tIPicall has mounted a credible challenge to become a main contender in the UK SIP and hosted market according to Sales Director Steve Harrington who has the bit firmly between his teeth. Here, he talks strategy and SIP education.
The comms industry's vaulted chamber continues to echo with analyst projections on demand for SIP trunks outstripping ISDN within two years, but Harrington takes a different line. He believes that such predictions should be taken with a pinch of salt, and bases his viewpoint on hard evidence gained from speaking to resellers on the ground. The market potential for SIP trunks is not in doubt, but the ability of the channel to deliver on the promise is far from secure. "Many resellers are still confused and wary about SIP," he said. "There is growth, but the take-up is less than we are led to believe."
With untapped market potential at stake this is no time for sitting on hands, noted Harrington, who has been busy developing and advancing a programme of education designed to bring resellers up to speed with all things SIP. "Education has been a big part of our strategy for years and we are driving high level SIP training through channel partners," he explained. "Resellers have to get educated. They must understand how to sell and deploy SIP or they will get left behind. It really isn't that complicated, but there is more to know compared to ISDN which is relatively straightforward."
tIPicall's channel education initiative includes two seminars this month, designed to inform senior management in telecoms on SIP, what it is, how to sell it and how it should be deployed. The company plans another event in May, and combined with its overarching long-term strategy these seminars are symbolic of tIPicall hammering a stake in the ground as a main challenger in the UK SIP and hosted market. Harrington estimates that the company is 80 per cent of the way towards realising its goal. "This is our year for being seen as the number two player in the SIP and hosted market," he added. "We know what we are capable of and what we have planned, and it's exciting."
As well as setting a strong agenda for growth tIPicall has also consolidated the structure of the organisation and bolstered its Board with key appointments, including the promotion of Guy Miller as Managing Director. Three of the four Board members have in the past been responsible for starting, running and selling their own telecoms businesses, and according to Harrington this inbuilt entrepreneurial flare will be invaluable as the company progresses over time.
"Our brand has become solid," added Harrington. "We were well known a couple of years ago for our international offering, but now we are just as renowned for our UK product set which still forms the majority of our business today. We have received strong industry feedback and built an equally strong reputation in all corners of the industry, but we will not rest on our laurels and always strive to be better and deliver better up-time, quality and products."
tIPicall's energy and verve to improve all aspects of the business is reflected in rising revenues which doubled last year, and Harrington expects a repeat performance this financial year. "We are now profitable and we have a strong financial base," he added. "We will be announcing big developments around the features for our SIP product in two months time including the launch of Super Trunk, and will confirm the completion of an 18 month project on our hosted platform - watch this space!"
Not surprisingly the company's engineering resource has grown significantly in line with developments within the business. "We have learned over the last few years that a great engineer can solve a problem much faster, so the payback on higher wages and running costs is that much quicker," commented Harrington. "Great engineers are the difference between success and failure with SIP."
tIPicall boasts 100-plus active partners split roughly 50:50 between resellers and dealers. "If a reseller is only interested in price rather than adding value and not working with us to get the deployment right, they are not for us," said Harrington. "Among the larger resellers we are 'strategically' happy to be the second choice and bide our time. Churning an incumbent, especially if they are a strategic partner, is hard, but if we can add value and variety and prove ourselves as a safe pair of hands our day will come."
Harrington pointed to a hands down statistic that underlines the robustness of tIPicall's core SIP trunk proposition, which during the last 12 months has not experienced a single minute's downtime. "It's all about reliability and added value," commented Harrington. "If we can give our partners an edge when they go up against rival SIP and hosted providers, as long as they get the pricing right they should win far more business. Our total focus is on helping our partners win more business, that is what matters."
While flying the flag for reseller partners another aspect of the company's expanding portfolio is also spreading its wings. "Hosted is soaring," added Harrington. "I sold hosted in 2005 and it was not a good experience. Now, all of the constituent parts are there. We have an ADSL to 1GB private SIP and hosted offering and a state-of-the-art platform. Now is the time to be offering a differentiated hosted solution."•