Comms Dealer

Risk free migration to state-of-the art UC infrastructures is the key to unlocking mid-market potential, according to Tony Smith, Sales Director for the Indirect Channel, Siemens Enterprise Communications.

Siemens Enterprise Communications is in the midst of an aggressive sales campaign designed to ensure that the mid-market is no longer the forgotten third of the UK economy. "The UK's mid-market businesses are the unsung heroes driving the economy," stated Smith. "However, they are too often forgotten by the policy makers. Large organisations have easier access to finance and, traditionally, small businesses have been well supported by government policy. Now, as we emerge from five years of recession, the sometimes neglected mid-market could provide a new catalyst for growth."

A report into the European mid-market sector undertaken by GE Capital demonstrates the potential opportunity, pointed out Smith. Turning over £2.2 trillion between them, the mid-market employs around 11.2 million people and contributes £307 billion to the UK's GDP. In simple terms, 1.67 per cent of companies in the UK contribute over a third of private sector GDP, revenues and employment. According to MZA, Forrester and Frost & Sullivan, the UK mid-market opportunity for IP and UC systems sales in 2013-14 is five times greater than in the large enterprise space, pointed out Smith.

Supported by a new UC product portfolio that includes the OpenScape Business and OpenScape Enterprise Express, Smith is looking to build on the foundations the company has established in the enterprise market. According to MZA it's the leading vendor in the segment for 1,001-plus extensions with 34.73 per cent of the UK market. "Our partners are already driving growth in the SMB space," explained Smith. "Systems sales are up 23 per cent year-on-year. We have the experience, channel partners and, for the first time, a UC product portfolio to excite the mid-market."

For customers who are currently using OpenScape Office or HiPath 3000, OpenScape Business offers a simple and cost-effective migration to UC while leveraging their investment, claimed Smith. "Existing cards and handsets can be re-used, and we will migrate the licenses for free until the end of September," he said. "This also means that increasingly mobile SMB employees can benefit from OpenScape Business on a wide variety of devices, giving them the device flexibility they want."

OpenScape Enterprise Express is a single integrated solution for mid-sized companies delivering VoIP, UC and contact centre capabilities. "For existing partners this is the most important technology we've launched to the mid-market," commented Smith. "The OpenScape Enterprise Express solution lowers the complexity and risk of introducing VoIP and UC solutions into the enterprise, increasing RoI and reducing TCO as well as offering streamlined purchasing options. Partners can protect their customer base and upsell additional products and services, driving higher margins. Partners are already realising the opportunity, and we've put a six figure investment into driving market awareness to aggressively deliver new business for our partners."

Channel partners are asking for more support from vendors in end user demand generation and Siemens Enterprise Communications has responded. Following the launch of the new UC portfolio it has kick started a campaign to book 300 face-to-face appointments between July and September 2013. By the end of July, it was already two thirds of the way towards this figure. To deal with this growth, channel partners like Integra have reacted by hiring staff to cope with the demand.

"We're seeing substantial growth in the mid-market as organisations are keen to reap the benefits of Siemens Enterprise Communications OpenScape Business and OpenScape Enterprise Express solutions," said Pas Ruggiero, Managing Director, Integra. "Through increased awareness and ongoing conversations with our customers we are committed to driving growth and supporting the mid-market in its migration to UC infrastructure."

Smith also notes that through Siemens Enterprise Communications involvement in the Public Services Network (PSN), a framework that enables the delivery of government services from any provider or location, channel partners can access an audience that they would usually have been unable to reach. Siemens Enterprise Communications is one of only 29 IT vendors in the framework, giving partners a significant opportunity.

"Our experience in the enterprise market is feeding into the mid-market push too," added Smith. "A bid management facility provides sales content and support for channel partners in the tender process, and both the direct and indirect channel work hand-in-hand meaning that the combined sales proposition is significantly strengthened. This is also supported by our vertical experience from high touch projects in the healthcare, contact centre and education sectors."

Smith believes that there are common misconceptions around migration to UC that need to be properly addressed. Customers are still risk averse and a 'rip and replace' strategy isn't an option for end users. "With Siemens Enterprise Communications' new SIP DG, risk averse customers can gradually migrate from their existing legacy PBX to a SIP solution with significantly reduced risk," he explained.

The SIP DG (a piece of middleware that customers can use in a low cost rental model throughout the migration process) is a SIP to DPNSS gateway used to connect legacy platforms that support DPNSS from any vendor. The product is fully tested with OpenScape Enterprise Express and OpenScape Office, meaning legacy migration to the new product portfolio requires no operational downtime. "This migration process is also supported by a displacement promotion meaning that customers benefit from an enhanced purchase price when replacing legacy systems," added Smith.

Sennheiser's headphones enjoy huge popular support among consumers but their acclaim in the business market has been relatively mute until now...

Sennheiser has found its answer to a business communications world characterised by flux and opportunity. Admittedly slow to recognise the potential for headset sales in the enterprise space, Sennheiser has in recent times gained significant ground in comms territory and last month revealed plans to triple its market share in the UK by 2018, having already doubled its UK business year-on-year.

If these bold intentions haven't yet caught your ear, the noise cancelling properties of Sennheiser's just-launched Presence UC headset certainly will. This device, which is optimised for Lync, puts the finishing touches on the company's headset portfolio and its arrival comes at a time when the firm completed its relocation to an impressive new office complex at the Globe Business Park in Marlow, home to many ambitious comms and IT companies. Work is already underway on a demonstration facility at the premises that has now become the hub of a purposeful growth strategy supported by a long-term investment in product and channel development.

Not surprisingly, the wider context of Sennheiser's growth plans neatly align with positive predictions on the healthy state of the market for headset sales. For example, Frost and Sullivan is forecasting that the enterprise headset market will notch up total revenues of approximately $2.2 billion by 2019. Sennheiser has also crunched some big numbers, noting that headset attachment rates in UC currently stand at around five per cent with projected growth to 15 per cent by 2015, a figure that is set to double the following year. "We identified where the future opportunities will be found and refocused on the market accordingly," said Jane Craven, Director of Sales.

Sennheiser operates a channel-only model through distribution partners Nimans, Corptel UK, Go2 Telecom, Westcoast, and last month the company joined forces with IT distributor Triade. Significantly, Selective Distribution Agreements ensure that Sennheiser's products are properly sold by certified partners.

To better enable partners to sell its products, Sennheiser is now busy building on its The Blue Space partner portal and developing a new channel programme that will be rolled out later this year. Meanwhile, noted Craven: "The Corporate Account Team is also busy driving interest in Sennheiser headsets at end user level, prompting many customers to contact local resellers who then reactively fulfil end user requirements."

According to Craven this tactic is proving to be a strong model for generating sales, and the results also illustrate the strength of the Sennheiser brand which has become synonymous with quality. Such brand perception gives the company a foothold in the business market despite its relatively late arrival. And in an environment that on the face of things looks tightly sown up, it is also encouraging for Sennheiser that, aside from the UC piece, the wired headset replacement market is another exciting area of fertile ground for resellers.

"A big part of our growth is the adoption of wireless technology replacing wired, even in traditional contact centres," added Craven, who cited a recent project undertaken with Go2 Telecom to implement wireless headset technology into three of EE's UK contact centres. "EE understands the benefits of wireless and wanted to offer people flexibility and the ability to move around," added Craven. "EE wants its employees to feel valued so it gives staff a quality headset from day one. This investment in EE's agents has improved employee retention, which has been attributed to the adoption of wireless headsets."

Solutions such as this show how far Sennheiser has travelled since it first set about developing headsets for the Contact Centre and Office (CC&O) market just ten years ago. Its rapid advance in this area has been propelled by the firm's 70 year legacy in audio technology, from headphones and microphones for music listeners to aviation headsets and audiology products. Between 2003 and 2012 Sennheiser developed its CC&O headset product portfolio and globally revenues have risen by 19 per cent annually.

Now that its new Presence UC headset is neatly packed into the product kit bag, Sennheiser's mission in the Unified Comms space is to educate resellers, particularly IT system integrator sales channels, on the key point that a quality headset is integral to the entire UC roll out. "Driving this message is Unified Communications Sales Manager Ewan Stephenson who has built a reputation for helping SIs include the headset component at the beginning of the sale, enabling them to accrue more margin as well as supply a complete solution," commented Craven.

"We are working to increase awareness of our products and drive sales though promotions and incentives that offer more value and profit potential for partners. And we have a adopted a higher level of positioning with our distributors and resellers to ensure a significant market share for the Sennheiser brand now that we have the full portfolio with the launch of our Presence UC device."•

Like many comms entrepreneurs ANS Group Chairman Scott Fletcher started trading out of a back bedroom, but not so common among his peers was his decision to pursue a livelihood in IT rather than develop an already successful TV career.

As a child actor Fletcher appeared in TV programmes such as Jossy's Giants and Casualty and the experience proved to be 'character building' in more ways than one. "I enjoyed being an actor because it got me out of the education system and helped me to see the world and all the opportunities it offers at an early age," noted Fletcher. "But I had to make a decision between acting or work and I chose IT."

Fletcher joined a Youth Training Scheme, now more commonly known as an apprenticeship, and in 1996 at the age of 22 he found himself, briefly, at a loose end when the company he worked for went out of business. "I saw this as an opportunity rather than a setback and started ANS Group from my back bedroom," he explained. "I had been working in the industry for five years at that point and the hard work I'd put in meant I was able to leverage my experience and relationships with customers. At that time, there were 20 or 30 customers with solutions that only I knew how to support, so it was a perfect opportunity. That sense of innovation and being able to identify opportunities and go after them is still a huge part of ANS today."

ANS currently employs close to 200 staff between two office locations in Manchester and London. The company has witnessed impressive year-on-year growth and boasts an annual turnover of £47 million. Year-end results for 2012 showed a 60 per cent increase in turnover and a 61 per cent hike in gross profit, with a cash increase of 128 per cent while total contracted revenues were up 138 per cent. "Our goal is to hit our target of £15 million profit by 2014/2015," added Fletcher. "When you consider what we've accomplished there's no reason why this can't be achieved. When I look back at the first step that started ANS and think about everything that has happened since, it makes me proud to see the team I have around me and what we have created."

ANS Group works with customers of all sizes in various sectors and its circa 600 client base come from areas such as education, local government and healthcare, with a number of clients in the private sector. The overall retention rate sits at 98 per cent. "Our current objective is to build up our managed services and cloud offerings so that those deals account for the majority of our business," commented Fletcher. "And we're already seeing success in doing this. We have doubled the size of our contracted revenue in the last 12 months and we plan to double it again over the next year. We'll meet this objective because we listen to our customers and respond accordingly."

ANS Group's partners include Cisco, NetApp and VMware, and over the years the company has developed strong relationships with them, forging staunch bonds by frequently attending industry events and summits and adopting partner initiatives. "The word 'partner' isn't just a label for the vendors, it really describes the nature of the relationship that we have," Fletcher said. "As we grow the business, our relationships with partners just get stronger. It's a win-win situation."

Four years ago Fletcher made the decision to back Cisco UCS and the FlexPod solution. This also proved to be a winning formula and a major turning point for the business. "The Cisco platform is now in second place in the Intel data centre space from zero market share just four years ago, and it continues to take market share from the likes of IBM and HP," he said. "Adding our fully managed offering to this platform and building our cloud services on the same technology gives us a real focus and has built trust with our vendors."

Doing particularly well, noted Fletcher, is the FlexPod i3 solution. He says ANS has delivered the largest number of FlexPod projects in EMEA, and while that's humming along nicely he's focusing sharply on the managed services opportunity. "We're confident that our managed services offering will continue to see a high degree of adoption," he stated. "It's necessary to keep an eye on long-term opportunities but the industry is so fluid. As long as you have the right team who can evolve and stay innovative, that's what matters."

Fletcher is constantly on the look out for top talent to build on all areas of the business and foster the adaptability he relies on to move the business forward in a fast changing operational environment. "We have some incredibly skilled staff on board and we're a fast-paced, high performing company with high expectations, but we also know how to let our hair down. I think this type of environment is really the best of both worlds.

"It's easy to keep standards high when you hire the best. We do recruit for a lot of highly skilled roles, but we also 'recruit for attitude, train for skill', which means that our company is made up of the type of people who naturally have the drive to be high performing and motivated. The industry moves far too quickly nowadays and you need to be prepared to evolve according to what customers want. We will continue to grow the top and bottom lines of the business at least 30 per cent as I know we'll be able to adapt to whatever changes happen over the next five years."

The company's culture is based on a policy of 'work hard, play hard' and Fletcher is a big fan of staff away days and team building opportunities. "Since our staff numbers have grown considerably we hold quarterly all-staff meetings," Fletcher added. "These provide a chance for everyone to get together and hear about developments in the business. In keeping with our culture we go out as a team to socialise afterwards. It's also about the little things like emailing staff when one of the team gets recognised by a customer for exemplary service, doing charity work together and getting everyone involved in our CSR programme."

Regular staff meetings also provide an opportunity for new starters to be properly welcomed, such as the two or three apprentices Fletcher takes on every month. "Because of my own experience and the path it started me on, I'm passionate about apprenticeships. It's something that all businesses should offer. Young people bring a real energy to a business. Of course, as an employer we want to offer training opportunities and help the apprentices learn skills, but some people forget that they teach you new skills as well, such as social media and Internet technologies. It's important for me to give back to the community and I can't think of a better way than being able to play a part in helping young kids get started in their careers."•

By Elvire Gosnold, Director, Blabbermouth Marketing: E-marketing, e-shotting, e-casts, call it what you want, this form of marketing activity is one of the most widely used methods for pushing brand and promotional messaging.

It is pivotal to integrated marketing campaigns and serves as a method to not only promote product but also enrich customer communication and improve sales. There are huge advantages to using e-marketing as it is comparatively low cost, your reach can be as targeted or as broad as is appropriate and analysis is instant. The downsides are that all of us are bombarded by e-shots on a daily basis and therefore bin many of them without a second glance.

The key to successful e-marketing is to entice the recipient to open the mail, read it and then act upon it. This may seem obvious but with so many other distractions competing for our attention, these three actions need to be backed by powerful messages. Research shows 144 billion emails were sent every day last year and 69 per cent were treated as spam so the first lesson here is have a compelling subject line that does not use words that automatically get flagged as spam such as 'free' and 'win'.

A clear call to action, positioned correctly, is vital so make sure you are yourself clear on what you are hoping to achieve as a result of your e-shot activity and check that you have plainly conveyed this in your message. Landing pages are especially important if your call to action is targeted or product specific so make sure you have not overlooked this extra element of your campaign before you press the send button.

And lastly don't forget the boring bits. It is vital that you have a clear unsubscribe process that is correctly managed. Failure to do so could not only cost you money but your team will receive annoying phone calls from Mr Angry demanding to speak to you.

Understanding and consulting on the 'bigger picture' and the business significance of call management is where channel partners can gain a real competitive edge, claims Simon Whatley (pictured), Sales Director at Tollring.

In the last 18 months Tollring has doubled in size, doubled profits and boosted its headcount by 25%, and has been recognised in the European arena for IT and software excellence.

The company attributes its success to a policy of leading with the business solution, which is a proven way to increase margins and double system sales volume, according to Whatley.

Tollring estimates that historically a 14% attachment rate would have been an average figure. Whatley explains: "Today, among our most successful channel partners, 100% of systems are now sold integrated with call management, CTI and call recording products.

"All our fully integrated products - call logging, call recording, contact centre analysis, CTI and automated dialling - share the same common business reporting too. The real value of our icall suite lies in the central 'holistic' view of the individual elements working together, providing the insight required to increase productivity and ultimately profitability."

The MD of one of Tollring's larger resellers testified: "Over the last two years our new system sales have doubled and our software sales to existing customers have too. With a customer base that is already recording and statistically aware, there is a real demand for better functionality and reliability." 

But Tollring estimates that at least 50% of their resellers opt to sell phone systems rather than solutions. Reasons may include fear of over-complicating the sale or the risk of increasing the price in the quotation and losing to a competitor on price.

The question is whether such products should be considered as options or necessities, says Whatley, who strongly believes that as managers become increasingly accountable for company expenditure, selling the cost-justification model gives solution partners the advantage, differentiating them from those strictly meeting a list of telecoms requirements within a specific budget.

He said: "Every company is looking to win new and retain existing business by using business intelligence, which is exactly what call management delivers. Call management provides relevant and valuable business knowledge to managers across the business, tailored to their role and specific requirements."

Whatley also noted that where call management gets 'really interesting' is when external data widgets are used to pull data from other sources, to blend relevant telecoms and non-telecoms data.

"Tollring recently installed icall suite for an estate agency, which demonstrates the value of call management working alongside their business systems," said Whatley.

"An industry such as this relies on the phone for day-to-day business to operate. It is critical that information on the database is up to date at all times and integrating call management with their CRM delivers significant business efficiencies. Calls are matched against the database, calls are routed to the right people and agents are able to view, monitor and report on their sales and lettings calls."

Internet telephony firm Telappliant has published a whitepaper explaining the advantages and disadvantages of both hosted and on-site VoIP telephony systems.

The paper explores the long-term impact on how each system is run and maintained and includes a flowchart to help decision-makers determine the most appropriate solution for their business.

Tan Aksoy, Chief Executive Officer at Telappliant, commented: "The decision to move to VoIP telephony is an easy one. With lower costs and improved functionality, switching makes sound business sense.

"But deciding which IP-PBX to opt for is much harder and the answer will vary depending on the situation. Our new whitepaper will enable business owners to understand the fundamental differences between hosted and on-site systems, and help them choose the option that is right for their organisation."

To download the free whitepaper visit http://www.telappliant.com/white-papers.

NextiraOne has achieved 21% year-on-year growth in its orders for data centre business during the first six months of 2013.

Success has come from a number of Virtualisation and data centre transformation projects across Europe, with particularly high growth rates achieved in the UK, Germany, France, Belux, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, and Spain.

NextiraOne has also continued enhancing its Data Centre offering with new solutions and partnerships that add significantly to the company's portfolio and expertise.

Earlier this year NextiraOne launched its Cloud Management Solution based on Cisco's Cloupia platform. In addition, the company's new Storage Backup and Recovery solutions, focused on mid-sized companies, are currently being rolled out across Europe.

Aman Khan, Managing Director Europe, Data Centre and Cloud Solutions, said: "We are pleased to have achieved such remarkable sales success in the first half of the year against a backdrop of continuing economic uncertainties in some European countries. We are also proud of the innovative projects we have won from our customers."

The just launched ShoreTel 400 series IP phones include four new models that expand the vendor's portfolio to deliver new functionality including visual voicemail, an advanced user interface and built-in diagnostics.

"Whether a customer communicates with desk phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops or PCs, ShoreTel enables them to choose the device best suited to their needs," said Pej Roshan, vice president of product management at ShoreTel.

"The ShoreTel 400 series IP phones incorporate the latest user feedback resulting in new functionality and optimal usability."

Visual voicemail simplifies message management and increases productivity by allowing users to scroll through messages to access, listen, respond, delete and save them in any order. With this feature, users can pick the messages they want to listen to and erase or archive them right from the phone screen.

Built-in diagnostic tools on the 400 series IP phones also enable help desk staff to quickly identify issues and provide faster problem resolution, which means less downtime and higher user satisfaction, said the firm.

Micro-P's Daniel Lenan has been promoted to Head of Commercial following the announcement that Phil Brown has moved into the position of B2B Director.

Lenan will predominantly focus on continuing to grow and develop Micro-P's vendor strategies and relationships across the company's eight business units - Components, Computing, Consumer, Networks, Print, Server-Storage and Visual.

He said: "The commercial teams within Micro-P play a key role in building the propositions that the market requires today, while playing an equally vital role in delivering new technologies and opportunities for tomorrow.

"Micro-P has delivered significant growth in recent years and I look forward to helping push the boundaries even further."

Paul Bryan, Managing Director, added: "Dan's appointment to the role comes at a time when Micro-P sees many opportunities for driving success for our vendors through our reseller partners.

"Dan has demonstrated his skills and expertise during his time at Micro-P and we are confident he will successfully maximise every one of these opportunities moving forward."

Sennheiser UK set up its first formalised office with just six staff in 1990 and six years later moved to Century Point in High Wycombe, having grown to 26 employees and a turnover of £7.5 million.

Now at 72 staff and grossing £45 million, Century Point's 6,000 square feet of office space more than reached capacity and therefore the move to Sennheiser's new 15,000 square feet home in Marlow has provided space for the team as well as the new service facility, explained the firm.

"We have come a long way since our first foray into the UK market," says Sennheiser UK General Manager, Phil Massey. "We are very proud of our achievements and that we have grown year on year in every aspect of our business.

"This is, of course, down to the dedication, hard work and expertise of the team we have at Sennheiser. The move to Marlow has not only given us the capacity we need now, but will also allow for the future growth we are aiming for in the coming years."