Comms Dealer

Bradford-based Lily Communications Managing Director Chris Morrisey has bounced back from a serious health scare with the same high levels of energy and enthusiasm that attracted him to the telecoms industry 15 years ago.

Morrisey is a changed man. No longer seduced by beer, curry and TV he dedicates himself to a disciplined lifestyle where smoothies, salads and fitness training dominate. Such is the life changing influence of surviving a heart attack. His company, Lily Communications, has also undergone a transformation, prompted by arresting changes within the comms industry. Although not life threatening, running a business is also a case of survival of the fittest and Morrisey is limbering up for a long-term and fruitful future. "By 2018 I fully expect Lily Comms to be a multi-million pound organisation," he stated. "Everything we are doing now is geared towards us becoming recognisable and respected within the industry."

Lily Comms was founded in 2009 by Morrisey and business partner Adrian Jackson who shared a vision to build a business that other telecoms companies would aspire to emulate. "I share the highs and the lows with Adrian, bounce ideas off him, sometimes he has the right ideas, sometimes I do, but together we eventually get it right," said Morrisey.

The company now has a headcount of 23, boasts £2.2 million turnover and expects £500k growth for 2013 and £750k this year. Its 2,000 customer base is split between 90 per cent SME customers and 10 per cent corporate. And notably, growth has been spurred in no small part by a strategic change of direction.

"We have shifted our primary focus from providing outsourced engineering for other telecom companies to concentrating on our own direct customer base," noted Morrisey. "Our engineering background has served us well in terms of customer acquisition. We are able to approach companies to provide solutions based on our knowledge bank. A key focus will be on the acquisition of SME customers through our own sales team and by building partnerships with resellers of our portfolio. We are aiming to increase turnover by 100 per cent over the next two years. This is an ambitious target, but one we feel is achievable based on the course we are currently taking."

The company will continue to adapt its portfolio to align with trends in the industry, so not surprisingly VoIP, hosted and hybrid solutions are now a prominent part of the Lily Comms proposition. "We have also focused on expanding our network services customer base," explained Morrisey. "By working with our suppliers, Gamma and Pragma, we are able to offer our customers a total telecoms solution under one roof. We will launch a mobile side to the business at some point in 2014. Thirty per cent of our sales are now software-based applications that integrate with phone systems. And as customers increasingly demand more from products and services we will actively push applications alongside system sales."

Another important development within Lily Comms is the priority it now gives to customer focus. "We aim to instil a passion within our staff to deliver a high level of service to prospective and existing customers," added Morrisey. "We have put significant resource into improving customer services and after sales service. Customer issues have decreased dramatically over the year. On the rare occasions customers do experience issues they are dealt with swiftly and effectively."

During the past year Lily Comms has also made some key appointments in senior management. Neil Harrison joined the firm as Head of Network Services with a remit to grow the calls, lines and broadband side of the business while focusing on upselling to the existing customer base. "We also recognised the need to promote our business more effectively due to realigning our focus to direct sales as opposed to outsourced engineering," commented Morrisey. "So we brought James Waplington on board as Marketing Manager and his approach to marketing and lead generation has led to a 55 per cent increase in direct sales compared to this time last year.

"We have had to lose people along the way who did not fit in with the company's beliefs, but the workforce now is the most dedicated group of people I have worked with. We will continue to add like minded people to the team as the business grows. Whenever I interview someone I always position the company as an opportunity provider. If someone comes into the business, works hard and delivers results there will always be room for them to progress within the company."

Lily Communications' success is closely linked to its key channel partners. Pragma, the distributor for Ericsson-LG products in the UK, supplies most of Lily's hardware and software, while Gamma provides network services and hosted products. "Gamma's range of products has enabled us to offer more to our customers," added Morrisey. "In 2014 we will put further resource into selling Gamma's hosted solution, Horizon."

A handy knack for turning foresight into strategic action is just one of the attributes that contribute towards Morrisey's success. Self belief, knowledge and skill are equally important. "It is vital to always believe in what you are doing and to do it with passion, even if you make the wrong decisions," he commented. "I learned early in my career that mistakes are part and parcel of being an entrepreneur. You have to learn from those mistakes.

"I've been in telecoms since 1998 and I'm always learning new things. We're fortunate to be in an industry that is constantly changing. Still being in telecoms after 15 years and enjoying it is my greatest achievement. I've seen so many people fail, give up or fall out of love with the industry that I am extremely grateful to be successful and enjoying work as much as ever."•

The business benefits of superfast broadband are undeniable and UK coverage is moving forward apace, yet uptake among SMEs remains surprisingly low, according to Rob Lee, Marketing Director at Openreach.

He says that fibre could become one of the industry's biggest missed opportunities unless resellers connect with the evolving needs of their ADSL customers.

Many businesses operating within Openreach's fibre broadband footprint have no idea they are in a superfast fibre enabled area. Early last year 40 per cent were in the dark according to research by Openreach. The study indicates that more needs to be done to take fibre to market, and comms resellers should be at the vanguard of this push. "By the time we reach two thirds commercial fibre coverage of UK premises by the end of Spring 2014, up to 2.5 million small businesses will have access to fibre broadband via our network," stated Lee.

Openreach research also confirmed that among those companies using fibre, 70 per cent said it had opened up the potential for them to use many more applications, with just over two thirds of fibre broadband adopters pointing to improved efficiency as a result. "There is also clear evidence that when a business gets superfast broadband at one site there follows a desire to upgrade at another location," added Lee. "And businesses using ADSL-based solutions may find in time that it just doesn't offer them the bandwidth capacity to function to their full potential. The story here spells out a growing pipeline of opportunity for UK communications providers who engage with fibre broadband."

At the end of 2013 over two million premises across the UK had subscribed to superfast fibre broadband via the Openreach network. Of those, around 65,000 SMEs had taken the leap. Research also shows that once that step has been taken, few would consider going back to their old connection, with 70 per cent saying it has opened up potential for more applications; 60 per cent believing it has transformed the way they work; and over 50 per cent saying they have saved money as a result of adopting fibre broadband. "Many SMEs are finding that fibre broadband bridges the affordability gap between current ADSL and Ethernet-based solutions," added Lee. "Fibre broadband fits with their desire for more bandwidth, both upstream and downstream, and also fits within their budget."

Lee also noted that SMEs wanting to 'transform' their business, typically with two-ten people on site, have been key among the early adopters. Case studies also show that SMEs are looking at Openreach' Superfast Fibre Access (SFFA) as a way of connecting 'agile' employees and home workers.

Fibre broadband offers new ways for small businesses to connect with customers. They can use it to beef up the experience of real-time video calls and take collaborative working to a new level. They can also take advantage of hosted applications to reduce software and licensing costs. "Combine this with online data storage and SMEs can dramatically cut the cost of computer hardware as well," commented Lee. "There are benefits at the front end too. Shops for example can speed things up at the tills and even entice more Wi-Fi network-seeking customers through the doors."

The availability of superfast broadband closes the divide between traditional consumer connectivity and lower bandwidth Ethernet, making it more important than ever to help businesses choose the right products for the right reasons, believes Lee. "It's vital that they understand the options and think about the future carefully, especially if a resilient, dedicated Ethernet service is really where their requirements are heading," he added. "For this reason we have produced a range of materials to help CPs provide exactly that kind of advice."

Openreach is at the heart of one of the biggest network upgrades in the world. "Our Superfast Fibre Access network is roaring ahead, stated Lee. "We've already passed over 17 million homes and expect to cover around two-thirds of UK premises by the end of spring 2014, at least 18 months ahead of the original schedule. Working alongside the UK government we're also helping to reach the 'final third', those properties in rural areas that are hard to reach, or not commercially viable with private funding alone. BDUK funding, together with investment by the private sector, will ensure that 90 per cent of UK premises will be able to access fibre broadband within the next few years when all networks are taken into account."

When selling fibre broadband, noted Lee, it's worth considering the customers' circumstances first. Ask questions such as: How many employees do they have and what's their average bandwidth/usage per person? What applications and file size do they typically use? How much bandwidth is needed? What are their future business plans and what are their competitors doing? Is it likely they'll need more and more bandwidth over time as they need to service more customers in remote locations/overseas?

"Qualifying leads and prospects is an important first step in the sales process," he said. "It's also worth remembering the benefits of faster data transfer, giving more opportunities to work smarter, saving time through increased use of online and collaborative tools, video and storage options. Consider the efficiency angle too. Businesses are looking at cost savings alongside revenue growth. There could be opportunities to sell supplementary products. Is there a story on capex versus opex for end users? Think about how you can stand out from the crowd and innovate the product to tap into your target markets."•

Angus McCaffery has guided Maintel from its roots in PBX maintenance and installation to the AIM listed, multi-faceted ICT solutions provider it is today with the financial muscle to acquire companies like Datapoint.

McCaffery co-founded the business in 1991 at the start of the telecoms deregulation boom and in its early years Maintel was the de-facto provider of engineering and support services for the fast growing independent telecoms channel. Maintel has grown steadily in its 23 year history, adding B2B managed services, network services and mobile estate management to its portfolio and is now aiming to deliver even better returns for its shareholders via its ongoing acquisition programme. The £3.5 million cash deal for Datapoint is Maintel's third acquisition in four years, having bought Redstone's maintenance assets for £1.75 million in October 2010 and B2B dealer Totility for £7 million last November.

The acquisition of Datapoint's UK and Irish operations, which McCaffery describes as a 'game changer', takes Maintel's turnover to £40 million plus and an employee head count of 260 - a far cry from the handful of engineers McCaffery employed in Maintel's early days operating out of unglamorous offices in London's Battersea. Comms Dealer caught up with McCaffery last month in his favourite Turkish restaurant in upwardly mobile Southwark, a stone's throw away from Maintel's South London headquarters. Our first question to the entrepreneur was a simple one: As a Maintel founder does he consider the growth of his business to be on-plan?

"It all depends what time of year you ask that question," he said. "As we are listed on the Stock Exchange the year end numbers become the big barometer as to whether we are on plan, so speak to me in the New Year about that! In terms of the bigger picture, yes we are very much on track. We have a very good management team expertly led by our CEO Eddie Buxton, we have a very solid customer base, world class products and things are going well."

McCaffery's nose for a deal was a key factor in the Datapoint acquisition, as he explained: "Like a lot of these things I heard about it on the grapevine. I made a few calls, and before I knew it we were meeting them. We went ahead with the acquisition because it was a near perfect fit for us. The business is predominantly Avaya-based with high end contact centre skills plus ongoing relationships with the likes of Genesys and Nectar, which obviously appealed.

"Datapoint also has a solid business in Ireland with strong ties to the US and throughout Europe, and like us it is engineering and technology led and has a good reputation. It means as a group we are now one of the largest Avaya Platinum partners and one of only two in Europe accredited across the entire Avaya portfolio."

The acquisition brings into the Maintel portfolio enhanced consulting and professional expertise in Unified Communications, with particular strength in the provision of contact centre solutions. "The purchase is a key component of our strategy to diversify our revenue base and significantly increase its skills and presence in new products and services. It's also upgraded our Avaya skills, which to be fair were pretty good already," said McCaffery.

So, after a long history driving Maintel's sales and marketing strategies is he tempted to lead a rebrand, especially as Maintel is as much a data business as a comms business these days? "That's a good question," he said. "The jury has been out and the truth is we like both names. The likelihood is that most of the group will remain as Maintel, but we will keep a subsidiary as Datapoint and channel the contact centre and Workforce Management business through that. It would be a shame not to use the Datapoint name at all because there is a lot of heritage there. It was founded in 1968 and in the seventies it was a Fortune 500 company employing over 3,000 people."

McCaffery admits Maintel's close bonds with the channel's smaller players have loosened over the years but he says there are no plans for Maintel to become a direct only business. "Working with channel partners is in our DNA and we are probably one of the most trusted channel brands out there, but today we mainly work alongside bigger businesses like O2 and Vodafone plus large system integrators and some of the bigger resellers. Most of the smaller resellers are more independent now so we see less of those relationships but we will of course still happily work with those guys. The exciting thing for me now is working with our US, European and Asian partners. It feels like we are progressing."

Maintel has survived and thrived in a tough economic climate by sticking to its core business while not being change averse. So does McCaffery see a long-term future for premise-based equipment provision and service? "The pace of change is always slower than you think," he commented. "But some customers' needs are simple and as long as there are manufacturers making CPE kit and running a channel, and resellers can make good margins selling it, then it will not go away. It's a bit like supermarkets and plastic bags, if they really wanted to stop us using them they would stop making them.

"But you ignore change at your peril. With MS Lync and 365 driving into our space you have got to keep evolving. Cloud communications is here to stay and you need to have a strategy for it and decide what role your business plays in it as it's a broad scope. We have been in hosted solutions for a while but are still finding our niche in true cloud. We have one very interesting project in this space but its top secret!

"I am also a non-exec for Nasstar, another AIM listed business that delivers hosted desktop and Exchange. It's been a good learning curve but as with all things there is no magic bullet. You still have to sell and deliver it to an SLA and at a profit. It's not the holy grail."

McCaffery sold some of his Maintel shares in 2012 but still retains almost 20% of the holding company's stock and aims to work on the group's development over the next decade in his own, 'highly organised' way. "I have an innate desire to get up and do things. I am a morning person and I'm no good at sitting around. I am a doer, a list person bordering on OCD and over organised. It drives my wife nuts. In 10 years' time the likelihood is that Maintel will have been consolidated into a bigger group but to be honest we enjoy what we do and the business is going well, so I would like to say we will still be here, just a lot bigger and hopefully more international!" •

Few could have predicted BlackBerry's roller coaster ride following its meteoric rise to dominance a decade ago. Today, however, you don't need to be Mystic Meg to see that BlackBerry is once again on the march, this time on a mission to fully reclaim its overarching market influence, according to Mike Gibson, Director of UK Enterprise.

Heroic BlackBerry deserves more than a medal following its skirmishes in the war of the enterprise smartphone. The company has emerged, reinvented, from the heat of a hard fought battle, victorious. In a remarkable turnaround incoming Chief Executive Officer John Chen, who replaces Thorsten Heins, aims to drive innovation and electrify BlackBerry. He has brought stability to a company that was up for sale last summer, reeling from a Q2 net loss of £597 million and about to wield the axe on 4,500 jobs. But core principles remain the same and are already making their influence keenly felt in various ways, noted Gibson.

"John Chen has set out a clear mandate of going back to BlackBerry's heritage and roots to deliver enterprise-grade, end-to-end mobile solutions," affirmed Gibson. "From an enterprise perspective, my priority is to continue to build on the early success of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES10) - which now has 30,000 servers installed and counting. Leveraging the strength and depth of our existing channel partnerships is fundamental to this objective; along with our focus on handsets, EMM solutions, cross-platform messaging and embedded systems. We're confident about our future in enterprise, our technology and our ability to adapt to changing market needs."

BlackBerry's strength in enterprise software and services, including BES10 and BlackBerry Technical Support Service, is the force behind a big push to develop new strategic partnerships with VARs, MSPs and SIs. "We're working to develop and grow these partnerships via our BlackBerry Partner Programme so that they can capitalise on the opportunities that our portfolio offers them," added Gibson. "With our inherent focus on mobile, our heritage and our reach, we are confident that we can continue to best serve the needs of the enterprise market in the medium and long-term."

Gibson's career began in data comms before moving into UC, including a stint at Nortel. Although his role at BlackBerry is firmly rooted in the mobile space, the focus is broadly similar to his past experience. "Software and services are at the core of our business and my previous experience has stood me in good stead, particularly with innovations such as BES10 where we've taken our previously proprietary software to create a full cross-platform solution that extends our security and management capabilities to iOS and Android devices," he said. "All of my previous roles have been characterised by a strong channel-centric approach and this came into play as BlackBerry introduced its Partner Programme to activate the IT VAR community."

Partners can join the BlackBerry Partner Programme at one of three levels - Strategic, Approved or Associate. Progress through the tiers is encouraged, and Strategic top tier partners receive the most benefits including full access to the Partner Programme website. Notably, training has proved to be a popular area within the portal. "Since its launch 19 months ago we have seen over 6,500 eLearning modules completed, 2,500 webinar modules attended and a total of 728 people have participated in the on-site classroom training," commented Gibson. "We also cater for the complex distribution network by tailoring content for our key distribution partners."

According to Gibson, BlackBerry's partners benefit from a constant stream of upsell opportunities that are designed to fully maximise their account penetration. "We've introduced a range of new sales incentives aimed at rewarding solutions sales, as well as a partner support package to help partners maximise revenue opportunities from support services," Gibson added.

His message is clear: BES10 is a full cross-platform solution that builds on BlackBerry's tried and trusted capabilities in security and management, and it is testament to how far the company has travelled from old perceptions of it being a 'phone maker'. "We are much more than a device company," Gibson commented. "For any organisation looking to seamlessly manage multiple mobile platforms and devices, they can do so with BES10 and benefit from the security and management capabilities that have made BlackBerry the leader in mobile enterprise for more than a decade. What's more, there is a simple upgrade path from our existing BlackBerry infrastructure to our BES10 platform without the need for a costly rip and replace."

BES10 is flexible and scalable, designed to address the needs of SMBs using Active Sync through to an organisation operating in a fully regulated environment which must conform to the strictest security criteria. "The development of BES10 exemplifies how we are continuously innovating to meet and anticipate the requirements of our customers," added Gibson. "As different mobile devices and platforms have proliferated within the workplace, we have created and delivered a full cross-platform solution that can manage and secure iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices, apps and content from one single console."

Gibson claims that BlackBerry manages more mobile devices than any other MDM vendor in the world, pointing out that over one third of FTSE 100 companies have already been installed globally along with over 60 per cent of its Fortune 500 customers. "This reflects their desire for a cross-platform enterprise mobility management solution that delivers a strong level of security, control and management at both the device and app level," he stated. "We're confident that with further innovations in this space, including the forthcoming launch of our new cloud solution, we can continue to maintain the strong position in enterprise that we have held for well over ten years."

Most organisations have a variety of devices types and platforms in the workplace today. The real challenge is how to secure and manage not just these devices but the apps and content running on them, especially in an environment where BYOD and/or consumerisation have driven IT departments to settle for workaround solutions in an attempt to make a multitude of device types and platforms 'fit for work', observed Gibson. "In their haste to adapt to this shift many organisations have opted for a more basic mobility management model just as everything is being mobilised. Consequently, they require even more sophisticated mobile management capabilities," he said.

"With a multi-device enterprise environment now the reality, the IT department has the opportunity to regain a measure of control over the management of the mobile enterprise estate. BES10 ticks all of the boxes by delivering a full cross-platform solution offering the best of our security and management capabilities."

Not surprisingly, MDM is top of the agenda for most CIOs and IT departments, not just because of BYOD but also because of the clear opportunity that mobility presents to boost productivity, customer engagement, job satisfaction and more. "We are focused on creating a platform agnostic service that goes beyond just devices to managing endpoints," stated Gibson. "As experts in mobile we are well positioned to achieve this because other mega IT vendors lack focus and competency in mobile, while smaller pure play MDM vendors lack the resources and reach."•

The battle for market share in the business smartphone market is set to hot up following a rally by BlackBerry and the roll out of a new channel campaign. BlackBerry's dominance in the enterprise mobility market has been chipped away by competitors but by going back to its roots it hopes to win back defectors.

The company has stepped up the battle to win more users with BES10 (BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10), a full cross-platform solution that builds on its heritage and capabilities in security and management.

Mike Gibson, Director of Enterprise UK, said he is positive BES10 will hold its own against competitors and that BlackBerry's strength in enterprise software and services will persuade potential partners to join forces with the company.

Key areas of focus now include handsets, EMM solutions, cross-platform messaging and embedded systems.

"We're working to develop and grow new strategic partnerships with VARs, MSPs and SIs via our BlackBerry Partner Programme," confirmed Gibson. "With our focus on mobile, our heritage and our reach, we are confident that we can continue to serve the needs of the enterprise market."

Gibson claims that BlackBerry manages more mobile devices than any other MDM vendor, pointing out that almost 30,000 BES10 servers have already been installed globally, including over one third of FTSE 100 companies and over 60% of BlackBerry's Fortune 500 customers.

Click here for the full story

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: Key words are old hat but content marketing is a must for your 2014 wardrobe. The good news is that SEO is no longer mythical wizardry costing thousands of pounds a month with nothing to show for a good part of the year.

Our friends at Google have altered the rules yet again in a bid to support genuine businesses and individuals who have something interesting to say. Organic growth in search engine optimisation can now be more easily achieved by simply creating original and meaningful content.

Content marketing complements Google's aims of creating a fairer, more realistic online search environment that not only offers a better experience for users but also the writers that genuinely have something to say. This means that successful SEO can be more easily achieved by resellers as the focus has moved away from key words and now encourages legitimate, intelligent content that truly enriches reader's knowledge.

Therefore resellers need to move away from the opinion that you will only get exposure if you constantly repeat words such as cloud, broadband and hosted. Those days have long gone and now you can actually get penalised for over using words. Intelligent news and discussions is what you need to be focusing on as constant, fresh and original opinion pieces will make you the blue eyed boy of the Google Guy.

Prospective clients will see you when they are looking for information for their business as a whole, not just when they are doing the obvious searches for IT and telecoms services. Creating content gives you better visibility in search engines so as your impressions increase so too should your click-throughs and site exposure.

Westcon Group's Comstor business unit has strengthened its relationship with CA Technologies, expanding the company's data centre market presence in a move that sees Comstor partners across the UK gain access to CA Technologies' IT monitoring software.

Andreas Dohmen, Executive Vice President EMEA, Comstor, said: "It's a natural progression to anchor our portfolio with this foundational monitoring technology."
 
Andrea Dossena, Vice President of Partner Sales, CA Technologies EMEA, added. "By joining forces with Comstor, we're able to bring this value proposition to customers in the UK and across vertical markets via the reseller channel."

Spending on IT per person is much higher in the UK, Germany and France than in southern Europe. A study by German high-tech association BITKOM showed an EU average of €1,197. At the lower end were Italy (€930), Spain (€928), Russia (€403), China (€213) and India (€49).

Similarly higher expenditures in Germany for information technology and telecommunications were significantly higher than many other major industrial nations at €1,477. Japan (€1,807, UK (€1,994) and the USA (€2,430) were higher, however. France was just behind Germany at €1,470.

"ICT investment are the most important indicator of the development of the digital economy and society," says BITKOM President Prof. Dieter Kempf. "The gap [for Germany] with the UK and the USA is far too great."

While the ICT spend in 2013 stagnated in Germany compared with 2012, the weaker countries did significantly increase their spending. The fastest growing was India (up 11%), followed by Brazil (10%), China (9%) and Russia (5%).

South West Communications Group has announced ambitions plan to significantly grow its business by the end of 2014.

Now in its 30th year as a telephone systems provider, South West Communications Group is aiming to expand its market share in telephony but also to increase the use of its purpose-built data centre hosting facility in Exeter and to expand the connectivity side of the business.

To support its growth plans, South West Communications Group is launching a recruitment drive to fulfil new roles in office-based and field sales.

Sales director Sarah Flowers said: "People generally know us for two things, telephone systems and Exeter Chiefs, but we offer so much more.

"Our data centre enables hosting, disaster recovery and data backup services and we offer a full range of Internet connectivity, data network and video conferencing solutions.

"Our aim is to build on the telephony core of our business and to put more resource in these other services to offer a complete business communications service. It is an ambitious plan but we are eager to embrace growth to well and truly leave behind the tough economic times of recent years."

South West Communications Group is also planning to broaden its customer catchment area by offering its range of products and services to businesses in the midlands.

Eclipse has named Dave Manning as its new Director of Operations. He joins at a time when the company plans to double the size of the business and create dozens of new roles.

Over the coming months Eclipse will be developing its product portfolios to deliver a flexible range of connectivity, communications and cloud services to support business productivity and growth, and customer focus will be key to Eclipse's success.

Manning said: "The team at Eclipse is passionate about delivering an exceptional experience to their customers all the way through their relationship with us, and I can't wait to be part of the evolution of this already successful company."

Clodagh Murphy, Managing Director, added: "I'm delighted to be welcoming Dave to the team and at such an exciting time for us as a business. Dave's knowledge and experience will help us to diversify and grow while maintaining and improving what we currently do."