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COMMENT
NGN business
Online
marketing
update:
has moved
on from
its early
Although the NGN benefits we’ve
infancy
already witnessed are undeniable,
you could forgive some observers
DAVE CRUSE, CEO, CONJUNGO
of the market if they felt that
The slow death of cold calling... it’s a lottery!
When was the last time that you, as a sales
the NGN revolution was now
person, made a cold call when someone
turning into something of an anti-
was actually looking to buy your solution?
And when was the last time that you, as
climax, writes Andy Hollingworth,
a potential buyer, received a cold call
Opal’s Director of Wholesale.
when you were actually ready to buy? The
point is, for an end user, being cold called
is annoying to say the least – and for a
sales person it can be ineffective and time
consuming. The difficult part of any new
sales campaign is to find a potential buyer I
t was rightly assumed that Next Generation
Networks would have a massive impact
on the way operators built their networks,
at the right time of the buying cycle, which and it was also assumed that those operators
is not at the point of purchase, but when a would then exploit this capability to provide
potential customer has made a decision to intelligent services, product innovation and
investigate a particular type of technology. new operating and cost models. In reality,
the visibility of new applications from some
I always say, ‘I could be cold called every operators has been poor and the level of
Andy Hollingworth
day but I will only start looking when I’m differentiation, particularly among the data
ready. Then, giving consideration to my propositions on the marketplace, very limited. that could be considered market disruptive.
budget and requirements etc, I will test a Ironically, the other barrier to innovation is
number of software suites and eventually What’s gone wrong? First of all, the NGN proving to be BT’s 21CN, which was widely
buy from a local supplier’. So, unless I am revolution has changed the way operators heralded to be the major catalyst for change.
cold called at exactly the right time during build their networks and there is now an As well as falling victim to the credit crunch,
my purchasing cycle, where does that leave abundance of businesses offering some kind BT has found itself faced with the additional
you? There are other effective ways of of NGN. What’s not been made clear is that costly challenge of having to migrate all its
generating business opportunities. According at its very basic level all that is required for a existing old services in to its new network and,
to a case study by Coke Oasis earlier this business to be able to claim it has an NGN is as a result, is facing continuing delays in its
year, 75 per cent of the top media vehicles access to soft switch equipment. As a result, 21CN program. In contrast, new providers
for increased brand awareness are online. the apparent choice of NGNs for customers such as Opal have been able to build an NGN
Yes, online is where people go now when is now wide and varied, with each provider from scratch unburdened by legacy systems
they are researching about what technology understandably asserting that it is the best. and without the cultural and operational
to buy and what supplier to talk to. In reality, because of the reliance on large baggage of a legacy business. As a result,
carriers for the vast majority of network the next few months will see some exciting
The world of online marketing has moved on connectivity miles, most of these companies new releases for partners, including MPF/SMPF
from its early infancy, and if you’re not up to are only able to flex around the edges of these ADSL2+ broadband with assured rates, Annex
speed with what’s available I recommend carrier’s propositions, making them all much M technology and 10/100 Ethernet solutions.
that you spend time surfing and learning of a muchness. So, while choice of provider is
about vertical search engines, search engine a good thing, this may not be choice in the Customers are looking to their network partners
optimisation, writing for the web, online PR, truest sense of the word for the channel. to help them change their businesses, and
banner advertising, sponsored links, online that is not going to be achievable by simply
sponsorships, webinars, Twitter, forums, social This issue of choice and competition is one of supplying access to an NGN. Partners can’t
networking, and how to use all these tools to the major challenges in the current market. innovate if the products they have to work
run effective campaigns that integrate with Currently, partners are often limited to reselling with do not evolve. Operators must show
your traditional marketing methods. That’s the products and services of one or two that their NGN has the scale and resilience to
how smart companies find new business providers, leaving little scope for differentiation meet customers’ nationwide, business grade
opportunities today, rather than playing the or pricing competition. This lack of genuinely expectations, and support ongoing product
lottery of cold calling.
www.conjungo.com different options makes it extremely difficult innovation that will allow transformation to
n
for partners to offer anything to customers occur, creating margin for the channel.
n
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38 COMMS DEALER OCTOBER 2009
www.comms-dealer.com
38 Conjungo-Opal.indd 1 6/10/09 08:39:00
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