INDUSTRY NEWS COMMENT: MARKETING MATTERS Elizabeth Sparrow
WITH every New Year comes a resurgence of passion and dynamism from business owners all over the UK. The New Year sees a peak in activity and if businesses are likely to make a change of direction, revisit their brand or introduce something new then it is likely to happen in Q1. January has always been an exciting and busy month in telecoms. This new vigour creates a buzz, opportunities are rife and the whole market
appears to be pushing in the same direction. It is a time when business plans and targets are revisited and new end users are inundated with offers and clever promotions. However, in the pursuit of new business and market penetration it is easy to forget the existing customer base. The existing client base arguably presents the simplest
route to revenue growth. It is lighter on overhead and maximises on the foundations that were already set when the first service was introduced to them. Understanding what products are supplied to existing clients is the first step to designing a strategic campaign to ensure you get saturation of your entire product portfolio. The vast majority of businesses prefer to have one provider for all their telecommunication needs as it keeps things simple. If you are able to position yourself as their core supplier and technology changes, or pricing moves, your company will remain the obvious choice. Unfortunately, it is the loyal customers who are often forgotten when promotions are distributed. However this is a key route to market that should lead businesses into 2012 and prevent a churn of revenues between you and your immediate competitors. Continual investment in existing customers ensures that new business will actually grow revenues rather than infilling the loss of ones which may have been overlooked.
Elizabeth Sparrow, Sales & Marketing Director, O-bit
Interoute in Sipcom link
INTEROUTE has formed a strategic partnership with ser- vice provider Sipcom to deliver Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to organisations across Europe. Interoute is placing Sipcom’s unified communication platform in its pan-European cloud. Sipcom’s shared Interoute hosted environment enables organisations to buy Microsoft Lync on a per-user basis. Daniel
Allen, CEO of
Sipcom, said: “The reach of Interoute’s pan-European host- ing platform means that we can offer our communications packages to a wider audience; and Interoute’s expertise in SIP trunking complements our Lync 2010 offering.”
Matthew Finnie, CTO of Interoute, said: “There is a real need to provide organisations
Matthew Finnie
with full UC services that help them meet changing business communication needs. By part- nering with Sipcom we’re mak- ing it easier for organisations across Europe to improve their communications.” In October last year, Interoute was named UC European Service Provider of the Year in the 2011 Frost & Sullivan European ICT Awards.
Chess bags comms fi rm
CHESS has acquired DBS Telecoms, its 14th acquisition of the year. DBS specialises in providing non-geographic num- bers and Directory Business Services (DBS).
The acquisition, which will add £1m to Chess’ annual turn- over, includes a base of 2,800 customers as well as DBS’s in- house developed online order- ing system and websites. DBS will continue to trade as a web services and online marketing company.
Richard Btesh, Director at Chess, commented: “This acqui- sition gives us a great cross-sell- ing opportunity to provide our new customers with a suite of products to help improve their business communications.” Earlier this year Chess secured a £21m acquisition fund with Barclays and as a result continues to grow as a consolidator of small and mid- size telecoms businesses.
THE eighth Annual Convergence Summit held by super reseller Britannic Technologies at Silverstone race circuit attracted a record number of new prospects, a world-leading line up of speakers from across the industry and exceptional feedback from the 300-plus
people who attended. The ‘behind the scenes’ tour of Silverstone proved popular with delegates who also participated in a silent auction, raffl es, competitions and many had their pictures taken for charity with an F1 car. All proceeds from the day were donated to the children’s charity Dreams Come True.
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