SPECIAL REPORT demand for connectivity
In terms of margins, he says Ethernet is a strong player. “Also important is unlimited, premium broadband that can be installed in as little as six days and be an enabler for high quality cloud and VoIP or video solutions,” he added.
“Our services with low latency, high upload speeds, unlimited usage and high throughput are built to specifically support cloud and managed services opportunities. Partners use our products to underpin multi-site and multi-million pound managed cloud services, and one of the UK’s largest aggregators, Daisy, has selected our products to underpin some of its cloud and voice offerings.”
O2 Wholesale actively encourages resellers to target opportunities in connectivity. “We have offered an incentive every quarter this calendar year,” said Cunliffe. “Our partner events, sales and support workshops and technical training days equip our resellers with the skills to recognise and develop connectivity opportunities in the channel, as well as build confidence to market these to their end users. We offer resellers white label marketing collateral and support, as well as financial support on large deals.”
As business reliance on connectivity increases contended DSL with best effort SLAs, is no longer suitable and the market is turning to telecoms resellers for faster more reliable connectivity, observes Cherie Howlett, Head of Marketing at Griffin. “Resellers working with a network integrator like Griffin have
eight carrier networks at their fingertips and a tool which that generate prices for every speed on every service level with real-time performance statistics in minutes,” she said. “In the market at the moment there is a fantastic opportunity to upsell DSL customers to faster WBC, FTTC and Ethernet connectivity services depending on the speeds and service levels requested.”
Griffin’s partners are selling hundreds of Ethernet circuits for DIA and MPLS networks every month. To spur sales further Griffin is currently running a free installation offer on FTTC up to 80Mb/s broadband which has had a ‘dramatic’ impact on sales, says Howlett. “We are helping resellers to use this campaign and take it to their customer and prospect bases to encourage FTTC sales,” she added.
Griffin also helps resellers to uncover opportunities and close them with via two channel programmes – The Ethernet Sales Generator and The Data Revenue Generator. “We wash reseller bases to help them identify present and future opportunities for fibre connectivity,” explained Howlett. “Selling connectivity is what we specialise in and as we are channel-only we are more than happy to share tips with our partners.”
Owning the connection with a view to selling all the services that run over it in the future is key for resellers. “If resellers provide the Ethernet link anyone wanting to sell cloud services into their customers is going to have to contact them,” noted Howlett. “Resellers will then have the choice
of doing a deal with that supplier or taking the lead and providing the cloud services themselves. Griffin has a range of cloud services including MPLS, virtualisation, hosting, centralised firewalls and hosted office products. Our philosophy is to have these products ready for our partners when a critical mass of end users demand them.”
Hot opportunities Many traditional voice resellers have transformed themselves into data connectivity and ICT solution providers resulting in a much better served market than a few years ago, reckons Andrew Saunders, Head of Product Management and Marketing. And what is often referred to as Next Generation Access (NGA), otherwise known as Fibre to the Cabinet/Premises, is certainly the hot opportunity at the moment. “The bandwidths and stability of these products are available for a fraction of the price compared to what a business would have paid four years ago,” said Saunders. “NGA can be used to provide a broadband Internet service with download speeds up to 76Mb/s (FTTC) and 330Mb/s (FTTP). Zen is also
launching this as a leased line option with symmetrical bandwidth options of 10Mb/s for significantly less than an equivalent EFM service.”
Zen’s Partner Programme provides a range of different business models to suit channel partners of all sizes and types. “Our partner hosting services include the provision of dedicated hardware platforms to support partners’ SaaS and virtualised product offerings, and the provision of purpose built data capacity for the colocation of network, server and SAN equipment,” added Saunders.
While Zen Partners are able to use its data centre capacity to deliver their own cloud services, partners are also able to resell Zen’s managed cloud servers. “Zen’s managed cloud servers represent an opportunity for partners to deliver cloud-based applications to their customers quickly and cost effectively, together with providing access to healthy recurring margins,” commented Saunders.
Despite the advances made by many resellers in the connectivity space
Data Mark Curtis-Wood
Have you entered the Comms National Awards yet? Visit
www.cnawards.com
www.comms-dealer.com
solutions require a different mindset to traditional upfront sales
a knowledge gap is still preventing the market from being fully realised, believes Mark Curtis-Wood, Head of Networks at Nimans. “Annexe M, EFM and FTTC are a small sample of phrases that not everyone understands,” he said. “There are many ways to accelerate and enhance network capabilities and performance. Data solutions require a different mindset to traditional upfront sales.”
It’s important for resellers not to worry too much about the acronyms but think carefully about what their customers are trying to achieve and understand the key technical implications and requirements of different technologies, says Curtis-Wood. “One of the major developments surrounds education and training of resellers,” he added. “There are resellers that understand they need to make a move into new and emerging markets but they are not always sure how to bridge the skills gap.”
Applications, hardware and software all rely on some form of connectivity, which, says Curtis-Wood, should always be the first consideration. “What bandwidth do you need? How many users and how many sites? What are your future expansion plans and what applications do you use? These are the key questions resellers should be asking to spot data opportunities,” he stated. “Connectivity is the glue that binds everything together and resellers need to see the bigger picture. In many ways connectivity could be more profitable than hardware, tying the customer in for three-to five years.”
sponsors of the Unified Comms category
COMMS DEALER AUGUST 2012 51
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