BUSINESS PROFILE Entanet expands Elsa Chen A
Portfolio enhancements and a growing influence in the channel will see Entanet generate significant growth in the future. Here we look at why 2011 was a watershed year for the company and a catalyst for expansion.
ccording to Darren Farnden, Entanet’s Head of Marketing, the majority of partners are ‘thriving’
and he attributes such robustness to their ability to differentiate. “Some offer specialist services, some rely on the personal touch targeting their local areas, while others provide a more complete and consultative IT infrastructure service,” he explained. “Also, many of our resellers have superb technical knowledge and can solve a multitude of end user issues without the need to contact our technical support team. This is a key benefit to many end users who value the fact they can speak to a knowledgeable and often local person that gives them detailed help and advice as opposed to a remote scripted operative.”
Farnden predicts strong growth over the coming year across the majority of Entanet’s service areas, catalysed by investments in network, product development, new relationships and resources. “As resellers capitalise on emerging opportunities for hosted services, private networks and quality IP-based voice and video, connectivity is going to prove even more critical than in 2011,” observed Farnden. “As a result we’re forecasting increased demand for our faster broadband services, an increase in partners moving from packaged to true wholesale services, greater interest in VoIP and SIP trunking as a means of generating recurring revenue, and a marked upturn in the number of IP VPN based solutions that partners want to implement for their customers. We’re also preparing for the launch of new products that partners will be able to use to strengthen customer relationships and generate more income.”
During the past 12 months Farnden has witnessed partners move from a historically safe position of selling telephony services to delivering business broadband, while others have further developed their skill set in order to move on from simply reselling broadband to providing customers with IP VPN and hosted IP telephony solutions. “In our experience, resellers have enthusiastically immersed themselves in the burgeoning connectivity market as IP-based communication becomes the common denominator for improving business performance,” he said. “In any market there are always early adopters and those that follow a little behind and this is especially true in our market. What this points to is the need to support resellers at an individual level, which is something we do through our partner sales, customer services and technical support teams.”
While the markets for services such as broadband and Ethernet have become more competitive, Entanet has still seen the adoption of new products and also growth. Elsa Chen, Entanet’s General Manager, noted: “In broadband we’ve increased share in the wholesale market with partners looking to carve their own niche by creating unique products. Meanwhile, we’re addressing demand for even faster broadband through our introduction of a diverse range of packaged FTTC services. Our most dramatic area of growth has been in copper and fibre Ethernet and Ethernet-led IP VPNs. Here we’ve seen a marked increase in engagement with resellers and a significant uplift in orders. One of the key drivers for this has been our approach to supporting partners in their business development by way
of our pre-sales technical consultants who help them to scope, cost and propose solutions to customers. In FTTC we had expected demand to be stronger among business users and this has proved correct, with 75 per cent of orders being for our business packages. Furthermore, over half of all orders placed have been for new provides rather than re-grades from existing services, demonstrating a growing customer base for us and our channel partners.”
Growing demand Chen also notes an upturn in demand for hosted IP telephony services. “Even though we’ve been well established in this market for several years there have been several factors that have gradually come together to make VoIP acceptable,” she explained. “At a time when businesses are looking to provide reliable communications to their staff, improve efficiency and save money, the emergence of more reliable and stable broadband, affordable copper-based Ethernet and even fibre-based Ethernet has made VoIP a viable proposition. Add the growing popularity of hosted services and it’s easy to see why the adoption of VoIP has increased. Last year our channel campaigns promoting Entanet’s VoIP services generated a significant response from resellers keen to develop new recurring revenue streams.”
Throughout last year Entanet prepared for growth. In March the firm replaced its long-established partner portal with synergi, a more comprehensive and customisable online interface that provides many new features including an idea network that gathers partners’ thoughts and ideas for new products, service
improvements and initiatives. “The development of synergi continues as new products and features continue to be added to our portfolio,” said Chen. “synergi gives our partners greater flexibility to place and manage orders for Entanet’s products as well as accurately manage their customers’ accounts. The response from partners has been extremely encouraging and synergi now forms an essential element in partners’ engagement with our teams.”
In July Entanet was awarded the ISPA award for Best Internet Telephony. This acted as a catalyst to interest in its VoIP services and, together with VoIP marketing campaigns Entanet has seen significant activity among partners. September saw the launch of a new portfolio of fibre broadband services. “We took time to analyse the market and found that the majority of providers offered only a handful of FTTC options,” said Chen. “We decided to offer a more diverse FTTC portfolio which comprises of 11 Business and Family packages and allowance options ranging from 15GB to 360GB to meet varying customer requirements.”
Then, in late October, Entanet linked up with BE Wholesale to work alongside its longstanding strategic relationship with BT Wholesale. Chen commented: “While initially the relationship allows us to promote competitive and uncapped LLU- based broadband services to our partners, we are working closely with BE Wholesale to introduce exciting new products that will help resellers capture a greater share of their customers’ communications spend. This strategy represents far more than a straightforward aggregator relationship.”
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38 COMMS DEALER JANUARY 2012
www.comms-dealer.com
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