Purple News_07.15 pages

Purple News
Issue 09 | Summer 2015 For our Channel Partners
Diary of a Comms
Business Awards
first-timer
See the glitz and glamour of
the industry awards through
a newbie’s eyes…
Keep business
booming in the
summer months
Leave your business in safe
hands while you soak up
the sun
GET
THE
SCOOP
On all the latest
Nine Wholesale news
and expert views
3
News from Summer 2015
Success is a journey, together

Welcome to the Summer edition of Purple News.
I expect that, like us here at Nine Wholesale, many of you are looking forward to getting away
this summer. Maybe you’re headed for far-flung tropics or planning to make the most of our
own stunning country with a ‘stay-cation’, but either way you’ll want to be able to leave the
day-to-day running of your business in safe hands. Check out our fantastic new service
for resellers, Virtual Office which offers a range of back office support from call-answering
to expert billing advice. We’re really excited about the launch of this time and money-saving
solution and the impact it will have on our partners’ businesses.
There is also an account of the awards night back in June by a Comms Business Awards first-
timer and, of course, the usual thought-provoking insights from our own Marketing, Industry
and Operations experts.
Enjoy the summer months and make sure you grab some relaxing ‘me time’. We’re only a call
or email away, so if you have any feedback or think we can assist you with anything simply get
in touch.
Nick Webster
Managing Director
nick.webster@ninewholesale.co.uk
Hello again
Purple News | Issue 09 | Summer 2015
The sun’s shining and it’s time to kick back and relax, topping up the tank in preparation for
what will hopefully be a success-filled Autumn for your business. However, before you jet off
to the sun, it would be wise to book yourself a place on one or both of our sales-focused,
margin-enhancing workshops in September. These are available to Purple Partners at
no charge and have been proven time and again to sharpen resellers’ minds and reveal
innovative sales avenues that they’ve never considered before.
Buy Smart Sell Clever
Wednesday 9 September 2015, Manchester
What’s the difference between margin and mark-up? OK, so the answer to
that might be obvious enough, but have you considered ways to boost your
margin? The tricks of the trade and the combination of tools you can use?
It’s not something many of us spare the time to do yet it is an essential part
of growing your business. Our workshop will use real life examples that may
surprise you, may shock you, but will definitely benefit you.
Marketing – isn’t that just colouring in?
Wednesday 16 September 2015, Stonehouse
Most certainly not! Marketing should be the central point of every business
impacting sales, finance, recruitment and business strategy. Our Marketing
101 Masterclass will help you to see how, through clever marketing, you can
make a direct impact on your sales figures.
Would like to attend either of our workshops? Have a chat with your CDM or
email hello@ninewholesale.co.uk
your sales margin with our
results-driven workshops!
5%
14%
9%
Shakeup
Not a
Purple Partner?
For free admission to these and
many other inspiring workshops,
as well as an abundance
of other benefits, speak to
your CDM about joining the
programme today.
4

It’s been an interesting couple of months here
in Purple Towers watching the big business end
of tech and telecom battle it out with disruptive
commercial models.
First up was Microsoft who are in the middle
of a huge marketing campaign, writing to their
consumers offering free upgrades to Windows
10. This was a familiar stomping ground of Apple
until very recently, but if you wanted to upgrade
from say, Vista to Windows 7, (and let’s face it,
why wouldn’t you?) there was a fee. Well no more,
providing you qualify with a registered and recent
version of Windows the upgrade is free.
Microsoft have actually gone one further, which is
to publicly state that this version of Windows is the
last one ever. Jerry Nixon a Microsoft developer
was quoted at a recent conference as saying…
“We’re releasing Windows 10, the last version
of Windows”. The industry is widely claiming that
the next stage for the software giant is to release
and support “Windows as a Service”. The move
from CapEx to OpEx is being writ large all over the
tech industries, from the very big to the very small.
The business model behind Office 365 is now well
established. Rather than spend hundreds on a
Microsoft office license as a one off, now we are
being asked to spend tens of pounds on a monthly
basis per user. Easier to manage, less impact
on cash flow, more flexible. An ideal solution. In
the channel we are seeing the same trend as our
customers move more services to an OpEx model;
from hosted voice to cloud based computing. It will
be very interesting to see how Microsoft apply the
WaaS model out to business in the next 12 months.
Apple on the other hand just seem to be content to
bite the hand that feeds it as the recent very public
spat with Taylor Swift and the record label Beggars
Banquet shows. At Nine the timing was uncanny as
we had, literally, the day before had a debate about
paying for promotional activities.
The debate was around coffee house loyalty
schemes, you know the sort; buy 10 cups of
coffee and get one free. The question was does
the coffee house receive free coffee beans in order
to subsidise their free offer or have they worked
their commercials in order to run and support a
promotional campaign? The answer is of course
the latter, but Apple announced publicly that they
intended to run Apple Music on a free 3 month
trial for their users and not pay artist royalties for
the duration of the campaign. Good news for the
consumer, bad news for those supplying the music.
Very much the equivalent of dipping into the
proverbial free tub of coffee beans.
Enter Taylor Swift and Beggars Banquet who,
suitably disenfranchised, engaged with Social
Media so effectively that within 24 hours Apple had
completely reversed their position. “We don’t ask
for free iPhones”, she said, “please don’t ask us for
free music”. Artists are now paid the going rate of
0.2 cents per stream.
Looking at these two approaches one thing stands
out. The traditional approach of “you provide a
service, I pay you for it” is evolving as technology,
communication and collaboration make it easier
to share and engage. Something as simple as
moving from a lump sum of money upfront to a
subscription model may be the commercial edge
that we need to provide flexibility for our customers
moving forward.
INDUSTRY
NOTEBOOKMarcus Dacombe - Group Commercial Product Director
Hownottogive
somethingaway
forfree
I knew
you were
trouble
1

Early June found your correspondent’s car loaded to
the gunnels (what is a gunnel?) and heading off for a trip
to Italy and France. The flexibility and unlimited luggage
allowance available when driving our own car to Europe
compared to the crammed holdall, cattle herding, fellow
passenger’s holiday dress sense and inevitable delays of
air travel, make this an overwhelmingly favoured option
for the Saunders family.
The ability to design and book all the various elements
of this kind of holiday online is what has made the
difference for me. For example, I used Owners Abroad,
Eurotunnel, Holiday Inn, Sanef Tolling, Booking.com,
Swiss travel, via Michelin, Trip Advisor, lots of “what to
do in the area” websites, as well as Google translate
and Apple maps every day. How well have the traditional
holiday companies responded? Does anyone still go to
the travel agent and return with an armful of brochures,
or indeed does anyone still use a phrase book?
I suspect not. What has happened to the businesses
behind the old ways – did they adapt or perish? With
the increase in business mobility, hosted telephony and
SIP connectivity, their advocates tell us that our industry
faces some similar challenges and opportunities.
The ultimate marketing challenge?
Being a marketing person, I do love a powerful brand
and you cannot spend time in Italy without encountering
the monolith that is The Catholic Church. My own
membership lapsed long ago and even in Italy, church
attendance is falling and the demographics of the
congregation are not promising. The use of mystery, fear
and torture to encourage compliance with the Christian
faith was popular in the middle ages, but how do you
energise attendance and engagement in the modern
world? The Pope is a global brand icon and the current
incumbent seems to be livelier than his predecessor,
but there is still an almighty (no pun intended) challenge
to modernise the appeal of the church – check out The
Vatican’s rather low tech website for example. Does The
Vatican have a Marketing department? Maybe I should
apply for the job?
Postcards on the edge?
One of the holiday memories from my youth is the search
for postcards, a suitable post office and the translation
for “how much is a stamp to the UK?” The 24/7 digital
landscape has essentially terminated the practice of
sending home a postcard, yet postcards themselves
survive – so who buys them? I watched a newsagent for
30 minutes from the comfort of a bar across the street
and nobody even looked at them – I talked to the owner
in my best Italian and apparently there is still a market for
postcards as mementos, given the low quality images
we acquire on our smartphones and then fail to back up
or catalogue correctly.
Smartphone or sunscreen?
Every bar and restaurant now advertises free Wi-Fi to lure
in the passing tourist – whatever happened to peace,
relaxation and the solitude to “finally write that novel.”
The hotel brochure has hastily scribbled out sea view
and gourmet restaurant, to be crayoned over by “high
speed broadband.” Part of the holiday experience used
to be the surprises and stories waiting for you at home
after 2 weeks away, but now, apart from the staggering
size of the cattery bill and the accompanying indifference
from Felix, that mystery has gone.
Maybe I am just addicted to my Smartphone – I have
managed a full dry January earlier this year, so maybe
what is needed is at least a week a year without the
dreaded screen. I have read that it can be harder to
kick than smoking or alcohol, so my recent purchase of
an Apple watch is not going to help, is it? An amazing
gadget by the way and look out for my full review in our
soon to be launched blog.
Still about the service?
Stellar service is still the deciding factor for me. The
people I encounter regularly make the difference between
what is good and great. Everyone seems to be smiling,
welcoming, engaging, chatty, interested and always
much better at languages than me. Although digital
engagement, social media wizardry, content marketing,
segmentation and brand personality development are all
important, nothing can replace fantastic people and that
is true in our industry too.
If you have not yet had your summer
break, then have a safe and sensational
time, with or without your smartphone.
atthemoon
Marketing on Holiday – Group Marketing Director, Mark Saunders reflects on how
changes in marketing and technology increasingly define our holidays
Wish you
were here
X
5

Make the most of your summer break
with top level back office support
Introducing Virtual Office -
The Nine Wholesale service includes:
There has never been a better time to join our Purple Partner Programme. Along with all the standard
benefits such as access to £5 broadband, branded marketing collateral and complimentary training,
we are offering a range of fantastic summer specials for new joiners. These value adding features are
aimed at increasing your business and giving you the opportunity for more flexibility outside of the
office.
For the summer months we are offering our Purple Partners free installation on Premium PSTN lines*.
If you add a new PSTN and bring the calls with it you can choose to either offer free installation to your
end user customer, or improve your own operating margins. It’s up to you.
Of course, once you have both the calls and lines with Nine Wholesale, as a Purple Partner you
automatically qualify for a 20% discount on Exceptional Call Reporting.
If you are planning some time away from the office, or are interested in adding to your office skill sets in
the most efficient way, Nine Wholesale’s new Virtual Office team can really help you out. We’re offering
Purple Partners THREE MONTHS FREE Virtual Office Premium and Virtual Office Premium Plus if you
sign up to a 12 month contract.
We will be in touch soon with a full brochure of new and continuing PPP benefits. In the meantime if
you have any questions, please get in touch with your CDM or email hello@ninewholesale.co.uk
. Access to highly trained billing and
provisioning administrators
. Professional customer service, with call
answering and message taking
. Resolutions to complex customer billing
enquiries
. End-to-end fault management
Free
Virtual
Office
20%
OFF
ECR
Free
Line
Installation
Summer’s here and it’s time to take some much needed time off to recharge the
batteries and soak up the sun. However, we know that, as business owners, it can
be difficult to switch off and completely detach yourself. In order to leave work behind
for a week or two you need to have recruited, educated and trained your staff to a
faultless standard – a process that takes excesses of both time and money.
Now there’s an alternative.
Virtual Office is an innovative partnership providing comprehensive, white-labelled
back office support for reseller businesses. We employ a team of high calibre
customer service agents at our Gloucestershire headquarters who are trained in the
complete life cycle of Nine products. From call answering and message taking to fault
management complex billing enquiries, their role is to support resellers’ business
needs, saving you time and money and meaning you can totally relax on your
summer break.
Contact your CDM or email hello@ninewholesale.co.uk to find out just
how much Virtual Office could save you in both staffing costs
and time, and see below for a discounted starter rate
for our Purple Partners.
6

of a Comms Business Awards
first-timer...
Morning after…
Oooofff. Woke up with a slightly fuzzy head, but relatively unscathed. Time to pack up, take
some caffeine onboard and head back to the sticks.
I had a great night – it seems like it’s a fantastic opportunity for the stars of the industry to
get together for a good old knees up, and was great to see hardworking and ambitious
resellers getting recognition from their industry peers.
From the sounds of it, our group was slightly better behaved than those of previous years…
but it was a lot of fun all the same!
On the train
My Comms Business Awards adventure began at Cheltenham Spa station on a sunny
Thursday afternoon. Before long I had spotted our sparkly new offices ‘The Hub’ as
the train whizzed through Stonehouse, but we were soon leaving the leafy Cotswolds
behind as we headed for the bright lights of London.
Getting ready
I arrived without delay at Paddington and headed for the hotel to apply a healthy
layer of slap and wriggle into my dress before heading down to meet the rest of the
Nine Wholesale gang in the hotel foyer
Celebrity selfies
After a short cab journey we arrived at the Lancaster Hotel. Nine Wholesale,
as the main sponsors of the awards, got to meet host David Walliams and
have a photo taken with him which was so exciting - as you can see I was a bit
star-struck!
James P!
Before long we were ushered into the hall where the awards were taking place. Following a
fabulous three-course dinner, James Palmer, CEO of Nine Group, delivered a light-hearted
welcome speech, then David Walliams took to the stage and the awards began.
Awards
Barnes Clutterbuck, Operations Director, presented the Nine Wholesale Good to Great
Awards to deserved winner Olive Communications. Our prize is awarded to resellers
who have gone above and beyond in the last 12 months.
Congratulations to our partners, Best 4 Business Communications, who won the
Reseller of the Year (small) award.
Party time!
Following the awards there was little more to do than mingle, chat and dance – oh and
a few celebratory drinks may have been supped…! Here’s me with the lovely Nikki
Freeman* and two of our resellers, Alex and Jonny from My Communications. There
was a live band, a brilliant vibe – all in all a great time was had by all!
Having joined both Nine Wholesale and, indeed, the telecoms industry, in February this year I have zero experience of wholesale awards
‘dos’. So I was excited to find out that, as main sponsor we had two tables at the Comms Business Awards (CBAs), and that I had a seat
at one of them! After being told numerous tales of debauchery from previous years I was a little apprehensive as the day approached…
see how I got on with my account of the brilliant CBAs from the perspective of a first-timer.
Diary
On track for CBA
Yeah but, no but...
Good to Great
Pass the Nurofen...
Party time !
Alex
Jonny
Le Grand Fromage !
Ready to go
* One of our CDMs
7

NOTES
FROM
THE
ENGINE
ROOM
Barnes Clutterbuck
Group Operations Director
Systemising the ordinary and humanizing
the exception – This is a phrase that
has been at the heart of our operations
development strategy for many years.
I’ll apologize to the original author of this
terrific sound bite for not crediting them.
The principle is simple. The reasonably
predictable ‘stuff’ we do often should be
systemised; it should just happen. When
things go wrong, a freak problem, an
exception, then this is where we earn our
crust as resellers and carriers.
Are there everyday activities within your
organization that aren’t yet automated? It
may come as a surprise that there is still
a huge amount of manual process within
organizations large and small, manual
processes that rely on human effort to
ensure quality and continuity. Unfortunately
us humans are fallible, and even if you are
lucky enough to have standout individuals
that can be relied on day to day, it’s a fact
that people move on and often at the worst
times.
Nine’s new portal is already in beta release
for Mobile with all other Nine portfolio
products hot on its heels. The principle
behind this portal is very much about
systemizing the ordinary for our partners.
We want you to grow your business, and
where we can, we want to take care of the
ordinary for you. We strive to provide you
with tools that help you deliver the service
you are capable of.
We have always wanted to lead the way
in making life easier for partners not only
with portals and tools but in compatibility
with the industry; demonstrable in our
recent collaboration with FCS and other
leading billing houses to agree a standard
CDR format. We are one of the first carrier/
aggregators to implement this new format
across our wholesale business, with
the rollout already well underway. This
common format has been driven by the
needs of channel resellers and will remove
compatibility issues within billing platforms
and producers of wholesale CDRs. We
love making things easy for resellers and
we aren’t selective about it. This move
makes it easy for our partners to do
business with other providers. That leaves
us to concentrate on ensuring that we and
other suppliers need to prove their worth in
other areas.
Most importantly we need to continue to
hear from you about what of your ‘ordinary’
we can systemize. Is it leaving notification
handling (hopefully not)? Fraud monitoring?
Provisioning updates to customers? Fault
updates direct to customers? Apps for
quoting? Help us prioritise these by having
your say because, believe me, there is
tremendous strength that comes from this
wonderful principle.
Get in touch with your ‘systemising the
ordinary’ wants, needs and general
opinions at STO@ninegroup.co.uk
8

What do find most enjoyable about your job?
As a business we are growing and expanding really
quickly. I am enjoying all the new challenges this is
throwing up. I love seeing new people join our team,
especially when they achieve that first target or goal. We
have a real buzz about our office and it makes it a pleasure
to come to work.
What parts of your job do you find most challenging?
I hate it when things go wrong. As a business we are
focused on service. There is nothing more frustrating than
when things don’t quite go to plan. Which unfortunately in
business does sometimes happen. Our goal is to make
sure all of our customers are delighted with us as their
telecoms partners and if something happens that doesn’t
meet their expectations we try and resolve the issues as
soon as we can.
How do you keep your team motivated?
We try to create a fun and inspiring atmosphere. We
want all our staff to stay with us for a long time. We recruit
carefully to make sure people are of good quality and will
fit in with the team then encourage an open and enjoyable
atmosphere. We give people autonomy to make their
own decisions and make them feel part of all our success.
Everything we achieve we achieve as a team.
What is the biggest change you have seen in our
industry over the last five years?
Connectivity. Users now have access to much faster
internet connections that are now priced to be within
reach of all businesses. This is opening up a raft of new
IP and Cloud based opportunities over the entire ICT
spectrum.
What is the most valuable piece of advice that you
would give to a start-up reseller?
Build strong and strategic partnerships with the people
you want to work with. Don’t focus on being the cheapest
focus on being the best. Put customer service and
relationships at the forefront of what you do. Be ready to
embrace the connectivity rush and don’t be afraid to take
the occasional gamble.
Guest column
Tom McDonald
Managing Director
Would you like to appear in our guest column
and offer some advice?
Simply email hello@ninewholesale.co.uk
Inside
Silverstone 2015
We were delighted to be part of the hottest date on the Formula One
racing calendar, and to have a large number of our partners join us for
the Silverstone weekend. Two groups of 10 resellers attended the two
days of the British racing festival on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th of
July. It was a brilliant day out which we look forward to every year.
The presence of Nine-sponsored
racing driver, Josh Webster, who
was racing in the supporting
Porsche Supercup made it even
more special. Josh was nudged off
the track at high speed following
some intense wheel to wheel
action but finished the race in a
resilient mood saying, “I love to
race at Silverstone as it’s the home
of British Motorsport and the
BRDC so I feel part of the fabric of
the circuit.”
Record-breaking attempt
Matt Johnson, one of our CDEs, will be taking on a massive challenge
in August with the aim of smashing the current World Record for the
longest ever Rugby Union match! Matt, a rugby referee in his free time,
aims to raise a minimum of £1,000 for two charities: Scotty’s Little
Soldiers, and School of Hard Knocks
The event will require a very high level of mental and physical
preparation as it equates to refereeing for over five hours of rugby
per ref - 30 miles of running! If you’d like to support him in his efforts,
please get in touch with us for more details.
SummerSemantics
Can you find 9 telecoms-related words hidden in the word
search? For your chance to WIN take a snap of your completed
word search and email it to hello@ninewholsale.co.uk
N B T S D C H A L L N O D S E W A B E S
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G E T F U M E O R P I S A K T U D S M D
E D Y T I V I T C E N N O C S H A I E E
B I N R H A G S D E L P R U P N U P B R
S H E E C U Z E P M U G B S S I T L L D
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