Comms Dealer

When Annodata's joint Managing Director Andrew Harman announced the appointment of two key hires this summer his intention to create a £100 million turnover business over the coming two years received a strategic boost of significant proportions.

In June Annodata made two key hires as part of its growth strategy to become a £100 million turnover business. Mike Mason was appointed as Managing Director of the Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) business while Martin St. Quinton was named as Non Executive Chairman. St. Quinton replaced David Fielden who served in this role for the last 13 years and remains as a Non-Executive Director. In 2000, St. Quinton founded Azzurri Communications which grew to 700 staff and £150 million turnover in six years. According to Harman he will play a key role in the growth of the company as well as assisting in unifying its telecommunications division with the core business functions.

"We are currently achieving revenues of £65 million across the Annodata group and over the next couple of years our objective it is to be a £100 million turnover business," Harman commented.

Annodata has been delivering strategic communications solutions to clients since 1988. From FTSE 100 corporations to SMEs, the firm has earned a reputation for helping a diverse spread of organisations transform the way they choose and use communications systems. "We have over 7,000 client relationships with companies such as J & J, GE, Harrods, New York Stock Exchange, Mitsubishi, Burberry and the IHG Group," added Harman. "Our success in the public sector arena continues to be a key market for us and we have recently been chosen as the only independent supplier on the Central Buying Consortium Framework agreement. We have in excess of 100 engineers, complemented by a large and experienced group of sales consultants and professional services support team."

Mason, a key figure in Harman's growth plans, has held senior leadership roles with France Telecom, BT and Capita. More recently, during his tenure at Intrinsic, he led the transformation of the business from a traditional UC player into a cloud-based computing solutions company. This resulted in a doubling of revenues and an increase in profitability of over 300 per cent. Subsequently, he led and managed the £30 million private equity backed sale of the company. Mason said: "Collaboration and an enhanced customer experience are top priorities for most organisations today. This is an exciting time to be part of the Annodata journey as it understands the importance of unifying different communications solutions and how to unlock the real business benefits for their current and future customers."

Annodata was established in 1988, 25 years ago this October. The company was started by Harman and shortly afterwards he was joined by his brother, joint Managing Director Tim Harman. "Before starting Annodata I was the top sales person for a communications manufacturer but felt that some of the large players didn't really understand the needs of the customer," he said. "I asked myself the question, why should businesses put up with technology and service vendors that are inflexible, outdated and which have the suppliers' rather than the customers best interests at heart? The result was Annodata. Via an open minded and consultative approach we are taking our expanding portfolio to our key and future clients to help improve their business processes so they can concentrate on their core competencies."

Annodata has partner relationships with many top name organisations including Canon, Ricoh, O2, Kyocera, Mitel, Cisco and Avaya. "In particular, our strategic relationships with Canon and 02 have grown and strengthened over the past 20 years," noted Harman. "These prominent industry leaders have endorsed the Annodata brand and incorporated their customer base into the Annodata service division, sanctioning us as an extension of their own business. With the speed at which technology is changing we are always looking to how we can enhance our product portfolio and map this against the need of our customers."

According to Mason, the unified comms marketplace offers one of the largest opportunities for Annodata. "The ability to take our customers on the journey from traditional TDM voice through to digital and IP voice and bringing that together under our UCC portfolio is critical," he said. "Mobility, in particular BYOD, continues to drive growth as does cloud-based control from companies such as Cisco Meraki who boast feature rich offerings and ease of deployment."

The experience that both Mason and St. Quinton bring to Annodata will enable it to execute strategic acquisitions that will complement the current business as well as achieve revenues of in excess of £100 million. "As most business leaders would recognise the key to a successful business is the army of staff that work alongside you," added Harman. "Although we have grown significantly from the early days we still try and foster a family environment. We are keen to incentivise staff with the right commission plans and recognise non sales staff that provide outstanding performances."•

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: Forget TV advertising and winning trips to the moon, it is the modest proposal document that needs your attention. In the heat of the excitement of a successful client visit and the prospect of a new business contract it is easy to rush through the proposal and pricing in order to make sure your prospect receives the details required to sign on the dotted line in a timely manner.

But if you stop and think about the experience and interaction your prospect has had with you and your company so far, the proposal document may be one of the first pieces of collateral they receive and will therefore place great importance on it for building a perception of your brand and confidence into whether you can deliver the proposed service.

It is advisable to create proposal documents that are corporate and easy to edit so that you can be sure your team is promoting your brand values but at the same time can easily edit the documents to make it tailored to specific requirements without going off brand. One common mistake I see when looking at proposal documents is that resellers talk too much about themselves and their proposition and too little about its impact on the prospect.

Have a look at your last proposal documents and using the 'find' function count how many times you used your company name, 'we' and 'our'. My guess is way too many times for a document that is meant to be customer focused. Next time you are putting together a proposal, take a little extra time and change the focus from 'we do X' to 'you want to achieve Y', 'we can help by doing X'. Finally, try and use the word 'you' and the prospect's name more often than 'we' or your company name. This simple rule will stand you in good stead for much or your corporate collateral.

Nimans has announced its 4G wholesale tariffs from O2, and according to Head of Networks Mark Curtis-Wood 4G is a 'game changer' that will revolutionise how customers communicate via high capacity, high speed mobile connectivity.

"Future generations will view 4G as a watershed moment," he explained. "O2 has announced services will be live in 13 cities by the end of the year with London, Leeds and Bradford the first to be up and running at the end of August. O2's ambitious rollout plan means it is aiming for its 2G, 3G and 4G network to reach 98% of the UK population both indoor and outdoor up to two years earlier than the 2017 regulatory requirement."

By the end of the year, O2's 4G network will also be live in Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Curtis-Wood added: "Over the last few months our channel team has been busy preparing to enable us to bill the 4G tariffs and provide the tools and support to help our customers drive new margin opportunities.

"I've been in the industry long enough to remember the launch of 2G and 3G and the changes made to the way we worked and the additional margin opportunity they created. However the launch of 4G is going to be a 'game changer' for our industry and the technology which will underpin our digital future.

"It will support our move into new mobility solutions such as cloud services, digital storage and real time security but also as people's general behaviour changes towards increased flexible working, social media and streaming of real time events and news.

"Mobile Internet is growing and this offers us huge opportunity across British business - from m-commerce to increased collaboration and helping businesses get closer to their customers. 4G will act as an enabler for more digital business. It's the connectivity that will improve and transform these experiences.

"4G could be used for mobile workers having their office in their pocket, saving costs from flexible working, or digital signage within the retail sector where 4G technologies will help to connect more. We'll be working with resellers and their customers over the coming months to bring these possibilities of 4G to life. It's a very exciting time and the dawning of a new era."

Softcat has achieved the Cisco Gold Partner Accreditation following a two year investment in training and resources.

Softcat's private and public sector customers will benefit from advanced technical support for Cisco's solutions across its four key architectures: networking, security, collaboration and data centre.

Doug Fawell, Softcat's Operations Director, said: "As one of the most challenging accreditations in the IT industry, this a landmark achievement for us. Rather than attaining Gold via the acquisition route, we've done it from the ground up through investment and training, and I believe this gives customers a greater level of assurance in our capabilities."

Softcat's MD Colin Brown said: "This really marks a departure from our beginnings as a licensing reseller. We're now perceived as an IT solution provider offering on-premise and cloud-based services."

Under 35s living in the north of Scotland are among the most patient people in the UK when it comes to customer service from brands, according to research from Aspect Software, which found that almost two thirds (65 per cent) of Brits have admitted to slamming down the phone in frustration at least once when talking to a call centre.

According to the study, which spoke to 1,000 UK consumers over the age of 16, people based in the north of Scotland and the Highlands are the most patient consumers across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In fact, only 38 per cent claimed to have hung up on a call centre agent.

Those of us living in the South East and London are overwhelmingly the most likely - 73 per cent - to confess to losing their temper with customer service departments in this way.

Further, those aged between 45 and 54 years old, and over 55 years old, are more than 10 per cent more likely to hang up than younger age groups, with those over 55 more than 20 per cent more likely to do so than those between 16 and 24 years old.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, people based in North Scotland and the Highlands are less likely to agree that chatting about interests or gossiping with call centre staff makes for a better experience with the brand, with only 17 per cent saying it always or usually enhances their experience.

It is in fact those in London that overwhelmingly agree that this is the case, with over half (51 per cent) saying that it usually or always makes them happier with the company in question. Curiously, it is males that respond more positively to small talk with a stranger, as 41 per cent agree that it always or usually enhances their experience, versus 30 per cent for females.

"What's interesting here is that while the further north you go within the UK, the less likely it is that people are losing their temper with poor call centre processes, but they're also less interested in whiling time away chatting small talk with the person trying to help them," said Sarah Pallett, Head of Marketing in Europe & Africa at Aspect.

"Perhaps it suggests those in London are more emotional when it comes to engaging with their favourite brands, are more likely to get frustrated when their query is going unresolved, or they're kept on hold for longer periods of time, but also love the personal touch of a one-on-one conversation that isn't necessarily about the issue in question.

"What it highlights is that the important factor in any customer service function for any organisation is the people. Brands need to strike a delicate balance between efficient and speedy processes in order to resolve customer queries first time, and adding a personalised service too. This is about using technology in the contact centre in the right way and supporting agents with their customer relations skills to leave customers satisfied and maintaining loyalty," she said.

Harrogate-based InTechnology has been confirmed as an approved supplier on the online Janet Telephony Purchasing Service (JTPS) which enables organisations connected to the Janet network to procure approved telephony and Unified Communications services from the firm.

Natalie Duffield, Sales Director at InTechnology Managed Services, said: "We are delighted to be one of the first three approved suppliers following the launch of the JTPS. Our proven competency, capability and experience have enabled us to meet Janet's stringent requirements and is a testament to our focus on delivering telephony services."

Atia Communications has achieved Microsoft Premier Support for Lync Partners (PSLP) accreditation.

As one of just four companies in the UK to attain PSLP accreditation, Atia has demonstrated its ability to deliver high quality support to Lync customers which addresses all aspects of a voice communication system including software, hardware, network, gateway, and system interoperability.

"With so few companies capable of attaining PSLP accreditation this really reflects Atia's deep understanding of the UC marketplace," said Steve Gandy, CEO of MeetingZone, which acquired Atia in March of this year.

"Atia's UC expertise will play a key role in helping MeetingZone to become a major European UC provider. Together we will meet the need for a trusted partner who can deliver a bridge of knowledge between UC solutions and an understanding of traditional enterprise telephony environments."

Patrick Copping, General Manager for Atia, added: "Atia had already attained Microsoft Gold Communications Competency and our PSLP accreditation is further validation that Atia has the expertise and skill set to help our channel partners and end users successfully deploy UC solutions."

Virtual1 ha expanded its SIP Exchange following a link-up with Voiceflex, the London-based provider of voice and data solutions to the channel.

Launched by Virtual1 in 2011, the SIP Exchange provides access to the solutions of multiple UK SIP providers via a secure, ring-fenced area on the Virtual1 core.

The infrastructure allows customers to avoid both the need for upfront investment and for long term contracts with a single provider, removing the traditional barriers to SIP migration.

Voiceflex Sales Director Paul Taylor said: "Our decision to join the SIP Exchange was an easy one as we have been working with Virtual1 for some time.

"SIP is now an established product, however without quality connectivity SIP and hosted telephony will fail. Virtual1 deliver calls directly to our platform and not over the open Internet, enabling QOS to be established end to end."

Tom O'Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, added: "Virtual1 is committed to providing choice and freedom to our partners and their customers, so that they can build their solution, their way."

Panasonic System Communications Company Europe (PSCEU) in conjunction with Trust Distribution hosted an event for premier partners and resellers at the vendor's state-of-the-art Solutions Centre located at the Panasonic UK HQ in Bracknell.

The agenda included a guided tour of the Solutions Centre which shows how Panasonic products are advancing in a number of different verticals including logistics, transport, retail and banking.

Also on the presentations on the latest developments in Panasonic Communication Solutions, showcasing the IP technology based business communications server NS1000.

The Computer Product Solutions team also offered live demonstrations of the Toughbook and Toughpad rugged mobile computer series and presented product information on Panasonic EPOS electronic point of sale.

Avnet Services EMEA now has a strategic partnership with N2S to deploy its UNITY Estate Management solution.

The agreement further develops N2S' environmentally friendly supply chain, which aims to move the channel from its current 'take, make and dispose' model to a 'take, make, use and remake' approach.

Avnet's UNITY solution helps organisations pinpoint end of life IT assets for disposal. The partnership promotes a circular economy, actively seeking to reuse the equipment it decommissions on behalf of customers, rather than simply disposing of it. This ensures businesses adhere to the latest WEEE directives set out by the Environment Agency, thus avoiding regulatory fines.

Christian Magirus, Vice President Avnet Services EMEA commented: "As a result of recent legislation, CEOs are beginning to scrutinise the way they dispose of IT assets. They're starting to look at putting in place tighter controls to promote industry best practice and minimise financial risk. Our partnership addresses this and, more importantly, opens the doors to a greener future for the channel."