Pushing Daisy

The new leader of the IT channel's next billion-pound business talks Sam Trendall through his plans

The UK IT channel is known for its bullishness and bravado, and its storied history is littered with the tall tales of ambitious entrepreneurs and would-be captains of industry whose big ideas were sure to create billion-pound businesses.

Of course, many of these companies never made their first million, let alone billion. But plenty did prosper, including a very select few who hit that magic mark - the one with nine zeroes after it.

To have helped create one £1bn-turnover channel player can rightly be considered a terrific achievement. Cracking the 10-figure mark with a second organisation is surely unheard of.

But that is exactly what Daisy chief executive Neil Muller (pictured) plans to do in the coming years.

Muller joined the Lancashire-headquartered telecoms and IT services outfit in February, arriving from Computacenter, where he served as UK managing director.

We recently caught up with the new Daisy boss to hear about his first six months in the role, and his plans for the weeks, months, and years to come.

Muller on the market opportunity….

We are currently a £620m business, but the market opportunity is vast; in the UK there is a £90bn converged market in total - £60bn in IT infrastructure and £30bn in unified communications. We are operating in what we believe to be a £10bn addressable marketplace, and with our highly relevant capability and our focus on execution, we should be able to take our fair share.

On what would constitute success…

Our success will be determined by our strategy, which is focused on maturing our capability in line with converged market dynamics; and our execution plan, which is focused on serving our customers and partners in line with their specific and evolving needs. Success for me is about creating a sense of purpose, belonging and belief across the Daisy family; to deliver on our promises to our customers and partners. But people always ask for a number as to what success looks like - becoming a £1bn business seems an obvious next step to me, but really it is just a way of keeping score of how well you're executing.

On the mid-market…

It is a market whereby customers would like to partner with a single service provider who is big enough to cope with delivering a full range of converged business communication and IT infrastructure services and solutions, but small enough to truly care about customer service.

On customer service…

It is important that we keep our people focused on delivering long-term customer value. This is somewhere I think the telco space can learn a little from IT services, and I am trying to bring that to bear. Putting the customer first will be key to every decision we make. I am a massive believer that happy customers will not only spend more with you, they will also become fans and suggest that their friends and colleagues talk to you.

On the evolution of services…

We will be leveraging the scale of the group as we look to standardise our services. The trick for us here is to deliver our customers a balance of blueprint, standardised ways of delivering services, while tailoring our offers to meet specific customer needs. The market is converging quickly and convergence is here to stay. This is the cornerstone of our strategy and differentiation.

On integrating Phoenix…

The integration is on track. We have an extremely rigorous integration programme in place, and we now enter the design phase. Of course there are both cost and revenue synergies, but there is definitely more excitement than there is uncertainty as we crack on with the integration.

On getting to know Daisy…

One of the next phases of the integration is my personal commitment to talk to all staff directly in order to share my and Matt's ambitions for the next phase of our journey. In order to create ONE Daisy with that clear sense of purpose, belonging and belief, there is no shortcut. I have already spoken face to face to 1,500 people and, with the acquisition of Phoenix, I now have about 2,500 to go. It's a long process but, while our strategy is simple and clear, we're only as good as our people, our teamwork and our customer-focused execution. There is no short-cut. Talking face to face to staff is simply imperative to our growth strategy.

On the future…

We want to make sure we have the most talented workforce in the UK. We are trying to modernise the organisation, our culture and what it feels like to work at Daisy. We want to train and develop existing staff, while attracting a balance of experienced professionals and apprentices to Daisy. Ultimately, this is what will define us, and what makes our ONE Daisy initiative such a fundamental part of our strategy. It is a fantastically exciting opportunity to take Daisy on to the next chapter of its growth story.

Daisy's design
Daisy's new chief had been at Computacenter for seven years when his new employer came onto the telco scene. Founded by entrepreneur Matthew Riley in 2001, Daisy focused on consolidating the fragmented telco reseller market, including a reverse takeover of Freedom4 and Vialtus, after which the company floated publicly on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market in 2009. Six years later, and following 46 acquisitions, the business returned to private ownership at the start of this year.

Since then the firm has made three further landmark acquisitions in the IT space, including Cisco and Microsoft Gold partner Damovo UK, and enterprise IT services heavyweight Phoenix IT Group, as well as the engineering and professional services divisions of Calyx. All of which have equated to today's run-rate sales of about £620m, 75 per cent of which comes from recurring revenue streams.

Daisy's business today can, essentially, be divided into three tracks covering the SMB, mid-market and enterprise sectors. The former focuses on serving organisations with 10 to 500 employees, working alongside partners to provide products and services including traditional fixed lines and calls, as well as mobile, data, high-speed connectivity and WiFi.

In the mid-market, Daisy Corporate Services focuses on organisations with 500 to 2,000 employees. The recent acquisitions have added the IT infrastructure capability - including contact centres, business continuity, and IT infrastructure services - to Daisy's business telecommunications heritage.

Most customers from the recent acquisitions sit in the mid-market. The enterprise space - denoted as organisations with over 2,000 employees - is one the company is committed to serve wholly indirectly, via service integrators and large IT reseller carriers.

The Daisy Partner Services division increased in size dramatically with the buyout of Phoenix and currently represents a £130m operation.