Comms Business Magazine talks to the team at Midlands based reseller Welcomm to find out how they have expanded their company and what are their hot products right now.
Welcomm Communications has just announced their next big recruitment drive to enhance and develop their existing Unified team.
The Midlands based supplier introduced unified services to their portfolio back in 2011, following the acquisition of unified provider Kangaroo Comms.
Since then the business has seen huge changes with their workforce expanding three fold, and their product portfolio expanding to deliver hosted, digital, fixed and telephony services on top of their core O2 mobile business. Now in their 26th year, Welcomm’s growth has been both organic based and acquisition based, with five acquisitions in the past 5 years, expanding their base and in-house expertise.
Having recently signed a new five-year partnership agreement with O2, Welcomm has become a member of the new Direct Partner Network. This agreement further strengthens a partnership that has been at the core of the business since the days of BT Cellnet and will drive further mobile and digital growth for both Welcomm and O2.
Marketing Manager Emily Murray says, “As one of the first O2 partners to be able to deliver a comprehensive Unified offering, Welcomm benefits from experience it has gained over the past few years, when many partners are just coming into this market, having questioned the investment that was required.
One of Welcomm’s initial challenges was to change their customer’s perception, no longer being viewed purely as a mobile provider, but to trust Welcomm with all of their communication services. As Welcomm’s status and reputation as a unified provider has gained momentum, we have seen a recent sharp growth in unified sales from both their traditional mobile customers and new customers.
As a result, the revenue generated by these unified products now equates to 10% of Welcomm’s total turnover, and is set to grow to over 30% within the next two years. One product that has contributed to this growth is Welcomm’s hosted voice service, which has delivered a 332% increase in the past year. This can be attributed to developing our internal unified support team, with additional training and accreditation and moving to Gamma’s Horizon hosted voice service.
This strategic decision to move suppliers, made in late 2014, was made following an extensive review of the solutions available in the market.
The decision was made easier by the fact that Welcomm already had a well-established relationship with Gamma, delivering their SIP and Inbound services. From this experience Welcomm believed the attitude towards support and delivery from Gamma, outperformed other providers in the market.”
Rachel Brooks, Operations Director at Welcomm, says, “We believe in constantly updating our knowledge and Gamma are by far the best at supporting this, offering great training. Having worked with other vendors where the services are disjointed and not completely joined up, we have suffered delays in resolving customer issues. This was one of the key drivers for us when moving to Horizon, to ensure we could deliver a far better customer experience. The add on applications that are also available with Gamma allowed us to deliver a better fit and service for our customers.”
Gamma CEO Bob Falconer told us, “I am delighted that Welcomm has invested in becoming one of Gamma’s strategic Platinum Partners. The telecoms industry is changing rapidly, and Welcomm are putting themselves at the forefront of this change to the benefit of their customers. We look forward to working closely with them in the future and helping their business grow and develop successfully.”
The dramatic rise in sales since deploying Horizon has prompted Welcomm’s recent recruitment drive. 10 new roles have been identified that will not only double their support team but also double their dedicated Unified Sales team from 4 to 8, to ensure they stay ahead of their growth curve. The remaining roles will develop other areas of the business; these include support and sales positions to continue growth to their O2 Digital services.
Welcomm has also just signed a new contract with Gamma, to deliver 3,000 licenses, which will earn them Platinum partner status. Not only will this profile endorse Welcomm’s position as a trusted Unified provider, it will also provide additional commercial support, marketing, training and service support to further enhance their services and contribute towards a further rise in sales.
Welcomm and Gamma are also due to host their first Hosted Voice workshop in May at the home of rugby club the Leicester Tigers, where Welcomm has a corporate box.