A new-look O-bit is hovering eagerly at the starting gate with a fresh channel strategy, and the race to market is set to speed up this month with the launch of new initiatives designed to propel the company into its next phase of expansion.

It's been a roller-coaster year in the comms industry but O-bit's future continues to unfold into a great success story. For many comms firms the strategy for this year is to simply stay afloat, meanwhile O-bit continues to launch new brands, products and services and is gearing up to take residence in a new headquarters designed to house a growing head-count and greatly enhanced hosting capability.

One key aspect of O-bit's expansion is the addition of a dedicated premium rates services section to the company, called O-bit Media. The man at the centre of this new division, Lee Campion (ex Agile Media), commented: "O-bit Media is positioned to expand in this market due to a combination of innovative products and customer care. Mobile SMS and Premium SMS will be important for all customer-facing businesses. It will give them direct and instantaneous access to their customers in addition to building valuable database information.

"Mobile video and Multi Media messaging will allow brands to build further customer loyalty and understand yet more about their customers. The benefit with all these services is data and the instant and unobtrusive contact which mobile messaging gives. The size and structure of O-bit means that we can react rapidly to customer requirements and deliver new products and services far quicker than many of our competitors."

Soon after the O-bit Media launch the company got busy again, this time with Beeband, a zero touch residential offering to telcos that launched on July 1st. Elizabeth Sparrow, O-bit's Sales & Marketing Director, stated: "Many of our resellers were scared of targeting the residential market due to the levels of support and customer care that is required to manage them effectively. It was a frustrating conundrum as all these companies had access to home users through the businesses they supply services to. The answer was to help them utilise their route to market without having to alter their back office support.

"O-bit offers each of its resellers an own branded e-commerce website geared specifically to the residential market. Our reseller's point customers to their website and O-bit picks up the back office support free of charge. All in all, the resellers get ongoing revenues from a previously unexplored route to market without incurring any additional hassle."

While resellers are sure to make honey with Beeband another new service waiting in the wings is equally certain to cause a buzz in the industry - Purplenetworx, an IP Telephony solution due for launch in September 2009. Sparrow added: "Already a carrier of voice and data, and familiar with managing our own infrastructure, it is a natural step for O-bit to provide outbound telephony solely using our networks. SIP-only, hosted and CPE solutions will all be available in September with a beta launch currently in progress with a small number of clients.

"The solution will be feature rich, cost effective, adaptable, easy to implement and easy to use. The service integrates mobile telephony making the mobile handset a further extension of the desk phone, ensuring users remain a ‘local presence' no matter where they are in the world."

One of O-bit's mantras is that successful marketing is the key to new business growth, and true to its ethos the company has launched an enhanced marketing tool for resellers with e-cast capabilities. "In a product and price driven industry all too often service is forgotten," said Sparrow. "Adding value to our clients has never been so important, especially in the form of marketing their services and helping them retain revenues year on year.

"O-bit offers its resellers a web portal, Merlin, which has many additional services. The latest launch offers an e-marketing tool to our clients. Whether it is used for prospecting potential clients or keeping exiting ones abreast of company developments, the tool provides a means of keeping the resellers' brand in front customers on a regular basis. This is one of many launches to be expected over the coming year."

Having won new customers with bells-and-whistles marketing the customer relationship could still falter unless a high-touch client retention strategy is adopted. O-bit aims to win top marks with its new School of Happy Customers based on learning that goes back to basics and puts the customer first. "Let's not over complicate things," urges Managing Director Jenny Herd. "Customers are the most important ingredient in any company. At O-bit we are continually assessing our services and procedures to ensure that we are always putting the customer first. All O-bit staff are part of this initiative and all customer contact is conducted with this in mind."

As O-bit's new initiatives swing into action the company continues to box clever, packing removal boxes in preparation for its relocation in August. The new office includes a hosting capability for 50 racks and will also accommodate a growing sales team and marketing department.

Paul Cloudsdale, Technical Director, added: "Demand of Colocation hosting is growing weekly, which is why, when we were choosing our new offices, we were also looking for our next data centre. Our new site will have unlimited power, back up and 50 complete racks available."