IN ASSOCIATION WITH MITEL YOD becomes the fashion
According to Hart – who recently left accountancy firm Deloitte to start advisory company 4Sight, which focuses on disruptive IT trends like BYOD and cloud computing – connecting personal devices should be a high priority for voice and data resellers, but clear challenges lie ahead of the opportunity. “I don’t think the channel really knows how to sell these solutions,” he said. “But getting closer to the client is a massive opportunity. Clients know what they want but don’t necessarily know how to get it and they don’t know who to trust.”
Andy Crawford, Business Development Manager at NG Bailey, has worked with Mitel products since the late 1970s and has made early inroads into connecting next generation devices to the network. “We’ve done some integration ourselves with tablet devices into our own network,” he explained. “It’s been challenging but we’ve got it working and we’re considering rolling it out with our filed engineers. We’re seeing a lot of drive from customers. Their requirements are varied with many of them unsure about what they want, so it’s a matter of consultancy. We will go down the BYOD route. We already have one customer trialing Mitel UC mobile with a view to BYOD. Notably, the client had not even thought of it until we discussed the options. Now they are testing the system with a small number of users and will roll out to 100-plus users.”
Selling a solution that the end user did not know existed is an achievement, but there is an element of
the solution selling itself once the BYOD concept had been presented as a powerful eye opener. Just as NG Bailey’s customer was prompted to turn direction unexpectedly, the consumerisation of IT has also steered Charterhouse Voice and Data into pastures new.
David Bass, Head of Telecoms Development at the company, noted: “Consumerisation has been good for us. It has forced us to evolve our proposition, leading us down a path to places we would not have gone as a traditional voice and data company. Now, a big avenue has opened up as tablets are a huge area in terms of collaboration, video, presence and availability. You’ll be ahead of the game if you can deliver that resource and join up the dots.”
The opportunity to gain early mover advantage is not lost on John Massey, Managing Director of Actimax. “We see BYOD as a huge trend, along with video and EFM as
the enabler,” he explained. “The problem is that many resellers do not understand what BYOD means, and it needs to be easy to sell so there is a barrier to entry. The reason why IT managers don’t like iPhones is because they are seen as insecure. IT managers want the control and many of them control much of the market.”
Security tools Hart’s previous experience chimed with Massey’s observations: “You’ve hit the nail on the head,” he said. “Government IT work typically involves handling restricted levels of data and previously the only device that was certified for some of those levels of data was Blackberry. Now there are other tools that are gaining traction and answering those security questions.”
The technologies to address these security concerns are undoubtedly there now, but there’s also a cultural barrier to overcome in terms of reassuring IT directors
who are accustomed to locking down their networks. Resellers can play a big part in communicating the benefits while also making it clear that empowering end users doesn’t need to lessen the IT department’s control. It’s about giving them confidence by getting the right infrastructure in place from the outset.
Even as security issues are being resolved, another challenge has reared up according to Mark Furness, Chief Executive Officer of essensys, who questions the role of the channel and its legacy business models. “Consumerisation of IT could mean disintermediation of the channel,” he said. “The challenge is how the channel adds value and continues to do so if access to the solutions is much easier. It’s also an interesting channel for the vendors. Historically, resellers looked upwards to vendors who told them what to sell. Now there is a shift as we look downwards and get closer to the clients
Download the full report at
www.bit.ly/MitelReport2011 www.comms-dealer.com COMMS DEALER DECEMBER 2011 29
and develop some truly customer-led solutions. That’s where the opportunity lies, but there are some challenges ahead too.”
essensys operates solely in the cloud and Furness is confident in the company’s business model. “We develop applications that are predominantly agnostic to the device,” he commented. “This enables the consumerisation of IT and allows consumers to buy and use services quickly. If you’ve got a model upstream that allows this process to be elastic, then people can take and try and see if it works for them.”
Miller observed: “It comes back to the end user. I’ve heard the discussions about security, creating the applications and open connections, but fundamentally if it still doesn’t do what the end user requires they will find another way. People want this, and it’s our role to support the IT director.”
n
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60