A brief encounter at the cash-and-carry till used to be about as far the average wholesaler/customer relationship went.
But now fast change is giving the wholesale communications market a new face, and creating a new climate. And there’s a sense of ecosystem thinking as suppliers invite their customers to thrive and grow by teaming up and working more collaboratively with them long-term.
That’s one of the key findings of a recent market study from industry commentators Forrester*.
It seems customers are becoming more open to buy-not-build arguments, not just because of economic pressures but because wholesalers are winning greater trust. That’s stimulating a trend towards buying in managed services – from complete network management to individual voice or broadband products – that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.
As evidence of this, Forrester gives no fewer than three examples, all involving the work that BT Wholesale has been doing with its customers. We were chosen by Virgin Media in 2007 to manage, operate and maintain their fixed line network. Since 2008 we’ve been providing BSkyB with a wholesale calls platform. And they were joined last summer by Kcom who put their network infrastructure management into our hands.
And at the same time as relationships are broadening, so are the wholesalers’ portfolios. This is being driven in part by the advent and explosion of new technologies – IP, 4G, fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and next generation access (NGA) among them. But equally important is the recognition by wholesalers that the business models and needs of Communications and Service Providers are becoming more sophisticated and more diverse – as are the needs of their markets.
To keep pace – and pre-empt emerging demands – wholesalers are rapidly transforming themselves from component providers to solutions providers. And one tactic is to take a lead from what’s happening in the retail communications market where convergence solutions and bundled solutions are generating strong interest and uptake.
Now wholesalers are creating packages too: bringing together individual product and service strands and adding value with a service wrap – and all tailored to the needs not only of their customers but of the business and consumer end-user. The Forrester report cites the fully managed white label broadband product developed by BT Wholesale as an example of this. Supplied to customers that include Vodafone UK and the Post Office, this features both the broadband connectivity services and a portal badged with their own brand for order entry and support services.
* “The Changing Face of Telecom Wholesale”: Forrester.com (November 2009)
Find out how BT Wholesale’s portfolio of managed services could go to work for you by getting in touch with your account management team.
