Comms Dealer

A £21.96 million contract between four West Yorkshire local authorities and BT has been agreed to transform broadband speeds across West Yorkshire by the end of Autumn 2015.

The new project, Superfast West Yorkshire, plans to extend high speed fibre broadband to 97 per cent of households and businesses across the majority of West Yorkshire.

As well as providing high speed fibre, the partnership aims to upgrade 100 per cent of premises in this area to speeds of more than 2Mbps.

Superfast West Yorkshire builds on BT's commercial investment of £2.5 billion to roll fibre broadband out to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of Spring 2014. Leeds City Council, Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Wakefield Council and Calderdale Council will work with BT to bring fibre broadband to premises in West Yorkshire which are not currently included in commercial roll-out plans and could otherwise have missed out on this opportunity.

Together with Kirklees Council, a demand stimulation and business support programme will be developed to demonstrate the benefits of high speed internet to residents and businesses. This part of the project has already registered demand from over 780 businesses and residents across West Yorkshire through the website.

BT is contributing £12.58 million towards fibre deployment in non-commercial areas, with the four local authorities contributing £970,000. Alongside this partnership, the project has received £4.62 million of funding from BDUK and the remaining £3.79 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Ed Vaizey, Communications Minister, said: "This £21.96 million project will deliver an incredible transformation in broadband speeds for thousands of homes and businesses in West Yorkshire. It will be instrumental in driving growth, boosting the local economy, and achieving the Government's objective of reaching 95% of all UK premises by 2017."

Councillor Keith Wakefield, chair of the Association of West Yorkshire Authorities (AWYA), said: "Fast and reliable internet is becoming crucial to daily life and for residents in West Yorkshire, it will provide an equal opportunity to access essential online activities such as council services, healthcare and other public services as well as offering new leisure and educational opportunities.

"I believe it will help us strengthen our economy by giving small businesses a means to develop their potential and achieve their ambitions as well as encouraging new start-ups and job creation."

Bill Murphy, BT's managing director for Next Generation Access, said: "This project is vital to the future economic strength of all the local authority areas involved in this project. It will go beyond BT's commercial roll-out of fibre broadband and take faster broadband to areas which are technically and economically more challenging."

"An enhanced digital infrastructure in West Yorkshire will help consolidate the area's reputation for technology, innovation and enterprise and make this large part of the Leeds City Region a more attractive proposition for business re-locations and start-ups - including the creation of new, high-tech jobs.

"Broadband is completely changing the way we use the internet at home with existing and new services being increasingly delivered on-line. These services, whether for entertainment or education, are becoming more sophisticated and content-rich and depend upon fast reliable higher speed broadband."

Deutsche Telekom has opted for Swyx to support the modular product family for its cloud-based offering DeutschlandLAN 2.0. The core target group of the UC application will be medium sized enterprises.

Dirk Backofen, Director of Marketing for business customers at Deutsche Telekom, said: "It was important that we have a product that suits medium sized customers within our modular product family DeutschlandLAN, and with a cloud based UC solution we can offer the features and flexibility to meet the individual requirements of our customers."

Dr. Ralf Ebbinghaus, CEO of Swyx Solutions AG, added: "We already have more than a ten year history, where we have together successfully established our UC solution in the market. The on-premise based UC Solution is an area in which we want to grow further together with Telekom, while the second is cloud for which I can see enormous potential."

By Claire Darley, Head of Indirect Sales, O2: UK retailers are missing out on £12 billion of potential sales by failing to engage consumers through digital channels. That's according to a new study by retail analysts Conlumino which found that retailers are struggling to harness technologies that enhance customer experiences inside and outside the store.

The survey also revealed that nine out of ten consumers are frustrated by retailers' digital offerings, even though over 50 per cent of all sales are now influenced by digital channels such as mobile apps and social media, in addition to retailers' own websites, highlighting the need for retailers to improve their digital know-how or risk missing out.

Also, 93 per cent of consumers aren't satisfied with their current digital shopping experience and their frustrations are causing them to spend less or take their business elsewhere, resulting in a potential £12 billion in lost sales.

The research also shows a disconnect between the digital experiences retailers think they are delivering and the reality, as nearly three quarters of consumers do not feel they get a seamless experience even though 46 per cent of retailers think they do a good job of joining up the customer experience through digital and traditional channels. Only 40 per cent of retailers recognise the potential benefits, and over a fifth have trouble integrating new channels like social media and apps, with less than a third using social media tools to engage their customers.

Digital technology offers retailers new opportunities but as this study reveals not enough is being done to harness the benefits it can bring. In April 2013, O2 announced a new approach to help British businesses tailor services to better suit their customers' digital needs - Joined Up Customer. Contact me to find out more about the opportunities digital technology can offer.

Outsourcery's co-CEO Piers Linney thunders about the cloud and like a true dragon breathes fire into his conviction that the channel should kick its addiction to legacy equipment.

Few have the courage of their convictions like entrepreneur Piers Linney who fervently believes that cloud services are the only game in town. Headlines about the PBX being in crisis and on the brink of collapse have been the cloud evangelist's fodder for years. But Linney's deftly delivered homily on the future, or rather the demise of tin speaks volumes in a market gripped by the forces of restless morph and transition. And those resellers that resist the pressures to change their modus operandi will be addressing an ever decreasing market, believes Linney, who warned stick-in-the-mud comms and IT companies that being wedded to a defunct strategy with legacy at its core is tantamount to folly. "The days of selling physical equipment will soon be over," he said. "The Internet has transformed consumer technology and it's now happening in business. Customer awareness will wash over much of the channel and resellers paralysed by inaction will miss the boat."

Discussing the cloud is likely to result in discord between the proponents of change and those sceptics whose inertia will ensure that they remain tightly wedged between a rock and a hard place, an uncomfortable position from which to observe a new reality in which the customer is now far more aware of the opportunity to move to the cloud and more willing to make the shift than their incumbent supplier. "The pace of change will be systemic, steady and permanent, and the channel will reach a point of no return," said Linney. "Companies are held back from selling cloud services because of their legacy ways of thinking, old systems and outdated processes. Consider the woes of Blockbuster or HMV who saw it coming for 10 years, but were paralysed by legacy."

He noted that a big challenge in transitioning to the cloud is the shift to providing services with SLAs and the real-time support of more complex converged services within a subscription model. But co-opting social and consumer trends for the purpose of survival should, you would think, be the natural course to take for any entrepreneur with a growth strategy, but a large proportion of resellers still believe that the cloud is a dangerous game to play despite widespread awareness among end users who have experienced first hand the benefits of hosted services in their personal lives.

Channel inertia is a bugbear that grates Linney by the day and remains, for the time being, a brain-teaser. "I cannot understand as an entrepreneur why, given the size of the cloud opportunity you wouldn't grasp it with both hands," he stated. "We see more people starting businesses from scratch reselling what we do and having more success than a company that has been around for 10 years. For a traditional business, talking about hosted email and server virtualisation takes them out of their comfort zone. That's a conversation they would rather avoid so they revert to selling what they know best. But do not underestimate the conversation. Voice is just one feature of an app like Lync."

This case of inertia could be recorded as one of the biggest ironies in the history of comms because, at a time when certain cloud solutions are relatively easy to sell via systems like Outsourcery's 'cloud business in a box', many established channel companies find it frustratingly difficult to make a decision in favour of selling them primarily because they baulk at the idea of changing their business model, which Linney concedes can be painful, but he qualifies this concession with the fact that sitting on your hands is simply not an option. "We know the pain," noted Linney. "In the beginning we took a struggling mobile company and transformed it, invested millions, started from scratch, and invested millions again to grasp the opportunity. Early movers will make a lot of money, but a looming inflection point will render the transition too difficult for those who do nothing now."

The struggling mobile company cited by Linney was Genesis Communications, the telecoms arm of DSG International which he and former colleague Simon Newton acquired in 2007 and renamed to Outsourcery following a six month period of strategising over the new brand and its wider significance. "Outsourcery is not just a name," noted Linney. "It embodies the company's values, our office design and open culture, down to our informal dress code. We try to be 'Internet-ey' but not a Google or a Skype. What we do is serious, so striking an equilibrium between being funky and relaxed while operating with absolute professionalism is an interesting balance."

The quest for balance can be traced back through Linney's career which includes notable stints as a qualified solicitor and former investment banker. His academic career includes a degree based on the fusion of two subjects of interest, accounting and law. Accountancy because Linney in those days associated numbers with business - he knew he wanted to be a businessman but exactly what that meant was at the time unclear. And law was close to another subject of interest, history. Balancing the two was a short-term exercise which ended when Linney decided to be a lawyer while most of his academic colleagues took the accountancy route. This was an early sign that Linney doesn't always do the expected, a trait that changed the format, for one episode at least, of Channel 4's series The Secret Millionaire - which we'll come to later in this article.

"Getting a law training contract was difficult but I was accepted," he explained. "A year later I questioned whether I really wanted to be a partner in a glass office. The company I worked for focused on venture capital and I was fascinated by the deals they were doing, the structures, the funds, the entrepreneurs, all of that was happening in front of me. I was far more interested in the deal than the law. A job offer in investment banking was to follow but it was business at 30,000 feet and not really me."

The penny dropped from an equally high altitude in 2000 when Linney's gaze fell squarely on the Internet and its associated business opportunities. "The Internet opportunity seemed like a gold rush, a once in lifetime chance," he said. "I had the ability to raise capital and do something interesting. This was my chance to really start a business. I raised some money and established a dot-com. Looking back at my career I've always been interested in telecoms, media and technology."

Linney was then involved in the media business - dance music and Internet radio - and after a period of time he took over a venture capital fund, cleaned it up and used it as a vehicle to establish a niche investment bank. "I started raising money from hedge funds to do deals," he explained. "My interest has always been TMT so my investments had a TMT slant. Then we found Genesis and saw an opportunity to buy a company and build a hosted services business focused on the cloud. Outsourcery today embodies everything that interests me - telecoms, technology, cloud, all driven by the Internet. We've bought four companies, sold two and floated on the stock market. My whole skill set and interests are reflected in Outsourcery."

The company's fully converged cloud platform was built from scratch for SME and gold plated for resilience. However, SME in the past has been slower to adopt cloud solutions than top end customers better able to calculate the benefits. "This partly explains why most of our partners are large organisations," added Linney. "But SME is the Holy Grail. We'll stop at companies with 20-50 people that care about ICT. Below that is not a battle we're ever going to win. Over the next two years cloud will filter down from the top while greater levels of awareness raised by products such as Office 365 and Lync will also drive demand."

It follows that the channel will experience a shake-out and will have to consolidate as the delivery of services shifts to scale CSPs, noted Linney. "The local service and support relationship is important but the business model will need to move into reselling resilient services with robust SLAs provided by CSPs that have invested tens of millions," he said. "Value will be added through professional services, integration and support services. This is the business model of the future for the majority of the market, especially the smaller resellers, while larger resellers may have more services and networking capabilities to integrate."

Linney would argue that Outsourcery is transforming the channel format, an influence that he carried through into his TV career which began when he was approached by Channel 4 to feature in an episode of The Secret Millionaire. Linney went undercover in a prison for young offenders and his gravitation towards individuals rather than charities as a whole meant much of the programme's stock in trade content ended up on the cutting room floor in a break from tradition. "The programme makers want you to focus on charities but I got sidetracked by individuals," said Linney. "It's difficult in that environment to assist an individual, especially if they're in prison. So the story grew in a new direction and my other significant donations were edited out. We subsequently employed one former prisoner. He had an interest in IT and proved to be the right person for the job. He has now been promoted as a Cloud Transition Specialist. We gave him an opportunity to change his life and he grasped it."

It's one thing to be in business and strive for growth, but another to drive change at the same time on both an individual and industry-wide level. Again, Linney has fused these elements into a cohesive strategy. "We are focused on what we need to do in terms of facilitating a channel transition, and our business is now about how fast we can scale and add revenue," added Linney.

"We'll be going international within a few years due to demand from larger customers. And as our profile grows more opportunities are coming through the front door. We want to create a brand that attracts opportunities like this that we can feed to partners. HP is working with us and investing to generate leads for partners. It understands that the profile of server sales is changing because CSPs will be the purchasers of hardware in the future. HP recognises this shift in the supply chain as more services are delivered over IP."

It comes as no surprise that Linney features in The Power List of the 100 most influential black Britons, but just as notable are the influential figures in his life that perhaps moulded the entrepreneur and instilled a strong work ethic and an equally powerful spirit of family and community. "My role models are my parents," he said. "My father was academic, a Mancunian working class lad who got to Cambridge. That was rare in those days. My mother came over from Barbados to be a nurse and also worked hard. Many of the people my parents knew had built their own businesses and all this made a big impression on me. I always knew I wanted to be in business."•

To read more about Piers Linney, his experiences, charity work and TV career visit www.pierslinney.com

In a burgeoning TV career cloud entrepreneur Piers Linney has replaced Theo Paphitis on BBC's Dragons' Den, lining up alongside Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and fellow new dragon Kelly Hoppen for the BBC2 show's 11th series which kicked off last month.

Despite many years at the top of his game Channel Telecom's rising star Matt Donaldson - Channel Manager - gives the impression he is just part-way along a career path that will lead him to make a significant impact on the wider comms industry landscape.

Few successful business people would cite comedy hero Del Boy as their role model. But the bumbling market trader in the hit TV show Only Fools and Horses, played by David Jason, belies the true nature of the man behind the character. "He played a huge part in my growing up," noted Donaldson. "My uncles used to make me watch Only Fools and Horses but it wasn't until recently I read David Jason's autobiography and realised how hard he worked to get what he wanted. His passion and commitment to acting gave him a goal that eventually he achieved. I will use my passion in a slightly different way to make my mark on the telecoms industry."

Donaldson was introduced to telecoms through a contact he knew in the industry. "I started out in sales in the earlier years of my career and never looked back," he commented. "I get a buzz from that constant interaction of meeting new people and listening to their issues and being able to offer a solution to their problems. I have always been known in my sales career as an individual that loves a challenge and can think outside of the box to get results."

Donaldson's influence makes itself felt in various ways, not least through assiduous efforts to improve the way things get done within an organisation. "Previously working for other competitors has given me a clear view on how different each company's strategies are," he explained. "I'm able to change processes and present new ideas at Channel Telecom in a way that improves our business approach. I have a trouble shooter mentality and a strong personality but this always comes across in a positive way for success and fluency in sales."

Donaldson's depth of work experience has also given him clear insights into the diversity of peoples' personalities as well as an organisation's strategies. "My experience in dealing with people gives me the advantage of stepping back and understanding how the person works before presenting a business case to them," he said. "When leading a team it's important to understand what kind of characteristics define an organisation and its people and find their strengths to help them excel."

Donaldson marshalls a great sense of vision and strategy and his management expertise encompasses a variety of disciplines that enable him to play a key role in the development and growth of Channel Telecom. "As Channel Manager I am helping to shape the sales operations and new developments as well as lead the reseller model and sales," he stated. "This is an area of the business that's growing fast and we constantly search for exceptional individuals that would like to join our team in Channel Telecom Wholesale.

"I'm also responsible for our billing platforms designed for resellers. We've recently migrated over to a new CRM base which I fully supported to the IT department during execution and continue to work closely with the marketing department to ensure our profile is kept high. I've been told I'm a team player and a keen contributor of new ideas for our business strategies within the company. We have a great road map ahead of us and with some hard work from the sales team we will exceed our realistic goals and accelerate past a few our competitors."

The company, noted Donaldson, is forging ahead with sales of SIP trunks, Ethernet connectivity and hosted telephony, and he believes that technologies such as these will revolutionise business communications over the coming decade and radically change traditional working patterns. "The opportunities these changes create for the channel are immense and our job is to educate our channel partners on the benefits so that they can communicate them effectively to their customers," he said. "There is without doubt an increase in the pace of applications moving over to the cloud. Our job as network service suppliers to the channel is to assist partners as best we can and encourage the transition from selling hardware premises equipment to providing cloud-based services on a license model."

Channel Telecom is developing a range of hosted solutions and Donaldson will ensure that full training and resources are provided to maximise the selling opportunity for partners. But also key to success is a positive frame of mind, receptive to change and willing to learn. "The biggest obstacle I've had to overcome is training negative sales people," he said. "I've trained a lot in the past, including those that refuse to adapt their sales technique to what you suggest in their training. This is frustrating especially when you are trying to train a whole team. However, it's a real achievement when they finally see the brighter side and how your teachings are a better approach than theirs through clear evidence in sales numbers."

There is a strong nurturing culture within Channel Telecom's sales and account management process. "We pride ourselves in our solid account management team that guarantees quality service to our partners and slowly assists their growth throughout their journey with us," added Donaldson. "We follow through on what we preach about handholding our partners as much as they need. We have a strong training scheme to educate our channel partners on our products, WLR3 portals and billing systems."

Educating end users is also a priority but, according to Donaldson, the industry is doing its best to keep the benefits it offers a secret. "A big bugbear is the unnecessary jargon preventing customers from understanding the real cost benefits and the high level productivity they could achieve by deploying state-of-the-art comms solutions," he explained. "Our industry is its own worst enemy. I can't think of another market sector where they would develop magic solutions and then disguise it in such an odd way. Our sales team recognises this issue and is always on hand to give advice and explain any industry jargon in its simplest form."

Maintaining close communication with customers is a policy Donaldson has followed throughout his career in major account management. The principle he advances is a KCI (keep the customer informed) approach which he says is crucial to success. "My leads stem from a lot of recommendations from clients," added Donaldson. "I follow through on my promises as do the rest of the team here in Channel Telecom. It's a given that word of mouth spreads fast."

Donaldson also thrives and flourishes most robustly as a manager when not at work, managing Buck CC, a football team for under 8s. "I was asked last year by my local club to manage the team after taking my nephew to football training every weekend," he commented. "This challenging hobby allows me to channel my leadership energy towards this young team of aspiring players. I enjoy learning about the latest football drills for children and this past year has been a true learning curve. As I have a strong competitive streak this hobby comes with its stresses, but as I love football and children it is one of my favourite ways to unwind after a busy week at work." •

avsnet's Managing Director Graham Fry has cooked up a recipe for growth that serves the right mix of technology seasoned with a service ethic that always puts the customer first.

Business communications and managed services provider avsnet delivers a full range of network centric unified communications, video conferencing and audio visual solutions to corporate, education and public sector clients. The company reflects the skills and customer service ethic embodied by its founder and Managing Director Graham Fry who with a strong technical background blends a broad knowledge of unified communications technology, network management and data services together with a strong customer centric approach, creating a formula for success that will see the firm almost double its turnover this year following year-on-year growth since its inception.

"I founded AVSolution in 2005 when I noticed a gap in the market for a good reseller focused on exceeding customer expectations," said Fry. "We rebranded as avsnet in 2012. The purpose of our rebrand was to better reflect the broad range of business solutions we provide. We wanted to maintain our strong AV and VC heritage while also increasing our focus on collaborative unified communications. I knew that if we remained solely as a specialist video communications and AV company we might struggle to convince the market of our capabilities in unified and network centric communications. We have seen significant growth in this area already as well as continued growth within VC due to intuitive, lower cost and high quality VC solutions."

Along with its rebrand from AVSolution to avsnet last year, Fry also brought in a management team including Alistair Johnston as Financial Director and Mike Mason as non-exec Chairman to help strengthen the business and achieve its longer-term growth strategy. "Key growth areas are BYOD, hosted UC services and business transformation through UC technology," added Fry. "These opportunities will enable avsnet to work strategically with our customers in the long-term. There is nothing better than an email from a happy customer and knowing we have delivered a project on time and within budget. This is down to hard work and having the willingness and drive to exceed customer expectations."

The company has grown around 40 per cent year-on-year to a predicted turnover of £10 million this year following a group total of £6 million last year. "We currently have 40-50 staff and over 500 customers," explained Fry. "Our customers are mainly in the corporate and retail sectors but we also have a lot in the health, education and government sectors. We work closely with our customers, creating a strategy to suit their needs. We assess what technologies they have already and advise how it can be adapted rather than simply suggesting they purchase something new. Our approach is based on consolidation and adoption, helping businesses realise the benefits of their investments in terms of cost savings, reduced environmental impact and increased productivity. We will also continue the development and expansion of our managed services and Lync practice. This is what customers are asking for."

A key milestone for the company was its acquisition of Besttel earlier this year. Besttel's strengths lie in network, data centre, virtualisation, security and wireless. This acquisition enables avsnet to take the BYOD trend one step further by giving users the choice of instant messaging, presence, audio, video and web conferencing tools on mobiles, tablets, PCs, laptops and room-based telepresence and video conferencing suites. "Technology is always changing so we constantly adapt and evolve as we see relevant for our customers," commented Fry. "We are always training and re-training to keep up to date with all the latest technologies.

"We have a constantly growing team of experienced professionals and a fantastic talented group. This naturally creates great morale. Our high standards are driven by customer expectations and staff willingness to exceed. We also have many social and sport events throughout the year including five-a-side football, softball competitions, charity fundraising events and social nights out. These all help to create a high level of morale which translates into great customer service. To this day, delivering excellent customer service, the latest technology, a strong return on investment and helping enterprises realise true business transformation has remained the company's core values and resides at the heart of every decision."•

Griffin Managing Director Philip Grannum outlines the firm's next strategic moves and reveals how 15 years experience in comms will help him turn an ambitious strategy into a successful outcome.

Grannum transitioned into telecoms about 15 years ago when he moved from Xerox to AT&T before joining telecoms start-up Energis, a pioneer of the reseller model. Having led the growth of data services and Internet through partners such as Star, Pipex, Freeserve and Demon, Energis was then acquired by Cable&Wireless, and having risen through the ranks Grannum's last role was the CEO of THUS (which also included Demon). "I am excited about the rapid pace of change within communications," he explained. "I still remember the first email I sent while at Xerox. At the time this was remarkable and I wanted to be part of this revolution."

He was attracted to Griffin because of its 100 per cent focus on channel partners. "Griffin has eight carriers fully integrated and has the purchasing power that enables our partners to receive competitive commercial terms," he said. "Griffin's end-to-end management portal, MATRIX, provides a single inventory set enabling all functions within Griffin and our partners to have complete visibility of their inventory, from quote through to order, provisioning, service assurance and right the way through to billing. This has taken years of development and is absolutely fundamental to provide our partners and their customers with high levels of service."

Griffin has recently been acquired by MDNX, and having lived through many network acquisitions previously, Grannum is fully aware of the pitfalls of not integrating the core business functions and networking infrastructure. "When I left Cable&Wireless it still had three different networks - Green, Blue and Tartan, all with different management platforms and different products enabled on them," he explained. "Therefore, my key priority was to ensure that the core systems, processes and networks were fully integrated. The hardest part was decommissioning the old Griffin Portal, MOPS, and transferring all partners and business functions to MATRIX."

The downside of integrating functions quickly is that there can be a dip in the service experience as employees need to learn new systems and processes. "My current priority is to ensure that this is achieved as quickly as possible and that Griffin provides all partners with the highest service experience," added Grannum. "The other area of focus is product development. Assured Voice has already been launched enabling our partners to choose from eight different hosted voice platforms. These are pre-connected to our network and using real-time QOS enables our data lines to carry voice at the highest possible quality. Our partners don't get locked-in with a single voice provider and can easily move to take advantage of better commercial terms or new technologies."

The culture that Grannum aims to instil is one based on trust. "To gain trust, everyone needs to take ownership and be accountable for their actions," he said. "This helps to ensure that any issues are resolved at the first point of contact - no more getting passed from pillar to post. It also means being open and transparent with our partners. We already provide call waiting stats to our partners and are now publishing all carrier delivery lead times, not their SLA but their actual delivery times which will be updated monthly.

"The other cultural trait that I am instilling is ambition, encouraging people who consistently push themselves and want to achieve the very best, people who in their own way want to 'scratch the sky' to achieve the impossible and leave their mark on this world. Within sales, I want the people who aim for 1,000 per cent and keep pushing until they get there. This requires people who are prepared to take risks and who are prepared to fail and have the right spirit and self-motivation to dust themselves off and get back in the ring with greater knowledge and experience."

Being an organisation that is easy to do business with remains a key priority. Going forward, new products and services will be added to the portfolio including cloud-based applications and infrastructure, unified communications and IP voice services. "Providing these services will add enormous value to our partners, but only if the whole end-to-end experience is a positive one," he added. "This requires self-service portals, service/application automation and the best technical people to prevent issue from occurring and fix them if they do. This is my mid-term objective, to enable our partners to provide a deeper and more profitable service offer to their customers.

"Griffin will remain totally focused on providing IP services exclusively to resellers. In five years time, data networking and IP services will remain very much in demand. I'm convinced that cloud-based applications will be the norm and Griffin will evolve to meet this demand so that our partners receive the right balance of innovation, price and service."

The majority of Griffin's partners have been purely focused on the commercial sector but Griffin will enable them to double their addressable market by opening up the Public Sector, claimed Grannum. "The Public Sector represents a huge growth opportunity for our partners," he explained. "Historically it has been the preserve of the big players like BT and Cable&Wireless, but this legacy is now changing. Getting on the PSN framework is a daunting task as well as an expensive one and I am working on a programme to change this, simplifying the steps required that will enable our partners to effectively compete and win in the Public Sector."

Technology continues to evolve and customers are often unaware of what is available and more importantly how technology can enable their organisation to grow. "Organisations want to work with resellers who take the time to understand their business and provide solutions that improve their bottom line," noted Grannum. "To fully exploit the market potential sales people need to be proactive and add real value to their customers. This requires them to have a good understanding of the technology and take a consultative approach. Sales people too often pitch to their customers rather than listen to them. To be successful, sales people must ask lots of questions, listen to the response and crucially act on this information."

Success is often born out of failure, noted Grannum. "To me, my biggest failure was when I was at Energis leading the bid for Centrica's virtual contact centre for about 10,000 agents," he recalled. "I put my heart and soul into this bid but came second to Cable&Wireless. Their CIO called me to tell me the news, and I literally fell to the floor. This was an all-time career low point for me where I started to doubt myself and my ability.

"Soon after this, Centrica went out to tender for their inbound services, which at the time included the AA and Onetel and was worth much more than the previous contract. Having the previous failure in my mind gave me more determination than ever to win this opportunity and I gave it absolutely everything and eventually won the contract. The biggest contract award that Energis had ever been awarded. I often think back to this situation and take strength from it, reliving the phone call when I was told that we had come second really helps drive me and do everything possible to ensure that this doesn't happen again."•

A UK-wide locker network designed to offer an end-to-end delivery service has significantly improved the operational performance of field engineers in the comms sector, according to Mark Garritt, Managing Director at ByBox, provider of the service.

Thousands of lockers are located at sites ranging from petrol stations and supermarkets to sports grounds and fire stations. And ByBox claims that on average there is a locker within three miles of an engineer, meaning that waiting at home for spare parts to arrive or travelling to depots to pick them up is a thing of the past. ByBox specialises in delivering items pre 8am and delivers 20 million items a year with 20,000 engineers using the platform daily. The firm is well established in the telecoms sector and for many years has distributed parts that are required, often at short notice, around the clock and in remote locations to help engineers maintain networks 365 days-a-year.

"Once a delivery has been made into a locker, engineers receive a text or email alert advising them that their goods are ready for collection," commented Garritt.

Engineers can order parts up to 11pm for delivery the next morning. The first time pre 8am delivery success rate is 99.77 per cent and 96 per cent of deliveries are in lockers pre 6am. "This increases scheduling flexibility and significantly reduces the number of inefficient same-day deliveries made by alternate, less efficient transport systems," added Garritt. "It also reduces the number of repeat visits to sites as engineers receive all the parts needed to complete their day's jobs at one convenient location pre 8am."

ByBox also operates a network of Forward Stock Locations (FSL) around the UK and Europe that are accessible 24 hours a day for engineers who require parts urgently outside of normal hours. Urgently required parts can be dispatched 24 hours a day from the nearest FSL either direct to site or to the nearest locker or, alternatively, be held at the FSL for collection by an engineer. ByBox' electronic lockers (iBoxes) can also be used as mini Forward Stock Locations. Fast moving and emergency parts can also be stored within a dedicated iBox door close to likely demand.

"All stock is visible over the web so field based staff can confirm if a required item is available before visiting the locker," explained Garritt. "The iBoxes are accessed via card or code and are available with a variety of door sizes and columns that can handle anything from large parts to small accessories. The lock boxes, which are accessed by key, also have a large capacity, with the biggest doors having a 1.188 cubic m3 capacity."

In addition to the UK, ByBox has networks in the Republic of Ireland, France and the Benelux. Not only can it manage the distribution of items, but it can also look after the warehousing, inventory, returns, repair and provide engineering resource. Through its subsidiary echo it can supply a bespoke range of tech and logistical support services consisting of outsourced low-level engineering through to high end technical repairs on a range of equipment.

ByBox' offering is underpinned by its supply chain system, Thinventory, which increases the visibility of new kit from OEMs and suppliers and provides complete visibility over the entire supply chain. The system has a full track and trace facility via the website providing total transparency across the supply chain 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it simple to locate any urgently-requested part and move it to where it is required.

"The level of visibility provided allows companies to run lean inventories as they know exactly where their stock is, and can move it to where it is needed," added Garritt. "Savings associated can be considerable. Some companies have leaned out their inventory so much by using our locker network that they have managed to reduce the size of their warehouses, cut running costs and freed up capital."

The Thinventory system also simplifies the returns process enabling engineers to use the locker network in reverse to return faulty, unused or decommissioned parts. "Once an engineer has placed a part in a locker and attached a returns label, our tracking software automatically redirects it back to the manufacturer, supplier, customer or back to ByBox, leading to a reduction in new purchases," added Garritt. "Combined with our distribution network, the system accelerates the reverse logistics loop and also speeds up our ability to process repairs and facilitate Return Merchandise Authorisation processes with OEMs."•

The next 12-18 months will be a pivotal period for the comms industry as customers decide whether IP will form a fundamental part of their future communications, according to Jennifer Jones, Sales, Operations and Marketing Director, BT Wholesale.

The SME market for connectivity is undergoing a period of unprecedented transformation and according to Jones a perfect storm is brewing, driven by consumer trends and end user expectations and a revolution in how businesses communicate. This has created a new dynamic that presents big opportunities and challenges for all those involved, whether a customer or a supplier. "Most companies face similar challenges, such as how to become more efficient but maintain service levels, how to innovate cost-effectively and how to find smarter ways of working," said Jones. "At the same time, employees have become used to a fast multi-device experience during their leisure time and expect 24/7 access while moving seamlessly from smartphone to tablet to PC, from work to home and back again."

Meanwhile, noted Jones, fibre broadband and Ethernet, the game changers for cloud services, are rolling out at pace. BT's fibre broadband is in reach of more than 16 million UK premises and in 2012/13 BT Wholesale saw its installed Ethernet circuits grow by 63 per cent. "These connections have the reliability and speed required for the simultaneous use of communications applications across multiple devices and desktops," added Jones. "Smart businesses can see what these capabilities can bring in terms of quick growth, flexible and collaborative working and lower operating costs. Many more will follow."

BT Wholesale has been gearing up for this IP revolution for a number of years, investing time and resources to create hosted communications solutions (many offered on a pay-as-you-grow basis) that expand the IP voice portfolio and blend with the company's data and broadband products. "No matter what pace of change SMEs want to move at from their TDM base and other assets, for most, the IP path leads to where there is most to be gained," added Jones. "The appetite for embracing the next step in business connectivity is clear."

IDC research indicates that SME spend on hosted communications solutions is expected grow 18 per cent by next year, in contrast with lines and mobile calls which are predicted to fall by seven and 20 per cent respectively. "Customers looking for hosted communications are generally at the start of a journey in their strategic development, and we have the collective opportunity to take them on the road while securing sustainable, predictable and margin-rich business," stated Jones.

"Most enter that journey at step one, looking for ways to manage and reduce telephony costs inspired by the promise of the cloud. Beyond this, they typically start to look at ways to build on and apply their investment to IT efficiency, increasing employee productivity through enabling mobility and collaboration, for example, and improving business agility by integrating apps, processes and communications."

In an industry where traditional connectivity margins continue to be squeezed, the ability to build a relationship with SME customers and get further into their value chain is an attractive prospect, supporting them as they gain in confidence and want to do more with their voice and data. "With the right proposition, becoming a trusted provider of hosted communications gives comms providers the opportunity to secure a more predictable margin over 24-36 month contracts," added Jones.

While some channel customers are happy to build their own capabilities, BT Wholesale is seeing significant demand from those keen to enter the IP space but who are unsure about whether to invest in hosted communications platforms given the pace of change in the market. Key issues include concerns over whether investments will become obsolete in a matter of years and the reliability of potential partners. "But they're also convinced of the benefit of keeping at least a foot in the door with IP technology, knowing full well that the fundamental technology swap over time from TDM to IP opens the market for a whole new host of competitors to join the party," pointed out Jones.

BT Wholesale is on a mission to be the 'wholesaler of choice' and has recognised that in order to carry forward its stated intent a change of approach is required. "Backed by our expert consultancy we're increasingly adopting a sell-through model and, by working closely with our channel customers, we are improving our knowledge of what it will take to win SME customers," explained Jones. "This mix is the perfect combination for in-depth discussions leading to practical and future proofed solutions that can be implemented, used, maintained and developed successfully."

According to Jones, it's all about understanding the business drivers and together establishing a more sticky SME customer solution. "Our customers are responding enthusiastically to this collaborative approach and they are keen to work with us to jointly agree the solution that will win the contract," she said. "We have a platform in the form of integrated access but must work in this way to maximise its potential."

In the main, SMEs come to the cloud with any number of problems to contend with. Bigger companies have a legacy environment they can't afford to mothball overnight, while small companies may have no in-house IT expert and are too time-poor to manage the change. "The integration of protocols, existing technologies with new apps, platforms and equipment may be too much of a headache to take the plunge," noted Jones. "But we've designed our hosted communications services with this in mind, offering the flexibility for the channel to sell something that's exactly the right fit for the end customer, whether at step one or step four of their journey to IP."

For resellers that already help SMEs advance their voice and data plans the move to hosted communications will feel like a natural step, according to Jones. "With the right approach, hosted communications has the potential to increase the value of a customer by up to five times, if not more, while securing trusted partner status and seeing the benefit of more reliable margins," she commented. "While the perfect storm will calm in time, the rise of hosted communications powered by IP means that for companies of all sizes the cloud is here to stay."•

Oak joint CEO Phillip Reynolds believes there is a lot of life left in traditional telephone systems but he's no Luddite when it comes to the Internet and believes his latest web-based call management solution could be Oak's best innovation yet.

Reynolds' Poole-based software company has dominated the call management sector for over 20 years and Oak wall boards and call management solutions are ubiquitous in call centres and sales and support operations across the length and breadth of the UK. For some time customers have been asking Oak for a faster, more flexible web-based call management offering and Reynolds believes Oak's response, the new EVOLVE solution for Avaya's IP Office system, is a 'game changer' as it works on any communications device, including tablets, and on any browser, including those for the Apple Mac. "EVOLVE is one of the first products of its kind and we believe it will revolutionise the way businesses are run," said Reynolds.

A bold statement indeed, so what's under the skin of EVOLVE and why does Oak believe it will revolutionise call management for reseller customers? "EVOLVE brings together the most cutting edge telephone, Internet, database and mobile technologies in a single solution that does everything through the web," explains Reynolds. "This means that managers can view what's happening at that very moment in their business or call centre, using any communications device, anywhere in the world. It not only does all of the above, it operates much faster. This is largely due to incorporating a NoSQL backend database which can quickly process huge amounts of data."

Reynolds says EVOLVE addresses the limitations of traditional call logging solutions which have left businesses unable to immediately see missed calls or pursue customers who have left call queues. "EVOLVE addresses these frustrations head-on to dramatically improve effective call handling," he added. "Supervisors can now see how many calls are in a queue, which important customers are waiting to be answered, prioritise calls, and even move live calls between queues. A supervisor may also choose to speak to a customer themselves which is simple to execute. Also, all missed calls are logged in an organised list incorporating a dial back feature, so sales people can phone these customers straight away. This means businesses never lose sales or the opportunity to deliver exceptional customer service."

Reynolds is confident channel partners will find EVOLVE easy to sell, not just because it is easy to install and operate, but because it offers business improvement across the board. "The intuitive browser interface can be configured in exactly the way you want it to best monitor quality and performance," explained Reynolds. "Not only can calls be recorded for training purposes, but supervisors can participate in live calls passively to see how well they are handled, or actively intervening with support staff when they need it.

"Supervisors can manually manage agents' current statuses, making sure they are available when a large number of calls are coming in or a particularly important customer is waiting. Agents can also use the internal messaging system called 'chat' to confer with their supervisors on the best and fastest course of action with a current caller. The combination of faster response times, the emphasis on prioritising customers and the improvement of team customer service and sales skills could see a significant increase in the closing rate of calls."

And he stresses that EVOLVE, like all Oak products, is fully compliant with legal requirements with regards to the storage of calls and personal information. "All recordings are encrypted, so they are legally admissible in a court of law and take up minimum space compared to WAV or MP3 files," said Reynolds. "500GB stores around a year's worth of calls on a Primary Rate Interface or PRI. You can simply click on a call record to hear it, without any need for expensive voicemail ports. Reports can be run showing the details of each and every call, where it came into, how long it was on hold, how many times it was transferred, and who was involved in the call. This is often referred to as 'cradle to grave' reporting."

Avaya IP Office resellers can add EVOLVE to their portfolio immediately, but it won't be long before partners of other leading manufacturers can reap the benefits too as Reynolds confirmed. "To achieve such high level control over a telephone system requires complex real-time integration where multiple connections to the switch are managed in parallel," he added. "We are currently looking at the other leading manufacturers where we can achieve similar technically advanced results and where EVOLVE can add real value to the switch sale and further enhance our dealer relationships."•