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Communications (outside Hull and East Yorkshire) with Affiniti to create a single business under the name Kcom. The new business combines Affiniti’s core expertise in managing complex communication infrastructures and applications with Kingston Communications’ connectivity and hosting solutions. The combined business can now offer a wide range of communication services. Currently, KCOM Group has 2,100 employees while Kcom has 1,000. Financial year Group results for 2009-2010 were an impressive £412.8 million. A key area for Kcom growth is through the channel.
Shearman commented: “We are building upon the strength of our own network through our recently announced partnership with BT. This has extended our network reach and capability through access to BT’s national network and 21CN products and services. As a result we are now able to offer our channel partners innovative and advanced solutions enabling them to offer new services to their customers. Our channel partners can utilise our experience to achieve and maintain competitive advantage.”
Shearman aims to help customers achieve their business objectives by spending time with partners, understanding their goals and tailoring solutions accordingly. “We are also committed to helping our customers improve customer experience,” he said. “The service aspect is particularly important. We don’t just provide the product but the whole service wrap around it, from how it is marketed through to how issues are managed. For example, for a large ISP customer in the process of transferring all of its DSL connections on to the 21CN platform, we did a lot of work around the provisioning and faults interface that they would use with their customers to suit
Kcom eyes SME resellers
O
n 18 November 2009, KCOM
Group Plc brought together Kingston
responsive attention and flexibility of a smaller provider, offering tailored solutions and responsive attention. We are very keen to increase the role of the channel in the SME marketplace.”
Kcom’s portfolio of services opens up new opportunities for comms resellers – one example is its call management service. “Myriad has been on the market now for over two years and is proving to be an important growth opportunity for resellers,” said Shearman. “Windsor Telecom uses our Myriad Application Programming Interface to provide it with the flexibility to design services tailored to its customers’ requirements. This has made a significant difference to its business. And customers like Diva Telecom have established a successful new business line from Myriad.
Managed comms provider Kcom has sharpened its focus on resellers, and following a key BT partnership the firm looks set to make significant inroads into the channel. We got the story from Iain Shearman, Kcom’s Sales Director of Partner Services.
both what they needed and what their customers need from them.”
Key channel partners include traditional resellers and carriers, and Kcom also works with application service providers, systems integrators and IT services organisations. “Our target market is our existing markets,” confirmed Shearman. “We aim to build on our hosting and networking capability and focus on the SME and mid-sized corporate environment for inbound services. Now that we have a truly national solution, our propositions are more compelling. It is easier for customers to do business with us.”
Shearman attributes two key influencing factors shaping Kcom’s go-to-market strategy. “Firstly,
the new capability from the BT partnership means we have a wider offering for the channel than before,” he noted. “We are also picking up demand around the inbound services market. There is a gap in what has traditionally been offered to SMEs and small corporates in this space. The channel is the right way to market to these customer groups. We believe Kcom is positioned to help the channel better serve these customer segments. It has the national capability of one of the larger players but the
“We have also developed a new proposition over the last three months to enable channel partners to provide assured bandwidth across a breadth of access options. This is called TotalE Connected and allows applications to be delivered cleanly either on customer premise or on a remote/cloud basis.”
According to Shearman the particular skill-sets and offerings that differentiate Kcom from the competition are its people and the flexibility its offers to channel partners. “We try to understand what each channel partner is aiming to achieve and work with them to tailor solutions,” he said. “We don’t just sell products off the shelf. We also offer all our channel partners access to a marketing portal where they can access marketing collateral, and gain marketing expertise about targeting to help ensure maximum return on their campaigns investments.” n
We are keen to increase the role of the channel in the SME marketplace
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