Having been part of the DMSL team for a decade, working in reseller development and sales roles, Piper will now lead the effort to sign-up more partners. She is aiming to double the number of active resellers for its Cloud Telephones business, which markets and delivers business-class hosted voice services, from the present 60 to 120. In addition, Piper will be recruiting more resellers to work as referral partners for the wide range of business and consumer broadband options DMSL offers from communications providers, including BT, Plusnet and Virgin.
In the past 12 months, the company has seen reseller subscription revenues for hosted voice mushroom by more than 200 percent. It has also seen strong demand for reliable connectivity services. Piper says she is looking forward to the challenge. “Cloud Telephones has been leading the charge towards hosted voice and the growth we are seeing in this area is phenomenal. We are also seeing solid demand and growth in broadband services. We fully expect to see a further acceleration in sales this year and we are definitely going to need more reseller partners to reach the full potential that’s undoubtedly out there.”
Resellers can choose to adopt the programme that suits them, she adds. “We make it easy for our partners to take opportunities in the way that works for them. With Cloud Telephones, B2B resellers can own the customer 100 percent and manage every aspect of the relationship and billing. That suits resellers who are moving to a business model based on services and subscription income. We will provide them with the support and information they need to do that.
“For resellers, dealers and retailers who are adopting more of a commission-based, agency or referral approach, we can deliver provisioning, billing and customer support direct to the end-user customer. This provides the partner with a generous income without any of the responsibility or cost of managing end-user customers.”
Most all of the in steep rise in hosted voice income that Cloud Telephones has seen in the past year has been generated by sales of Gamma’s Horizon solution, which is now firmly established as a UK market leader. Resellers are offered full training and support on Horizon and Cloud Telephones also runs a continuous lead-generation programme that ensures a steady flow of new business for every partner. The company currently works with a group of just over 60 resellers on hosted voice services and wants to double this number to 120 by the end of the year.
DMSL has also seen significant growth in broadband sales and wants to sign-up more resellers to promote the leading brand-name connectivity options it offers. Piper says: “Rising dependency on fast connectivity in business is being driven by uptake of voice and cloud services; in the consumer market, more people are using on-demand TV services and bandwidth consumption is rocketing. As a result, we are seeing more users upgrading to fibre and other high-speed services. Every customer has different priorities, so it’s important to offer them a choice and in BT, Plusnet and Virgin we have three of the most trusted brands in the industry.”
There are more opportunities on the horizon as well, she notes. “While it still has to go through a formal process to complete the deal, the recent approval by the CMA for BT to buy EE will bring even more potential to the channel. While there are no changes in products, contracts or services for either company right now, DMSL expects be able to give resellers and retailers access to mobile options and the extended opportunities that will bring, in the near future.”