INTERVIEW Julien Parven - Daisy Communications
“The Ofcom regulations coming into play in February around Contract End Notifications will be significant”
Julien Parven, SMB Marketing Director, Daisy Communications
Feeding dealers
In this interview Julien Parven, SMB Marketing Director for Daisy Communications explains how they are
empowering dealers to retain margins without the threat of a direct supplier
CBM: Can you explain how your
direct and indirect arms coexist
at Daisy Communications?
Julien Parven (JP): We don’t
want to be falling over ourselves
creating false competition. If you
look back at the history of Daisy
it was a Channel business. My
mantra is that everything that we
are doing should have a partner-
rst lens on it.
In Daisy Communications
we have a direct sales function
where we manage customers
directly. e benet of having
a direct and indirect arm is we
are able to lean on the respective
parts of the business. Our view to
approaching the Channel is that
if a partner feels condent and
is self-sucient in selling any of
the services then they can go and
do that and we’ll do what we do
in terms of managing the billing,
customer support and we’ll pay
them a residual or an upfront
commission. Where a partner is
less skilled, but has the appetite
and desire, we lean on our
learning and development teams
to take them on that journey.
e whole Daisy model has
been built on the products and
services we have and cross selling
them into the existing base. We
take the view that without express
permission (from the partner)
that isn’t our right to do with
a partner-managed customer.
In that scenario it’s about the
partner asking us to engage
because they aren’t comfortable
with the product set and it often
happens to stop the core services
already in place being unlocked
and moved to a new partner.
CBM: What are the big changes
you are seeing in the market for
dealers right now?
JP: ings are changing rapidly
in the market. e Ofcom
regulations coming into play in
February around Contract End
Notications will be signicant.
We are looking at how we react
to that and how we build a model
which gives partners visibility. We
are obliged under the regulations
to communicate with customers
and inform them that their
contracts are coming to an end
and of the Right to Terminate.
We are looking at how we give
partners the opportunity to
recommit those customers earlier
so they can continue to see their
commission on revenues.
e PSTN switch-o is
beginning to have an impact,
there are partners starting to gain
from that. New partners that
don’t have a base can come in and
SIP has a low point of entry. We
are seeing that those guys in the
IT support sector, IT dealers etc,
are starting to play in this space.
e connectivity is entwined in
their other services so they can be
quite aggressive in their approach
to the market.
CBM: How are you helping
your partners with the price
pressures in the market?
JP: Our service wrap is not,
and never will be, the cheapest.
Winning that race to the bottom
is not good for anyone, Daisy or
the partner base. e question is
how do we insulate partners from
that by creating a service wrap
which sits around the services
they can sell? We also help them
be more ecient in their dealings
with their customers and give
them access to our service teams
so they can retain their margins
without having to keep a huge
back oce. Ultimately, we are
their back oce and support
function.
We will be more visible this
year and partners will see more
simplication in the ways they
can deal with us. If a partner
decides they want some form
of exit strategy I don’t think
it’s any secret how we support
partners within that scenario.
We encourage the partners to
go out and sell to the customer
and we have a model where we
Julien Parven, SMB Marketing
Director for Daisy Communications
buy those customer bases back
and that can be done on a single
one-o basis or perennially.
Partners can sell us back the
customers in the previous
period and we pay them in
recognition of that and they can
use that cash go and acquire
more customers.
16 | Comms Business Magazine | January 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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