technologyreseller.co.uk 37 MANAGED NETWORKS marketing material and thought leadership pieces. Evolve will be leading its reseller proposition with SD-WAN, which Stephenson-Brown says offers huge potential for resellers. “The actual penetration of SD-WAN services in the UK market is very low – probably less than 5% – but there’s enormous scope for growth as multisite organisations make the move from legacy MPLS technology or rationalise connectivity solutions that they might, over the years, have bolted on to what was already there. Lots of people are now looking at consolidation so instead of having five lines on a site, providing different services, they have one line and a fully managed SD-WAN solution to provide that consolidation and the security segregation they require. “The beauty for partners is that they will have access to our 24 x 7 support operation as well, which we see as critical in this marketplace, especially when you’re looking at multi-site food service and hospitality organisations that work in the evenings and at weekends and want full 24 x 7 support from someone on the end of a phone.” Muttock adds that resellers and their customers also benefit from SDWAN’s flexible OpEx model and rapid deployment due to the investment it has made in process automation: “We believe that is a real point of difference against our competition, which really does fit well with the fast-paced nature of the hospitality sector.” Over the last four years, EvolveODM has put in place a robust platform for future growth that will enable resellers to reduce complexity, cut costs and increase uptime for their clients. To find out more about becoming a partner, please visit www.evolveodm.co.uk. connectivity as well. “We’re already looking at options for 5G services from a data perspective, not just a mobile phone perspective. Owning a business called 4G Voice and Data, which also happens to own the name 5G Voice and Data, gives us a great stepping stone into that market.” Reseller recruitment Muttock’s other priority is to reinvigorate and expand Evolve’s partner network with the launch of a new reseller channel in Q2. Evolve already has eight partners that resell the Mako Networks cloud-managed networking solution which forms part of Evolve’s managed SD-WAN offering and for which Evolve is the only Platinum Partner globally. However, from April, it plans to make its core product offering available to a wider reseller community, providing partners with a one-stop-shop for managed network services, connectivity and Guest Wi-Fi. To that end, it has taken on additional account management and marketing staff, implemented product training and is developing a dedicated portal through which partners can check product availability, place orders, manage orders, support their estate and access white-label Evolve already has eight partners that resell the Mako Networks cloud-managed networking solution which forms part of Evolve’s managed SDWAN offering and for which Evolve is the only Platinum Partner globally Built for success Alan Stephenson-Brown attributes much of EvolveODM’s recent success, including organic growth of 43% last year, to the investment it has made in business operations, including its multi-lingual, Wigan-based support desk and its internal software development team, both of which he sees as key market differentiators. “One of the key things we do as a business is to make sure the services we offer are managed and monitored 24 x 7 by our support desk in Wigan. We’ve got eyes on screens 24 x 7, monitoring alerts, reacting to alerts and being proactive, ensuring that our customers don’t have to call us. Ninety per cent of calls are outbound to our customers and just 10% inbound.” He adds that when issues do occur, 99% can be fixed remotely, which he attributes to the company’s internal software and development capability. “Having our own development team is a big differentiator for us. It enables us to create bespoke screens in our Operations Centre, showing alerts from different systems and showing which alerts are Category One. It also enables us to script quite a lot of alerts, so we get consistency. Most of our competitors in this space don’t want their own development team or if they do have one it’s usually offshore. “Everything our development team does is about offering customers a better service from a resolution perspective and enhancing our operational expertise.” In-house development, currently running at around 200 man-hours per week, also makes it easier for Evolve to add new products to its portfolio, because they can be interfaced with the operations team very quickly, and automate key business processes, saving time and boosting efficiency. “When an order comes in from a customer, we stage that equipment, allocate that equipment, send it out via a courier and track that courier. That whole process has now been automated.” Other recent developments supporting EvolveODM’s next growth phase include the move to a purpose-built office in Wigan, with capacity for 3x business growth, and the addition of a larger warehouse with staging facilities and equipment storage. “We don't want to get caught out by future chip shortages, so we took the decision to make an investment in equipment as well. If a customer comes to us tomorrow and wants a largescale deployment, we’ve got the equipment to be able to deliver that potentially within a couple of days.” Neil Muttock
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