Comms Dealer

Comms Vision welcomed high flying collaboration tsar Jacob Morgan who flew across the Atlantic to enlighten, enthuse and motivate delegates with a strategy guide that illustrates how organisations can make collaboration work most effectively.

Morgan, who is a Principal at Chess Media Group, has written a book called 'The Collaborative Organisation' and in it he advances the notion that collaboration in practice must adhere to 12 key principles to be effective. Underpinning these pillars of collaboration are surging trends that are quickly defining the future look of the workplace.

"The workplace is evolving," he stated. "There is a shift away from hierarchies in favour of flattened structures. There are movements towards flexible working. Information is no longer hoarded, it's open access. And leadership is becoming synonymous with engagement, empowerment and inspiration. Leaders follow from the front in a true collaborative environment."

Another big determining factor, cloud technology, has liberated employees from the constraints of email. According to Morgan, younger workers are choosing a technology that works best for them and organisations are helpless to stem the tide.

"Email was once a primary communication tool, now it's secondary," added Morgan. "Email has become a problem, it's not effective nor efficient. However, collaboration platforms provide a solution."

In Morgan's collaborative world the outdated corporate modus operandi is being dismantled and rebuilt in a way that creates an environment that enables employees to manoeuvre within the organisation and shape their own career path because they are more able to share information and ideas by being more connected and engaged.

"Siloed and fragmented companies will be a thing of the past, unable to compete with organisations that offer true collaborative capabilities," said Morgan.

He also noted an urgent need to redefine the traditional meaning of the term 'work' and its associated synonyms. In making his point, Morgan also made hay in ridiculing old definitions with connotations of drudgery, production, stress, sweat, toil and task, all forming a somewhat negative foundation upon which to build an organisation.

"Organisations have been created within the confines of such definitions," said Morgan. "Is it any wonder we hear complaints that 'work sucks'? Today's organisations are rethinking what these terms mean and are moving away from legacy ways of doing things that were established in the past by people who may well be long gone.

"Enterprise movements away from traditional structures are creating a big gap. Millennials will form the majority of the workforce in 2015, and by 2025 they will account for 75 per cent. The majority of these people grew up with mobiles, collaboration and Facebook, and 58 per cent of them are likely to be promoted to managerial positions with many becoming future buyers. Vendors are looking too much at current buyers and need to look further into the future."

In the midst of such sweeping changes the only concrete knowledge we have is that tomorrow brings uncertainty, pointed out Morgan, who also stated that organisations which approach the future in an engaged and connected way will be best prepared to survive compared to their disengaged and disconnected counterparts.

Advancing his argument further, disciples of Morgan's 12 principles of collaboration will be aligned neatly with the trends that are shaping tomorrow's working environment, he believes.

Morgan's 12 principles:

1. Individual versus corporate value: In essence, making life easier and better for workers is a collaboration prerequisite.

2. Strategy before technology: An obvious idea, bit not always the case. All too often businesses spend money on the tool and then try to find a problem.

3. Listen to the voice of employees: Higher levels of engagement are strongly related to improvements in innovation. For example, 59 per cent of workers say their job brings out their most creative ideas against just three per cent of disengaged employees. A culture of collaboration sparks ideas, innovation and new products.

4. Learn to get out of the way: Empower and support workers, do not dictate to them. Employees thrive in a visible open environment.

5. Lead by example: It's not just about saying you support collaboration, it's about showing commitment. Workers need to see their managers use the same technology that they use.

6. Integrate into workflows: The collaboration platform needs to be the front door to the enterprise and be an integral part of how people work.

7: Create a supportive environment: Integrate and pull together more onto the collaboration platform to underpin and enhance what workers do.

8. Think long-term: Be clear about what you want your organisation to look like.

9. Persistence: There will be challenges, but collaboration isn't an option, it's the only way.

10. Adapt and evolve: Technology will change and challenges will emerge alongside new behaviours, so processes do need to change.

11. Collaboration also benefits the customer: Employees can respond faster to customer issues and be more accurate.

12. Collaboration makes the world a better place: It's easier to get work done, enables flexible environments and empowers workers to be more fulfilled and engaged.

Despite long-held industry hopes pinned on the potential of UC, the technology remains stuck in a PBX upgrade time trap, claimed Comms Vision Content Director John Chapman on day two of the conference.

"Two thirds of UC deployments are used by just 50 per cent of the user base," he said. "Most deployments are used only for telephony, with 50 per cent of users claiming that a lack of UC training is preventing them from taking advantage of what UC has to offer."

According to Chapman, there is a big need for UC to be properly integrated into business processes for it to work as intended.

"UC has not delivered on the promise," he added. "Businesses demand UC and many employees are using Lync, Skype and Google to bypass installed systems and gain the productivity and agility they crave. This random approach to business comms is a missed opportunity for resellers."

To remedy the situation a hefty dose of collaboration is required, prescribed Chapman. "The collaboration piece is not working," he added. "The industry has failed to deliver UCC and we will see a strong push from workers who want to get things done.

"Generation X and Y are now in the workplace, side-stepping UC and opting to use what works  best for them. The channel needs to reclaim this lost market opportunity."

M2M market watcher John Howes, Technical Director at Beecham Research, spoke with conviction on the impact of connected devices and their market potential. He first started evaluating the M2M opportunity, surprisingly, in 2001, so he knows his onions and Comms Vision delegates were highly attentive when he urged them to do 'something big and different' around M2M technology.

"M2M has introduced a new networked product business model with added value," he said. "There are many applications for M2M, and adding networking to devices customers gain better levels of support."

He cited a case where a MRI scanner manufacturer provides its product as a service, rather than a product, with M2M enabling scanners to be billed on a per use basis.

Taking things further, Howes pointed to advances made in wearable technology whereby the individual is wired up for a connected lifestyle. This too is a significant opportunity, noted Howes.

Innovations in Machine to Machine connectivity are exhilarating. Even better, the upsides are without boundaries and the business benefits for resellers too good to turn down, according to Richard Appleton, Sales Director at Arkessa, a firm with enviable expertise in devising and deploying global M2M solutions.

A significant piece in this scenario is the work done by resellers on the ground. This is where big wins are made and companies such as Arkessa are enabling resellers to assert their role in innovative ways based on M2M service provision 'made simple', claimed Appleton.

"The term M2M can be confusing," he said. "But in reality this can be an uncomplicated market that resellers can address via white labelled M2M service provision."

A general consensus on M2M market growth has brought into sharp focus the channel's ability to capitalise on this rich seam of opportunity and companies such as Arkessa have leveraged their expertise and know-how to create a M2M platform that removes all of the complexity.

Examples of M2M in action - such as capturing meter data and feeding the information through a network into the corporate environment for analysis - have already become simplistic and hackneyed, according to Appleton, because they do not tell the full story.

"The real world is more complex," he explained. "A M2M solution could involve multiple devices over multiple networks and involve multiple recipients of data for differing purposes. All devices, including legacy, need managing - these are just some of the issues to consider.

"But Arkessa has developed a platform designed to empower resellers as virtual M2M providers, creating a new source of revenue based on selling a service rather than a product.

"M2M is often misconceived - don't be deterred - resellers can serve customers in a broader way. For UC providers it's easy to extend into M2M and focus on high ARPU areas.

"M2M is not constrained to machines talking to machines, it's not about low ARPU connections and charging for bytes of data. This market is evolving at pace, and creative thinking, channels and partners will be critical to success."

Arkessa was formed in 2009 and currently boasts 400,000-plus connections.

The dour economy still does not fail to disappoint but a bright spot allows the channel to share in a surprise growth opportunity, explained UK business economist Andrew Sentance CBE, Senior Economic Adviser to PwC.

In a bid to motivate an understanding of where we are in the financial crisis Sentance advanced the concept of a New Normal economy developing, truncated by a structural break from the conditions that supported growth prior to the recession. These determining factors were, in the main, easy money, cheap imports and confidence in the policy regime - a mixture that nurtured sustained growth, but importantly these elements no longer apply.

Mid-way through this period of unprecedented transition, the economy has now dislocated from old structures and is reforming amid global growth, albeit uneven growth with the rise of Asia and other emerging markets changing the dynamics and pattern of the global economy.

Compared to these boisterous economies, the UK is in the slow lane with disappointing growth of 1.3 per cent. This, noted Sentance, is sluggish but by no means representative of a lurch back into recession.

Employment has held-up well with 1.5 million jobs created in the private sector since 2010, and the services sector is now the main UK employer driving the economic recovery, turning on their head predictions that manufacturing would lead the march out of recession.

Significantly for the comms channel, Professional Services has proved to be one of the strongest UK sectors where despite a subdued growth environment there are opportunities in emerging trends such as the cloud, noted Sentance.

Combine this with growth predictions of just under 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent this year and next, and a picture of optimism emerges, illustrated by Internet sales volumes in the retail sector which have climbed 150 per cent since 2008.

Sentance expects stronger growth between 2015 and 2020. "There are opportunities in the New Normal economy through innovating and exploiting new technologies," he stated. "Customers are more demanding and responsive to solutions that make them more flexible and adaptable."

O2's Head of Partners Jason Philips is a newcomer to the Comms Vision stage but the operator has for the fourth time positioned its channel proposition as a CVC Platinum sponsor.

Addressing delegates on day one of Comms Vision Philips set out O2's stall as it moves away from being a 'mobile' company to emerge as a 'digital comms' organisation.

"We are focused on a digital future and M2M," he said. "It is estimated that by 2020 there will be seven times more SIM enabled 'machines' than people."

Comms pioneer Mitel upped the stakes this year, raising its Comms Vision sponsorship to Platinum level in a move that illustrates the vendor's commitment to building on its 40 year heritage as an agile channel-focused manufacturer.

Mitel's evolution has in large part been driven by hefty investments in R&D and now the company has built three pillars that form the core structure if its proposition - Cloud, Contact Centre and UC.

Simon Skellon, VP UK Sales, told delegates: "We now have 300,000 cloud users worldwide, 40 per cent of these are in the UK. We aim to show resellers how easy it is to build cloud propositions."

There is no advantage in treating software giant Microsoft as a threat, stated John Haw, Sales Director at serial Comms Vision Platinum sponsor Gamma, who in an introductory address urged delegates to embrace the Lync opportunity.

Gamma's Lync push is the latest in a long line of portfolio developments at the company. Rapid growth has seen the company hike its SIP and hosted business by 90 per cent and 80 per cent respectively this year, contributing significantly towards an impressive £145 million turnover, up £8m on last year.

"New value propositions make customers more sticky and resellers more margin," he said. "We are now introducing Lync as an opportunity, not a threat."

On consideration of Gamma's pedigree as a runaway winner in the new technology stakes, those partial to a small bet would no doubt give the company's race to Lync their full backing.

Just six years ago, 75 per cent of Gamma's revenue came from calls and lines. These days, SIP accounts for 25 per cent, Inbound the same proportion, ditto hosted, broadband and mobile, with the calls and lines business shrinking to 25 per cent.

It's clear where the growth markets are and with Lync in the mix Gamma's revenue generating profile is certain to continue its theme of transformation next year.

Senior executives of leading ICT companies have descended on the world famous Gleneagles Hotel for Comms Vision 2013, the channel's premier strategic business planning convention (November 6-8th). John Chapman, Content Director, set the scene by highlighting the 'new world' that is emerging from the recession, a world characterised by a new breed of application software and a new level of conversation with the customer.

A gathering head of steam-driven software development will provide a platform for channel parties to accelerate out of recession by enabling customers to be more agile, efficient and productive, according to Chapman

"The driving factors for change are new procedures and processes," stated Chapman in a keynote address. "With generation X and Y already in work and bypassing established systems like email and data bases in favour of Facebook and mobile, the channel's mantra now needs to be 'Make it happen and get things done'."

Despite the workplace revolution there is no conflict between staff and bosses as a shift in IT purchasing power illustrates, noted Chapman, citing research that suggests CMOs will spend more IT budget than CIOs by 2017. According to Gartner, CIOs are currently responsible for just 50 per cent of IT spend.

"Software application development is driving new buying behaviours," added Chapman. "The drivers include CRM, mobility - including M2M apps and BYOD - and Big Data. The biggest change for resellers is that they need to adapt to a new world where 'born in the cloud' rivals can successfully operate with no legacy issues to hold them back."

Team gteq got right down to earth in its latest charity effort when they got stuck into the notorious Tough Mudder challenge and emerged muddied from head-to-toe, but cleaning up with much needed funds for charity Sparks.

Tough Mudder events are exactly what they say on the tin, hardcore 12 mile-long obstacle courses designed by the Special Forces to test the durability of participants on a number of levels under extremely uncomfortable conditions that include getting electric shocks.

Karl McCaffrey, CEO, commented: " Everyone who takes part is highly motivated which helps you get to the finish line!"

Pictured - the gtech Tough Mudders before-an-after the mega-muddy endurance test