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Comms VAR Olive plants international roots

Vodafone and Mitel partner sets sights on Australia and North America for expansion

Comms provider Olive has opened an office in Australia, marking its first international expansion.

Olive CEO Martin Flick told CRN that the rationale behind the move is to provide effective support for customers in the APAC region.

He explained that the High Wycombe-based company's move in recent years from being a mobile-only reseller to a unified comms provider has led to increasing opportunities around servicing its UK customers' global requirements.

"We were a bit of a one-trick pony," Flick told CRN.

"But as our proposition has evolved, we have started to see an emerging opportunity for customers that have a UK headquarters but have international offices.

"We were servicing them from London, but it's a better all-around experience to receive support from people who are awake and in the same time zone as you, because you may not always be getting the best from people working the graveyard shift."

Flick added that though this expansion to Australia was driven by customer needs, Olive is starting to see sales opportunities for telephony and contact sales solutions emerge in the APAC region.

The company's move into Australia will be aided by fellow Mitel partner Azentro, which will provide office space and "overflow" support for the UK firm.

Azentro has a similar set of values and culture as Olive which made the decision to partner an easy one, according to Flick.

"Rather than start from scratch in a new country, we are working with a friendly partner in their office, who can offer an overflow service with people who are doing the same or similar work as us," he explained.

"That means in busy periods we don't have to ramp up our employee base, we can work in partnership with Azentro - which is a win-win for us."

The Australian expansion will initially start with six staff, and this figure will grow as business develops, Flick added.

The Mitel and Vodafone partner is also eyeing up a US expansion, which the CEO expects to take place in about three months.

Flick would prefer to adopt the same strategy of partnering with an established company in North America but insisted that it would have to be the right partner.

Locations are still being scouted for Olive's US base, but it will most likely be on the east coast, according to the Olive head.

"North America has huge opportunities for us, with lots of UK-headquartered businesses working internationally there, and we think our proposition resonates with those organisations," he said.

These international expansions are to help alleviate some of the burden placed on global customers, and allows them to scale up and down at will in tandem with economic climates, Flick explained.

"We are working in a world where there is political and economic uncertainty, and customers need to be able to flex up and down in uncertain times; so they can take opportunities when they arise, but at the same time cut their cloth when they have to," he stated.

The comms specialist is also looking at expanding closer to home, with plans afoot for a hub in central London, the CEO said.

The purpose of opening a London office would be to reduce travelling times for staff, allowing easier access to customers based in and around London.

The firm received £10m backing from the Business Growth Fund in 2016, which is still very much involved in the business, Flick said.

"They are a very patient and supportive investor," he stated. "Their help has been instrumental in this move away from being mobile-only into a mobile-first cloud provider."

Mobile manoeuvres

Olive saw turnover grow 10 per cent to £31.3m in its fiscal year ending 31 January 2018. It is currently undergoing auditing for its financial 2019, in which Flick expects a slight fall in revenue.

He is chipper about this revenue decline, however, attributing it to customers switching to subscription-based models.

"We will see a revenue dip but an increase in profitability," he explained.

"This is being driven by more cost-effective solutions for customers who are leveraging the benefit of subscription-based cloud telephony - which will cause a slight dip in the year-on-year revenue."

Though Olive has moved into the unified comms space in recent years, Flick is adamant that mobile will continue to play a core role in its strategy.

"Mobile is an important, intrinsic part of any cloud strategy," he said. "It's undoubtedly more than 50 per cent of our revenue and remains important to us.

"The heritage of this business is mobile and it is a fundamental part of our strategy."