EVENTS Reseller Conference
“Today, Gamma is transforming that connectivity and hosted business in to a UCaaS business.”
Daryl Pile, MD of Channel - Gamma
Fighting on all Fronts
Ian Hunter attended the Gamma reseller 2020 Kick-Off Conference at Glasgow’s Hampden Park stadium last
month to see what the communications provider had in store for their resellers in the year ahead
There must be something
about a company that
can gather some 600
resellers at their reseller
conferences. Starting in
Glasgow attendances grew
as the show headed south via
Manchester, Birmingham and
London.
We have been tracking
Gamma’s share price closely
since the 2016 UK EU
Referendum; shares that
stood at 440p the days after
the referendum had risen to a
peak of 1460p on 23 January
this year when the impact of
the Coronavirus negatively
impacted shares worldwide.
But even now they are back on
their way up again.
ere has to be reasons why
Gamma has this pulling power
and continues to buck the
economic share price indicators
that has seen BT shares drop
from 440p to 139p over the
same period.
Managing Director Daryl
Pile believes it is all about three
words; Trust, Loyalty and
Value.
“Not being a reseller, I
can’t directly attest to those
attributes but can testify to
the fact that from where I sit
the rate of innovation and
response to market needs has,
and continues to be, swift and
far sighted.
However, whilst it is not
immediately obvious to
all observers, Gamma is
pretty much in the middle
of a substantial transition.
What started as a traditional
network services company
(lines and minutes) has shifted
progressively – through data
centric connectivity, say
broadband and beyond and
added cloud-based telephony
via Horizon.”
Today, Gamma is
transforming that connectivity
and hosted business in to a
UCaaS business. e early
signs of this were seen in
the addition of third-party
applications such as Akixi
but last year Gamma took
a much larger step with the
introduction of Horizon
Collaborate at their 2019
reseller show.
e more observant delegates
to that show will have heard
Gamma say that this was a rst
step towards a more complete
UCaaS portfolio and clearly
conrmation of the direction in
which Gamma were travelling.
News that 52% of Horizon
seats are now sold into
Mid-Market and Enterprise
customers was quite a
revelation this year as was their
partnership with Cirrus for
more high-performance call
and contact centre applications.
Open integration for Horizon
together with the promise of
an Open API and a Software
Development Kit in Glasgow
was therefore no surprise.
Horizon is clearly a driving
force for UCaaS with 8.3% of
10-49 seat systems and 6.6%
of 50-249 seats systems having
Collaborate solutions installed.
e UCaaS news kept on
coming with Head of Channel
(South West) Matt Barnett
announcing that Gamma will
shortly be unveiling the release
of a direct routing option for
Microsoft Teams. Against a
background of only 8% of
Teams users enabling voice on
the application that would be
great news for resellers.
Slowly creeping out of
Gamma is news that the
company is working with
ree.
We see this move as very
signicant in that of all
the UK mobile operators
only ree has the right,
140Mhz, spectrum. e
ITU specify states 100MHz
as the minimum spectrum
requirement for a 5G network
to realise the benets of fastest
data speeds, greater device
density and low latency. Why
is this important? Well, more
spectrum will give the ree
network the ability to handle
28x more data and deliver data
speeds 2x faster than others.
is is a huge advantage
over BT/EE, O2 and Vodafone
and provides an advantage in
applications such as UCaaS
and fast start set up for
companies that do not have
access to broadband.
e bottom line for resellers
is that 5G will prove highly
disruptive in the market
and Gamma, through their
relationship with ree will be
hugely advantaged to monetise
the opportunity.
But don’t think those
network services supplier
applications are being ignored,
SIP trunks and Ethernet
circuits are still being installed
by the thousand.
18 | Comms Business Magazine | April 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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