This month we hear from Alexander Tebbs, Sales Director at VIA about his business, the market for his products and his need to get out on his mountain bike.
VIA is a fast-growing organisation that has quadrupled revenue over the past three years. It has four Directors and a recurring revenue stream in excess of £400,000 a year. The VIA team is made up of industry specialists that come from a telephony-based background. The company places huge emphasis on personal relationships and clients liaise frequently with the senior management team. The directors have a hands-on approach and take full responsibility for day-to-day operations.
VIA provides businesses with a fully-fledged, seamless telephony and communication solution that replaces their traditional telephone systems and improves the way they work. VIA offers an Internet-based Microsoft Lync platform that has been customised with added functionality to ensure clients benefit from enhanced communications and increased efficiency, leading to substantial cost savings. It unites voice communication, instant messaging, email, video, and audio, across a variety of devices, such as landlines, smartphones, PCs, and tablets.
In the first half of 2015, the next version of VIA’s Hosted Microsoft Lync platform will become Skype for Business with a new client experience. This means bringing together the familiar experience and user love of Skype with the enterprise security, compliance and control from Lync to create the most loved and trusted communications platform for doing things together: Skype for Business.
The best thing for our customers is that they will not have to do a thing and it is fully covered within their monthly subscription. We will update the servers in our data centre’s and let you know when you can download the new client and take advantage of the new Skype for Business features.
Married? Yes.
Kids? 2 under 2
Lives where? Cotswolds
What is your favourite car? Aston Martin
What do you drive? Audi A4 Quattro
Where do you stand on Electric cars? The i8 from BMW looks good. They are the future but battery life is poor. I fear for pedestrians though, especially in London where everyone wears earphones… including me! Silent Killers..
What really gets your goat in business? Making the sale difficult. I want to know what it does, how much it costs and how I can get it.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? Decide your price and stick to it.
Favourite Film? The Life Aquatic
Who is/was the best James Bond? Roger Moore
Last CD/DVD bought/downloaded? Awolnation (CD)
Sport? F1
Favourite team? Mercedes
What’s the best thing you’ve bought the last 12 months? Jet washer
And what have you wasted money on? Telemarketing
If you could pick anyone to go to dinner with who would it be and why? (Husband/Wife/Father etc. excluded) Professor Brian Cox because he knows everything and is pretty interesting.
What could you not live without? Mountain bike – I need the time out at the weekend even if it’s just for a couple of hours
Who’s been your greatest inspiration? Guy Martin, motorcycle racer, lorry mechanic and occasional TV presenter.
If it all went belly up tomorrow, what would you do? Try again with someone else’s money this time
What would you do if you were invisible? Wind my brother up
If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be? An RAF Pilot
Your best blag ever? I persuaded my wife to marry me.
What is on your iPod? Or Spotify playlist etc. Awolnation, Ministry of Sound, House
What Gadgets do you have? iPhone 6 Plus - it does everything
Where do I find you? Facebook, LinkedIn etc. etc. LinkedIn Twitter @A_Tebbs
THE DECIDER: I like reading Comms Business Magazine because…. It is the most reliable source of information about the industry.