In this podcast, Kelvin Prescott talks to Nigel Sergent, the Managing Editor of Comms Dealer about the Reseller Channel.
Kelvin asks Nigel about the opportunities offered to Resellers by selling to the Public Sector. With the encouragement of SME's over the last 10 years by the Government to supply them, what is stopping Resellers from seizing that opportunity?
A full transcript of the conversation is below
Kelvin Prescott:
Hello and welcome to the latest INNOPSIS podcast. I'm joined here today by Nigel Sergent, who's the managing editor of Comms Dealer. And we're here to talk about the opportunity for resellers within the public sector.
The context for this, I think, is two-fold. The first is, we've had ten years now of the government strategy of opening up the ICT market to a range of small and medium sized enterprises, and to reduce the reliance that it had historically on big, single supply contracts. And that gives a lot of opportunity and potential routes to market, that didn't exist a decade ago.
The question is, how can the reseller market use that opportunity to find new customers, to deliver tangible growth? And also, what is the value that those resellers can bring to the delivery of public services and enhance the value and the use of taxpayers money?
So that's the topic for today's discussion. First, I'd like to welcome Nigel to the podcast. Could you give our listeners a quick overview of your role and background and how the reseller market looks from your perspective?
Nigel Sergent:
Be delighted Kelvin. Nice to talk to you today.
As you mentioned I'm the editor or director of Comms Dealer. I actually co-founded the the magazine 22 years ago, so it's been quite a long time. We founded it to address what was then, the burgeoning independent telecoms industry, post regulation by Mrs. Thatcher in the late '80s. It was 1996 when we first put our first issue out.
Since then the reseller market has grown exponentially. And according to our latest ABC certificate, which basically endorses what we're doing in the market, there are now upwards of 12,000 companies in the UK providing telecoms or converged ICT solutions for end users. These range from, obviously, the large pipe comm activities and fully integrated contact centres for the larger enterprises, to the smallish broadband and small telephone systems for smaller organisations. And of course, that goes right across all the private sector and the public sector, so it's a very broad brush.
Kelvin Prescott:
When I think about the reseller market Nigel, and this reflects my own, I think lack of familiarity, I think of it as an area that focuses a lot of consumer telecoms and services for small, and medium sized enterprises first and foremost. Is that a fair reflection of how the market works now? Or is it much broader than that?
Nigel Sergent:
I think it's a fair reflection, the resellers do tend to work in the private sector, as opposed to public sector, and I'll explain a little bit more about why I think that's so later. But I think that the one thing I've always thought about this industry, the resellers that operate in it, is that it's very much a local service they're providing. A lot of resellers, across the UK are obviously working in local areas, local municipal areas, where the opportunities are. So, in terms of the public sector opportunities which are out there, I think that they're amazing,
