Colt wants channel to help its indirect move
Carrier looking for help with its transformation from a direct player
Carrier Colt Telecom has put a call out to the UK channel to aid its transformation from a direct to an indirect player in the mid-market.
Having already migrated 500 of its mid-market customers to comms distributor Rocom (CRN, 22 September), the vendor has identified 3,000 further small-spending customers it wants to migrate to its channel model in 2007.
The vendor’s channel U-turn is designed to improve the ratio of sales people to customers and boost sales of its data portfolio, including IP PBX, VPN and hosted email solutions.
Mark Ryder, director of midsize business at Colt, said: “Partners must be able to provide the same level of customer services as Colt, grow revenue within those accounts and sell data products to predominantly voice customers. In return for this commitment, they get an extra revenue stream and a set of customers that has good support from Colt.”
Lee Williams, director of the network services division at Rocom, said: “Where other carriers have continued with the direct model, Colt has gone the opposite way and said ‘let’s give the channel customer ownership’.”
Williams added that Rocom has already assumed billing, support and response functions for the 500 mid-market customers – which have an average spend of £10,000 a year – and is now looking to divide them out between its resellers.
“Colt won’t have too many problems finding other partners and we will have made the process easier by paving the way for them,” he said.
Colt, whose UK turnover hit £230m in 2005, will continue to engage directly with its 350 to 400 major accounts.