COMPANY PROFILE Aggregation for future ch
Aggregators have a vital role to play in the channel but only if they are fit for purpose, argues Carl Churchill, Managing Director at Daisy Wholesale.
T
he aggregator model enables resellers to take advantage of new technologies
and services without having to invest in the technical expertise, pre-sales, business management and product management that go with trying to launch new services. “Ultimately, it is the role of the aggregator to make life easy for the channel so they can focus on selling and marketing their services,” explained Churchill. “If you don’t feel that is the case then the aggregator is delivering below what should be expected of them in the market.”
Any aggregator worth its salt in the industry must be able to deliver value over and above the services it provides. “It’s no longer good enough to just sell a portfolio of services, you must be able to demonstrate to your reseller base that you are able to be integrated into their organisation, can help them develop opportunities and win them business,” stated Churchill. “By doing this, an aggregator is continuing to make sure the reseller sees
value in them, rather than them trying to go it alone.”
The pace of change is also now so quick that the industry is no longer just about telecoms or Internet connectivity, there’s a whole new world of different applications. “It’s down to the aggregator to make sure resellers are aware of the changes in the market, particularly with applications, cloud services and the data dominance, and encourage them to focus beyond their traditional business of calls, lines and basic broadband services,” added Churchill.
Aggregators must also be able to think and act quicker in order to be able to offer all of the services a reseller needs from a single provider. In terms of encouraging resellers to adopt new services, there is also a challenge within the aggregator market to reduce the amount of hype around services such as the cloud. “The channel needs to get to a position where it concentrates on what different applications can mean for different
Carl Churchill Resellers have become braver with their decision-making
companies, involving the real business benefits and opportunities,” added Churchill.
Confidence
Resellers have become more confident when adopting Ethernet and Next Generation Access services, such as Fibre to the Cabinet, noted Churchill. “Although Daisy Wholesale was an early adopter of FTTC, it is only now that certain resellers in the channel are using it as their connectivity of choice to deliver high calibre, high quality foundations for converged services,” he said. Resellers need to recognise the opportunities with
FTTC rather than standard broadband and investigate how their services can be delivered using it, reckons Churchill. Ultimately, it is a chance to go out and capture new opportunities which they haven’t previously had.
“Many are beginning to see the benefits of FTTC, but there is still more work to be done to make it mainstream,” added Churchill. “This will no doubt be achieved when you consider BT is continuing to plough billions into rolling out FTTC across the country and announced only recently that it has refocused its expansion
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plans, bringing many of the rollout sites forward.”
FTTC may be a new service, but like Ethernet it is becoming more mainstream and resellers need to be challenging themselves outside of their comfort zone, as they have with Ethernet. “They have already seen enormous success with Ethernet and there is still plenty of opportunity for it in the market, especially for those looking for something more than the standard DSL service,” commented Churchill.
“There will also be a fantastic opportunity within the
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