Last month Graham Bunting joined Opal as Head of Distribution, a move that signalled Opal's strategy to bolster its channel proposition and grow its next generation portfolio. We got the story from the incoming channel chief.
Bunting wasted no time launching himself into his new role as Opal's Head of Distribution. His remit is to look at Opal's channel proposition and then strengthen the company's offering to dealers and distributors. His stated mission is to ‘bring about a strategy that gives Opal an aggressive and focused dealer proposition', and he takes a leading role in developing Opal's current propositions as well as creating new opportunities for partners that will grow both Opal and its partners' businesses.
Bunting draws on more than 25 years experience in the telecoms industry and is a familiar face to many in the channel. In 1993 he joined SDX Business Systems and stayed with the company after it was acquired by Lucent and spun off again as part of Avaya. His expertise is now focused on expanding and improving Opal's dealer propositions, making them attractive for partners at all levels of the channel.
"My job is to bring the Opal 21 dealer business, the networks organisation and the distribution piece into a strategy that makes sense for our target market - the dealers. Within Opal, the dealer piece has perhaps been unloved for a while, now there's an opportunity for us to step the pace up," said Bunting.
While he's still working on the details of changes in the packages offered through the Opal 21 scheme, Bunting says the key to making dealer propositions successful is recognising that certain partner stereotypes are outmoded, while more channel partners are looking at alternative business models. He noted: "We appeal to a broad audience. There's the traditional people who we'd expect to appeal to, but equally there's many other people who are looking at their business model and customers, and what services they offer and what gaps and opportunities there are to exploit by adding other products and solutions and creating a higher degree of stickiness."
Although his appointment isn't directly related to the recent demerger of Opal's parent group TalkTalk from Carphone Warehouse, Bunting says the timing couldn't be better for building up awareness. "There's been, perhaps, a degree of overshadowing by the Carphone Warehouse branding," he said. "It's a similar challenge to the one I had at Avaya in the SME space: Avaya wasn't a well known brand for SME, and I think it's always good to get the opportunity to fill your brand with meaning for the customers you're trying to reach. This is a good opportunity, and it's timely."
Apart from refining Opal's dealer offering, Bunting believes that his biggest challenge is communication, hence the amount of time he spends on trains these days. "Obviously, we're clear about what we think we are, but it's making sure everyone is clear about that too," said Bunting.
As part of his mission to ‘over-communicate' the changes, Bunting is an ardent advocate of social media and posts Twitter updates several times a day. Everyone should be looking to online tools for business networking, he says, but the trick is not to expect instant results. "Many people in my experience who go into social networking think they'll start writing a blog or tweet and get a host of orders within a week," he explains. "It's not about that. It's about forming long-term relationships where people come and find you, get to know you and engage once they've got to know you and what you stand for."
With more 21CN exchanges in the pipeline, competition for the kinds of next generation services that set companies like Opal apart in the SME space is getting fiercer by the day. However, Bunting says he welcomes the challenge that such competition brings. "There's much competition out there, and a lot of customers are getting immune to the standard approaches," he commented. "But competition is helpful. If other people are out there marketing against Opal it gives us more incentive to be the best we can possibly be."