ANS eyes £10m of new business with Metronet partnership

WAN provider signed by VAR to complement its cloud offering across Manchester's SMBs

Reseller ANS Group has its eye on £10m worth of new business which it hopes to snare in the next two years with the help of newly signed partner Metronet.

The WAN solutions provider, which like ANS Group is based in Manchester, has joined forces with the VAR in a move the pair claims will help deliver reliable cloud solutions to firms with fewer than 250 users in the city.

The National Cloud offering of reseller ANS, whose revenue soared to £47m last summer, will be supported by Metronet's mission-critical connectivity solutions.

The partnership will see underground and overground wireless links offered to companies, which ANS Group's managing director Paul Sweeney claims is attractive to customers.

He said: "With the cloud, there are concerns about what if a JCB digs up the road and disturbs the connection, but now we have an overground link too, it takes a big worry away and is a good opportunity for us."

He added that research the reseller commissioned last month showed that customers were worried about connection security, and he said the Metronet partnership addresses this problem.

"Metronet is a leading provider of secure, fast connections. By partnering with them we can respond to IT directors' fears - offering an integrated, fast and secure cloud solution," Sweeney added.

The duo is targeting firms in all markets across the city, and hopes to win new business through joint tenders across the UK.

The two firms have already started work with Peel Media, which provides services for the BBC's Media City.