COMPANY PROFILE
Eclipse makes channel move
Exeter-based Eclipse is a big hitter in the consumer space and now the company has swung its gaze onto the channel, explains company Director Clodagh Murphy.
E
clipse was set up in Exeter in 1995 by local entrepreneur Mark Lang. With
start up costs of just £20,000 he launched a national broadband service that rapidly earned a reputation with the serious home user market. In 2004 Eclipse became part of the KCOM Group allowing its customers to benefit from an extended network infrastructure. Over the last two years, Eclipse has refocused away from the consumer space into the partner and SME markets. The portfolio of services has expanded from broadband into higher end connectivity products such as leased lines and cloud services including hosted email and server hosting.
“We have an aggressive three year plan and we are into year two,” said Murphy. “So far we are ahead of our targets and aim to move further forward over the coming year. The market is very competitive but we have seen our order intake for the last year increase by 25 per cent on the previous year. Our plans are to grow this further and early indications are positive. We see the partner channel as a key market for us to sell our services through.”
Eclipse is poised to launch the first phase of its new Partner Portal this month. The roll out will be in stages but will ultimately give partners an enhanced capability to provision and manage their services in a more effective way. “We believe that in order to be successful we need to actively speak to and listen to our customers,” added Murphy. “We have a number of roadmaps, product and portal, which have been developed with our customers and we share these roadmaps with our partners.”
Channel focused Eclipse is developing its products for the channel, based on market data and feedback from partners. “In support of the channel we have a dedicated team who work to ensure that we are doing all of the right things, from service to product development,” added Murphy. “Our key driver is to be market led so that we only do what the market needs and wants, as opposed to being product or technology led. We believe this will help set us apart. Our go to market strategy is all about the customer and what they want. Before anything gets developed, the first piece of activity is to understand
the market, our customers and our potential customers. Then we work to develop the right message and product. In getting this right, we have a greater chance of success.”
Eclipse is also gearing up to launch a new connectivity pricing structure for its partners. “We’re moving away from a discounted retail model to a wires only, partner specific model, giving our partners better margin with our connectivity products,” said Murphy.
Broadband is the company’s heritage and it still sees growth from this service, particularly with super fast broadband and bonded DSL. “We launched our bonded DSL product in March this year and so far the take-up in the market has been great, with us over achieving by more than 100 per cent on our targets,” noted Murphy. “We are also re-evaluating our cloud propositions, spending time in the market to ensure that we fully understand what our customers need. Once we conclude this, we will develop and deliver a roadmap of services which will add value to our customers.”
Murphy identifies high end connectivity products as a big
Clodagh Murphy
We are ahead of our targets and aim to move further forward
market driver. The company’s relationship with BT (as a result of being part of the KCOM Group) means it can operate as an early adopter of BT products. Eclipse actively takes part in BT’s trials, such as the new trial for Quality of Service (QoS). “Our partnership with BT also gives Eclipse access to higher than industry standard service levels,” commented Murphy. “Our BT relationship also enables us to demand greater resilience, higher reliability, less disruption and quicker provisioning.”
According to Murphy, existing partners are increasingly using Eclipse’ monitoring tool called Sentinel, which enables them to monitor customer connections and identify
any problems immediately. This promotes a better customer experience. Murphy commented: “Our partners need to be successful for us to be successful, this drives us to do the right things and put our customers first.” n
KEY FOCUS AREAS 1. Developing the partner channel further and becoming a recognised player in this market across the industry.
2. Delivering the new Partner Portal which will help partners deliver improved service to their customers.
3. Understanding the cloud services market and developing a set of propositions that position Eclipse strongly in this market.
26 COMMS DEALER JUNE 2011
www.comms-dealer.com
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