NEWS
PLUMB LINES
We help our
partners understand where the opportunities lie
DAVID PLUMB, HEAD OF SME SALES, 02
Lifting the lid on small business recovery: I want to share
some findings from a report that O2 has just published that shows the importance of SMBs to economic recovery. The recession has changed the UK market, and it’s SMBs that are proving agile enough to capitalise on this, leading the recovery and playing to their strengths. To follow are the highlights of the report (you can read more here –
http://mediacentre.o2.co.uk):
Not so Little Britain: A staggering 99.3 per cent of workplaces are SMBs. And over two-thirds of the UK workforce is employed by a small or medium business. In some sectors SMBs have out-performed their larger competitors in growth, financial stability and customer loyalty. This trend looks set to continue. Our report predicts that SMBs will create over 200,000 new jobs a year. And as they grow, their communications needs will evolve too, generating a huge opportunity for all manner of people in the communications industry to help them grow, communicate with their customers and become more efficient. SMBs will add almost 700,000 more new employees than larger companies in the next ten years, many in ‘new economy’ areas like IT, other business services, recycling, education, health and leisure. This is because they can often innovate faster than larger companies.
Finding great people is often the barrier to growth. When I talk to business customers about their challenges, they often say how hard it is to attract the right people, those who have experience but don’t let their roots stop them from innovating. In this respect, the economic downturn is working in SMBs’ favour by allowing them to recruit high flying employees who’ve been made redundant by corporates.
Entrepreneurial spirit: The number of VAT registered businesses in the UK has grown by almost 58,000 in the last year. For example, we’ve recently seen big increases in legal, accounting, software consultancy, miscellaneous business activities, building completion, property letting and restaurants. We help our partners understand where the opportunities lie. Our job then becomes creating propositions, communications and events which help our partners attract customers in these growing sectors.
What you think about this research? And how do you think O2 can help you succeed? You can send me a question at
askdavid@o2.com and I’ll cover it my next column, or visit my blog at
www.comms-dealer.com. n
Conferencing uptake erupts
A VOLCANIC eruption in Iceland last month was the latest big event to spark a call for businesses to prepare for the unexpected. With thousands of people stranded across Europe due to the ensuing flight bans, the disruption served as a reminder for businesses to put contingency plans into place as a pre-emptive measure to deal with unforeseen events. As the ash cloud spread across
Europe, the most popular con- tingency plan muted by industry was conferencing, and the mes- sage wasn’t lost on the channel with a 20% surge in demand for conferencing systems, according to Nimans and Rocom. As the skies shut down and
flights were grounded, Nimans’ Head of Conferencing Sales, Ian Brindle, said conferencing devices began to ‘fly off the shelves’. It is perhaps ironic that Brindle and his colleague Simon Hughes were themselves caught up in the travel turmoil, both initially stranded more than 1,000 miles from home after travelling to the Ice Hotel on the edge of the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden for an industry gathering with manufac- turer Konftel. “We were able to make prog- ress with our business affairs by
NAC scoops
major award
EDINBURGH-based comms firm NAC has scooped a Global Business Excellence Award for Outstanding Communications Service. Andrew Areoff, Chairman of
the Judges, said: “NAC identified a lucrative gap in the market to provide communications services to the care home sector. “This, coupled with the launch of an e-learning service for care home staff, puts it in a strong posi- tion. Customer focus is the back- bone of the NAC service as demon- strated by a low churn rate.” NAC handles over 3,500 accounts across the UK. The num- ber of clients who have left in the last five years is less than 0.5.
Ian Brindle
conducting meetings via a confer- ence phone with staff and sup- pliers in the UK,” said Brindle. “Governments across Europe com- municated via videoconferencing to discuss how best to tackle the volcanic ash situation. “The volcanic ash has given our conferencing sales a warm glow which we expect to continue throughout the year as more busi- nesses recognise the viable alterna- tives to traditional travel.” Brindle added that the flight ban has opened up more oppor- tunities for resellers to push the benefits of conferencing.
As the flight situation wors-
ened, Nimans and Rocom noted a surge in demand for both audio and videoconferencing equipment. Orders were up 20% compared to sales before the flight ban.
www.comms-dealer.com
Gathering market for the ‘cloud’
A GROWING number of organi- sations are investigating cloud- based solutions having discovered the cost efficiencies, reliability and flexibility cloud computing offers, claims Piers Linney, joint CEO at Outsourcery. He said: “Many sectors are not out of the woods yet and the decisions business leaders make are impacting their survival and growth. Cloud computing tech- nologies have less inherent risks than in-house IT systems and are a smarter way to conduct business.” Outsourcery has reported a 350% rise in enquiries related to cloud computing solutions. And research house Gartner
predicts that by 2012, 20% of businesses will own no IT assets, adding weight to Linney’s belief that cloud computing is set to radically change the way people conduct business. He added: “Many companies
that survived the recession have done so through cutting operation- al costs and becoming more tech- nology-savvy. They are now realis- ing that cloud computing delivers improved responsiveness, produc- tivity, scalability, as well as reduced ownership and energy costs.”
Got a news story? email:
sgilroy@bpl-business.com
Pritchard moves into the President’s offi ce
WESTCON Group has bolstered its Cisco-focused Comstor busi- ness with the significant appoint- ment of Jon Pritchard as President, Comstor Worldwide. He was formerly Executive Vice
President of Comstor Worldwide and will continue to report directly to Westcon Group President and CEO Dean Douglas. Pritchard, a seasoned channel
executive who began his Comstor UK career as Sales Director in 2003, has a well established track record of driving solid growth. Douglas said: “Comstor World- wide is 100% focused on Cisco, working across the globe in each
of Cisco’s respective technologies and theatres. “By appointing Jon to this stra-
tegic new position, we continue to strengthen the Comstor alignment with Cisco, while laying the foun- dation for the continued growth and development of our globally recognised Comstor brand.” Bernadette Wightman, MD, UKI Channels, Cisco, added: “Jon has acquired tremendous knowl- edge of Cisco’s core technologies and we believe his appointment will help us to continue to drive acceler- ated growth for Cisco’s products, as well as ensure ongoing alignment between our two organisations.”
Myriad. Tailored Inbound Number services through our robust and established portal
Call 0800 915 5298 or visit
www.kcom.com/channel-partners
10 COMMS DEALER MAY 2010
www.comms-dealer.com
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