Comms Dealer

CounterPath has signed an agreement with Ingram Micro to distribute CounterPath's OTT communications solutions.
 
"The influence of consumer applications has radically changed the way small to extra large enterprise workers communicate," said Todd Carothers, EVP of Marketing and Products at CounterPath.

"The old paradigm of vertical, vendor-led platforms is out the door and is rapidly being replaced by solutions that support any device, any platform over any network.

"We leverage this shift and do it in a way that secures voice, video, messaging, presence and collaboration all unified across a common user interface. Our new relationship with Ingram Micro immediately expands our reach and relevance to IT channel partners."

IT infrastructure and support firm Onyx Group has reported record revenue growth and earnings.

Following its £10m acquisition of tech firm Knowledge IT in December 2014 Onyx have achieved an overall revenue growth of 34%, with turnover now standing at £28.3m.

Neil Stephenson, CEO, said: "As we live in an ever-increasing technological world, businesses now rely on IT for their everyday operations and the need to maintain the highest levels of uptime has driven organisations to incorporate reliable and flexible technologies, such as cloud computing and data hosting, into their long-term business strategies.

"Customers look to businesses such as ours to provide them with access to trusted IT professionals with the expertise to deliver an IT roadmap capable of supporting their future growth and development.

"In the past 12 months we have made significant investments into our infrastructure, including a seven-figure sum into the installation of a new 10Gb national core network and upgrades to our entire data centre portfolio to ensure it is now fully PCI DSS compliant."

Onyx Group landed two of its most high profile customer wins to date, with English Premier League side Newcastle United Football Club and Yorkshire-based tolling company Sanef Group.

The company executive team was strengthened in late 2015 with the appointment of former Daisy Group Managing Director Andrew Goldwater to the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Onyx's long-term plan is to become a national £100m revenue IT support and services business within the next five years.

Nimans is to host a Panasonic NS700 Partner Event on 9th March at the Aztec Hotel and Spa in Bristol to introduce non-Panasonic resellers to the brand.

"Since its launch in September 2014 the NS700 has become one of our fastest selling systems and the event is designed to explain the reasons why," said Paul Burn Head of Category Sales at Nimans.

Attendees will meet with the Nimans and Panasonic management teams, speak to pre-sales specialists, learn about the latest software developments and see the NS700 in action.

Cloud-based video collaboration services firm Blue Jeans Network has partnered with Westcon-Comstor to incorporate its cloud-based solution within the distributor's Unified Communications and Collaboration Practice.

The partnership will see the two businesses collaborate to offer joint cloud-based video conferencing software and third party hardware technology.

Dan Connolly, SVP and GM of Westcon-Comstor's global Cloud Practice, said: "Blue Jeans gives our customers flexibility to choose the technology they want and create the solutions they need."

Westcon-Comstor will have access to Blue Jeans' entire portfolio of products including Blue Jeans Primetime.

Exclusive Capital, the financing and leasing division of Exclusive Group, has extended its geographic reach into the UK, offering partners access to new services designed to close deals faster and enable partners to win bigger projects.

The new operation is led by UK IT financing veteran Chris Armitage and will work closely with the Exclusive Networks UK and BigTec UK VADs.

"Chris is already making a big impact with his 25-plus years of UK channel experience and an intimate knowledge of how the whole IT supply chain works from a financing perspective," said Franck Laga, MD of Exclusive Capital.

"The UK is important for us, with a reseller base that is receptive to the opportunities presented by a fast, flexible financing provider specialising in IT.

"2016 will be a pivotal year in the life of Exclusive Capital as we invest in widespread expansion into the major European markets and beyond."

Until now only operating in France, Belgium and Luxembourg, the addition of the UK increases Exclusive Capital's reach, with the bulk of its local forecast revenue expected to come from Exclusive Networks UK and BigTec UK resellers.

"We believe there is a huge appetite for IT asset financing, and this is borne out by the pipeline Chris has drawn around our partners within a short time," said Graham Jones, country manager at Exclusive Networks UK.

"These services speed up deal decisions and get around all of the financial objections that partners hear from their customers.

"Partners that are engaging now can see the potential to increase deal sizes and longer term tie-ins, with the added bonus of receiving full payment of the deal value within days."

Comms sector M&A activity reached standout levels last year, observes Marcus Allchurch, Partner at Acuity Advisors, who explores the driving forces and their implications for 2016.

It's been a standout year for comms sector mega-deals in the UK, the biggest being BT's acquisition of EE which was given the green light last month. BT has to be one of the great success stories of 2015/16 with a share price up by around 20 per cent against this time last year, a firm grip on its nationwide fibre strategy, a growing TV base and an infrastructure to sell into households and businesses across the UK. Furthermore, with Deutsche Telekom soon to own 12 per cent of BT's shares, we would anticipate more opportunities for deeper integration across the combined global footprints and, dare I say, further M&A.

Next up is the much anticipated merger of Three and O2. Three is raising £10.3 billion to acquire O2 from Telefonica with the objective of creating a £15 billion business post-integration with the largest pure-play mobile operation in the UK. Interestingly, it has been rumoured that Three will look to IPO the business after the integration has taken place in order to return capital to its investors.

Both of these deals present opportunities and threats to players in the comms channel. We expect BT and EE to spend some time integrating and working out combined fixed and mobile propositions to be sold through existing channels. This could open up some interesting opportunities for resellers to access EE's mobile network and some new services. There is probably more uncertainty around the future for O2's channel partners as Three's focus to date has been entirely on consumer mobile. This may present a huge opportunity for some channel players, although the potential for disruption will need to be managed carefully.

Looking forward, we have to expect more consolidation. Could Liberty Global re-look at merging with Vodafone? How will Zayo and Interoute continue their expansion plans? And what will TalkTalk do to future-proof itself in a market where converged businesses of scale are emerging all around it?

Turning to the IPO market - is there a bubble, and if so, should we expect it to pop? There is much speculation about another tech bubble, with some good justification. Square, the mobile payments business founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, shocked the market in November by announcing its intention to IPO with a valuation of $4.2 billion. This is around 30 per cent below its valuation a year earlier when it last raised private money at a valuation of $6 billion.

The reasons underlying this are complex, but the single biggest cause has to be venture capitalists over-pricing early stage companies in the hope that it will 'all be OK' when they exit via a listing on the stock market.

Acuity's view is that these situations, where unicorns are forced to float at lower valuations than they've had in the past, are actually positive overall for businesses operating in the comms market. Why? Firstly, most unicorns are based on the West Coast where there are many more precedents for high valuations of early stage companies operating in markets which they themselves are creating.

Secondly, there is no shortage of capital out there, and should investors shy away from unicorns they are likely to want to invest in lower risk sectors. Telecoms businesses tend to have attractive underlying economics which will always be of interest to investors. And thirdly, with the old guard including Microsoft and BT finally managing to re-invent themselves with a convincing strategy for the future, the place for channel partners will become clearer again and create significant opportunities for investment and value creation.

UK and European private equity investors have enjoyed a great relationship with telecoms companies over the last ten years or so, with many generating considerable returns on the investments they've made (such as XLN, Pulsant, Wireless Logic, Onyx, Six Degrees and many more). As such, we are aware of many private equity houses looking for new investments in the sector. Specific sub-sectors we have seen attracting particular attention include UCaaS, connectivity, security and IoT, all of which interest investors.

A key question for comms suppliers will therefore be, what is the right strategy to attract private equity investment? While I think it's fair to say that there is no right answer, there are themes that investors are keen to see: Recurring and booked revenue is key; capex should be kept as low as possible; and a differentiated capability is also attractive.

Not only should these characteristics reduce the risk during the investment period, but they should also make an exit to trade far easier. We led and completed five comms deals in 2015 and saw a clear preference for trade buyers to focus on filling strategic gaps in their portfolios rather than buying purely to top-up revenue growth and extract opex synergies.

Trends and activities in the M&A market are, on the whole, positive for the comms sector. We see a continuing 'wall of money' providing capital for mid-market companies to grow, improving fixed and wireless infrastructure, and some exciting innovation from new VARs who are able to deliver cutting edge solutions into businesses and deliver a clear improvement in service while reducing cost. These trends should continue to fuel M&A across the sector in 2016. •

24 Seven Communications' Managing Director David Samuel is a dynamic comms entrepreneur ready to stamp his mark on the reseller channel. Here's how...

Samuel's entrepreneurship, vision and strategic planning could be the spur for something big. He set up Leeds-based 24 Seven Communications in 2002 following a stint working for his father in the telecoms industry. "I recognised the need to demystify telecoms for business, particularly for a SME customer base, and saw an opportunity to do my own thing," he said.

24 Seven's turnover, currently £6 million, is certain to multiply. The firm employs 20 people and Samuel has plans to double the headcount over the coming two years. "During the past year we have made significant advances in the mobile market and launched a national roaming SIM card, Jump SIM," he said. "Its success has been a huge accolade for 24 Seven, along with the overall growth of the team and expansion of our services."

24 Seven's Jump SIM was developed in response to the growing demand for a solution to the national problem of poor mobile coverage. "This has been a topical issue for several years and I am proud to feel established as a leading voice on the subject," stated Samuel. "Jump has tackled an emotive and controversial problem that affects a huge number of people across the country."

Samuel leverages a wide portfolio of services designed to make businesses more efficient. These range from M2M SIMs, national roaming, call conferencing and recording, VoIP, SIP trunking, international termination, number ranges and mobile solutions. "Our bread and butter is in the SME market and this is very much where we see our future," stated Samuel. "We're able to offer an attentive service and our no-jargon commitment is crucial to this."

Direct sales remain important but Samuel has witnessed strong demand from resellers in the past year for 24 Seven's suite of products and associated data and billing platforms, giving customers complete control. "Since the recent appointment of a Reseller Channel Manager, Vinny Sohanpaul, we've quickly increased our profile among resellers," noted Samuel. "If you have the right range of products at a good price and can match that to customer needs it becomes a no-brainer for partners. It's also important that all of our partners are the right fit for our business. It's an area that we monitor closely because this helps to build strong and lasting customer relationships."

24 Seven offers bespoke packages to reseller partners, including M2M solutions across three networks and its roaming solution for both M2M and voice. "Demand for a national roaming service in the B2B sector looks set to continue and we are working with resellers to further develop the strong market for Jump SIM," added Samuel. "M2M services are on the rise and we're now perfectly placed to help businesses stay connected thanks to our recent agreement with EE. This means that we join a select group of businesses offering a 4G, 3G and 2G M2M capability via EE, which will be promoted through resellers."

Becoming an MVNO with complete control over its network and billing platforms was an important milestone and gave 24 Seven a much deserved confidence boost. "In terms of the mobile market, the recent mergers have impacted on competition," added Samuel. "Although it's good to see agreements forming between diverse service providers there is a fine balance to be struck between competition and consolidation if the market is to thrive. As Managing Director of a telecoms company I am monitoring and commenting on this trend regularly in order to keep our offering competitive and maintain working relationships."

The comms sector has always been highly reactive and confusion over technology and regulation continues to be a barrier, believes Samuel. "Therefore, as we look to increasingly professionalise our offer we're finding new ways to develop products and services that won't be constrained by these factors," he added.

"Due to the highly regulated nature of the telecoms sector the success of our business is constantly affected by outside factors - including Government and policy regulation - and it's a constant struggle for businesses like ours to jump through the often silly hoops they construct. That's why it's important to stay ahead of the curve and transition the business in line with the changing market."

With that in mind 24 Seven underwent a rebrand last year, developed new products, increased telecommunications market share and moved towards a more sustainable business model. "It's vital that regulation doesn't get in the way of progress as customer solutions always have to be at the forefront of our priorities," stated Samuel.

"In hindsight I would have been bolder in taking Ofcom to task over industry regulation. On the one hand it's calling for more competition. On the other its capitulating to the demands of big business. We have a foremost responsibility to our customers and nobody should get in the way of this imperative. Let's improve customer service throughout our industry and provide telecoms for better business. It is, after all, an enabler for companies of all shapes and sizes. I'd also like to see the Government take a stronger stance with the multi-national players, in particular the MNOs. They are vital for our business, and because of that they have a stranglehold which is itself a barrier to innovation and competition in our industry."•

Oxfordshire-based VoIP.co.uk's rebrand to Firstcom this month is the latest in a string of strategy moves from co-founder and Managing Director Adam Crisp who discusses how the traditional reseller model is being superseded by more meaningful strategic partnerships with trusted cloud service providers.

Crisp is a man with the vision to start a company from scratch and build it into a pan-European business, so you'd be doing yourself a big favour by lending an ear to his story and observations. Firstcom was established under the name VoIP.co.uk in 2004 by Crisp and Chairman Jean-Pierre Vandromme to address the growing demand for next generation IP-based communications systems. The company provides cloud services and was best known for its SIP Encrypt product which prevents phone hacking and is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security standards. "We built our network from the ground up and through our channel partners we now supply a comprehensive portfolio of products to any size and type of business customer," said Crisp.

Acquisitions have also been instrumental in the company's development and growth in Europe. In July 2014, Crisp extended his reach into Europe with the acquisition of Denmark-based UC firm Firstcom, acquiring 85 per cent ownership of the company and a group-wide rebranding opportunity which this month saw VoIP.co.uk become Firstcom. Soon after the acquisition Crisp relaunched Firstcom's flagship mobile enabled UC platform, called Universe, creating new opportunities for partners. He said: "Scandinavia is well ahead of the UK in terms of UC and this acquisition gave our UK partners access to superior UC products."

Just six months after snapping up Firstcom, Crisp reached deeper into European territory with the purchase of Germany-based telecoms company Teleforte, which also has offices in Poland and Spain. Teleforte operates in the traditional telecoms space selling international number services to customers including German airline Lufthansa. The acquisition completed Firstcom's service offering in the traditional telecoms space and ensured its UC product had a route to a wider market. "We now have offices in the UK, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Spain, providing a platform to strengthen our presence throughout Europe," said Crisp. "These transactions helped us close our first round of external funding to accelerate the growth of our pan-European group."

Introducing SIP to the marketplace was probably the biggest factor influencing growth in the company's early days, noted Crisp. But the more recent European activity has brought a much wider product portfolio combined with stronger product management, resulting in well propositioned solutions.

According to Crisp, Firstcom's biggest opportunity is subscription-based cloud communications complete with IP telephones, cellular mobile, mobile apps etc, all targeted at the SME sector, along with secure SIP trunking and cloud enhancements, cloud call recording and cloud menu systems. "We have invested in our own software development and network dev-ops team to make sure we deliver our partners and their customers ongoing upgrades and cloud-based features," added Crisp.

In May last year Firstcom embarked on a partner recruitment campaign following the launch of a new partner programme. The company wasted no time to on-board traditional telecoms, IT and security partners in a move that coincided with the launch of its new UC suite and a drive to boost sales of its SIP Encrypt solution. "Our revamped programme saw us offering support with sales collateral including social media as well as support with technical sales and proposals," explained Crisp. "We are also strong on channel partner training and offer technical, sales and marketing skills development within partner organisations.

"Our partner programme extends our reach through the creation of regional hubs across the UK in addition to continuing to work with our existing partners. We are aiming to bring the UK up to the same standard as other countries, such as Denmark, where ISDN is dead. For that to happen, IT and information security managers need to ensure telecoms is included as part of their overall strategy and not treated as a stand alone service."

Crisp welcomes telecoms resellers to the partner programme, but he is also attracting IT partners with great technical know-how but no telecoms expertise. "By adding our cloud telephony to their offering they can benefit from new revenue streams in terms of monthly commissions without having to re-train or support a new product," said Crisp.

Channel partners may not have the resources to identify and target growth segments on their own. With this in mind, Firstcom's main focus will be enabling new and existing channel partners to identify where they can grow their business and to help them formulate a sales execution strategy. "Partners are no longer just looking for technical support and residual commissions, they are also seeking value added services like sales and marketing assistance," commented Crisp.

"Our growth is due to next generation services that are fully integrated with wider communications and completely secure. Although we have an aggressive expansion plan across Europe, the UK is still very much a key focus. There is so much potential for us and our channel partners in the UK and we intend to build on our strengths and develop existing and new alliances."

Crisp counts his technical acumen as his greatest strength, and an ability to understand new things quickly can be traced back to his school days. "I have always been inquisitive by nature and want to understand how things work, so science at school naturally led to an engineering degree," he commented.

"Building a business and watching it grow organically is easy if that growth is built on engineering excellence and hard work. I've always insisted that our products are as good as they can be from an engineering perspective. But turning that business into one that achieves stellar growth meant drawing on the experiences of others, and having a strong financial team is critical."•

Caring about bespoke solution delivery is a subset of caring for customers post-sales and should be a primary goal for all comms providers, according to Karl Alderton, Managing Director, Comms Supply.

Alderton's calling to help SMEs fully understand their options when making buying decisions about their business communications came during a stint working at BT. He joined the company at the age of 18 and developed a successful sales career over a six year period in which he witnessed the issues faced by SMEs when dealing with providers, including some 'horror stories' that spurred him to set up on his own and establish Comms Consulting.

"We would act as the SME's telecoms director, helping them to make informed decisions about the most appropriate telecoms solutions for their business," Alderton explained. "However, I struggled to find suppliers who shared my attitude to customer care and grew increasingly frustrated. The only way to ensure the solutions I recommended would come to fruition in a cost-effective, professional and timely manner was to deliver them myself."

Alderton launched Comms Supply in February 2012 to deliver such solutions. By June 2013 the company had achieved £1 million turnover. "The business has been growing steadily over the past four years but it was three years ago that we started to see the market change dramatically," he said. "One of our first big step changes was to become an ISP in our own right, rather than being a reseller. By taking control of data we knew we'd have a significant advantage as more and more businesses migrated to SIP trunks and hosted solutions."

Comms Supply's natural next step was to develop its own SIP trunk and hosted solutions. "The ability to provide connectivity and the voice product gave us the opportunity to offer bespoke solutions based on the needs of our customers, as opposed to what we could purchase from another provider," stated Alderton.

Despite these successes the most significant milestone in Comms Supply's timeline to date came in January 2015 when the company moved from selling to end users directly and became a channel supplier. "We originally had a soft launch working with a small number of channel partners to ensure our processes were fit for purpose in a channel model," explained Alderton. "In September last year we publicly launched all of our products to the channel, including our hosted solution, YourUCP, and our SIP solution. Since then we have recruited a number of partners who are now enthusiastically recommending our products to their customers."

Over the past two years Comms Supply has witnessed its turnover increase by more than 100 per cent and its workforce double. "We are currently recruiting for three new team members to support our growth and we anticipate needing a further three people by April 2016," commented Alderton. "We believe we will achieve turnover of more than £2 million by the end of this financial year and forecast this to increase by a further 100 per cent over the following two years."

Alderton believes that Comms Supply's channel offering is its biggest opportunity. "Our strategy is to have a reasonably small number of key active partners across the UK, under 500," he added. "Another fundamental element of our approach is that our partners always have access to an engineer. After carrying out some customer research we decided that the customer experience was far more efficient and satisfactory when every query was handled by an experienced engineer, rather than a customer service executive."

Poor communication is a big stumbling block when building effective business relationships, noted Alderton. "That's why our partners receive a regular stream of updates about their order or service issue," he said. "They have the information they need to update their customers without needing to constantly chase us which improves the customer service they can deliver and reduces administration time for both parties."

Alderton is also aware that Comms Supply needs to increase the capacity of its voice network, and plans to do just that by over 1,000 per cent next month. "Some UK providers have run out of capacity in the past 24 months and we are determined to prevent this happening to us," he added. "As with any major upgrade, we need to fund the project without increasing the cost to our partners."

Alderton's other primary goal this year is to finalise Comms Supply's partner portal which will offer a single hub for partner interactions. "We want this portal to be intuitive and helpful for all of our partners, so we're investing heavily to get this spot on. Our hope is that we can get to 90 per cent of all interaction available from a single interface by the end of 2016."

A trend noted by Alderton is the growing demand for bundled services, whether that's free SIP trunks as part of a data solution or free minutes with a hosted solution. "We have already started providing bundled services," he said. "For example, all Ethernet Internet connections including EoFTTC and EFM are provided with free SIP trunks, which has supported a large increase in EoFTTC connections across our partner base. We are now discussing with our partners what other bundled solutions would allow them to sell more services while ensuring they are still able to retain a good margin."•

Not only are resellers looking to purchase hardware from distributor ProVu, they are also turning to the company for its menu of value added services, explains Managing Director Darren Garland.

Garland has witnessed a growing number of resellers wanting to use ProVu's systems and infrastructure to resolve their technical issues. This requirement is emblematic of a wider trend in which forward thinking distributors are starting to deliver value added services as well as kit. "Our reseller portal, ProSys, gives resellers access to a range of tools designed to ease the fulfilment and management of customer premise equipment," he commented. "With the added assistance of a technical support team, resellers also know that if they face more technically complex issues the team are on hand to assist. By enabling our resellers to remotely manage deployed phones and assisting them with more complex issues they are able to cut their costs as any technical issues become outsourced, allowing them to focus on their core business."

To better support resellers with services ProVu runs tests on all of its products before making them available to order. "This allows us to gain in-depth knowledge of our products," added Garland. "We also maintain close relationships with our vendors which allows us to learn and work with them on technical issues, helping us to continuously develop our product knowledge."

ProVu also offers training to staff and resellers to help equip them with the skills and knowledge to sell its products. "To give all of our resellers access to technical training we have made some of our training courses available online, meaning resellers can undertake training at an appropriate time for them and from the convenience of their own office," explained Garland. "We can also provide training at a resellers' preferred location."

In addition to reseller support structures, automated order processing is also part of everyday life at ProVu. Resellers are adopting this process as well as adapting their own systems to feed directly into ProVu's. "Through our portal resellers are able to place their orders outside of regular office hours with the config settings they require," added Garland. "Resellers can also access deployed phones and remotely manage them from their desks, saving time and money by minimising the need for site visits. Our APIs also enable resellers' customers to place their own orders directly onto our system."

Some products aren't as easily accessible as others so ProVu provides consultancy services to widen product accessibility and attraction. "For example, we have been supplying Sangoma kits for four years and from our experience we have seen that while there is a demand for these products, there is a shortage of people and services to support the install," commented Garland. "With high training costs many resellers simply do not have the means to install such products themselves. As a result, we offer wrap-around services for higher scale installs that require technical expertise.

"This not only helps to open up some products to a wider audience, it also enables resellers to add such products to their portfolio with the added peace of mind that we can assist them with the install and ship items ready to plug in and work out-of-the-box. Prior to an install, resellers can arrange a specific time with our technical support team to be on hand, over the phone. Upon agreement, our technical team's services become sub-contracted to the reseller, meaning they are dedicated to remotely support the specified install for the agreed duration."

Garland is currently assessing additional opportunities for ProVu to offer more value added services. "Our strategy to provide consultancy-based services should allow us to open up the market and make high scale installs more accessible to many of our resellers," he added.

To help resellers keep ahead of the curve ProVu carefully selects its vendors to ensure they have a pure channel model. "This helps resellers to maintain higher margins and ensure a traditional supply chain is maintained," said Garland. "Our resellers will not find our primary vendors' products for sale at lower prices on e-tailer sites. We are also open to suggestions from our channel partners as to what products they would like us to sell."

ProVu offers a range of VoIP products that help to ease resellers' installs by providing them with the complete package. "By not limiting ourselves to just one product line we empower our vendors to continually develop new items," noted Garland. "When launching a new product we ensure that we market items according to brand guidelines and offer resellers training and webinars to increase and develop their own familiarity with the products. Through our technical training, resellers can become fully equipped to sell our vendor's products."

In order to evolve, Garland believes that resellers should be looking to adopt a more flexible approach in their purchasing. "Not only do they want to be looking for cost-effective solutions, they should also focus on reliability and assistance in the maintenance of end devices from their distributors," he commented. "Ultimately, it is through the distributors' value added services that resellers will be able to grow and succeed in today's challenging market." •