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On 4 January this year, Daisy Group pulled together its mobile-focused acquisitions into a new business named Daisy Distribution. Here, Dave McGinn, managing director of the combined entity, comments on what 2011 will bring for the business.
Daisy rebranded its mobile acquisitions, Anglia Telecom and Fone Logistics, into Daisy Distribution just two months ago. Anglia Telecom was initially acquired by Daisy Group in the summer of 2009, followed in June of 2010 by the acquisition of Fone Logistics.
In the six months running up to the rebrand, work was underway to sort out the operational assets of both businesses, and fuse these together to deliver the best distribution partner experience.
Flower power
Standing independently of other Daisy businesses, but with the shared resources and benefits of the wider Group, Daisy Distribution operates with its own portfolio of products
.In addition to supporting partners of both the Anglia Telecom and Fone Logistics’ bases, it is actively pursuing opportunities with new dealers. The business is also inviting application from solutions providers and other products and applications to enhance its supply chain offering.
Daisy Distribution is operating under the banner of ‘encouraging partner success’, under which sits its values and principles of supporting partners in developing new opportunities and in securing growth, as well as creating an internal model that puts the partner first in every aspect of their dealings with the business.
McGinn commented on the rebranding: “This rebranding announcement finally cements our place within the Group and provides us with a strong platform from which to grow. We already have strong relationships with our partners and by bringing the two brands together into one we are able to present a powerful business moving forward, and expect this to lead to our increasing connection levels with all of our network partners.”
Daisy fresh
Daisy Distribution sells products from the mobile networks, including airtime, handsets and solutions such as machine to machine and tailored mobile services. It distributes airtime on behalf of O2 as a Centre of Excellence Distributor, is an Orange Federated Partner, a platinum partner with Vodafone and enjoys the only indirect Vodafone agreement in channel, to include the license to distribute and support the Vodafone One Net suite. It is also a strategic BlackBerry partner and offers a full range of connected and unconnected devices within a portfolio of products and mobility solutions.
“We are the only mobile distributor to have the Vodafone One Net Express distribution agreement, so far,” notes McGinn. “That’s the jewel in our crown. It’s all about working with the networks and making sure you hit the right KPI’s. We make sure we’re hitting everything our networks want us to hit, and we make sure we’ve got the right product sets and the right people in place to ensure we maintain ownership of those product sets.”
McGinn continues: “Our role in the marketplace is to see how our partners can increase customer spend. From March 2010 our partners were selling hardly any fixed line, but now we are the largest O2 Joined Up Communications (JUC) reseller in the distribution arena, and over the last couple of months we’ve been getting people up to speed on One Net Express from Vodafone. From the start of our new financial year, it’s going to be all about cracking on with that.”
Smelling like roses
However, this year Daisy Distribution will look to include certain Daisy Group products and services that it feels will complement its mobile portfolio. McGinn explains: “This year we are looking at some Daisy product sets, for instance, Daisy owns Servassure, a maintenance business, which we feel might be a good addition for out dealers to sell into their customers. Maintenance agreements are a useful part of any deal. This is something we are looking to add from the start of our new financial year, beginning in April.”
Currently, McGinn says his partners are getting 100% of their revenue from mobile. However, he expects that to change, with partners adding to their existing mobile portfolios and sales with other services such as fixed line, which should result in a more 60/40, mobile/other split in revenue. “Our partners have been starting to make that shift for the last nine months, with other product sets presenting themselves in revenue bases.
“From our point of view, it’s about how we educate our partners to sell fixed, and our fixed partners to sell mobile. Some people are not going to want to sell fixed, and some won’t be able to get their heads around it, but the successful ones will be adding other product sets to their portfolios.”
As to how other mobile distributors should be feeling about the advent of Daisy Distribution, McGinn says: “We have the scale we need, with 83 people in Daisy Distribution, and the whole business is integrated from front to back end. I’m not saying anyone should be scared, but I think Daisy Group has been impressed with how we’ve consolidated the two businesses and the way we’re moving forward. I think we’re all grown up.”
Ed Says...
Watch out, people; there’s a new kid about, and he’s ambitious.