Technology Reseller - v08

technolog y reseller.co.uk UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS 29 Selling mobile unified comms Bertrand Pourcelot, Director General of telephony systems provider Centile, outlines the opportunity for UK resellers wanting to reposition as service providers The big switch off We’re at a pivotal point in the European telecoms industry, with many European PTTs planning to switch off ISDN and PSTN lines by the middle of the next decade. In the UK, BT aims to stop selling such lines in 2020 and turn them off completely by 2025. While not necessarily related to mobile services directly, this does mean that customers using ISDN and PSTN lines are going to have to explore IP-based alternatives. This alone is a catalyst for UK businesses to rethink the telecoms services they invest in, subscribe to or rent. The switch-off date may be a few years away, but, even so, companies are likely to want services that are fit-for-purpose for the next decade. Any end user organisation looking at what’s on offer right now is probably in for a pleasant surprise, particularly if they are coming from a legacy environment dating back more than a few years. The range of features available is amazing and available at attractive price points.  For some organisations, on-premise will remain the preference, but there is no doubt that telecoms is where we are seeing some of the most exciting cloud innovations. This is particularly true of Europe, which is being keenly watched by big firms in other parts of the world. We’re also witnessing traditional handset vendors moving toward the FMC space, so expect to see a lot of energy and investment in this The goal of moving up the value-chain, away from just selling product to owning the customer experience end-to-end, has long been a focus for resellers in all kinds of markets. In 2018, one of the biggest opportunities for UK resellers and service providers will be to evolve into mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), to become service providers without the overheads of owning expensive network assets. By collaborating with innovative market players, this new breed of channel firm can start to offer a wide range of native, fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and unified communications (UC) services. The SME-to-mid-range enterprise customer is a particular sweet spot, since many of these organisations have both the desire and the flexibility to move to a more mobile business environment. According to Strategy Analytics, 38.8% of the workforce was mobile in 2016. That trend is likely to increase. Attractive business models made possible by cloud technologies mean that customers can get sophisticated, flexible and value-for-money services, with mobile at their heart rather than just an afterthought. The channel community benefits from a monthly income stream and the ability to offer additional features and services on top. The mobile enterprise story has already played out well in the Nordics and France.  Finland’s Elisa (a Centile customer) has more than 225,000 mobile enterprise users and is arguably the region’s leading pioneer of ‘mobile first’. The UK channel is ripe to learn from the experiences of other regions, to launch their own services and to differentiate themselves and gain control over the customer relationship and experience. As the margin narrows between fixed and mobile minute costs, taking a more mobile- centric approach to telecoms is within the grasp of every business. Attractive business models made possible by cloud technologies mean that customers can get sophisticated, flexible and value-for-money services, with mobile at their heart rather than just an afterthought Continued... Channel Vision Garry Growns, Sales Director, Daisy Wholesale 1 What was your greatest challenge in 2017? We had a similar challenge to anyone achieving great results, which is how to keep that momentum going. Following a number of years of amazing revenue and bottom line growth, we wanted to maintain momentum and ensure everyone bought into the fact that even more ambitious targets would be achievable. 2 What was your greatest achievement in 2017? Addressing and delivering against that challenge. Our full financial year is not yet complete, but we are on track for another very strong year. We’ve had a sensational response to our new hosted voice product and our most successful product to date – mobile – still continues to deliver absolutely fantastic numbers. 3 What were the key growth areas for you in 2017? Our hosted voice product, HV.Select, has been a key growth area because it’s enabling us to help our Partners maximise the convergence opportunity. At the other end of the spectrum, we saw brilliant growth in the traditional lines and calls business. It’s a fantastic stepping stone to SIP and a fully converged solution. 4 Any lessons learned in 2017? This year, we set up a dedicated sales and support team for the London region. The greatest lesson learned? When dashing around the City visiting lots of current partners and new prospects, don’t wear brand new shoes – they hurt. A lot! 5 What is your main focus for 2018? To continue the overall growth we have been achieving and, secondly, to help our Partners grow by enabling them to maximise the convergence opportunity. Making it easy to sell and provision the key elements – hosted voice, mobile, SIP and connectivity – whilst helping address security concerns will be fundamental to our approach.