Comms Dealer

After a lengthy holiday break, a lot of people returned to work and noticed that several colleagues were missing. Not just in comms, but in every office throughout the country - people suddenly disappeared, writes Clive Jefferys, Managing Director of telco recruiter JMA Network.

It wasn't alien abduction, but the beginning of the busiest period in the recruitment year! Several colleagues may have announced their resignation at the Christmas party, officially or on the sly. Others announced their intention in the last few days. But either way, this prompted three questions from you - why, where and how much?

There are many factors at play here. The most common include new pay plans, opportunities for promotion or just that simple realisation that it won't get better all on its own.

The winds of change blow hard through the winter months.

For hirers this means cuddling your best performers while looking outside for new hires. People are on the move right now. So whether you manage your recruitment needs directly or use agencies, this is the time to push your way to the front of the queue.

Nine Group is gearing up to launch connectivity and hosted telephony services through Nine Networks, a new division headed up by Barnes Clutterbuck (pictured). The acquisition of a data services business last summer provided a foundation for Nine to create its own data network, offering a full portfolio of broadband and Ethernet services to be rolled out later in Q1 2016.

Nine will also provide SIP and hosted IP telephony services following a trial run in Q1 ahead of a full launch in Q2.

A key part of the proposition is a revised ordering, provisioning and management portal.

"Nine has invested in software development throughout 2015 to develop an intuitive interface that gives resellers the visibility and information to better manage their client base," said Clutterbuck, MD, Nine Networks (formerly Nine Group Operations Director).

"Being in control of our own network portfolio rather than buying from other players will help to improve both the commercial and service offerings that we provide for our resellers through Nine Wholesale."

The Gloucestershire-based service provider has witnessed 10% growth in channel numbers and growing demand for SIP and hosted services.

CEO James Palmer commented: "Nine Networks is a major step for the Group and represents a key development in our business transformation.

"The networks division's product set will help our existing 450 resellers to be more successful, as well as play a key role in attracting new resellers to our business."

Avnet has appointed Marcus Adae (pictured) to newly created position of VP for Core Suppliers and Technology Groups, EMEA.

Adae is based in Munich, Germany, and reports to Graeme Watt, President, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA.

Adae's primary responsibility is to strengthen the relationships with Avnet Technology Solutions key suppliers in EMEA and drive business development in the company's focus technology areas.

He will work closely with Dieter Lott, Avnet's VP of strategic development and planning for TS EMEA, who is responsible for the strategic imperatives pertaining to next-generation technologies, high-growth customer segments and IT services.

Watt said: "Marcus's appointment creates incremental bandwidth and emphasis to align with our core suppliers and co-ordinate sales programs and business development initiatives through the EMEA region.

"In parallel, the appointment enables us to further focus on customers, particularly in high-growth segments, and deliver a clear value proposition around our solutions and services for next-generation technologies."

Adae has worked in the IT industry for 25 years with a strong sales emphasis on value-add and solutions distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

He was previously MD for Germany at Tech Data and most recently Ingram Micro's VP for the Central Region.

Adept Telecom's strong performance last year drove the fastest rising telecom share price on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 at +101.75%, followed by Gamma with +84.47% and KCom at +35.83% (source: Bloomberg 1st January 2016).

"We'd like to say a huge thank you to our investors for their support and also to everyone who has worked for us, or with us, to achieve the results that have underpinned this share price performance," said Adept's CEO Ian Fishwick.

Manx Telecom was ranked fourth with +26.56%, followed by BT at +20.23% and Maintel with +16.67%.

"All other telecom companies on the London Stock Exchange fell in value over the year," added Fishwick.

Inequalities in high speed broadband access are a great concern for many businesses in the deprived regions, but Philip Davies, CEO of Worcester-based VeloComms, has set about equalising this disparity with a bandwidth boosting bonding solution.

Accepting the broadband status quo is not an option for any business: Enter VeloComms, a specialist in broadband bonding, WAN connectivity, IP voice and a security systems integrator. "Our primary focus is broadband bonding," stated Davies. "By bonding between two and 12 broadband connections together, high speed connections can be cost-effectively delivered throughout the UK. Bandwidth can be quickly and easily increased to provide the flexibility and scalability that businesses require. With the increased use of the Internet, cloud-based services, IP voice and video, the need for high speed, cost-effective bandwidth has never been more important."

Although broadband is becoming widely available the bandwidth offered can vary remarkably by location. Three years ago Davies identified this variance as a clear opportunity to provide fast broadband connectivity to under-served businesses wanting to exploit VoIP, cloud and other online services. In 2013 the company signed an agreement with US firm Mushroom Networks to bring its broadband bonding solutions to the UK. The Truffle range of products enable the aggregation of low cost, readily available broadband connections. Individual Truffle units can be used for high speed access to the Internet and multiple units can be deployed between offices.

"We've come across companies on large business parks with connections of just a few Mbps," said Davies. "Using broadband bonding we increased their bandwidth and enabled them to boost productivity and reduce costs through the deployment of online and hosted services. With products that offer leased line emulation capabilities we can bond ADSL, fibre, EFM and other line technologies to create point-to-point and point-to-multi-point networks for branch offices. These are cost-effective and offer high performance, resilience and scalability."

VeloComms initially launched a series of dedicated routers aimed at the corporate market. They delivered throughput in excess of 900Mbps and had a feature set suitable for the most demanding of environments. "By launching a monthly subscription-based service with a range of affordable bonding routers we opened up a new range of market opportunities for our partners and ourselves," said Davies. "Low cost of entry and monthly subscription costs made broadband bonding viable for SMEs and home workers."

As well as Mushroom Networks, VeloComms' technology partners include Jola, Nubo Consulting and Sharedband. VeloComms has grown significantly over the last 12 months, primarily through the recruitment of a number of partners wanting products and services that complement their own offerings - whether that's VoIP, UC or cloud orientated. "We have enabled them to close opportunities where a lack of resilient, scalable and cost-effective bandwidth was a barrier to sales," stated Davies.

Another priority is to drive increased awareness of broadband bonding and its benefits. "There is still an expectation that high speed broadband will be available to all, but that is not the case," commented Davies. "For those have-nots, other technologies will need to be deployed and broadband bonding plays an important role, ensuring fast broadband is available to businesses that increasingly depend upon it."

Davies realised early in his career that businesses would come to depend on technology. His first exposure to the comms sector was working for an insurance company. He was shown an early version of an application that had the potential to replace a significant number of office positions. Fearing the worst, he jumped ship and found a junior network infrastructure role, and has never looked back. In these formative years Davies was also influenced during a period of employment by a serial entrepreneur.

"I saw how innovative products, great support and added value for the reseller channel were the foundations of a successful business," said Davies. "I always try to emulate the partnership ethos, hard work and focus that made an impression on me. Since then I have been fortunate to work both as an end user and in the industry during exciting, fast growth times. The constant change and evolution in our sector is a real motivation." •

Global expansion is beckoning fast growing Cisilion and Sales Director Nick Paul has no qualms about answering the call.

The name Cisilion draws attention to the company's heritage as a Cisco house, but there was the rub - the market had expanded and Cisilion recognised the need to provide its clients with a wider vendor offering, enabling it to be an end-to-end systems integrator. Cisilion was established 16 years ago by Roger Paul to help businesses simplify their IT deployments. The firm provides solutions to a client base in 56 countries across five continents and has big plans for global expansion.

Long-term strategic relationships with technology partners including Cisco, Microsoft, Riverbed, Dell and Oracle were bolstered in December when Cisilion built on its hybrid enterprise offering following a link-up with EMC. "This agreement allows us to work more strategically with EMC to help our customers achieve cost reductions while strengthening our own storage propositions," commented Nick Paul. "EMC's expertise lies in leveraging performance versus capacity, automating the provision of data protection and delivering infrastructure control via simplified reporting."

Cisilion expects to boost its £36 million turnover to circa £50 million this year, focusing on enterprise and commercial companies with between 500-10,000 employees. It targets senior level decision makers from all lines of business but primarily IT. "We provide transformational IT solutions spanning infrastructure, collaboration, security and the cloud," said Paul. "Our target markets include global organisations within the financial services, legal, insurance and construction sectors. Over the next five years we aim to continue our global expansion and increase revenues significantly."

Opening in Hong Kong and New York cemented Cisilion's reputation as a global partner to its clients. Another important development was moving the front office to the City of London in close proximity to clients and prospects. "In this office we launched our state of the art Innovation Centre where customers can experience first hand the latest IT technologies and solutions," said Paul. "They rely on us to understand the market and key trends, both today and what's coming in the future. One of our biggest strengths is the partnerships we have with clients. This enables us to understand their needs and in turn tailor our business to support them. We work closely with key vendors to shape our propositions; and our flexibility and level of service is what differentiates us."

The rise of the cloud continues to climb steeply and shifts towards the subscription model are well advanced. "Revenues are shifting from tin and boxes to virtualised systems and services," added Paul. "Businesses no longer want three or five-year big refreshes, therefore VARs and SIs need to adapt their offerings to deliver a much lighter, often hybrid IT infrastructure, which is less dominated by hardware choices with more focus on service and support."
This trend is redefining the role of many systems integrators and resellers who in the past have been focused on the plumbing of the network, often rooted in the provision of hardware infrastructure and licenses. "While this won't go away any time soon, in order to remain competitive SIs need to spend time building service propositions, consultancy services and user adoption practices to help their customers make the transition to cloud," added Paul.

Cisilion scooped Comms Dealer's Best Enterprise UC Solution 2015 at the Comms National Awards held last October at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London. The award recognised the merits of a large Microsoft Lync deployment at LeSoCo College where the company transformed its education system. Cisilion was also runner up for Best Enterprise Vertical Market Solution for its impressive work in the insurance sector. Rob Quickenden, Chief Strategy Officer at Cisilion, said: "Collaboration solutions are one of our strongest capabilities, and this recognition showcases the hard work we put into training our employees."

With an army of highly trained and motivated workers Cisilion is now stepping up the pace of its global growth ambitions. "To achieve our goals it's important to attract and retain the best talent in the market," added Paul. "It's the quality of our people, along with offering the most up-to-date technical solutions that will ensure we keep out-performing the market." •

The role of technology as a driver for business transformation is well understood. Not so well known is how ICT can help put lives that have gone off the rails back on track, according to Eddie Bird and Adam Esposito, joint Managing Directors of Unify Business Solutions, who illustrate how rehabilitation within prisons can be greatly enhanced by communications technology.

An early contract win soon after Chesterfield-based Unify Business Solutions was established in 2003 set the company on the path to becoming a global player in the prison sector. It all changed when the joint MDs signed up HMP Doncaster, which is still a customer. "That initial link with the custodial sector led us to work with a number of prisons in the UK, Channel Islands and New Zealand," commented Bird. "We have developed our own in-cell technology that aids the shift in focus to rehabilitation within the prison environment. Being able to contact friends and family in a safe and secure way can help support the reduction of reoffending."

Unify Business Solutions' technology also provides high level speech analysis which can quickly and easily identify calls of interest and provide intelligence to prison service staff. The company recently deployed such in-cell technology for the newly built Auckland South Correctional Facility. "As we'd successfully provided technology for prisons in the UK and the Channel Islands it didn't seem like too much of a challenge to do it on the other side of the world," added Esposito. "We carry out some of the work remotely and have good contacts which ensures everything runs smoothly. We also have the support of a local company called Baycom."

Unify claims two prison sector firsts: Providing the first in-cell phones in the UK and again in the southern hemisphere. "We could have focused on just doing telecoms and IT for business, but we had the foresight to employ our own software development team and develop our own products," added Bird. "We're looking at other areas globally where we can work with the prison sector and have increased the number of people in our development team to support the needs of each prison."

Unify has developed its own bespoke phone system which reduces violence and cuts reoffending within the prison system. Bespoke PIN systems offer the facility to dial predefined numbers, along with call monitoring and recording, system lockdown and the ability to place time restrictions on calls. It is targeted at prisons, detainment centres, immigration centres, nursing homes, hospitals and anywhere where a secure telephone system is required.

"The ability for residents or prisoners to be able to call predetermined numbers for family, friends or support groups creates the incentive to not reoffend and reduces the lack of privacy," stated Bird. "When placed in the cell it removes queues for wing phones and therefore the flashpoints that can cause bullying and violence."

Unify's Call Control System (UCCS) is a secure platform that polices all calls made to the outside world. Calls can be monitored and controlled, and recorded calls can be played back on demand. The UCCS includes an integrated reporting system as well as adjustable call rates so that prisoners can be billed different tariffs. Furthermore, Unify offers its own mobile detection system which solves the problem of unauthorised mobile phones in secure environments. "The Unify Mobile Detection System (UMDS) is completely covert and because it detects rather than blocks it means that it does not present any legal considerations," added Esposito.

Unify Business Solutions is pressing ahead with opportunities in Asia Pacific and plans are under way to start work in Western Australia. Business partner Serco currently runs two prisons in the region including Acacia Prison, a medium security facility accommodating approximately 1,500 male prisoners. Unify is working with Serco to provide business plans to Acacia Prison which will highlight the benefits of in-cell telephony and 'make a difference on the inside'.

Bird's first links to 'down under' were forged at the age of 21 when he went to Australia and by chance got a job selling mobile phones. Returning to the UK he secured a position with a Cellnet mobile dealer and Siemens partner, where he first met future business partner Esposito who was working for a datacoms company that supplied the mobile dealer. "We went for a Little Chef together and our friendship was cemented over an Olympic Breakfast," stated Bird.

"The idea of forming our own company came about after we both faced redundancy. Initially, the business started out with just the two of us but now we have a team of engineers, a software development team as well as sales, marketing and finance. Our expansion is reflected in the company turnover which was £270k in the first year and is now over £4 million. We're looking at getting to £10 million over the next three years."

Deals of importance won by Unify also include supplying comms and IT systems for London Cycle Hire, Rosebys and Ronseal. They are all likely to be long-term clients. "The businesses we work with, no matter how big or small, tend to stick with us for the long-term which is a testament to our support team," said Esposito. "We'll continue to grow the business and prison services sides of the company. We employ a hard working team who have a wide range of product knowledge and provide excellent customer service. It's not all serious. There's plenty of banter and lively discussions to keep everyone entertained."•

The question is, which leadership values and qualities will come to the fore this year. Here, seasoned channel leaders address today's leadership priorities, challenges, pitfalls and opportunities, and discuss leadership models that will successfully address the pressing issues.

There was a time when leadership was about leading from the front and pulling the rest of the business along with you, but that's no longer the case, according to Martin St. Quinton (pictured), Non-Executive Chairman, Annodata. "You can't be an expert at everything and it's a big mistake to assume that you have all the right answers and fail to get input from the other stakeholders in your business, not least sales people on the front line speaking to clients day-in day-out," he commented. "If anyone is going to have a feel for the market and the 'mood music' it's them. Successful business leaders recognise that. They are good listeners and communicators, which ultimately helps them to make informed and considered decisions."

Every reseller comes from a different place and will have their own challenges to overcome. But something that no business leader in the channel can ignore is cloud computing, believes St. Quinton. "You need to work out what the opportunities and challenges that cloud presents are and how you are going to respond to them," he added. "Few, if any, resellers are going to be untouched by the cloud revolution. You either embrace it, no matter how taxing a process that may be, or have the rug pulled out from under you by a competitor that has beaten you to it and siphoned off your client base."

In such an environment it's doubly important to have a clear vision of where you want the company to go and to communicate that clearly and effectively throughout the entire business. "It's the only way to get results and get everyone moving towards the same goal," said St. Quinton. "Give all your key staff a stake in your business."

Good leadership skills take years to develop and what it means to be a good leader can change. "Anyone can make decisions, but it's ultimately about good judgement," said St. Quinton. "To have good judgement you've got to develop the skills and experience to understand what you're dealing with. Leadership is as much about knowing when to take risks and drive change as much as it is about knowing when to sit back and maintain the status quo."

A key priority for business leaders in the channel is maintaining focus, pointed out Elsa Chen, CEO, Entanet. "In the technology sector the greatest challenge for any leader is to not be distracted by noises about the 'next big thing'," she said. "The best leaders know when and how to maintain focus."

Another challenge is the balance between leading change and developing employees. It's a typical trait of business leaders to lead change, but this poses the challenge of bringing people on board and developing their capabilities to make the change happen. "The third key challenge is cash and investment," added Chen. "Investment needs to be made continually to address the ever-changing conditions in our industry. This can be for new technology, new systems, new skills or simply more staff.

"The market is fiercely competitive, margins are tight and growth is challenging, so it is easy to become a numbers driven leader and forget that what actually makes a great business is its people. Numbers are of course important, but never forget that people are an asset. Listen to your staff, value and invest in them."

The most important goal a reseller business leader needs to accomplish this year is to create a three year plan, according to Chen. "The market is getting tougher and many businesses are already under pressure to make significant investments to keep themselves in the game," she said. "If you haven't engaged in long-term strategic thinking and financial modelling, do so now. This will help to maintain the focus and prevent unnecessary distractions."

The most important qualities of an impeccable leader are integrity, communication and commitment, believes Chen. "Often you need people to just trust your instinct, your decisions and you as a person," she commented. "People will only over deliver if they respect you. That respect needs to be built on the high moral standards that you practice in both your professional and personal life. Demonstrate how important the end goal is by showing your commitment even more at challenging times. If you don't believe in yourself, who will?"

The biggest leadership blunder is not recognising and rewarding high performers, while turning a blind eye to under-performers, observed Lee Shorten, a leadership consultant and executive coach. "Managers are too often created because they have been employed the longest or they are technically the smartest, rather than being strong leaders," he said. "This creates the exact opposite of an environment that breeds great leaders, who in turn build great companies."

As well as constructing a strong managerial framework, building equity value while keeping the focus on day-to-day operational activities is also a priority for most businesses, especially in the consolidating ICT market. "The focus should also be on moving away from product specialists towards customer ownership," said Shorten. "Customers expect more from their suppliers. They want partners as they transition their businesses."

Shorten believes people can become great leaders if they have the right attitude and the right environment. His three most important facets of leadership are rhythm, balance and discipline. Shorten advises leaders to establish predictable rhythms within their organisations, so people know what is expected of them weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. "Talk to your teams to ensure they are on track. Listen to them, they often know what they're doing," he said.

In terms of balance, Shorten pointed out the required balance between short-term revenue, mid-term pipeline and long-term value. "There is a balance between expecting hard work from staff and supporting them, between servicing customers and delivering efficiency, between having enough resource and delivering enough profit," he added. "There should be a continual review of these balances."

Commenting on his third imperative, discipline, Shorten said: "Business owners and managers often know what needs to be fixed, what is working well and who is not. Having the discipline to execute on these is almost always the difference between successful businesses and unsuccessful ones."

Good leadership is often about guiding, encouraging and nurturing from behind, not just leading from the front, according to Gamma's CEO Bob Falconer. "But the most important task a reseller business leader needs to do this year is to find their place in a world where customers increasingly want to buy all of their comms, often including the IT, from one supplier who can deliver well and integrate it together," he said.

The biggest failure point of business leadership in today's market is believing in yourself too much, says Falconer. "Self-confidence is important, but the problem can be closed ears, not challenging yourself constantly and adjusting your strategy continuously. An ability to see the bigger picture and how the parts interact is important, along with having a clear differentiating strategy that can, with confidence and back-up data, lead to sustainable growth."

Finding, motivating, developing and keeping high quality people, particularly in the technical area, and developing a culture of innovation is a tall order for business leaders. Darren Hilton, Director of Partner Services at Timico, and who spent seven years in the military where leadership skills and teamwork are paramount, said: "To enjoy the luxury of a high performing team you have the challenge of recruiting and keeping skilled staff who will follow the direction that the leader wants to take the business in," he said.

"Failure as a leader is when people are not prepared to follow you. Finding people who are not prepared to accept the ordinary and who want to innovate and make a difference is a challenge. Striving to make your business stand out among its competitors is key, and by focusing on the creativity of your staff, encouraging them to feed ideas into the business and ploughing cash back into the company for R&D is key to the culture of innovation."

New generations are entering the workplace and their expectations are higher, their communication styles are different and social media is their primary means of communication, noted Hilton. "Their desire for progression is higher and faster," he added. "You have to adjust your pace to accommodate them and engage them in the right way to achieve the purpose you've set as a leader. Strong leaders have the ability to encourage people to follow them. They are clear about their purpose and where they want to go."

According to Hilton, a top priority for resellers this year is taking advantage of the current growth period in the market. "Sell more, adopt some of the newer technologies like hosted UC, look at the future and assess how ready you are for the competitive landscape of the next few years," he commented. "There will be more demand for customised products and tailoring to meet the needs of customers. Business leaders need breadth of experience, knowledge and capability so they can accommodate the variety of challenges ahead.

"Have a clear purpose for your organisation. Develop a specific direction for the business so that all the people know their part to play in delivering the service. That, combined with hiring great people, should equate to a high performing team. And be flexible and adaptable. Regardless of how good your strategy is, no plan survives first contact with the customer. Be prepared to bend and flex to the customer's requirements.•

Not for nothing was Horsham-based Global 4 Communications crowned NEC's Best Reseller in EMEA for 2015. Here, Managing Director Nigel Barnett reveals the firm's winning growth strategy.

It didn't take long for Barnett to get his foot in the door and feel comfortably at home in the comms industry having secured a number of early estate agency contracts. The first deal snowballed and proved to be a turning point for Global 4, which was established in 1998. "We secured an order for five telephone systems at an estate agent in Kent," explained Barnett. "The agent was then purchased by a large group with 150 offices. The group wanted to repeat the model we had rolled out so we supplied it with systems. Within 12 months it bought another group of companies with 350 sites. Within six months of that acquisition we had rolled out NEC telephony to the entire group including lines and calls."

Global 4's influence on the High Street has grown significantly. "We have many High Street chains as customers, with roughly eight locations in every High Street taking our services," stated Barnett. "As well as reviewing their monthly expenditure we offer IP services using our recently launched NEC 3C solution. IP is an interesting subject, but what a steep learning curve. The investment is now showing a terrific return. We are also 'playing' in the mobile arena and this will be driven forward in 2016."

Fishing for tiddlers has never floated Barnett's boat, but landing an order from the Unipart Group for 268 telephone systems while sitting at home negotiating the contract is right up his street, and showed that his business ethics were paying dividends in the early days. Now 62, Barnett started selling when he was 18. "I had several different businesses, predominantly selling photocopiers like many of us in those days," he recalled. "I was fortunate and able to secure the sale of two businesses that allowed me to take a few years off."

He wanted to move away from previous business models that relied on many sales people and telesales selling on savings. So after a period of careful consideration he established Global 4 with Rob Whyte-Venables (Service Director) and Jenny Fright (Administration Director) now retired. "Our philosophy was based on selling one system to a company that had many other opportunities," he stated. "Setting our sights on tough targets and high quality customers meant we weren't able to hit the ground running. Lots of the bigger customers don't really want to deal with people who work out of their bedroom, even if it was rather large.

"Now, with a payroll of around 100 people, systems and procedures are a never ending daily challenge. We have always outsourced our billing but as we evolve we have new requirements in reporting and discipline that now involve internal developers and marketing people. This brings a whole new cast to the stage."

Growth in the telecoms market has always been difficult, particularly as the cost of calls keeps dropping. Yet despite the challenges Global 4 continues to grow year-on-year. Three years ago the company branched out of B2B and entered the residential market for broadband and calls with Home Telecom. "Our turnover for 2015/16 will be around £16 million and we are looking for substantial growth next year," added Barnett.

"We have around 1,300 customers and more than 10,000 sites which all have telephony installed. Over the last three years we have complemented our range by adding data and MPLS circuits. These have countered the reduction in call costs and helped increase the business steadily with more than 2,000 circuits in place. We wanted a client base with future opportunities, so the choice was: Do we have 350 individual customers ringing us, or one person responsible for 350 branches? With the second option it's all about service and when someone rings, sort it."

That is exactly what Global 4 did when it threw a lifeline to a prominent estate agency group after its telephony supplier went out of business, terminating their contract with just six weeks notice and little support. Global 4 installed 100 lines, 400 extensions and broadband to seven brands in 45 locations, with three days to spare. "This shows what can be done with design, planning and implementation from a great team of people," said Barnett.

Global 4 also set up the latest NEC 3C IP solution in two exclusive London data centres with support from Gamma and Voiceflex. Meanwhile, the introduction of IP gives the firm circa 80,000 extensions to upgrade. Barnett is currently rolling out projects for 10,000 IP extensions with over 2,000 already installed and a completion of the balance planned for the end of 2016. "Up to a couple of years ago Global 4 was a lifestyle business and I am fortunate to have brought up five children, four of them work for the company," added Barnett. "It would be any father's dream to see their family on a daily basis, but when they can actually sell and create business opportunities you sit back and say, 'we haven't done that bad'."•

The result of Tollring's astute partnering strategy is that Managing Director Tony Martino has gathered ever more cards to his pack and become a player on a wider stage.

Martino arrived in the UK from Australia in 1994 after completing a computer systems engineering degree. He spotted an advert in the Evening Standard for a technical service's role with the fledgling Tollring and got the job. Its CEO and founder, Chris Mennie, had a big influence on Martino. "Tollring was founded on technical knowhow and we gelled from the outset," he said. "My technical perspective was a great fit with Chris' sales expertise. Working at Tollring has been the best job I've had. In fact, it's the only job I've had."

Mennie left the company in 2002 when Martino led a management buyout and took over as Managing Director. "My Italian origins mean that I'm passionate and family is very important," said Martino. "This includes my Tollring family. Everyone has a part to play wherever they sit in the company. As the business grows this will become more challenging but I'll do my best to ensure we don't lose the family ethos."

Tollring is a well-established software developer specialising in telecoms management, billing and call recording solutions, delivered on-premise or via the cloud. The firm's product suites are all developed in-house and Martino prioritises high levels of re-investment into product development and infrastructure.

Headquartered in Uxbridge and with offices in the USA, Australia and India, Tollring has 35 staff and year-on-year profits driven by incremental organic growth since 2010. Partnerships with Samsung, Mitel and BroadSoft extend Tollring's global reach. And its solutions are delivered through 850-plus channel partners including ICT resellers, SIs, SPs, BPOs and phone manufacturers. Almost 6,000 companies across the UK, Europe, USA and Australia depend on Tollring's solutions that report on an estimated 470,000 business phone lines and telecoms devices. "Investment in staff, product development and marketing is on the increase," said Martino. "We are currently experiencing incredible growth and we expect this to continue over the next two to three years."

Managing growth involves meticulous professional judgment. It must balance the requirement for seamless efficiency against uninterrupted service levels for new and existing partners across the world. "We will take what we've learnt in the UK and replicate it in global markets, but managing this growth is currently our main challenge," added Martino. "It is far more challenging than we first thought. As our brand gains better recognition we need to be efficient as we expand into new partnerships around the world. The big question is how best to service our new partners. Our solution is to recruit good people while ensuring our products and services are designed to be easy to support. This means empowering our partners to become true experts and helping them to take our products to market."

Tollring's products revolve around what the firm is good at - telecoms analytics. The potency of analytics lies not just in the bulk gathering of data but in how that data is used. "This is a broad area and we are constantly looking at how we can evolve our proposition and build on our current product set," said Martino. "The focus is always on data collection and bringing valuable insights for our clients."

Other areas of development are Tollring's call recording technology and bringing fraud management solutions to market. "Our partners have fed us their requirements," he explained. "Fraud continues to be a real problem, particularly around the adoption of SIP and the cloud. We are developing some advanced fraud monitoring capabilities along with the ability for resellers to quickly provision our services to their customers. Our overall approach is to develop and market products that are aligned to a specific technology and then white label them. This in-skin approach has proved hugely successful with Samsung and we are now mirroring that with Mitel and its channel to take our products global."

Martino's white label strategy enables Tollring to develop long-standing partnerships, and the 10 year relationship with Samsung is a testament to Tollring's ability to keep its products relevant to the market. "The latest ICS Online solution enables us to repeat this approach in a simpler way and offer our white label solution to all of our resellers," stated Martino. "In turn, they can offer our services under their own brand. They can differentiate their offer by avoiding me-too products and ultimately have more engaged conversations with customers that don't revolve around price."

Tollring has been having such conversations from the outset. In the early 90s, with three staff working in Piccadilly, Tollring delivered telecoms billing solutions to its London-based clients. While these were not sophisticated by today's standards they were cutting edge at the time. "For the old techies like me, our applications were written in DOS and connected to a PBX system with a RS 232 serial cable," recalled Martino. "On the back of this we provided some innovative telephony billing applications. This was during the rise of serviced offices and we successfully delivered billing and communications management tools for these new office facilities."

The extent of Tollring's commitment to lasting relationships is revealed in the values that have guided its partnering policy for over 22 years. Tollring was selected as a software applications partner for Samsung Business Communications in September 2004, providing a white labelled version of the iCall Suite. This was a significant milestone for Tollring and a turning point for the business. "Samsung has remained a long-standing partner," added Martino. "The success of our Samsung relationship helped to define our strategy on how we take our products to market and we have since mirrored this relationship with other partners."

The OEM partnership with Samsung expanded to Europe in 2005 and in 2011 to Australia. Two years later Tollring formed an OEM partnership with Samsung Telecommunications America. In 2011, a partnership was formed with the sole UK distributor for Ericsson-LG, Pragma Distribution, to provide integrated call management, contact centre and call recording solutions for the iPECS PBX range.

In another significant move Tollring linked up with BroadSoft in September 2014 and joined the BroadSoft Xtended Developer Programme to introduce iCS insight to the BroadSoft Marketplace. The OEM agreement with Mitel followed in April 2015 under which Tollring delivers cloud analytics on the MiCloud hosted telephony platform. "Mitel has recognised how important Business Intelligence (BI) is for its customers so will provide iCS Online to its channel partners as a white labelled solution," commented Martino.

Modern technology is eroding business models once seen as pillars of the comms industry, prompting companies such as Tollring to shift tactics and adapt to survive. The chemistry of comms is in constant flux, and the adoption of SIP and the move to the cloud has had a major impact on Tollring. "We've been able to capitalise on these developments, for example, with our cloud-based call recording IP that is fully owned by Tollring," explained Martino. "The evolution of BI also had an influence on how we have developed. One of our core skills is the management and presentation of data in real-time to our clients. So the fact that BI is a key driver for businesses is a big factor in our growth and success."

According to Gartner a CIO's top three priorities are BI and analytics, followed by the cloud and mobile. "We are aligned with these priorities as we work to ensure our analytics are available on any device at any time," said Martino. "The key is not just telecoms but unified communications. We are looking to offer some new cloud and UC services such as Skype for Business analytics that will have a strong partner focus."

End users are also investing heavily in sophisticated CRM systems and a priority for Martino is to ensure Tollring's analytics can be accessed by them. "We will be enhancing our APIs and making them more accessible and available," he added. "We will evolve our products so that customers can extract and consume our analytics as easily as possible but not necessarily via our own systems."

Also in the pipeline is a new version of ICS Online and Desktop planned to launch in March. "We've made significant enhancements around the user experience and updated the portal so partners can better utilise our services," said Martino. "The new products will help partners to understand their customers better and will give them greater insight into how customers are consuming their services. In June we will also introduce the fourth iteration of the IC360 telecoms and expense management solution within the reseller space. This has a strong end customer proposition so resellers can look at all telecoms expenses within an estate and see how customers are using their services.

"And while there are excellent billing providers in the market, we are also looking to partner with these providers to enhance the offering that partners can take to their customers. The key focus is consolidated billing and utilisation of services to ensure our partners and their customers have a full understanding of their entire telecoms infrastructure."

Tollring's analytics and BI services help resellers to stay relevant by enabling customers to measure efficiencies from their transformational projects. "We urge partners to understand our product portfolio," noted Martino. "I'd like those in the channel who have known us for many years to see our products with fresh eyes and fully consider the huge range of opportunities that are now available to them. We have secured access to new markets, now we need to ensure that our audiences are informed and understand what we have to offer."•