Comms Dealer

Although revenue growth rates for comms service providers (CSPs) is set to remain modest CSPs will continue to invest heavily in their networks, according to Ovum.

With global CSP capital expenditures (capex) forecasted to total more than $2.1tn from 2014-19, the global analyst firm warns CSPs must continue to do less with more, leveraging new technologies, network designs, vendors, and operating models.

In a new report Ovum states 2019 capex is projected to be $367bn, yet vendors face a tougher marketplace as spending is being pressured by modest revenue outlooks as growth remains weak for most carriers, particularly fixed carriers.

Also, says the research house, the rise of more software- and IT-centric opportunities, driven by the emergence of SDN (software-defined networking) and network function virtualisation (NFV), means traditional telecom vendors will come up against a different set of vendors going after CSPs' network budget dollars.

Yet, with a diverse array of digital media companies now spending heavily on CSP-grade network infrastructure, vendor-addressable capex could increase by $50bn or more in 2019, presenting a promising upside for vendors selling network infrastructure.

Report author and principal network infrastructure analyst Matt Walker said: "The telecom world is changing. Established market boundaries are falling by the wayside. Competition is tougher, service innovation is faster, and margins are often slimmer. Value (and profits) is shifting among industry segments.

"There are two things to remember in all of this. First, most of this change is great for the consumer. Users are capturing enormous benefits from the technology investments and new business models of CSPs and adjacent market players.

"Second, there are upsides to this industry change for vendors. Despite flattish CSP capex, there is a new sector of companies building network infrastructure, partially offsetting the CSP weakness. To profit from this digital media growth, though, vendors will need strengths in both telecom/hardware and IT/software, and learn to serve this new customer type."

Elsewhere, the analysis reveals three different country markets make up 45% of expected CSP 2014-19 capex: the US, China, and Japan.

"The competitive landscape of CSPs differs starkly across these markets, as do regulations, demographics, local vendors, and even technology standards. These markets are expensive to address, requiring significant local investment (eg, R&D facilities) for non-local companies," added Walker.

"The remainder of the top 15 market list includes countries from all major regions: Brazil, Russia, UK, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, France, Australia, Korea, Spain, and Mexico. Beyond the top 15, capex is broadly distributed among a long tail of smaller country markets, from Argentina (0.7% of 2014-19 capex) to Thailand (0.8%) and beyond.

Version 3B of the Red Box Quantify Recording Suite has achieved Mitel-Approved Test (MAT) Recertification with Mitel MiVoice Business unified communications software.

"This interoperability certification is recognition from Mitel that Red Box retains its status as MSA Gold Preferred partner," stated Lee Jones, CEO of Red Box Recorders.

"This achievement is the most recent highlight of many years of successful partnership between Mitel and Red Box, whose telephony and voice recording solutions are deployed by thousands of businesses around the world."

David Lowenstein, Director of Business Development for Mitel Solutions Alliance, added: "Building and maintaining the right technology relationships to deliver customers high value integrated solutions is a critical component of success in the current business communications marketplace."

Unify has appointed Norm Korey to lead the company's Latin American Region (LAM), replacing Humberto Cagno, whose planned retirement is effective on June 30, 2014.

"Latin America represents a market of continued growth opportunity for Unify," said Dean Douglas, CEO of Unify. "I'm confident that Norm's experience not only prepares him well to lead the LAM region, it also will enable him to be a key contributor as we transition Unify into software and services."

Korey boasts leadership experience with global brands including IBM, AT&T and Motorola. 

For the past four years he led an IBM Global Services initiative incubating the SmartCloud software-as-a-service offering for the enterprise marketplace. 

Previously, he managed software and services businesses in the mobility and wireless sectors across various international markets.

"I'm very pleased to be joining Unify at this important period in the company's history, building upon the momentum we have in the Latin America market and benefiting from the increased visibility of the new Unify brand both regionally and globally," said Korey. 

"Latin America's economies continue to expand through technology investments, and this region will be an important growth engine for the business."

Nine Wholesale sponsored racing driver Josh Webster has been selected as the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholarship winner for 2014/15, joining Redline Racing, the most successful team in Carrera Cup GB history.

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB is a major support race to the MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).

Nine Wholesale have sponsored Webster since the early days of his career. James Palmer, CEO at Nine, said: "Josh is an incredible example of how dedicating yourself to a passion, listening to the knowledge of the people who advise you and committing to be the best can pay off.

"He puts in an enormous amount of effort and it's a privilege to be so involved in his career. I personally try to clear the diary to support Josh at every race, and we're thrilled to offer our Purple Partners the chance to come along as well.

"It's a great day out and Josh is always happy to show the behind the scenes action. Josh is once again racing with our distinctive purple and white livery which looks superb on the track."

In a bid to drive channel growth Dell is offering more rebates to push software sales.

Dell's Enterprise Forum in Frankfurt heard about a series of new programs and incentives to push channel business, including expansion of Dell Financial Services, Dell ProSupport Plus and more access to Dell equipment.

Still aiming at a simplified go-to-market model with end-to-end support for the customer, the next step in its plans is growing and strengthening EMEA channel business at above industry average rates.

The channel is encouraged to sell more from the Dell portfolio of PowerEdge servers, storage, networking, software, thin client, workstations and Dell SecureWorks. The company will offer partners expanded rebates for multiple products sold in one deal.

Deal Registration will continue to allow partners to identify all direct opportunities with end customers. Channel partners will also benefit from leads provided by Dell, "encouraging a channel-led approach for specifically targeted end customers that would benefit from channel partner involvement". This will enable partners to identify and target specific companies with the assurance that Dell will not pro-actively pursue such leads, although end customers still have the choice of buying directly from Dell or through a partner.

Dell Premier Partners in EMEA will have the opportunity to claim a two percent rebate on software sales in earned competencies.

The offer will apply to sales of solutions within the four software competencies: security, information management, data protection, and systems management.

Gamma welcomed an intake of 350 channel partners during its 2014 university themed roadshow. The Universities UK tour visited Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, The University of Manchester, Keele University and Imperial College London.

Gamma's senior team including CEO Bob Falconer (pictured) were on hand to meet and greet delegates both before and after the morning seminars, which updated delegates on how channel partners are deploying Gamma's range of voice, mobile and data services.

Richard Bligh, Marketing Director, commented: "It's great to get out and see our customers at a location that is convenient to them and hear how Gamma's products and services are helping them grow their businesses. Going out to see our partners is important to us. The questions are great and the feedback invaluable in helping shape the right products for our partners to take to market."

Gregor Cumming, Head of Sales at Gamma channel partner Atlas, said: "There were a number of excellent presentations by guys who not only know their stuff but are clearly as passionate and excited by it as we are. The roadshows are another valuable example of how Gamma continues to support us."

Hosted UC specialist thevoicefactory is in full production mode according to Sales Director Paul Harrison who has manufactured a strong pedigree in advancing the market for hosted solutions.

Taking a new start-up to a five-year-old business with global reselling partners delivering a range of applications has been an 'interesting and challenging' journey, noted Harrison, who aims to build one of the strongest brands in the UK comms sector. His first move into telecoms came in 1998 when he headed up Nortel Networks' CVX Dial up business in EMEA. The offering was an advanced modem bank with sizeable customers such as AOL and Freeserve. "The solution quickly developed and in early 1999 we trialled it with BT Spain and delivered one of the first VoIP solutions," said Harrison. "In 2002 I joined hosted platform vendor Netcentrex as Sales Director for Northern Europe targeting the service provider market to deliver hosted telephony, mainly using protocols H.323 and MGCP with SIP being a distant third protocol."

Following a three year stint selling hosted telephony platforms to Eirecom, Inclarity and a number of Nordic service providers Harrison joined BroadSoft in 2005 as its Northern Europe and Middle East VP Sales. "I was the third BroadSoft employee in Europe and set about selling the BroadSoft platform to every main service provider including TDC, Etisalat and a number of UK providers including thevoicefactory in 2009," he explained.

thevoicefactory was incorporated in 2008 and a year later funding was in place. "We purchased a full BroadSoft solution with Acme Packet Session Border Controllers," said Harrison. "A technical lead was hired with BroadSoft experience and the platform was built. The solution went live in Q1/2010. And in June 2010 I joined direct from BroadSoft as the Sales Director and share holder. In 2012 the principle investor was bought out and the debt repaid. I then became the principle shareholder."

Over the past 18 months thevoicefactory has witnessed 370 per cent growth in new business and has expanded the technical team from three to eight and relocated to new offices to accommodate growth. "Our full indirect model, based on working with large reselling partners, has seen our growth extend from the UK to mainland Europe and beyond," added Harrison. "Revenue has doubled in the past months and we see this growth continuing. The foundations have been laid and selected partners are delivering. It's all about having the solution at the right time, and that time is now. IP telephony and SIP are now widely accepted. The connectivity has become more affordable and businesses are moving key services to the cloud. We see a majority of new RFPs requesting hosted.

"The challenges we see with the channel is a lack of understanding about the hosted market and also the benefits of the technology. We are careful to pick our partners and ensure they can support the customer by bringing out the advantages of hosted UC rather than competing on price."

Harrison's channel proposition offers a full white label solution with no chains and allows partners to bring their brand to the end customer. "Our partners can also choose their connectivity, IP phones for their customers and if required bring their own carrier for the minutes," added Harrison. "We are seeing larger service providers signing up to resell our solutions as hosted telephony becomes mainstream."

The firm's customer base has moved from SME to mid-market with a mix of SIP trunking and hosted telephony across these sectors. Harrison is also seeing strong growth in verticals such as energy, hospitality and automotive. He says that traditional PBX solutions no longer meet their requirements. Although hosted telephony has not been widely adopted in certain verticals such as hospitality and energy, thevoicefactory is engaged in these markets with customers already live on its platform. "Telephone solutions used to be a revenue generator but now they are a cost," said Harrison. "Our expectations for this market are huge. It is the last stand for PBX vendors as they fight to the bitter end to protect this vertical. Let the battle commence."

thevoicefactory's strategy is to deliver a full UC solution where telephony control and usage also moves onto the desktop as an application. The benefit to the enterprise is to improve productivity and be agnostic to the device. "Nearly all mid-market customers joining thevoicefactory require this integration, and our real-time reporting solution provides an answer to the question, 'do you want to know what you don't know'," commented Harrison.

Aside from keeping an eye on market developments Harrison is also tracking the development of WebRTC which provides the ability to communicate with rich services such as video from any browser at any location. "Video has always been delivered on a closed network or poorly on a solution adopted by businesses such as Skype," added Harrison. "We see WebRTC has a key part to our service offering in the future."

Moving forward, it will also be about market segmentation, believes Harrison. "The cheap guys will look to get market share and be disruptive, but thevoicefactory and partners will be offering service quality and feature rich solutions," he commented. "I believe the winners will be the providers who can offer a reliable solution with excellent support coupled with a 'fit for future' solution."•

Last year the team behind Yes Telecom's success reunited to launch Zest4, a fast expanding company with big ambitions to take partners on a growth journey in the UC space. Here's their story...

Familiar faces include CEO Freddie Fazelynia, Finance Director Kevan Wakerley, Operations Director Mandy Fazelynia, Head of Channel Sales Rob Foster, and Head of Hosted Solutions Keith McBride. They established Zest4 (the trading name of All Communications) in late 2012 and began trading in April 2013. "During our planning stages we spent time deliberating what our model should look like," explained Freddie Fazelynia.

"We discounted the time and resource consuming data centre and cloud technology model, and decided to get our channel management in shape. The best way to do this was to start with what we knew best which was mobile and connectivity solutions, delivering these for mobile dealers and resellers, fixed line resellers and a handful of IT specialists. Later in the year we started selling telephony systems both traditional and hosted."

From a standing start in April 2013 the company now boasts over 4,000 mobile subscribers of which 15 per cent also take connectivity. "Our customer base and associated revenues have grown slowly but steadily over the last 10 months and we have been choosy about the type of business we take on," added Wakerley. "Not only do we assess revenue and margin but the propensity of a customer to take additional products in the short to medium term is paramount. Our revenues are healthy and we believe they are more than 50 per cent higher per user than the industry average."

The company's annualised revenues currently stand at £2.5 million with a target to hit £5 million by the end of the year. "At the start of 2015 we expect all our revenue streams to be active, our infrastructures bedded down and our expertise firmly in place," said Wakerley. "We will then be in a position to scale with minimal risk and anticipate exceeding our target revenue of £21 million. Our customer base will vary in size and while we will support solutions for all sizes of business our target market is SoHo and SME with up to 250 employees. We expect our average customer size to be in the 12-20 bracket."

Zest4's headcount is set to double from 19 over the coming months and will reach 75 by December 2015, noted Wakerley. "Staff requirements are much lower than we have had in previous businesses but with the development of portals and self-care and the channel doing much of the first line customer support, there is no need for excessive numbers," he added.

A big priority is to develop the product portfolio in order to become a true digital telco, explained Foster. "We are currently working with channel partners providing both Vodafone and O2 mobile, along with fixed line and hosted telephony solutions," he commented. "Shortly we will be adding cloud-based products including Office 365, Lync and Sharepoint. These products, combined with the ability to provide connectivity and devices with leasing options available for the SME market, will be beneficial for channel partners from mobile, fixed line and IT backgrounds to increase revenue and move into the digital space."

Mandy Fazelynia noted that it was always the company's intention to be a provider of UC solutions and digital experiences. "The opportunity in converting traditional PBX to VoIP solutions has been a key focus for us and we have built a solution for our channel partners to enable them to uncover opportunities in this space," she said. "The impact of 4G and the growing popularity of smartphone and tablet devices will transform the way businesses communicate. Whether through email or messaging communication, accessing and sharing data or plain voice conversations, mobility is key in this changing world."

The uptake of cloud-based products and the potential to link products with cloud and connectivity is Zest4's primary focus and the firm is aligning its portfolio and back office operations to meet the demand in this area. "Growth in the M2M market is also a key influence on our strategy and we have recently contracted to be Telefonica O2's first M2M Wholesale partner," added Mandy Fazelynia.

"We will be supporting our partners in uncovering and providing M2M solutions and enabling them to dual brand bill these solutions as opposed to introducing the customer and then having no further involvement."

The uptake and future potential of VoIP is also a key growth area, pointed out McBride. "Looking at one experience across all devices is another area of focus for Zest4 and something that the SME market is encouraging conversations about," he added. "The business benefits of cloud-based services such as Office 365, Lync and Sharepoint are enabling businesses to work more efficiently, from anywhere at any time on any device. Work is fast becoming a 'thing you do' and not just a 'place you go to' and our focus is on providing solutions that enable businesses to evolve with a flexible working policy."

The challenge, noted Foster, is in evolving and enabling partners to have different conversations with their customers that will open up the opportunity to provide UC solutions. "It is imperative that we work with the right partners and ensure their business models change," he said. "We are addressing this by providing the tools to enable our partners to gain knowledge and experience with new products, uncover opportunities, engage with their customers effectively and provide solutions together with Zest4."

The Zest4 channel proposition operates under both dealer and reseller models. The current proposition includes mobile, fixed, data and hosted products supplied wholesale from O2, Vodafone, Gamma, M247 and Outsourcery. "Our aims are to recruit and work with more channel partners that currently operate in the IT or fixed space who have a desire to expand their knowledge in providing UC solutions," said Mandy Fazelynia. "We are also looking to recruit mobile dealers and resellers who are ready to make the transition into UC and are looking for support to get them into this space."

The Partner Portal makes doing business efficient, and after sales support ensures that churn stays low, according to Mandy Fazelynia. "The Zest4 Training Academy can be accessed by our partners to train their teams on the full product range," she said. "And our marketing team assist in putting together campaigns, opening up conversations and pitching the proposition. Resellers have an opportunity to work across all markets and become UC consultants for their customers. Continuing to specialise in one service in isolation is no longer an option and not a good strategy for customer retention."

The UC market will become more competitive and customers' requirements more demanding. "Those parties who can meet these demands and become knowledgeable across a range of products and who can differentiate themselves from the majority will be the ones who succeed," she added. "Those who are unable to evolve in this way will ultimately fail."

The firm plans to provide additional cloud services including Dynamics, file storage and application development. "Because Zest4 is new we have no legacy or baggage to hold us back," said Mandy Fazelynia. "Growth is driven by forming strong relationships, understanding our partners' business and working with them closely to support and enable their growth plans and transition them into selling a wider product portfolio."

However, growth for growth's sake is not an option, noted Wakerley. "We want to retain our culture and be in control of our own destiny," he said. "We have learned this from past mistakes. Our culture is the most important aspect of our business and is the glue which holds everything else together. The people we have and the people we recruit in the future determine this culture of staff retention and development. Although a new company, we will leverage the values that made Yes Telecom a success, and our culture will reflect our past winning formula."•

Pictured above: The Zest4 management team

Fusion Media Networks Managing Director Lee Norvall has gained a reputation for turning clarity of vision into strategic reality. Here's his story...

Pushing the boundaries - both mental and physical - has become second nature to Norvall. Not so long ago he undertook a part-time physics and astronomy course and graduated at UCL, and he is a keen Thai boxer. Norvall also gets his kicks from boxing clever in the comms space, applying his flair for total application to the task in hand, which in 2004 was to realise his vision of creating an alternative business broadband provider in the form of Fusion.

"I identified a huge opportunity for, and alternative to, business broadband provision using BT Wholesale and set about building broadband access services to the businesses markets using LLU," he said. "From this base infrastructure we introduced a range of managed Ethernet, MPLS/VPLS network and security solutions. Coupled with our colocation services we can now provide a true private cloud, IaaS and PaaS solutions."

Norvall kicked off his career working in development and networking for the hotel and leisure industry in 1992 after leaving college. In 1998 he started his first company called Lavron Technologies targeting the same industry. Lavron was one of the first ISPs to implement BT IPstream. Fast forward to eight years after Fusion was established and Knight Ventures helped arrange the funding for a MBO of Fusion from Pearson Group. Knight's syndicate of investors also provide strategic advice on growing the business.

Fusion's network partners include BT Wholesale, Openreach, TalkTalk, Virgin, EU Networks, Zayo, Level 3 and SSE. "Fusion has made a significant investment in creating a large UK access network infrastructure, aggregating all carriers to offer a next generation platform with over 12,000 points of presence," added Norvall. "The key opportunity was to invest in the latest infrastructure rather than relying on less competitive legacy systems. Our self-healing network is fully managed and proactively monitored. Using the latest technologies and equipment allows us to provision and support the network quickly and efficiently without the limitations of legacy standards. Ownership of the network allows us to control quality and have absolute visibility."

In November last year Fusion unveiled its latest Virtual Data Centre (VDC) solution which it says brings enterprise-grade on demand cloud services within reach of SMEs. "Our Virtual Data Centre is a white label platform on which to develop and upsell a whole raft of business solutions and services, offering an effective approach to simplifying IT infrastructure and reducing costs," said Norvall. "With drag and drop simplicity and onscreen server imaging, business applications and network resources can be provisioned, backed-up or restored in minutes at the click of a button. There's no need for new equipment, network engineering or infrastructure build and maintenance. You simply set up and pay for server resources and business services as they're required."

Norvall aims to keep evolving Fusion's product sets while at the same time growing the company's channel presence, increasing staff headcount to support growth. "For the year ahead we are strengthening our infrastructure and offering resellers more products and resources from our VDC cloud platform, enabling them to build their own highly available managed services," added Norvall. "Our aim is to build individual relationships rather than be a mass supplier. We do this with a transparent, uncomplicated service, quality products and a constantly evolving portfolio to meet the changing needs of channel partners."

According to Norvall, Fusion operates one of the largest UK Ethernet access network, enabling it to get geographically closer to customers while offering an end-to end service from its VDC cloud platform to the desktop, which means SLAs are guaranteed end-to-end. In conjunction with Ethernet connectivity, Fusion's fully Managed Security Services are key to any business and they address the escalating threat of cybercrime.

"It's a competitive market and ambitious resellers need access to support services that give them the edge," said Norvall. "Providers like Fusion supply resellers with the network, security and cloud platforms backed up with the support required to do business in the fast lane. We offer a true partnership to resellers and aim for long-term relationships with a bespoke service that make every partner special."

Norvall has worked with Sean Pearman, Head of Indirect Channel, for eight years and he continues to be a 'great source of support'. "And with input from our Non-Executive Director Steve Burges and Knight Ventures we gain the strategic strength to generate ongoing growth and expansion in this exciting industry," Norvall added. "There is no other sector like comms which is constantly evolving, and it's motivating to see other companies building their businesses using our products."•

A new force in comms has mobilised under the leadership of former commando Darren Hilton who's doffed his Green Beret in recognition of the high margin potential inherent in the Timico Partner Services channel campaign.

Not surprisingly Hilton rates passing his commando course and earning a Green Beret as a lifetime achievement and it is with a similar dedication to the cause that he pursues elite status in the channel for Timico's Partner Services. Like so many former Forces personnel Hilton found a home in the comms industry and formed an enterprise mobile applications business called Handheld PCs which was acquired by Timico in 2010. Hilton joined Timico's ranks and became the head of NewNet (another acquisition in 2010) moving the business to a wholly indirect model.

NewNet was established in 1995 to provide Internet connectivity, hosting, voice and networking solutions. The firm had built a presence in nine data centres across the UK and had made a significant LLU investment in key regions. NewNet rebranded as Timico Partner Services last month but the channel proposition has been in incubation for the past two years while the online ordering platform, PartnerEye, was in development.

"Having incubated the partner offering for two years while we built PartnerEye and recruited staff to support the channel, we now feel the time is right to launch the Timico Partners brand," explained Hilton, who is Director of Partner Services. "The offering is exciting and we have the right foundations in place. And with the support and financial backing from our parent company Timico Technology Group we are ready to promote our fresh and exciting new brand."

The backing Hilton refers to is significant. Timico Technology Group has grown significantly with 2012 turnover hitting £38.5 million, increasing to circa £42 million in 2013, with double digit growth projections for 2014. The company was founded in 2004 by Tim Radford and growth has been achieved through organic means and the acquisition of several service providers including Atlas Internet in 2005 and Redwood in 2012. According to Hilton, Timico wanted to offer a partner programme with a difference, essentially a tailored solution for each partner which would allow them the freedom and flexibility to order services for their customers and retain ownership.

"I'm excited to be bringing our new brand to the market when there's such a great opportunity, especially when we have the capability to deliver," he added. "It's a great time for us and I feel confident, with support from a fantastic team that we will continue to generate exponential growth. We want to build the brand and be recognised for our quality products and services while being flexible and creative with our solutions. Our aim is to be the supplier of choice with a large portfolio of quality partners who sell multiple products with confidence."

Hilton spent seven years in the military and the last 15 years in sales and senior management roles in the software, communications and Internet sectors. "I have broad experience as a reseller in the IT, mobile and connectivity sectors," he added. "Having a background across all of the technology sectors has been essential to my understanding of what the partners really need in order to grow their business. In my experience working with suppliers who genuinely invest time and effort in a business can have a massively disproportionate effect on their growth and success."

Timico has invested heavily in its network, data centres, SIP and hosted VoIP capability, which are all available to partners. The operational services include technical pre-sales, project management, technical support, product training and a straightforward ordering and billing portal. "We have built our proposition to make the portfolio of products and services simple to order and support," added Hilton. "The investment in our PartnerEye portal and also in a range of support staff, including pre-sales, technical support, provisioning and account management, are all crucial to allowing our partners to operate in the way they want to, while having confidence that all the support they need is available to them at any time. The portal can be accessed anywhere, from any device, with a range of packages to pick from to ensure the partner's sales cycle is as smooth as possible."

Target markets include Ethernet which, enthuses Hilton, presents partners with a 'massive opportunity'. "As broadband becomes a commodity and managed services become more popular, Ethernet takes over as a huge growth area for high bandwidth connectivity, which offers great margins for our partners," he said. "Another new growth area for us is Virtual Data Centres (VDC). Our partners can benefit from the infrastructure which has been heavily invested in by Timico Technology Group, so that they in turn can become VDC providers with the flexibility to go to market. Having the capability to accommodate all types of customer requests including hybrid solutions that include on-premise and the new virtual world is essential for our partners portfolio."

SIP trunking and hosted voice have now become a standard part of the product toolkit enabling resellers to have new conversations with customers around saving money and future-proofing their businesses. "Many businesses are solely dedicated to providing hosted services through the cloud," said Hilton. "As connectivity becomes increasingly important to the delivery of quality cloud-based solutions, these providers have had to make a strategic decision to provide this as part of the package to give them more control and, of course, make extra margin."

Timico has also witnessed success with its On-net presence around existing partner locations. "We currently have a number of exchanges that we have unbundled and are continuing to grow to increase our own On-net infrastructure," added Hilton. "One important aspect of this is working closely with partners on opportunities within their geographical locations to allow them to maximise their benefit from these investments."

Many IT resellers are evolving from generating one-off project-based income to more reliable monthly recurring revenue. This is a key focus for Timico Partners, pointed out Hilton, who is helping partners to progress towards this new model. "It's a challenge to find quality partners that are in growth and looking for the level of service that we can offer," commented Hilton. "It's also a difficult transition for some of our newer partners to shift from being wholly IT-focused to providing all of the extra services. We want to ensure that our partners receive training that's effective and memorable and it needs to be completed within the shortest timeframe possible. This helps them to build confidence in selling these new services and start creating new revenue by offering complete solutions rapidly."

Speed to market is a priority and to help partners respond fast to customer requirements they are demanding package pricing so that they can sell products speedily and efficiently, observed Hilton. "This presents a great opportunity to disrupt the market with some new Ethernet pricing and also provide a new tool which allows the partners to complete their own quotes quickly and easily," he added. "This is a real focus for Timico Partners and much time and money has been invested into developing a leased line quote tool on our PartnerEye ordering and billing platform."

The importance of having solid and in-growth relationships with channel partners has become a key focus for Timico. "Our partners already delivered a significant income to the Timico Technology Group's overall revenue which has naturally led to the business wanting a dedicated team to fuel this growth," commented Hilton. "We have a particular emphasis on developing partners in the IT industry and broadening their portfolios to offer managed services and Ethernet connectivity to their customers. We have a number of activities planned around partner generation. These include a racing day with 458 and F12 Ferraris in May and also race days at Goodwood where we can promote our offering while enjoying some downtime with our partners."•