Former soldier risked Horton’s obsession all on ambitious with business growth cloud mission p32 boosts FluidOne p34 VOL 23 ISSUE 2 JULY 2018 www.comms-dealer.com record | report | integrate oak.co.uk/integration PCI DSS payment automation oak.co.uk record | report | integrate ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT THE HEARTBEAT OF THE UK COMMS INDUSTRY powering your potential 020 8614 9090 The experts in telecom billing & provisioning solutions unionstreet.uk.com Comms Dealer 3-16 Industry News Catch up with July 2018 events in comms 18 Interview Glide spreads its Click to open channel wings channeltelecom.com 22 Riley takes helm Business Matters Comms sector puts in vintage quarter as Muller vacates 24 DAISY CEO Neil Muller’s exit sees Chairman Matt Riley (pictured) revert to a Market Review THE COMMS NATIONAL hands-on leadership role and signals a planned refinancing of Group debt. Comms industry AWARDS 2018 poised for AI-fest CNAWARDS.COM SPECIAL REPORT autumn suggests that the sale with guidance for next year of process has ended with signifi- over £700m and £140m. In February Daisy outlined big cant implications for UK tele- Last month Daisy also acq- 30 plans to double in size within coms M&A,” said Carse. uired Voice Mobile and DV02, five years by taking advantage “Riley has decided to step adding around £15m revenues Business Profile of a potential ‘wave of con- back into the breach, aided by and £2.2m EBITDA. Simon Woodhead: solidation’ in the industry as it potential significant annual cost Muller, the former Computa- A force for good sought a circa £1bn sale to pri- savings from a refinancing off center UK MD, joined Daisy in vate equity or a trade buyer. the back of a stronger business December 2014 in a move that But Muller’s shock exit last now than compared with the saw Riley become Chairman. 52 month signalled the likely cur- take private consummated just As we went to press news tailment of Daisy’s intention to over three years ago.” broke of a collapse in Daisy’s Comms People sell, observed Megabuyte Prin- Daisy also posted its finan- planned £175m acquisition of This month’s cipal Analyst Philip Carse. cial results for the year to March TalkTalk Business’s direct cli- movers and shakers “Daisy’s planned refinanc- 2018, reporting revenue and ent base, which was due to com- ing of its debt scheduled for the EBITDA of £684m and £127m plete later this month. FREE TO PERFORM www.comms-dealer.com A BPL BUSINESS MEDIA PUBLICATION CD Strip_04.18.indd 1 21/03/2018 17:01 Former soldier risked Horton’s obsession all on ambitious with business growth cloud mission p32 boosts FluidOne p34 VOL 23 ISSUE 2 JULY 2018 www.comms-dealer.com record | report | integrate oak.co.uk/integration PCI DSS payment automation oak.co.uk record | report | integrate ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT THE HEARTBEAT OF THE UK COMMS INDUSTRY powering your potential 020 8614 9090 The experts in telecom billing & provisioning solutions unionstreet.uk.com 3-16 Industry News Catch up with events in comms 18 Interview Glide spreads its channel wings channeltelecom.com 22 Riley takes helm Business Matters Comms sector puts in vintage quarter as Muller vacates 24 DAISY CEO Neil Muller’s exit sees Chairman Matt Riley (pictured) revert to a Market Review THE COMMS NATIONAL hands-on leadership role and signals a planned refinancing of Group debt. Comms industry AWARDS 2018 poised for AI-fest CNAWARDS.COM SPECIAL REPORT autumn suggests that the sale with guidance for next year of process has ended with signifi- over £700m and £140m. In February Daisy outlined big cant implications for UK tele- Last month Daisy also acq- 30 plans to double in size within coms M&A,” said Carse. uired Voice Mobile and DV02, five years by taking advantage “Riley has decided to step adding around £15m revenues Business Profile of a potential ‘wave of con- back into the breach, aided by and £2.2m EBITDA. Simon Woodhead: solidation’ in the industry as it potential significant annual cost Muller, the former Computa- A force for good sought a circa £1bn sale to pri- savings from a refinancing off center UK MD, joined Daisy in vate equity or a trade buyer. the back of a stronger business December 2014 in a move that But Muller’s shock exit last now than compared with the saw Riley become Chairman. 52 month signalled the likely cur- take private consummated just As we went to press news tailment of Daisy’s intention to over three years ago.” broke of a collapse in Daisy’s Comms People sell, observed Megabuyte Prin- Daisy also posted its finan- planned £175m acquisition of This month’s cipal Analyst Philip Carse. cial results for the year to March TalkTalk Business’s direct cli- movers and shakers “Daisy’s planned refinanc- 2018, reporting revenue and ent base, which was due to com- ing of its debt scheduled for the EBITDA of £684m and £127m plete later this month. FREE TO PERFORM www.comms-dealer.com A BPL BUSINESS MEDIA PUBLICATION CD Strip_04.18.indd 1 21/03/2018 17:01 INDUSTRY NEWS EDITOR’S COMMENT Time to arm NEWS ROUNDUP WHAT do emojis, tabloid MAINTEL has acquired a base journalism and industry of UK clients from Atos for acronyms have in common? £5.1m as the French tech You may have read that we firm and owner of Unify are apparently entering a the soldiers seeks to drive growth via post-writing world in which partners and large customer emojis are rising to dominance WITH the right support sub- accounts. On completion of as modern day hieroglyphics, £3m revenue resellers represent the deal – which is expected creating a visual, universal a significant engine of growth to be accretive in the first but according Adam Cathcart, full year of ownership Stuart Gilroy language. It is perhaps ironic that this reversion to 9’s Director of Partners, this – Maintel will become a the dark ages of pictorial characters has been brought group are a ‘forgotten army’ in channel partner of Atos. about by huge strides in communication technology. the channel. So what does this mean? Emojis as hieroglyphics aim Speaking to delegates at TALKTALK and Daisy have to convey a sentiment or meaning without the laborious this year’s Margin in Voice & kiboshed the planned task of having to string a few words together, which in our Data (MiVaD) event staged sale of TalkTalk’s direct fast-paced time-poor world saves inordinate numbers of at the Forest of Arden Hotel B2B business. TalkTalk will hours. That said, comic-like emojis are an unlikely nod to on 14th June he stated: “The Adam Cathcart continue to manage all a practice that I applaud in writers who take the shortest sub-£3m turnover reseller seg- direct B2B business and FY19 distance between two points – in other words, they use ment is overlooked by many applications like click-to-call, EBITDA guidance remains at as few words and syllables as plainly possible to convey service providers, yet it’s where and apps for the statistical anal- the originally stated 15% meaning, creating near transparency between signifier and they can add the most value. ysis of call data to move you year-on-year growth (FY18 signified. The best examples equate to a reading age of six, Resellers need full support to be towards the goal line,” he said. £233m). Daisy remains a which makes The Sun one of the best written newspapers. free to perform.” Full event report on page 38 strategic partner for TalkTalk. Toddlers understand pictures before words, and tabloid Poor selling techniques are also a potential inhibitor of journalism is within reach of those not long walking, so the A BPL Business intellectual demand is not challenging – which doesn’t say growth, according to keynoter Publication a lot about today’s emoji junkies (nor the writers of many Iain Sinnott, Head of Sales at BPL Limited VanillaIP, who said: “It’s critical Highbridge House, 93-96 Oxford Road, press releases I receive which would be better offered in Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 1LU, United Kingdom picture format as they would make more sense that way). to deploy a sales methodology T: 01895 454542 F: 01895 454413 to create value. Look at your Editor: Stuart Gilroy Subscriptions Carried out with flair, creativity and discipline, good word [email protected] 07712 781 102 Subscription rates for 12 issues: teams: How much time do they UK, £65; Overseas:£80 (incl p&p) usage literally encapsulates speed of communication, it Publisher: Nigel Sergent Back issues can be obtained: is the superfast fibre in non-verbal contact. Furthermore, spend studying and researching [email protected] 07712 781 106 UK £6 (incl p&p), Overseas £10 each (incl p&p) For subscriptions please call 01635 588 869 the outbreak of emojis mirrors the spread of acronyms in to develop their sales skills?” Managing Director: Michael O’Brien Fellow keynoter Paul Taylor, Views expressed in this magazine are not our industry. They are also one dimensional and used with [email protected] 01895 454 444 necessarily those of the publishers. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the Sales & Marketing Director at Sales Director: Simon Turton little thought. And acronyms ultimately lack detail and express written permission of the publishers. are confusing – hardly poetry. May the number of people Voiceflex, pointed out that tra- [email protected] 01895 454 603 All trademarks acknowledged. Photographs and who write with plain words, clarity, skill and creativity ditional sales methods still stand Production: Frank Voeten artwork submitted for publication accepted only up but to clinch the deal useful [email protected] on the understanding that the Editor is not liable multiply – and hopefully the demise of flat emojis and for their safekeeping.