Ahead of the Convergence Summit at Esher this October we are talking to a number of exhibitors about their plans for the show. Here we ask Tim Sawyer at Strategic Imperatives what we can expect to see at Sandown Park.
Comms Business Magazine (CBM): Why have you chosen to book a stand at the convergence Summit?
Tim Sawyer (TS): It’s been a really busy year at Imperatives. We’ve been developing some exciting new services as well as continuing to win and on-board new clients. The brand has been refreshed with a new logo and website and having moved into an impressive new office space in October last year we have stepped up our efforts to recruit talented software developers to join our team.
This gives us lots to talk about and the Summit provides the best vehicle for us to launch our new products and services to the Channel. We are about to launch our multi-carrier broadband framework and the Summit will be the launch event for our innovative elastic magic technology. We want to be meeting new and existing clients, to showcase our new services and network with our industry peers. Our portal manages over 60% of the UK WLR3 estate but its not something that we have shouted about too loudly in the past. However, we are planning an advertising campaign in conjunction with the show as well as press releases and other activity so the channel will start to hear a lot more from Imperatives in the coming months. There’s plenty of reasons for your visitors to come to the Imperatives lounge.
CBM: How important are channel resellers to your business?
TS: Channel resellers make up the bulk of our client base so of course they are incredibly important to us. Our WLR3 portal is used by over 500 channel resellers, either as direct clients of Imperatives or as partners of other resellers who are using badged versions of our portal. We have built a great reputation for service excellence but we are never complacent and are always grateful for feedback from our clients and from anyone in the channel. Typically resellers are very forthcoming with their opinions so we are looking forward to meeting and talking with as many as we can at the show.
CBM: Have you attended the summit before as an exhibitor and or visitor?
TS: I have been at every summit since the very first back in 2002 and have seen the event grow and gain in popularity year on year. I’ve generally been a visitor but I have also been involved as an exhibitor on a couple of occasions so I guess you could say that I am a Summit veteran. As an exhibitor I always found the attendance provided exactly the right mix of company owners and decision makers - exactly the people that you want to speak to. We have taken one of the lounge style stands at this years event and since the event has always been so well organised we are confident that our exhibitor experience will be totally painless.
CBM: How can you work with us to ensure we get the right resellers visiting your stand?
TS: We will be making sure that our existing clients are aware of our presence at the summit and we hope that all of them will attend; not only to meet with us to talk about our new services but also to give them the opportunity to experience the show if they haven’t done so already. We have a number of press releases to be published in the coming months related to the launch of our new services and we’ll be making sure that readers know that they can visit our lounge at the summit to discuss how these could benefit their business.
CBM: Will you be launching or announcing any new products, applications and services at the Summit?
TS: We are about to announce our multi-carrier broadband provisioning framework and so will be keen to talk to both voice and data guys about that. The main focus for us, however, is an extension to our Elevate VNE Platform that will move us from being a predominantly provisioning solution provider to one that enables resellers to manage the complete customer life cycle. We are using some really innovative SaaS technology that we refer to as ‘Elastic Magic’ and coupled with our enterprise level security and on-demand scalability we believe that we have something genuinely exciting that resellers will want to hear about.
CBM: What will be the benefits to resellers of partnering with your company?
TS: Our award winning WLR3 solution is widely regarded as market leading and by introducing complete customer life cycle capability later this year we believe that resellers of any size or type will be able to benefit from the SI portfolio. In addition to the technology benefits, however, our support ethic is second to none. Imperatives has always been positively involved with the industry working with trade associations and lobbying on behalf of our clients to ensure that we and they are always one step ahead, allowing clients to quickly respond to new opportunities in our rapidly changing industry.
CBM: How do you see the state of the market overall today and what is your outlook for the future?
TS: It never ceases to amaze me just how dynamic our sector is and I don’t think the number of new entrants has really eased off at any point during the twelve years that I have worked providing services to the reseller community. The convergence of voice and data has provided the opportunity for existing resellers to broaden their product portfolio and spawned a whole new breed who come at the industry with a completely fresh outlook. I think that investment is key and we are seeing successful resellers invest in the solutions they sell, the support they provide and the external face that they present to the channel and to the end user. As a solution provider, our internal investment is equally important and we have and continue to invest significant amounts of knowledge, time and money to ensure that we are able to support the growth of the channel now and for many years to come.