technologyreseller.co.uk 37 INTERVIEW connectivity and hosted UC; to come up with a really competitive wholesale model that allows us to work with very specific partners in very specific geographic areas across all verticals but with a focus on retail, construction, hospitality and fintech; and to try and bring our international network and connections into the UK so that UK partners can access them and share our experience of operating in those markets, making money for them and for us. We’ve got the model to help to do that.” https://sonabusiness.com/en-gb/ them or not. This actually isn’t the most cost-effective way of doing things, as I proved for a partner yesterday, while we were going through a model for someone that’s shipping around 200,000 minutes a month. Our system works out at 8% or 9% cheaper than what he’s currently deployed.” McKindland adds that in addition to providing a white-label service with wholesale pricing and a choice of model, Sona Business gives partners greater international reach. “Because of our international reach, if a partner is dealing with customers that have a multi-territory presence, we’re able to leverage the power of our network to give them best price and service in those areas. I mentioned earlier that I was doing half a dozen quotes for connectivity. They are actually for a Dutch partner who’s got reach into the UK and has been working around the edges with someone else, not getting best value or best price. Now, because we have launched in the UK, they have asked us to help with some gigabit circuits for a customer site. That’s what we want to do for our UK partners in the EU and beyond. So, again, we’re looking to find resellers that have that customers with a multi territory presence.” As Sona Business readies for a hard launch in the UK, McKindland has a clear vision of where Sona Business can make inroads and how it can best serve UK channel partners. “My vision is to tap into the altnet marketplace and to be niche in those areas where there is very little being done to sell broadband services and end of this year, that will be good. By the end of H1 next year we’ll probably have 40 to 50 partners, maybe two or three in Northern Ireland, maybe half a dozen up in Scotland, half a dozen in Wales and then one or maybe two partners in urban conurbations in our geographical areas. That’s quite a manageable number,” he said. McKindland describes his ideal partner as one that has an established Technical Support Desk, between 12 and 20 employees, a turnover of £1 million or more, experience in the connectivity marketplace, and the ability to support products such as SD-WAN and Wi Fi. “We’re not looking to go and disrupt someone’s vendor relationships. We know they’ve got holes we can probably plug or products in their portfolio that are no longer fit for purpose where we might have a better offering. We’re not expecting them to take everything. We’ll give them a menu of options and they can order the ones they want that fit into their portfolio. We’re not looking to disrupt their business,” he said. Key differentials McKindland adds that one of Sona Business’ key selling points, especially for hosted UC, is that it really does offer a true wholesale offering, where the more the partner buys the cheaper it becomes, and a true white-label service for partners that want to market their solutions as their own. “Our hosted UC is a white label service and it has wholesale pricing. Partners have the opportunity to buy licences in bulk and, more importantly, when those licences are used, if that end user was to churn and move somewhere else or stop using the service, the reseller gets to put those licences back into the pot and use them again. The reseller gets to retain those licences and at the original purchase price. So it’s very, very cost effective for them to buy in volume and move those licences around their customers. “More importantly, we have an option where they can bolt in our carrier services for breakouts from the PSTN, or they can bring their own carrier. That’s the model that the Dutch market uses. They like to bring their own carrier but that still seems a little bit alien to some of our UK partners so, if they prefer, we can give them a free SIP trunk and pay as you go pricing on calls at a very attractive tariff. But that’s not to everybody’s liking – in the UK, the preferred model seems to be to pay for a SIP trunk with bundled minutes, whether they’re going to use The new UK offices of Sona Business in Hull
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