INTERVIEW Chris Lee - North Supply
“We want to get the whole process from quote to installation and beyond both simpler and more seamless and
that is why we will offer our partners web based tools that allow for quoting, order taking, order placement,
customer data capture and system configuration prior to delivery to site for installation.”
Chris Lee, Business Development Manager, North Supply
Making Some Noise
North Supply o er a
Despite 25 years in the business Leicester based distributor North Supply is relatively unknown in the channel but
a new partnership with Innovaphone looks set to change all that as Business Development Manager
Chris Lee explains to Ian Hunter
wide range of telephony
peripheral products and
services to the channel
including access control systems,
voice recording solutions, music
on hold and messaging services,
audio visual alerting / paging
devices as well as telephone
system pre-staging, installation,
stock control and logistics
services.
Chris Lee says Innovaphone
has a similar background,
a family owned business
with over 25 years in the
telecommunications market
place and rmly established
worldwide with resellers in over
35 countries.
Innovaphone is now
focussing on the UK market and
see North Supply as a perfect
partner as their pure IP on
premise and hosted telephony
solutions which complement our
range of peripherals and logistics
services. Together, Innovaphone
and North Supply can o er
products, experience and a range
of support services to provide a
complete one stop solution for
their sales partner in the UK.
CBM: HOW IS NORTH SUPPLY
HANDLING THE TRANSITION TO THE
CLOUD THAT IS TAKING PLACE IN THE
MARKET?
(CL) North Supply has already
adapted our peripheral product
range to work with both
private and public cloud based
telephony platforms to provide
solutions that either connect via
open or standard SIP extensions
or with partners that require
auto provisioning to allow for
proprietary connection to their
platforms.
e partnership with
Innovaphone allows us to
integrate peripheral products to a
core platform that can adapt and
migrate from premise to cloud
without the need to refresh or
replace peripherals as is often
the case with other platforms.
is allows customers to move
as required with minimum
cost implications and minimal
re-engineering e ort from the
reseller.
In being able to work with
Innovaphone at a developer level
- they develop both their own
hardware and software, we are
able to integrate their peripherals
more seamlessly, able to test
and simulate more customer
scenarios to help support
partners and to help deliver more
features. One example of this is
the ability to now present real
time video images of visitors
from their SIP Door access
systems onto the high-quality
displays on the Innovaphone
IP200 range of desk phones.
In addition to core telephony,
together we can o er an
extensive range of UC features,
Web RTC, application sharing,
SIP audio and visual alerting
devices, music and messaging
services and both integrated and
standalone / virtual extension
and line side call recording
solutions.
CBM: WHERE DO YOU SEE THE
OPPORTUNITIES FOR RESELLERS
AND ARE THERE PRODUCTS LIKELY
TO REMAIN AS CUSTOMER PREMISES
EQUIPMENT FOR SOME TIME YET?
CL: Cloud may not be the
solution for all customers at
present and the Innovaphone
product range allows a gradual
migration with all on premise
licences and peripherals being
transferrable to the cloud at
minimal cost. is provides
opportunities to migrate
customers from a capex to opex
model where revenue streams are
derived from ongoing support
and the addition of new feature
licenses.
We want to o er resellers
a more exible approach to
hosting where technically,
resellers may be able to host
their Innovaphone customer
cloud solution themselves or
use the Innovaphone platform
if preferred and are inviting
partners to share with us their
ideas around hosting options so
we can better understand what
works best for all.
CBM: WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO
BE THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
THAT NORTH SUPPLY CAN PASS ON
TO YOUR CHANNEL PARTNERS?
CL: We want to get the
whole process from quote to
installation and beyond both
simpler and more seamless and
that is why we will o er our
partners web based tools that
allow for quoting, order taking,
order placement, customer
data capture and system
con guration prior to delivery to
site for installation.
We will also be o ering a
range of support services to
include sales, engineer and end
user training, telephone and web
based technical support, sales
demonstration kits, software
assurance, extended warranty
and advanced hardware
replacement to provide end users
with con dence and resellers
options to both generate revenue
and minimise costs.
44 | Comms Business Magazine | January 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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