Technology Reseller - v08

01732 759725 UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS 30 has an advantage over a nameless giant firm. Second, many UK enterprise customers are operating in their own niche vertical markets, so tailoring solutions to meet their specific needs is another opportunity. For instance, the education sector could be offered a business model that reduces costs when out of term-time. The rise of the ‘micronational’ means that many small and medium-sized organisations are operating in multiple countries, so the ability of the service provider to offer seamless FMC services to teams in different locations is appealing.  Cloud-based telecom services make that possible. One thing that’s incredibly important is the user experience. This may sound like stating the obvious, but it is overlooked in so many areas of technology, and telecoms is no exception. Usability is often compromised in the face of sophistication, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Focus on the features that people are most likely to use and give them a ‘one touch’ experience as much as possible. In other words, keep it simple and do not put users in an environment where they are having constantly to switch views, log in to apps or make lots of manual interventions. It is also important to allow them to retain control over their mobile services.  The current evolution around presence- based services is a case in point: rather than users having their availability dictated by a mail calendar (‘in a meeting’/’unavailable’/’available’/’away’), allow them to use their mobiles and linked fixed-line devices to manage real-time presence. After all, while most of us may start the day with an idea of what is going to happen according to our calendars, the reality is often quite different, depending on influencing factors. This is all part of using the mobile more as a remote controller for our business lives. By helping businesses to embrace ‘mobile first’, the UK channel is in poll position to marry the two worlds of telecoms and IT, the two worlds of fixed and mobile, and finally to give businesses one seamless workplace for all their communications, regardless of device, network or location. Telephony systems provider Centile supports approximately 100 service providers in 20 countries with its advanced unified communications, IP Centrex and fixed mobile convergence products. Today, almost one million people worldwide make voice calls supported by Centile, independent of any service, device or network. www.centile.com ...continued market space over the next few years. Hang on, you might be thinking, how do we get from being a product reseller today to an operator tomorrow? It may sound pretty daunting, but the reality is that the evolution of cloud-based solutions has completely disrupted the traditional telecom services landscape all over the world. One thing we have seen in other markets, and which is vital to take on board, is that technology is one thing and knowing how to successfully sell mobile services is quite another. The technology foundation is there Cloud-enabled ‘platform as a service’ (PaaS) enables companies to become providers of comms services without having to run their own data centres or employ in-house technical expertise while ‘keeping control of’ their own platform instance. Organisations already in this market – for instance, service providers – have the option to bring their existing carrier SIP trunk relationships and data networking partners to the cloud-based PaaS and tailor their own service bundles accordingly. Regardless of which deployment approach is adopted, resellers have the ability to bring ‘telephony’ into the heart of the IT strategy, rather than run it as a separate entity. This in turns allows smooth integrations with, and upselling of, all kinds of enterprise apps, such as video conferencing tools like Zoom and a whole range of other services, many of which are typically ‘OTT’ (over the top) Internet-based services. These have been taking the customer relationship away from traditional service providers, so, again, there is a huge opportunity here for UK channel firms to ‘own’ that relationship again and truly ‘add value’. Selling services This is where it gets interesting. First, some SME firms like proximity, so a local service provider in the same county immediately Channel Vision Stephen McIntyre, Chief Marketing Officer, Nimans 1 What was your greatest challenge in 2017? Our new warehouse expansion is now complete without any disruption to our customers or our business. It’s part of our ethos to continue to help our resellers grow and provide unrivalled levels of stock, support and service, such as maintaining our 99.6% next day delivery record. 2 What was your greatest achievement in 2017? One of the highlights has to be securing the exclusive distribution of Samsung UC in the UK – as well as delivering our expansion programme with no disruption to our supply capabilities. 3 What were the key growth areas for you in 2017? We have won more enterprise business with Unify, developed Samsung UC sales and increased demand for Network Services, as all areas of the business accelerate. Whilst our IP endpoint growth continues, traditional PBX sales are also on the rise, bucking wider industry trends. 4 Any lessons learned in 2017? It takes 3-4 years from the marketing of an idea for it to become a reality. UC has been talked about for the last decade and in the last few years it has definitely become reality. Cloud came of age this year and cyber security will follow in 2018. 5 What is your main focus for 2018? To ensure we continue to have the best stock and service levels to support resellers in all their activities. We are looking to try and enhance the marketing capabilities of resellers by providing them with the right kind of tools and working with vendors so we can educate our customers on what’s coming next. Compendium, our IP endpoint management service, is another focus to ensure we maintain our position as the ‘logistics engine of the industry’. 6 Reasons to be optimistic about 2018? The government is putting a significant amount of investment in technology development which will create opportunities we can help our resellers take full advantage of. One thing that’s incredibly important is the user experience. This may sound like stating the obvious, but it is overlooked in so many areas of technology, and telecoms is no exception.