When Dave Breith established O-bit Telecom in February 2002 he did so with an impeccable clarity of vision - to make money, to be ‘that bit better', and to be 100 per cent channel-centric.

With unflinching determination O-bit Telecom's CEO Dave Breith aims to boost the £21 million revenue achieved last year to £30 million, and will expand staff numbers from 55 to 65 before 2011. Given O-bit's continued growth through the recession he is confident that these figures are ‘conservative and attainable'. The gospel according to Breith has always been, and will always be, the indirect channel. He cites ‘profit not revenue' as the key influencing factors shaping O-bit's go-to-market strategy, and says the hot market opportunities for O-bit and the channel at the moment are 21CN DSL solutions including Annex M, up to 24mb services and LLU. "This is also coupled with the increasing demand for dedicated data services, EFM, WANS, LANS, IP VPN and MPLS offerings direct off our own data backbone. This is the fastest growth area for us," he noted.

Breith's new mission is to throw off the traditional telco value that price will always be capital in comms. "The focus for O-bit is shifting to long-term contracts, tied in revenues and ensuring positive cashflow for our resellers," said Breith. "By catering for their needs today we are looking to secure their business for tomorrow. O-bit's aim is to make sure its resellers have a future proof offering with healthy margins and appeal."

The components of O-bit's proposition have evolved to be ‘that bit better', says Breith. "We aim to own our solutions from end-to-end which has resulted in us developing our broadband and voice networks," he said. "As we have grown so has our portfolio, but we stayed loyal to the wholesale model. A key aspect of our strategy is to remain current and to ensure our solutions are relevant and in demand."

Recent additions to the portfolio include, 24mb broadband, Annex M, EFM and hosted telephony. Surfwise Broadband is a new product portfolio offering ADSL2+ and Annex M plus competitive broadband and lines packages. ERP software and engineering support are both areas in which O-bit has great expertise.

Last month O-bit launched its new colocation solution, Hostwise. The service offers resellers the opportunity to provide customers with advanced data centre solutions, allowing them to meet the growing demand from businesses for stable and reliable server hosting solutions. Based in a purpose-built modern data centre facility in High Wycombe, Bucks, Hostwise can provide 24/7/365 server access with big savings compared to facilities in London. Hostwise allows resellers to provide customers with a competitive colocation solution that benefits from a 100 per cent uptime SLA for power and cooling, and a 99.99 per cent network uptime SLA.

"Increasingly, many businesses are offering their services via the Internet," explains Breith. "Whether this is a simple e-commerce website or a more complex cloud-based service, these companies need a reliable colocation solution to keep their business running. As well as flexibility in choice of rack size, Hostwise customers are able to take advantage of bandwidth options ranging from 50GB to 100GB, as well as optional remote technical support and optional VoIP connectivity."

Breith's pledge is never to dilute O-bit's offering by going direct to the end user, a move that would generate fractious frustration among a loyal reseller base in an already volatile and unpredictable marketplace. "Fluctuating mobile interconnects make it difficult to forecast a solution which has long been the bread and butter of the smaller telco," said Breith. "Margin squeeze on calls, lines and broadband by larger telcos has meant that securing a future revenue and profit stream from these solutions is unlikely to continue. The savvy reseller is preparing their business to diversify into other managed services with longer contract terms and commitment."

He noted that the IT market has been opened up significantly by the more technical and consultative sell on data solutions. "These services create the possibility of long-term contracts and tied in revenues which resellers have struggled to achieve with the staple calls and lines," added Breith. "This also allows reseller to plan financially for the future with guaranteed profits from these areas. Data solutions, hosting, and VoIP are all areas in which we encourage growth. There will come a point when the Talk Talks and BT's of the world will be offering calls and lines free of charge so we need to be prepared for this and have a suite of office solutions to ensure continuing profit lines."

The particular stand-out skill-sets and offerings that differentiate O-bit from the competition, says Breith, are flexible working practices and an ability to extend technical knowledge into organisations rather than simple information pushing. "Another key strength is our wholesale only focus," he commented. "We are small enough to look at each customer and address their needs on individual merits. Bespoke requirements are assessed and catered for outside of the product and service template, which is something the larger carriers are unable to do."