Thus offers wider range for enterprise market

Resellers given access to telephone preference service and bulk migration tool

Telecoms vendor Thus has broadened the range of services available to its channel partners to help them make a bigger splash in the enterprise market.

Thus VARs will now be able to offer the vendor’s telephone preference service (TPS), carrier preference Service (CPS) bulk migration and network call recording services.

Head of wholesale product management at Thus, Andy Watson, told CRN: “We have been looking to
move our range of services to the next level as quite a lot of resellers are dealing with advanced enterprise customers.”

TPS blocks outbound sales calls being made to numbers that have requested not to receive such unsolicited contact. CPS bulk migration service aims to allow the transfer of thousands of customers’ lines to Thus’ CPS service quickly and at short notice.

“A lot of our resellers have lots of business across lots of different carriers. This service can easily and relatively seamlessly move customers onto one network,” said Watson.

Watson also claimed that the new services were not targeted exclusively at the enterprise space. “These services are very scalable. They really are one-size-fits-all offerings.”

Thus recently rebuffed an approach from larger rival Cable and Wireless (C&W), which proposed a £302m acquisition. C&W has set itself the deadline of today (30 June) to either signal its intent to make a firm acquisitive offer or walk away.

In a statement, Thus said: “The C&W proposal fails to reflect the standalone value of the Thus business before attaching any takeover premium. Thus is confident in its future as an independent group.”

While C&W called the offer an “attractive reflection” of Thus’s value and the benefits of merging the two companies moving forward, it said: “C&W is disappointed in Thus’s response and hopes that the board of Thus will reconsider its refusal to discuss the proposal.”

Rob Bamforth, principal analyst for Quocirca, claimed that if the deal went ahead, it would have a positive impact on the telecoms industry.

“Both of these companies could say they were underdogs to a certain extent. It is not like BT, say, buying up a very small player, where culturally it is very uneven.”