INDUSTRY NEWS COMMENT: STRATEGIC TALK Alex Tempest
AS THE digital landscape becomes increasingly competitive for businesses, understanding the difference between purely being online and being effective online will be vital to any business’ success. At the same time, consumers are demanding more and more from the brands they favour. Slick apps, mobile-optimised websites and integrated e-
commerce systems may once have been viewed as added bonuses, but are increasingly considered vital elements of a business’ communications strategy. With consumer demand driving numerous sales opportunities for resellers it’s as important as ever that partners consider the bigger picture when presenting options to potential customers. We surveyed consumers on their expectations of a
company’s digital identity, revealing some fascinating insights into the importance placed on an organisation’s online presence. Half of those surveyed say a website is their first port of call when seeking information on a business, but when challenged on their perception of various web address suffixes consumers argue that not all websites are equal. While the
.co.uk suffix is seen as the most reliable, reputable and professional, 41% believe both .net and .info infer disrepute, with the use of .com being associated with large companies only. First impressions are vital, and pointing out simple but effective changes to a business’ web presence is a quick win for resellers. Similarly, consumers have preferred choices when it comes to calling businesses: Local landlines are favoured by 46 per cent of customers with freephone numbers coming a close second place. Studies such as Forrester’s research into 22,000 Brits’ online habits show we’re some of the most voracious digital consumers in Europe, and these minor tweaks to a business’ communications strategy really can drive business leads.
Alex Tempest, Director of Partners, TalkTalk Business
Annodata in hiring mood
Mike Mason
ANNODATA has made two significant hires as part of its growth strategy to become a £100m turnover business. Mike Mason has been
appointed as MD of the Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) business, and Azzurri founder Martin St. Quinton has been named as Non Executive Chairman. Mason has held senior leader- ship roles with France Telecom, BT and Capita. More recently, during his tenure at Intrinsic, he led the transformation of the business from a traditional UC player into a cloud-based com- puting solutions company. This resulted in a doubling of revenues and an increase in profitability of over 300%. Subsequently, he led and man- aged the £30m private equity backed sale of the company.
Martin St. Quinton
Mason said: “Collaboration and an enhanced customer expe- rience are top priorities for most organisations. Annodata under- stands the importance of uni- fying different communications solutions and how to unlock the real business benefits for their current and future customers.” St. Quinton replaces David
Fielden who will remain as a Non-Executive Director. In 2000, St. Quinton found-
ed Azzurri Communications. Under his leadership the compa- ny grew to 700 staff and £150m turnover in six years. Joint MDs of Annodata, Andrew and Tim Harman, said: “Martin will play a key role in the growth of our company as well as assisting in unifying our telecommunications division with the rest of our core busi- ness functions.”
SHORT CALLS
Hats off to Alan Cohen, National Sales Manager at Performance Telecom, for raising £1,500 in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital. He took part in the London Nightride and completed the 62 mile course overnight with 4,000 other cyclists. The route passes more than 50 famous landmarks and takes around seven hours to complete.
Westcon has become the sole distributor for the newly launched ACS Express Solution from Active Communications across EMEA. Guy Koster, Director of the MS Lync Business Practice at Westcon Convergence, said: “The ACS Express extends the reach of Lync 2013 enterprise voice into organisations of under 100 users at cost- effective price points.”
Ian Livingston is to step down as Chief Executive of BT Group in September when he’ll take up a role in government as Minister of State for Trade and Investment. Livingston will be succeeded by Gavin Patterson who has served as Chief Executive of BT Retail and as a BT board member since 2008.
BNP drives revolution in technology leasing
DEMAND for technology lease finance to fund IT solutions is on the up according to new research by the Finance and Leasing Association.
The study found that in the 12 months to March 2013, UK businesses procured more than £1.3bn of IT equipment using lease finance. This represents a 13% increase over the previous 12 month period.
In a move that could drive this growth trend further BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions has launched the ‘Vive la revolu-
The campaign urges the reseller community to embrace a leasing culture by offering affordable finance promotions to business customers.
Suhale Vorajee
tion!’ campaign. Targeting the IT and telecoms channel it aims to increase awareness of the growing popularity of technol- ogy leasing.
“These promotions can be easily integrated into the reseller’s own marketing cam- paigns to further drive solution demand,” commented Suhale Vorajee, Head of Branding, Communications and Global Marketing at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions.
“In addition, partners will also have access to a suite of
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incentives that will motivate the sales team to discuss finance with their customers. “All too often market research shows that the chan- nel doesn’t feel it’s essential to include finance in the sales quote. Yet the majority of UK SMEs are actively seeking alter- native sources of finance to help them grow their business with access to the latest technology. “Our ‘Vive la revolution!’ campaign is the catalyst
that
will trigger resellers to talk finance with customers.”
Vorajee also explained that
BNP Paribas partners signing up to the ‘Vive la revolution!’ campaign will have access to schemes such as half price rent- als and low rate finance. The campaign is backed up with support material such as finance calculators that can work out the payment plan on an anticipated investment, and product literature that assumes no prior knowledge of finance.
Got a news story? email:
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