The ‘Is Wholesale Data Right For You?’ event was staged at the distributor’s Manchester headquarters and attracted dealers from as far as Lincolnshire, eager to discover more about the evolving comms landscape where Nimans is playing an ever more prominent role as a managed services specialist.
The initiative was designed to ‘open resellers’ minds’ to the revenue opportunities available from next generation networks – such as Ethernet First Mile and Fibre To the Cabinet - and how they can ‘tap into’ expertise available from some of the industry’s biggest names.
The high profile gathering was opened by Mark Curtis-Wood, Head of Networks at Nimans, who said the communication world continues to evolve at a rapid rate. The UK market for Ethernet is set to grow by 73% over the next two years whilst mobile data could overtake voice revenue in the UK by 2015, according to the latest market predictions. UK Ethernet revenue will hit £1.1bn in the next two years, Mark disclosed.
He said it was vital for resellers to move with the times otherwise they risked getting left behind. “The world is changing and it all comes back to connectivity and how it integrates together. Technology is only as good as the connectivity it sits on.”
He emphasised: “There are three types of reseller; those that understand something is happening and are taking advantage, those that are not sure how to take advantage and those that cover their eyes and carry on as they did before. Transition is taking place not only in our own business but in the marketplace. For us it’s about pulling the key parts of the jigsaw together and helping the reseller community understand it.”
Videos were shown that provided a unique glimpse into the future and how people will adopt their lifestyles at work and home thanks to high tech technology. In addition speakers from Virgin Media Business and Talk Talk Business outlined how their respective companies are ideally positioned to help dealers capitalise on new market developments, via Nimans.
Resellers heard how ‘cost per meg’ had dropped dramatically which had helped fuel momentum in The Cloud. Customer expectations had blurred the boundaries between technology in the home and workplace whilst BYOD was another major driver.
Attendees voted the event a resounding success, as one Lincoln-based dealer commented afterwards:” It’s an emerging market for us and more and more of my customers want high speed internet access. There’s a huge amount of ignorance out there both from end users and resellers. We want to get up to speed so that we can offer an holistic service. We already provide mobile and hosted telephony but the access method is absolutely key to that as well. When there is an knowledge gap you rely on trading partners to help you out and Nimans has the clout to do that. We can piggyback onto that support.”
His positive thoughts were shared by a Cheshire-based counterpart who declared: “We are a traditional telephone systems and Cat 5 installer and it’s clear we need to get another string to our bow. We want to take the next step forward and today’s event has helped boost our knowledge and confidence. It’s been a valuable insight and opened our eyes to what’s happening in the market; the bigger picture and how we can get involved and maximise our revenue with a trusted partner such as Nimans.”
A Leeds-based reseller added: “We have to evolve and move forward from CCTV, mobiles, telephone systems and IT infrastructure. We are very interested in hosted as a solution and developments on broadband. It’s interesting to see different perspectives on how we will all be working in the future. People used to talk about ‘Star Trek’ and touch screen technology but that’s real and here now. I think virtualisation (running virtual servers) is one of the biggest things that will happen to this industry over the next five years. You have to stay ahead of the game and be able to hold intelligent conversations with customers who you can lead forward. People forget just how good Nimans is. They are so easy to do business with, giving us the ability to move our own business forward.”