In the channel's leadership race, Tim Radford, Chief Executive Officer at Timico, could be the one to beat.
With an impressive and punchy track record under his belt Radford was fast out of the traps to set up Timico in 2004 alongside a small but ambitious team, some of whom he'd worked with previously at Project Telecom, a company Radford set up in 1987. Project Telecom shone brightly as a classic service provider reselling mobile services from the major networks but with an added personal touch to the way customers were looked after. "It was an incredible time to be in the mobile industry and our hard work culminated with the business floating in 2000, expanding into fixed line services, achieving revenues of £330 million and ultimately being sold to Vodafone in 2003," commented Radford.
The experience greatly advantaged Radford but despite the £155 million Vodafone deal he wanted Timico to be different. His strategy from the outset was to up his game further and become a leading provider of next generation Internet and comms services to businesses. "We developed and branded our own range of offerings, making life easier for customers by fully integrating fixed, mobile and Internet services and supplying the whole package as a one-stop-shop," added Radford, whose interest in comms was sparked by an encounter with an early System 4 mobile phone, a moment of truth that inspired the formation of Project Telecom. This was one of a number of 'Projects' Radford was considering as a next step having sold his first business, a hospitality and event management company in the late 80s.
Radford's dynamic backstory is a great asset and Timico's growth shifted up a gear soon after the launch of its converged channel proposition in 2006. Since then, the move towards next generation networks and greater mobility has catalysed runaway growth in data consumption and cloud adoption. "These trends continue to shape our strategic direction and our expansion aspirations," added Radford.
With his foot on the accelerator Timico burst into the Sunday Times Tech Track for four consecutive years up to 2011. The company's growth has, and will, continue to be achieved organically and by strategic acquisition, emphasised Radford. "We've made nine acquisitions in our 11 year history, the most recent being Wirebird, the IT support and managed service provider, and the telecoms interests of Coms," he explained.
The fast growing company is still privately owned, has a 350-strong team and is based in Newark with five other offices across the UK including its channel business, Timico Partners, operating out of Fareham on the south coast. The group turned over £42 million in 2014 with expectations of circa £60 million by the end of 2015.
"We've pursued a twin track growth strategy that focuses on steady organic growth complemented by strategic bolt-on acquisitions," said Radford. "I'm expecting our strategy to push us to £100 million in revenue for 2018."
Hand-in-hand with the financial gains of an acquisition comes the sometimes painful integration of various systems into the business. With an ethos of great customer service at the forefront of how Timico operates, the incorporation of those systems and business processes to ensure fast and effective service is essential. "Senior staff and a project team have been working on this for the past six months and we're committed to investing in the best solutions we can develop," said Radford.
In terms of operational structure, in 2013 Timico divided the company into four distinct centres of excellence - managed networks and connectivity, cloud and hosting, unified communications and mobile solutions - to focus its expertise and deepen relationships with technology partners. "Our range of services enables us to work with companies of all sizes, from start-ups to FTSE 250 enterprises," noted Radford. "We service more than 15,000 UK business customers including their international requirements in more than 20 countries."
Last year Timico significantly bolstered its channel business and re-branded NewNet to Timico Partners with a new, distinct brand, a bigger team and additional investment in its PartnerEye portal, all with the aim of attracting new partners. "The channel is a fundamental part of our growth plan and we're aiming to get to 150 partners on the PartnerEye by the end of 2015," said Radford. "The Coms telecom acquisition increased our partner base and gave us a new audience through which we can provide our products and services and who will also be key to the launch of our new hosted voice product, Synergy, in September. The feedback we've received during the consultation period with our partners suggests it will be a great alternative to the BroadSoft platform."
Synergy will be delivered through Genband and via Timico's Solution Builder tool which has been designed with back-end intelligence and automation to ensure partners get the order right first time. "Couple this with our aggressive pricing and a dedicated training facility to ensure partners are confident with selling Synergy and we have a great opportunity to win a sizeable share of the hosted voice market," stated Radford.
He wants Timico to be a leader in the provision of self-service through its portal, helping partners to be masters of their own destiny by managing their business from any device, at any time and from anywhere. "The development of our PartnerEye portal has been a vital part of the strategic plan for some time, and it's clear that with the new release at the end of August we're going to be ahead of the game."
Last year Timico shelved plans to list on AIM with an initial market capitalisation of about £55 million, hoping to raise circa £15 million to fund growth and increase the size of the business. But Timico remains a privately owned company with 100-plus shareholders. "The original intention with the
IPO was to fund growth by acquiring new business and double the size of the company over the next few years," explained Radford.
"The market conditions weren't favourable last year and we have a duty to our existing shareholders to ensure that the success of our IPO isn't eroded by recent IPOs performing less well than expected. Hence we made the decision to postpone our process. We decided that the shareholders would fund this growth themselves for the time being but we will be keeping an open mind on whether we use an IPO in the future."
Radford's current priorities are based on the enlargement of Timico through the on-boarding of new high growth partners and servicing them impeccably. "We are doing this in a number of ways, including the introduction of innovative new products to market, automating the self-service of those products through the PartnerEye, challenging the market with competitive pricing and providing a training programme to ensure effective sales," noted Radford.
"It takes considerable time, resource and investment to implement new products in the PartnerEye, but we know it's our differentiator. We're committed to making it easy to do business with us and that's why we're prepared to devote so much of our attention to making the PartnerEye as slick and intuitive as we can."
Potential new portal developments could involve the evolution of Timico's channel mobile proposition, M2M and IoT. "Getting services like this to work with our PartnerEye portal is important, enabling access to whatever we develop so that partners can manage everything from one place," commented Radford.
"These areas need careful thought and discussion and they already form part of our product development roadmap. Personally, I like to keep abreast of exciting new technologies and embrace conversations around them to see what we could do and where they would fit into our portfolio."
All of this neatly dovetails with Radford's passion for 'good, old-fashioned service'. "The key to good service is building personal relationships with our partners and customers," he said. "We want to be seen as a true partner that can add strategic value to a customer's business rather than just a run-of-the-mill faceless supplier. It's all about having the drive and determination to deliver on our promises, no matter what. I'm lucky to be surrounded by a talented, experienced bunch of people but it hasn't happened by accident. Having fire in one's belly is a pre-requisite to joining Team Timico."