INDUSTRY NEWS COMMENT: THE O2 CORNER Maggie Kennedy
THE many benefits of effective use of social media, both for marketing and service purposes, include increased awareness and favourable perception of your brand, increased traffic to your website, the ability to monitor conversations about your organisation (both positive and negative) and now more increasingly an early warning of potential product or service issues. Up until recently social media
has largely been talked about from a purely marketing context, in terms of what a brand can get out of it, how a brand can promote itself and push its products, all about benefiting the business. But we need to think beyond this. Indeed, customer service through social media flips this on its head, and throughout this year it is anticipated it will become something more than a ‘nice to have’. Social media will be expected. People are out there, talking and complaining, and if you leave them hanging they’ll get snapped up by a competitor. ‘Social service’ instantly reflects on your brand and directly impacts your company’s marketing efforts. If you are slow to provide an initial response, or worse still you don’t provide any response at all, it can cast your brand in a poor light. Your social media responses are public and will be read and shared with other consumers, businesses and your competitors. The fact is that social media has really blurred the lines between marketing and customer service. Remember that social media has simply provided a new channel for engaging with your customers. It has not replaced the other channels. The balance is important – you cannot simply move all of your great service exclusively to social media channels at the expense of traditional channels. If you’d like discuss how to get the balance right then drop me a line at
maggie.kennedy@
o2.com.
Maggie Kennedy, Head of Partners, O2
Micro-P moves into expanded premises
MICRO-P has rehoused its Mobile and Telco Divisions in larger premises to accommodate what the distributor describes as phenomenal growth. The
company has taken
an extra 6,000sqft at MEPC Chineham Park, Basingstoke, and the increased footage will host a mobility showroom dem- onstrating mobile and acces- sory products from manufactur- ers such as Nokia, Samsung, Jawbone, Jabra and Tech21. This new acquisition follows on from Micro-P’s move last year to larger office premises to accommodate a 31% increase in staff.
Paul Bryan, Commercial and Sales Director, Micro-P, said: “Our successful growth strat-
Simon Woodman (left), Sales Director for Micro-P Mobile, and Rupert Batho
egy has accelerated the devel- opment of the company and we needed an extra building to house our expanded Mobile and Telco Divisions which grew a phenomenal 172% in 2011. “Chineham Park has been our home since 1991 and the obvious communication benefits make this location perfect for
our business, further enhanced by the additional amenities for our staff on site.” Chineham Park MD Rupert Batho added: “Micro-P is one of the longest established busi- nesses at Chineham Park and we have seen it expand by 31% and then again with this new building by a further 35%.”
Griffin set for MPLS roadshows
GRIFFIN is taking its MPLS Sales Workshop on the road for the third year running with events planned in Manchester, Derby, Reading and London. The events are designed to
give Griffin Partners practical experience of winning large net- working tenders.
Lee Broxson, Head of Sales, commented on the
potential SHORT CALLS
BT’s Openreach division is creating 150 permanent full-time engineering jobs to help deliver super- fast broadband, boosting the number of full time engineers currently devoted to the project to in excess of 3,000. The recruits all start this month and will form part of a mobile engineering workforce that can be deployed anywhere in the UK, helping to install super-fast broadband to homes and businesses.
Program switch
IT HOSTING provider PEER 1 Hosting has revamped its four- tier revenue commitment model to a simplified two-tier perfor- mance-based model. The new SMART Partner
Program has no minimum monthly requirement and offers referral partners a monthly commission for the life of the original
contract. If partners
exceed £10,000 in referred monthly recurring revenue they are upgraded to the SMART+ program and their commissions become ‘evergreen’.
“Eliminating the upfront
revenue commitment gives our partners a better model to do business,” commented Amanda Dunn, who is the Director for Business Development EMEA, PEER 1 Hosting. “We value the relationships
that we have with our referral partners and we want to reward those who are high perform- ing. The new SMART program allows us to do that.”
Got a news story? email:
sgilroy@bpl-business.com
AASTRA’S Q4 2011 incentive winners have enjoyed an all-expenses paid skiing trip to Courmayeur skiing resort in the Italian Alps for selling the most of its 400 range of communications servers. The five day trip allowed the Aastra resellers to enjoy winter sports and leisure time. Colin Mann, Marketing Manager for Aastra UK and Ireland, said: “We believe in recognising and rewarding success. All those winning places on our skiing incentive trip made an outstanding effort and fully deserved their reward.”
Kcom’s Accelerate Channel Partner Programme now available 16 COMMS DEALER MAY 2012 Register now:
channelpartners@kcom.com www.comms-dealer.com
market opportunity: “Quotes
for MPLS circuits have dra- matically increased in recent months as partners get to grips with selling leased lines and are being trusted by their custom- ers to take on more of the data network,” he said. “Griffin has a good track
record in winning MPLS net- works due to our ability to
work closely with partner’s end users and quickly translate their requirements into a cost-effec- tive, bespoke design. “One of our USPs is our close relationships with main leading carriers so we can pro- vide advice on the best carrier for each situation and keep part- ners up-to-date on order deliv- ery and completion.”
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 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72