we grow, we need to constantly review operations to ensure we are providing the best possible customer experience. We have recently created a single operations team for all three businesses, resulting in better response times and smoothness of processes. It is also important to keep a close eye on finance. We have addressed this with the appointment of an in-house chartered accountant who closely manages all aspects of the finance department."

The most significant market trend according to Castle is the demand for speed and reliability in Internet connectivity. "Then there's the shift from on-premise equipment to applications hosted in the cloud, and increasing interest in UC which drives the need for better connectivity," he commented. "The rise in hacking activity, particularly with SMEs, is causing businesses to think more about security, hence our outreach into the cyber security market with Opus Secure. We are no longer in a singular industry, everything is interlinked and a business like ours, providing all the solutions under one roof, is the perfect answer."

Those who do not respond to the digital age will surely bear the scars of their inaction, but the irony is that achieving success need not be difficult nor involve risk, according to industry speakers at this year's Margin in Voice and Data event (June 11th, Forest of Arden Hotel).

The lesson of 2015's Margin in Voice and Data conference is that ongoing success is within the reach of all who are willing to react to what's happening in the market. There is nothing new about how the combination of mobile and the rise of apps have changed perceptions of what people need from technology. But the full implications of a new user experience may not be so strongly felt. "There's a conflict," explained event Content Director and host Paul Cunningham. "Telcos position themselves as service providers but what user's really want is simple. They want a great user experience based on contextual comms, with any combination of devices providing a common experience. They don't know, or care, where it comes from."

With voice provided as a 'function' there are no training requirements, no maintenance contracts, and perhaps no channel, all signposting the high altitude rise of OTT elevated by a forklift of consumers using the network to get what they need. "OTT providers entering the market are disruptive," added Cunningham. "Users now have a choice, they have availability, lower costs and can use various networks. Traditional networks are unable to match these demands. Free of charge OTT applications are turning telco services into browser functions without infrastructure. CPE, cloud and OTT will coexist for the moment with a focus on their interoperability, but the future is already defined."

With round-the-clock industry developments refusing to stop for a breather, the demands on ICT resellers to take note of the wider world grow, and with that comes the danger of inaction. This much is assured, and with equal certainty Vice President of Market Offers at BroadSoft, Mike Wilkinson (pictured), predicted a big spike in demand for cloud-based UC solutions in the UK based on trends in Europe. The Netherlands, he noted, is alive with cloud adoption driven by faster average broadband speeds. "Our Dutch customers have taken 35 per cent of the PBX market," he stated. "Other customers in Scandinavia have 40 per cent of the market, delivering all-mobile UC solutions that replace the PBX. In 2015-2016 the UK will spike as cloud moves into larger segments."

BroadSoft works with 700-plus service providers globally, mainly in UC and claims 30 per cent market share. The PBX market globally is circa 55 million seats, and so far cloud accounts for around five per cent of that figure, he noted. The main adopters are start-ups and distributed businesses. Cloud may have started in the SMB sector but it's now moving up market, and to prove the point Wilkinson noted a BroadSoft customer in America with one million seats.

In the UK BroadSoft has 80-plus cloud operators, now gaining traction in the mid-market where the benefits of flexing up and down and pay per use are realised. Other key trends noted by Wilkinson are the rise of PaaS and WebRTC in the contact centre space, and Cognitive Load. "Digital distractions can lower productivity as users take on more apps," he said. "We are working on an analytics engine to improve workflows and productivity by managing Cognitive Load. The idea came from the airline industry where the amount of information projected onto a pilot needs to be managed."

Like BroadSoft, comms resellers are mostly bound by instinct to jump on the nearest opportunity, and following a keynote by Bernie McPhillips, Head of Telefonica's M2M Authorised Distributor Channel, the good fortune in M2M was blindingly obvious. He showed delegates that the opportunity is real, how they can make money, and he put forward strong arguments for resellers to regard M2M as part of their future strategy. Ten years ago the technology barely blipped on the radar screen, but analysts now forecast 30 per cent year-on-year growth. "IoT is rapidly building connections between devices and wearables," said McPhillips. "M2M solves a big problem, but it needs to be simple, and it needs to integrate. The channel is in a prime position."

He cited two important partner successes, both had no previous experience of delivering M2M solutions, but as novices they won deals worth £1.4 million and £950k, blasting the notion that M2M revenues are small. "Yes you can win, but largely through partnership," added McPhillips. "O2 is a smart connectivity provider and its partner ecosystem is open to all. Resellers without an IoT strategy need to get one quickly. IoT is like the Industrial Revolution - both transformed industry."

Down on the ground, end-to-end M2M solutions can be tailored to specific verticals or delivered as a horizontal play by specialising in clearly defined areas of the value chain across different markets. A good starting point, noted Jon Ford, Business Development Manager at Timico Partner Services, in a panel debate, is to first identity the advantages that exist under your nose. "It's important to look at how you operate and see the M2M opportunity as an extension of existing skill sets," he said.

Like IoT, marketing is about rapidly building useful connections. But marketing has moved on from the days of 'spray and pray'. The language of marketing has regenerated into the vocabulary of Digital, Social and Mobile (DSM), and an integrated approach must be taken for new opportunities to be found, according to Andy Grant, Managing Partner at Junction Marketing.

Those who fail to bring a greater focus on marketing in the digital age will plunge into negligence and perhaps suffer at the hands of rivals who embrace another version of DSM (Doing Something Meaningful). That is the sensible way, urged Grant, who referred to figures that add full support to his argument: Amazingly, there's circa seven billion people populating the world, of which six billion have a mobile phone, 2.5 billion access the Internet and 1.8 billion are active on social networking. Understanding where marketing sits today is a top priority.

First and foremost, noted Grant, businesses must ensure that their websites are optimised for mobile, not just in response to the billions of mobile users roaming the world. "Google searches are more mobile friendly now and this has a big impact on search results," he told delegates. "Make sure your marketing campaigns are accessible via mobile. Optimise your website for mobile devices."

His call to action is just one sign of how far peoples' behaviour has changed when researching and consuming information online. "Fifty per cent of B2B lead generation comes from SEO," added Grant. "People are always connected and searching. Now, it's about targeted marketing, but only 34 per cent of marketers ask customers what they want. Make sure you're connecting and talking in the right way. Over half of businesses have closed a deal from social media leads. Connecting with customers like this is critical to success."

Marketers who take an integrated approach to create 'awareness, consideration and action' (through the intelligent application of Social, Digital and Mobile techniques) play into the hands of today's consumers. Augment this approach with the clever use of content and all handicaps will be removed. "In research, online content had a major impact on vendor selection for 87 per cent of respondents," stated Grant.

"Vendors have a plethora of information. Take that content and use it with an integrated approach across target markets. Content will get consideration as part of an overall mix. Select the target market and approach it in multiple ways including more traditional methods. It's important for marketing to become a cog in the overall business, reach the right people and create revenue."

The fate of a business also hinges on effective change management, pointed out Clodagh Murphy, former Managing Director of Eclipse. The company was founded in 1995 and focused on consumers. It was acquired by KCom in 2005 but below cost selling caused a loss making scenario. In 2007 Eclipse saw a return to profit. Two years later a strategy change planted the firm squarely in the B2B market, and in 2011 good sales and churn management sparked revenue growth by H1. 2013 brought more refinements and 2015 is the fifth year of sustained growth.

"Our business transformation followed a simple formula," said Murphy. "We found the right skills, partnered well, motivated and incentivised sales staff in the right way, and everyone was engaged. There's a shift in performance when all staff understand the strategy and goals. Over-communicate in all you do. By not talking to our customers we lost two years on our journey. Engage with customers and the market to understand both. The harder you work, the luckier you are."

The Margin in Voice and Data conference was time well spent for delegates because no serious reseller could ignore the signposts and pointers that gave a new a direction to their journey. The speakers outlined opportunities on an industrial scale, and spotlighted factors that define success in what Knight Corporate Finance Director Adam Zoldan described as a 'super-dynamic reseller sector'. He urged delegates to understand their aspiration, know the market, plan and manage properly, consider their message and understand how their company is viewed by others.

"Delivering on these imperatives could have a great impact on company value," said Zoldan. "Get these right in a market with low barriers to success and there's no reason why any company can't deliver results. You just need to define what success means to you."

Zest4's policy is to make it as easy as possible for partners to build their businesses. Its onboarding system is slick. The training programme works. The support structure is sound. It's no surprise that the company has become the focus of attention for a tide of resellers, and the Zest4 channel campaign convoy is unstoppable, says Mandy Fazelynia, Operations and Business Development Director.

The Zest4 project has succeeded on a number of fronts, not least due its bias towards full partner support, a virtue that has attracted the attention of resellers operating in markets adjacent to its mobile heritage. "During the last 12 months we have also focused on the recruitment of fixed line and IT resellers," said Fazelynia. "So far we have signed 110 new partner agreements, 88 are fully onboarded, of which 80 have won business across mobile, fixed, data and hosted telephony solutions. We have also seen our mobile base double over the last year. We now serve over 8,000 mobile subscribers and bill in excess of £300,000 per month."

Zest4's key strategic partnerships include industry heavyweights such as O2, Vodafone and Gamma. "They enable us to offer flexible, bespoke communications solutions as well as great commercial deals," added Fazelynia. "Through our history and expertise in mobile, coupled with the flexibility and service wrap we have traditionally provided to mobile partners, we realised that we could extend our offering to fixed line and IT resellers."

As part of the onboarding process Zest4 works closely with partners on initial deals throughout the solution building and quoting stages. The firm operates a bespoke onboarding scheme built around the requirements of each partner. A plan is formulated to ensure their sales and operational teams are trained and compliant in the products they sell, and a support team is on-hand when needed.

"During the next 12 months we aim to continue building our base of IT and fixed line reseller partners, and also focus on the promotion of our wider product portfolio including services such as Mobile Device Management (MDM), Office 365 and Machine to Machine solutions," added Fazelynia.

Zest4 is also monitoring growth in the UC space and shaping its portfolio of products to reflect these changes. "We are aware of the increasing demand of businesses to fulfil their communications needs from a single supplier, so our impetus to educate and support resellers to offer total solutions remains as strong as ever," stated Fazelynia. "Our team build their own knowledge in new product areas and support partners to generate sales. This gives them the ability to increase their portfolio without the need to invest in further in-house expertise."

All new partners are enrolled into the Zest4 Academy, a programme of training and development that builds the knowledge base of partners and their teams. Tailored training programmes are developed for each partner (taking their existing knowledge and experience into consideration) and training is delivered through classroom sessions at its head office in Manchester, through meeting accompaniment and via solution and proposal building sessions. Zest4 also holds partner forums where refresher training is provided or briefings are presented as part of a new product launch.

"Our training is effective," noted Fazelynia. "We have transitioned many partners from providing single to multi-products and have enabled them to realise a greater share of purse by providing their customers with more than one communications product. We plan to build on this as we add O365 and M2M into our partner academy and look forward to supporting partners to realise the revenue opportunities that these products represent."

Nor is that all. During its 12 month campaign the company has developed and launched a Zest4 partner marketing programme. "Following an assessment stage where we look at the business plan and objectives of the partner and seek to align our goals, a 12 week marketing plan is developed in which we work with them to raise brand awareness and generate leads," commented Fazelynia. "Throughout the programme we mentor each partner and help them create personalised content to ensure the plan gets fully implemented and brings good results. We also provide a range of tools and templates through our partner portal that are available for download."

Growth in the UC market and the changing buying behaviours of customers show that providers must diversify in order to remain in the marketplace, according to Fazelynia. "We regularly ask partners for feedback to help us implement change in our programme," she said. "This provides them with the confidence and tools to sell solutions outside of their traditional remit.

"Enrolling our partners onto the Zest4 Academy and formulating tailored training programmes illustrates our priorities. And by offering sales support, customer surveying, provisioning, installation and billing set-up, Zest4 takes the complexities out of providing UC solutions and allows partners to focus on generating new sales and more revenue."

Following its acquisition of global hospitality specialist TigerTMS, Mitel has exhibited an irrepressible zest for delivering a mobile-first and connected guest experience to the hotel sector.

One of the Canadian vendor's first responses to the acquisition of TigerTMS will be to incorporate its solutions into the Mitel Hospitality authorisedPARTNER Programme, which is based on the mobile and cloud technologies that really make a difference to operational efficiency and customer loyalty. Simon Udell, former TigerTMS CEO, now General Manager of Mitel's Hospitality Business Unit, commented: "We're building an experience for guests we call the 'digital home from home'. This involves developing applications optimised for the consumer but delivered via enterprise infrastructure. A more intuitive experience treats the hotel guest as a consumer rather than a user of enterprise IT."

Consolidation is an important aspect of Mitel's strategy, noted Jim Davies (pictured), VP Vertical Initiatives. "Hoteliers want to deal with fewer vendors for their utility applications, so we're looking to provide the option of a comprehensive offering that leverages TigerTMS's technology," he explained. "We provide a turnkey solution with one point of contact and a much broader basket of products and services. In terms of differentiated applications that directly impact occupancy, hoteliers are looking for flexibility to leverage the value of applications on multiple vendor infrastructures."

Mitel wants to ensure that the products, services and solutions it delivers to hospitality are accessible across multiple platforms. "The groups and chains will have existing properties in various regions with a different PBX in each location, so we have to provide open solutions that continue to support all vendors," added Udell. "The applications that we deliver follow both TigerTMS's and Mitel's strategy of open architecture."

The vendor typically delivers a complete turnkey PBX solution and expects that to continue. However, a key strategy is to extract pieces from that turnkey solution and integrate them into hospitality workflows, essentially using voice as an ingredient embedded into a hospitality specific solution. "Retaining the open architecture structure behind it allows this new value to be delivered on top of multiple underlying PBX infrastructures," stated Davies. "Much of this will be cloud-based which keeps the economics sensible."

In the hospitality sector Mitel's main priority is the move towards the cloud, which provides economy of scale and enables the delivery of many more products and services to customers, either as a one-stop-shop or the open application supply. "The key challenge we encounter is cost," commented Udell. "We have to ensure we put together a competitive solution that meets the rigorous TCO requirements of the hospitality industry. The other challenge is the need to have a global footprint. Big hotel chains are truly global and companies that service them must have the same reach. The combination of Mitel and TigerTMS gives us that critical mass and footprint."

There are many services a hotel offers guests. Traditionally, the room phone was the guest interface, providing the gateway to the concierge, room service and the front desk, all of which are fundamental components of the hospitality experience. The ownership of the guest interface is now likely to be dominated by mobile devices, and it is important to have an app that serves as a portal to every service, providing a totally unified experience.

"We will also see an upsurge in the way that hotels can use location or proximity-based services to enhance the guest experience from, for example, having your food find you, to finding your colleagues or family staying at the same property," pointed out Davies. "Applications for location-based services exist for vacation, business and conference use cases. We're just starting to scratch the surface of what you can do with a mobile platform, and we'll increasingly see innovative implementations that enable the hotel to better utilise its staff, drive efficiency and provide an enhanced guest experience."

Another trend is the drive towards BYOD in the hotel environment, pairing the guest mobile device to the room phone service. This means a reduction in capital expenditure and allows the guest to receive calls wherever they are, routed through the hotel's IT infrastructure. "The benefit for the hotel is that they can begin to provide all their marketing content and information for the services they offer within the app," added Udell. "They can enable click-to-call through the app and the guest isn't dialling an international roaming number. They're dialling an internal number straight to the services. If they want to book the spa, they can just tap their device and connect."

We all know that using a hotel phone can prove expensive. However, if a large hotel chain moves to a cloud solution it can provide what is in effect a global phone service in each hotel and offer reasonably priced telecoms and data packages to guests, because they control the actual cost of the carrier services themselves.

Udell commented: "Ten years ago if a hotel charged a guest £5 for unlimited calls for the duration of their stay they would have jumped at it because they know that it would otherwise cost them £10 to make the first call. Nowadays, with the carrier structures and the shift towards the cloud, hotels can put together a comprehensive package that encourages people to start using the services, without roaming charges and the feeling that they're being ripped off."

One of the biggest ICT drives within hospitality is building network infrastructures that are fit for purpose. And it's critical that resellers provide a base wireless infrastructure that will support the administrative side and the private side, as well as the bandwidth demands from guests. "If this isn't done properly from the outset the hotel and resellers will face an uphill battle to deliver additional services," said Udell. "Also, without this in place the hotel's ratings and repeat business may suffer. It is vital that hotels avoid a situation where poor Internet access prompts a guest to go on TripAdvisor to complain, which has become a common sight in hospitality."

While hotels can be demanding on the price of their utility IT services, what they cannot afford is to deliver anything that's not clean. So a key strategy for being successful in the hospitality channel is to get the training required to be a hospitality specialist, advised Davies. "A hotel deployment once every three or four months isn't enough to keep on the top of your game," he said. "We see increasing volume for partners who commit significant resources to the sector and build up a centre of excellence around hospitality. The hotel flags and owner groups will seek out those experts."

Providing guests with personal experiences is a top priority for hotel owners. Offerings such as location-based services, delivered in tandem with other applications, can boost the overall guest experience, encouraging repeat stays and creating a sense of trust. "For instance, if you order a room service and decide to change something, when you call you get routed directly to the staff member you spoke to last," commented Davies. "This personal touch is key to customer experiences."

One of Manchester's fast-growing tech businesses has boosted its expansion prospects with a new leadership team and hefty investments in the network, systems and processes. No longer the new kid on the block, Vaioni Wholesale seeks to complete the next phase of its project based on organic growth and a flourishing channel proposition.

Vaioni is knee-deep in opportunity, especially in its home region where initiatives such as Tech North are driving innovation. Not surprisingly, Manchester is already a vibrant city with many digital start-ups setting up camp there. "Our network offers extensive coverage in Manchester and we are also connected into Media City, which is great for our channel partners," commented Managing Director Sachin Vaish.

A new Juniper network gives Vaioni multiple 10Gb capacity along with significant capabilities across London, Leeds, Edinburgh and Dublin as well as Manchester. The company invested in its existing infrastructure to improve resiliency and boost capacity. "This is essential as businesses move towards the cloud, a key driver that prompted us to lay additional dark fibre," added Vaish. "The new LLU network, which connects London, Birmingham and Manchester, is also a priority for Vaioni. The focus is to continue delivering networks that support the migration to the cloud, with resiliency and speed prime considerations."

The firm has also invested considerably in its systems and processes. "We have a good solid pricing portal for channel partners to price their own solutions quickly and easily," added Vaish. "We're working through a series of upgrades that should launch by the end of the year, making the portal more intuitive with pricing for additional elements of our portfolio. This investment is based on feedback from our partners."

Vaish founded Vaioni in 2008, responding to the demand for reliable, high speed connectivity. In 2013 he established Vaioni Wholesale, a formal launch into the channel with a dedicated team of people. Funding from Mavern Capital Partners later that year enabled the firm to hire more personnel, expand the network and push forward with systems upgrades. "The new network brings bigger bandwidth and lower cost to the channel, which is essential in a market that is becoming increasingly commoditised," said Vaish.

Vaioni now employs 30 staff, has 300 customers and, in addition to the new network, it has infrastructure in eight data centres across the UK. The company has experienced annual growth of 25 per cent and is set to exceed that this year, a growth expectation that is based in no small part on people-driven factors. "Our team is technically and commercially competent and able to deliver high touch account management," said Vaish. "We have brought in a new management team with exceptional experience in the channel."

Kevin Grainger has been appointed Head of Channel Sales; Ian Goodall joined as Head of Networks and Infrastructure; Christa Norton takes the marking lead, while Alan Westcombe heads up Service Delivery. Combined, they share 60 years experience working in the channel. Grainger will be spearheading the channel strategy, focusing on growing the partner base and driving Ethernet sales. He brings 15-plus years experience from the likes of Griffin and GCI where he worked in a channel-only capacity, managing and shaping some of the biggest partners.

"It's good to share the burden and be content knowing that experts are working in each of their individual areas," commented Vaish. "The team is moving things so much faster. We have a real sense of momentum about the business."

The company aims to reach £10 million in the next two years, and £20 million by 2020, achieved through both wholesale and retail, and through organic growth rather than acquisitions. "We are honest about the fact that we do retail and wholesale, and have strict processes in place to ensure that both sides of the business are managed fairly," explained Grainger. "In a company of our size it is much easier to achieve transparency between teams."

Looking ahead, hybrid networking (fixed, wireless and 3/4G) is the expected norm, so Vaioni's future investment plans will be aligned to this hybrid world. The firm has good capabilities, especially around its security and SIP platforms, and the next move will be towards the virtual data centre market. "Entering the VDC market is the obvious next step for us," noted Vaish. "We have the initial infrastructure in place, but scalability will be key so there is still work to do before we can consider a mass rollout. We looked at third party partnerships, but I prefer to have ownership and control over our products. With that in mind, connectivity remains our lead proposition - this is our area of expertise."

Higher bandwidth - 100Mb, 1Gb - is where Grainger sees growth. "We are about servicing customers who are migrating to the cloud, so that completely changes how we talk to the market and where we invest," he said. "Resilience, reliability and the ability to manage multiple types of traffic over a single connection is essential, so we are investing in ways to ensure our customers benefit from this through, for example, network monitoring or ADSL back-up which is included as standard. These all support the reliability and security of the network which are major concerns for customers, and mean our partners can offer a proposition that answers their immediate concerns."

Refining the cloud proposition is key to the business going forward, noted Grainger. "But more importantly we will continually improve our customer and partner experience, ensuring great service across the board," he added. "We need to do more with our partners and help them get the most from us as their supplier, leveraging our expertise for their benefit."