Comms Dealer

Centrify, a specialist in securing enterprise identities against cyber-attack, now has a two-tier channel strategy in EMEA. Two new distributors, Exertis VAD in the UK and Azlan in France, will help to strengthen Centrify's presence in those regions and support its resellers there.

Commenting on the new strategy, Matt Pearson, EMEA channel director, Centrify, said: "More organisations are turning to Centrify to solve their identity, security and productivity issues, but it's crucial that we continue to provide the very highest quality of service and support to the very partners powering that growth.

"Integrating Exertis VAD and Azlan will provide us with the additional firepower to support the momentum we are seeing for identity solutions as the technology moves into the mainstream."

Exertis VAD Solutions will provide Centrify with the additional marketing, sales and technical support needed for the Office 365 and Apple reseller markets in the United Kingdom.

Grahame Smee, managing director, Exertis VAD Solutions, added: "Until now, we've been working with a limited number of Centrify products with great success. Formalising the partnership in this way is a natural progression of our relationship with Centrify and will provide us with extended access into the company's product portfolio which in turn will enhance our offering further."

Azlan will support Centrify's enterprise growth in France.

Survey results suggest that more than 15 million UK adults rank being stuck on hold with a telephone operator their top annoyance of 2015.

The findings correlate with fresh data showing that almost one in three UK customer care managers believe their biggest weakness is reliance on old customer service techniques, including traditional call centres.

Commissioned independently by Lithium Technologies, a survey of 2,000 UK consumers revealed that the top three factors that drive customer call centre annoyance are communication barriers caused by language differences (56%), having to go through several options and security checks before talking to a real person (48%), and the call centre representative sounding like they're following a script and not offering personalised advice (37%).

From an industry perspective, communication providers (34.20%) and utility companies (33.20%) frustrated consumers most, followed by financial services institutions (23%).

The consumer findings come amidst evidence from UK businesses that customer service expectations are continuing to increase. A survey of 250 UK customer care managers, conducted on behalf of Lithium Technologies, showed that four in five (82.40%) believe customers have become more demanding over the past three years. And more than half of them (56%) suggested that digital will evolve to become a primary customer care channel, minimising response times and better serving consumers.

The customer care survey highlighted that while managers believe digital strategies are critical for meeting rising customer expectations, they are under-resourced to take the necessary steps to adapt.

The survey found that almost a third (31.20%) of customer care managers believe their biggest weakness is reliance on old customer service techniques, while more than a quarter (27.20%) said their main weakness is underinvesting in a consistent 360-degree customer service experience across all channels.

When asked about the future, more than half (56.00%) of customer care managers said that customer service will evolve to focus more on using online channels to minimise response time to queries, while almost a third (29.20%) said customer service will be an entirely online process within five years.

Lack of financial resources is restraining digital transformation within many customer service departments. More than six in 10 (62%) customer care managers admitted that having the necessary budget is the main issue their company faces in adapting to digital customer service.

"This data highlights the ineffectiveness of traditional call centres in meeting rising customer expectations, as well as the growing need for UK businesses to explore new ways to engage customers, particularly in the digital sphere," said Katy Keim, Chief Marketing Officer of Lithium Technologies.

"Today's customer expects a premium level of customer service, and businesses that don't evolve beyond the traditional call centre risk being left behind."

Volta Data Centres has formed a partnership with the London Internet Exchange (LINX), one of the world's largest network peering exchanges.

As part of the agreement, Volta will become a Virtual Point-of-Presence (vPoP) for LINX, enabling LINX members to connect directly to a core LINX PoP.
 
With over 650 members LINX is one of the largest Internet exchange points worldwide, handling over 3Tbps of traffic daily across its public exchange alone. Traffic over its private inter-connect facilities more than doubles that figure.
 
By becoming a LINX member, organisations benefit from access to direct routes from a large number of international peering partners. This improves resilience and reduces latency, thus improving their overall network performance.
 
Volta has enlisted the help of Ai Networks to provide the connectivity to enable LINX connections within their data centre.

Jennifer Holmes, Head of Sales at LINX said: "With more network operators trying to interconnect with each other in London than ever before, our vPoP and ConneXions partners provide an important service for networks wishing to participate remotely.

"We're delighted Ai Networks and Volta have joined us as LINX partners and look forward to working together to help improve the Internet for all."
 
Jonathan Arnold, Managing Director of Volta Data Centres, added: "We are excited to be only the 4th UK data centre to become a LINX vPoP. This announcement strengthens our credentials as a viable data centre option away from the traditional Docklands area."
 

Colt's cloud UC service is now available across Europe. Applications can be accessed from mobile or desktop device, supporting the growing demand for mobile working and BYOD in the workplace, said the firm.

Colt's Cloud UC offering is a suite of managed cloud-based communication and collaboration services.

Richard Oosterom, EVP Voice Services at Colt, said: "For CIOs, a major barrier to UC adoption has been the lack of understanding of the business benefits, making it hard to argue the case for replacing expensive PBX and telephony equipment.

"The difficulty of then integrating collaboration tools with existing systems, and employing a team with the wide-ranging skills to maintain the services, has delayed the uptake of UC further.

"Colt's integrated voice and data network services removes those barriers and means that businesses can benefit from the digital transformation potential of UC, while still reducing both capex and opex costs."

A new UC system launched by Panasonic works with the KX-NS series and is compatible with multiple-devices including smartphone, tablet, PC and Mac.

Called UC Pro, the vendor says the system is its 'most versatile, user-friendly' yet, and can be integrated into existing infrastructures and features a capacity of more than 2,500 extensions, voice and video call, instant messaging text and audio chat.

Schedules and presence can also be managed, while the system integrates with Microsoft Outlook and most other CRM systems.

Aimed at the medium-to-large-sized business market, the system also promises time-saving and remote-worker friendly functionality, as well as cost saving and a reduced Total Cost of Ownership.

Panasonic Marketing Manager for Communication Solutions, Carlos Osuna, said: "We know that for businesses today time is becoming increasingly scarce, while the need to stay productive on the move is rising steadily.

"That's why we've designed UC Pro to work seamlessly with the KX-NS series, offering a complete communications solution."

Sennheiser is celebrating its 70th anniversary as its Contact Centre and Office (CC&O) segment continues to demonstrate sustained growth since its launch in 2003.

A broad portfolio of products lays the foundation for the reformulation of Sennheiser CC&O. In 2014 and 2015 it launched the SP 10 and SP 20 speakerphones and now D10 series of DECT wireless headsets, refreshing its range of endpoint solutions.

Sennheiser CC&O also made significant investment in its sales operations over the past year with a focus on five key geographic markets - the United States, UK, Germany, France and Benelux (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg).

It has established formal strategic relationships with a number of Unified Communications partners including Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Mitel, Alcatel-Lucent, Polycom, and Avaya, and continues to develop global alliances to create both local and international sales opportunities.

As the organisation celebrates its 70th anniversary, it remains family owned and operated, headed by a third generation of the Sennheiser family. The current CEOs, Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, are the grandchildren of the company's founder, Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser.

Permanent placements continued to rise in September but the rate of expansion eased to a two-and-a-half year low, according to the latest Report on Jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). 

The availability of staff to fill permanent job roles fell further in September. The rate of decline eased to the slowest in three months, but remained marked overall.

Temporary/contract staff availability also deteriorated at a slightly slower pace. 
 
Kevin Green, CEO of the REC, commented: "As politicians make their big pitches to workers and to business at the party conferences, the UK jobs market is entering a new phase. 

"Talent shortages are making it increasingly difficult for employers to find quality candidates. This is now at a critical stage in the construction and engineering sectors, constituting a major threat to planned rail upgrades and housebuilding projects."  
 
Clive Jefferys of recruiter JMA Network observed: "This hardly surprising. The long-expected skills shortage is finally biting hard on economic growth plans. The plain fact is that the UK does not have enough people of working age to meet business demand."

It's not about Wi-Fi technology per se, it's about how you approach it and apply the connectivity, according to Felix Gibson, founder and CEO of 802 Works and 802 Event Wi-Fi.

Listen and challenge, do things well first time, don't pick fights you can't win and learn to move on: These tenets and watchwords have served Gibson well and form the basis if his company's culture. They also underpin the successful development of his north Lanarkshire-based business, which is also known for sticking to a policy of chasing success instead of money while working smarter and harder.

These guiding principles catalysed a notable change in the company during 2012 when Gibson turned his attention to High Density Wi-Fi in stadiums and arenas. As a result, 802 Event WiFi became one of the first companies to successfully deploy Wi-Fi into a 54,000 capacity football arena at Ibrox stadium in Glasgow. This was one of only four 'bowl' deployments in the UK. Since then the firm has deployed many more HD Wi-Fi solutions at venues including Down Royal Racecourse (Belfast), Hamilton Park Racecourse (Hamilton), Milngavie town centre, Perth Concert Hall and most recently Albion Rovers FC.

"The product in itself is not the end game, it is the engineering knowledge and competencies that deliver the solution," added Gibson. "Our current priority is to push the 802 Event WiFi brand and position it as the provider of choice for all Wi-Fi related solutions."

An important aspect of Gibson's growth strategy is public Wi-Fi access and data capture. He foresees a closer relationship with third party value added providers and believes that specialisation is key. "The market has become fragmented with everyone doing everything," said Gibson. "Resellers should do what they do well and make it theirs, but involve other specialists to support their own expertise - why compromise?"

To fully realise the potential of Wi-Fi more information must become available through data capture, demographics and analytics. And the relationship between Wi-Fi and the client app needs to be further developed, believes Gibson. "In the US National Football League you don't install one without the other," he added. "The app works to monetise the network and pays the Wi-Fi investment."

How businesses promote a service or product and how they communicate with their target audience is key, and 802 Works sees Wi-Fi as an absolute given. It offers the ability to promote a product or service via an image or text to potential candidates wherever they are. It's no longer about a big fixed billboard in the town centre, but rather a message or video sent directly to a device over Wi-Fi. Nor is that all, demographic and analytical information forms the basis of reports for prospective marketers to match the target with a product or service. The technology also offers the promoter an enhanced ability to engage with their audience.

"It's all about the speed of change and the impact this has on how we do business, communicate and engage with others," stated Gibson. "I experienced the 'open' technology revolution in the early 80s and have learnt to embrace new technology as it emerges. We naturally encourage the integration of emerging technologies associated with High Density Wi-Fi. We believe this adds value to the overall customer solution and user experience. Growing up with the speed of change has also taught me to differentiate between product and solution."

Gibson founded 802 Event WiFi in July 2007 as a provider of fixed wireless radio solutions to the public sector. The proposition was to deliver substantial savings by replacing legacy low capacity leased lines with superfast cost-effective wireless links. "Some organisations were quick to embrace the technology with higher capacity bandwidth and huge savings," explained Gibson. "Others didn't, and still don't get it, which is hard to believe considering how far budgets have been cut."

802 Event WiFi continues to deliver wireless solutions to the public sector with 33 per cent of local authorities in Scotland in its customer base. "Although the public sector delivers fair revenue it is becoming more difficult to build trusting relationships due to procurement rules and processes," added Gibson.

"It is difficult for us to justify 'giving away' our intellectual property and then see it appear as part of a tender which is awarded on lowest cost submission. We will continue to work with the public sector but also develop steady growth in the private sector. This fits our style. We are brand agnostic, not a brand-led solutions supplier. We will deliver a solution that meets the demands of the environment, including third party products that deliver added value."

Gibson has witnessed growth in the private sector, particularly from the entertainment and arts industries. "The market is getting a little crowded with pop-up tick-in-the-box Wi-Fi providers and multi-vendor solution providers having Wi-Fi as an add-on or afterthought," he added. "This gives Wi-Fi bad PR in much the same way that poorly installed wireless radio links did 10 years ago. It's not about the Wi-Fi, it's about what you do with it and we need to educate the market."

The company's turnover last year topped £725k with further growth expected this year. In terms of staff, Gibson's strategy is to remain lean and agile. "We have four members of staff who do the jobs that are core to the business," he said. "The other activities we outsource. Our aim is to be recognised industry-wide as a stable, secure, financially sound business and a leader in Wi-Fi technology solutions. We'll get there through hard work, credibility, innovation and a bit of luck."

  Success in the channel is essentially about having agility, the power to adapt, innovation, determination and becoming a standard-bearer for impeccably high service, according to Mike van Bunnens, Managing Director at Comms365, who says there's never been a better time for resellers to assert their growth agendas based on these solid principles.

The genesis of Comms365 is a classic example of how an agile start-up can swiftly nip past well rooted industry megaliths afflicted by inertia. And having gained experience in software, managed services, telecoms and the Internet, van Bunnens soon developed the view that businesses were disadvantaged by the extended period of time it took the larger players to react to their needs during service delivery and post-sale. "I saw an opportunity to build an ISP with an agenda to be different," explained van Bunnens. "We set about educating customers on how they should procure mission critical communications more effectively."

It was back in 2008 when van Bunnens established Bedfordshire-based Comms365 alongside Director Shaun Nicholls and two other business partners who had the knowhow to fast track the fledgling business. But future success was by no means a dead cert. "The first years were tough," explained van Bunnens. "We made a decision to invest in building our own network without having the customers to use it. We spent significantly on equipment, space and power and initially saw little return. Slowly but surely, customers found us and through sheer determination and many sleepless nights we began to attract businesses that believed in our ability to deliver solid, dependable services."

Those early clients were the building blocks of a strong and loyal customer base, and Comms365's decision to build its own network soon became the driver for a growing number of business wins from customers attracted to the firm's ability to demonstrate end-to-end control of its services, as well as offer bespoke solutions. "The great thing about our business is that we don't actually have a typical customer," added van Bunnens. "We work with companies of all sizes. Some with one person and others with 80,000 people."

Comms365 has grown between 50-80 per cent year-on-year and last year the company achieved almost £2 million turnover. van Bunnens expects to add another £500k this financial year and he is particular proud because the company remains debt free. He attributes much of this growth to Comms365's collaboration with partners who have helped to generate large sales. "The channel is key to our future growth," he added. "Our key partners are other ISPs, solution providers, SIs, IT support companies and pretty much any company that offers communication solutions.

"We offer the usual ISP services such as ADSL, FTTC and Ethernet via our channel, but what sets us apart is our mobile data solution. This is available as either a reseller or wholesale model and we can offer partners a quick way to add this rapidly growing service to their portfolios. We will also build our channel by encouraging partners to harness the fast expanding M2M/IoT market. Our products are positioned to cater for the exponential increase in data that will be generated by this burgeoning technology."

Not surprisingly, the addition of mobile data solutions opened the door to new opportunities soon after Comms365 was formed. "We were asked to help a large retailer with a mobile data solution and almost immediately afterwards we were approached by a large international carrier that wanted to interconnect with us and sell our mobile data solution. Things snowballed from that point onwards."

The company is especially interested in partners that work in specific vertical markets, particularly construction, energy and healthcare where speed of delivery and remote access are key components of the complete solution. "We see resellers as underpinning our success," commented van Bunnens. "Our solutions are all designed to be adopted by the channel and we will continue to invest in developing rich toolsets to make selling our services easier. We aim to attract partners who wish to work with a company that is in this industry for the right reasons."

Comms365 employs 15 staff and has a number of contract team members. The firm operates lean processes, proprietary internal systems and a management portal called CommsPortal which simplifies its data services and gives customers and partners a granular level of hands-on management. A move to bigger premises this month will increase the firm's capacity to service the channel and also attract local people to work for the company.

The decisive move to new premises and the revving up of channel activity has raised a number of questions about the future direction of Comms365. Most notably, the rise of cloud services is a key ingredient in the mix. van Bunnens commented: "We constantly ask ourselves - are we an infrastructure provider or a one-stop-shop? Do we get involved in application development or reselling ourselves? Do we have the requisite skills to become a fully blown ASP or do we concentrate on what we do best, creating unique data services and managed services? We know that ongoing innovation will help us to grow and diversify, but it must be done in a controlled manner."

One recent example of Comms365's controlled development style was the introduction of more vertical specific products such as its Continuum bonded service. "We went back to the drawing board, worked with customers and designed and built our own solution," explained van Bunnens. "We then productised it, offered a number of sales options such as purchase, rental and emergency deployment. The initiative has been well received, attracting great customers and we picked up awards and nominations."

Because most of the services offered by Comms365 are not mainstream it has become known as a niche provider. For example, mobile data is different to fixed line data, it has a different set of challenges around support and diagnostics. It is not an exact science and this scares many companies from getting involved. "If we can remove that unknown and make it easier for partners to take a service from us and successfully integrate it into their own portfolios, then we have succeeded," added van Bunnens.

A resilient comms strategy should be top priority for all businesses, according to van Bunnens. "Communications underpins every company so why cut corners and implement consumer attitudes to Internet, phones and business critical infrastructure?," he asked. "Most businesses spend more on postage or stationery each month than they do on their communications. This is crazy. SMEs have no comprehension about the financial impact that service outages can cause, especially as they become more and more dependent on cloud applications."

Managed services such as those provided by Comms365 plug the SME technology gap. Mobile data, for example, can be complicated but customers appreciate the consultancy, advice and guidance offered by Comms365, through to configuration, deployments, site surveys and monitoring, in addition to the actual network piece. Another growth area noted by van Bunnens is short-term rentals with rapid deployment. This is what he calls 'comms in a box'.

With growth markets on his mind he urged resellers to get into the M2M space. "We can help partners sell and support M2M," added van Bunnens. "Resellers with M2M opportunities sometimes seek out the cheapest price to make the most margin, only to find that managing the service post-sale is time consuming and the margin soon disappears. We offer the right level of consultancy to deploy a sensible and manageable service."

Comms365 is on the road to becoming one of the channel's top managed mobile data service providers offering 'home grown must-have' solutions that companies would find it 'difficult to do without', believes van Bunnens. "We re going to get there through hard work, agility, determination and listening to our partners and customers," he added. "This way we identify what is really needed and create solutions to real world problems."

The future success of MSPs depends on their ability to resolve the prevailing 'analysis-paralysis' paradox, according to speakers at this year's Managed Services and Hosting Summit (staged by IT Europa, 17th September at London's Bishopsgate).

It could be strongly argued that the managed services environment is maturing nicely. But ironically, the evolutionary nature of this space could render it locked in a near-permanent status quo, unable to develop to its full potential. At one end of the spectrum a stream of stimulating new entrants and technology innovations will refresh the traditional IT industry anew. But on the other hand, customer inertia will prevent the sector from realising its full capacity for growth. Therein lies the paradox: Customers are holding back from making buying decisions because of the pace of change, a condition SolidFire's CEO Dave Wright calls 'analysis-paralysis'.

Changes in customer buying behaviours are influencing the development of emerging managed services providers as well as more established ones. Therefore the industry must reconsider its sales approach and customer engagement processes if it is to achieve its full potential. MSPs need to be smarter at understanding the technology needs of end users, as well as knowing how the different departments within an organisation use technology.

In a keynote address to delegates, Mark Paine, Research Director at Gartner (pictured), underlined these factors and cited research that illustrated the shift away from traditional selling methods like direct telesales towards engagement with a broader range of buyers who are more informed about the options available to them. 'Knowledge can be a dangerous thing', and selling to such customers can be a challenge with 45 per cent of IT spend already decentralised.

The 'empowerment' of end users could be interpreted as a baby step towards disintermediation, but the opposite is true, with fears over the possible commoditisation of the sector allayed by David Bellini, President of ConnectWise, who has been selling managed services for 25 years. He claimed a premium over other service providers because his people are 'better', they can resolve issues quickly and the solutions he provides are generally 'more reliable'. "The commoditisation scare resurfaces every few years and we've seen it off every time," he said. "Standing your ground as a MSP depends on improved management within the company. Everything has a ticket, including people."

The rising expectations of customers are a key point of difference, believes Bellini. In such a fast moving industry a new buzzword could within a year become mainstream language. Millennials are helping to catalyse the acceptance of new phrases into everyday speech. They expect always-on comms, constant innovation and are less keen on face-to-face engagement. They're even turning against voice and phone communication. As customers, millennials have different demands on MSPs compared to earlier generations, yet MSPs must still cater for the expectations of more traditional users.

The one common factor that bridges the generation gap is customer service. Mark Banfield, VP of International at Autotask, cited research undertaken by the company that underscores the importance of QoS, delivering on time, sticking to budget and specification, as well building a close working relationship with customers who want solid advice and a single point of contact. "Price should not become an issue if you get these things right," he stated. "This works for us. We are absolutely not the cheapest in the market, but we obsess about the customer experience."

The go-to-market philosophy advanced by Banfield is a proven antidote to the 'analysis-paralysis' scenario identified by SolidFire's CEO Dave Wright, who also affirmed that differentiation through good service is key. However, promoting stand-out attributes can be problematic. "In many cases customers can't identify differentiators so they go with familiar brands," he said. "Many MSPs are struggling to stand out and this can limit their success."

Comment
The Managed Services and Hosting Summit identified the primary determining factors that are likely to shape the future look and survivability of MSPs, whose longevity cannot be separated from their ability to unlock the status quo while keeping in touch with a traditional base. Their priority is to action a new approach to customer engagement that reflects changes in end user buying behaviours. Just as important is having the capacity to differentiate. This can be achieved through outstanding consultancy, faultless project delivery and impeccable after-sales service. None of this is rocket science, but turning the obvious into actionable strategy remains a challenge and until achieved the 'analysis-paralysis' paradox will remain unresolved.