“I am delighted to report that current trading continues to be in line with the Board’s expectation.
“The Group continues to benefit from its strategy to focus on large enterprise customers with significant new contract wins including Nottinghamshire Primary Care Trust and Thistle Hotels. The Nottinghamshire PCT win is a good example of cross-selling; a previous Rocom Corporate customer, the account is now part of ATC Solutions, and the historical trading relationship was a crucial factor behind ATC Solutions winning the IP telephony contract. Thistle Hotels is benefiting from our Servassure service delivery business through its contract with BT.
“The Group has broadened its IP product portfolio with an additional distribution agreement with Nortel for the Rocom division. This agreement is for the distribution of Nortel’s range of BCM IP telephone systems, which are targeted at SME customers, and for Nortel's SME range of data products. Nortel’s share of the market in traditional PBXs is amongst the largest in the UK, so this distribution partnership positions Rocom at the forefront of the shift to IP technology through the reseller channel.
“The acquisition of Rocom has bedded down well, and the integration of back office systems and the centralisation of the Finance, IT and Procurement departments is underway, resulting in greater efficiencies in the medium to long-term.
“In April, the Group announced a migration of £2.5 million annualised reseller contracts for the provision and management of voice minutes services to end-user customers. The expansion of our reseller base provides continues to provide considerable opportunity for cross-selling and enhances visibility of earnings. Major telcos continue to re-evaluate how they manage their customers and channels, and we anticipate that this trend will result in further deals along similar lines during the course of this year.
“The formal launch of Servassure as an independent service delivery business has already meant that our year-to-date business with BT has grown significantly. We have developed a web portal for BT to engage with Servassure, which has helped to facilitate increased levels of assurance contracts being placed by BT with Servassure. The web portal and helpdesk model of engagement is now being established to engage with other Servassure partners, including Rocom resellers. There has been significant channel interest in using Servassure’s suite of engineering and network services to complement and complete their offerings to the market.
“Yesterday, we announced a significant three-year contract for SiNET, our hosted IP telephony service, with FADS, the UK high street decorating specialist. This is our first major contract for SiNET and a significant endorsement for the product which is being trialled with several major UK retailers. The contract will cover the provision of SiNET, combined with voice minutes, IP trunks and full installation and maintenance services, across 60 sites and FADS’ headquarters. Another SiNET trial will be underway shortly with Empire Cinemas.
“Our recruitment process for a new Group Finance Director is progressing well. We hope to be in a position to announce an appointment soon.
“Finally, the Group has just been named as ‘Networking/Comms Reseller of the Year’ at the MicroScope awards, in recognition of our capability in delivering complex ICT solutions to larger businesses.”