Peter Orr, Sales Director at Servassure, admits that last year was one of his toughest. In a frank interview he candidly recalls kicking himself for deciding to join Servassure without truly establishing the financial viability of its then owner ATC Group. But how things have changed...

Channel veteran Peter Orr has emerged tougher, stronger and more determined than ever to reinforce Servassure's channel reputation under the stewardship of Matthew Riley's Daisy Group. The company is still recognised as one of the leading engineering forces in the UK ICT channel and, with a number of partnerships re-aligned and re-secured, including a ‘massive' deal with BT, Servassure is on course for significant growth in revenues in 2010.

Orr commented: "It's a huge relief, and all of us at Servassure owe Matt Riley a tremendous debt of gratitude for the financial backing of the Daisy group. I know Matt personally, and knew he would understand the challenge and would deal with everyone fairly. Since the takeover it's been an absolute rollercoaster, but it's all positive and the future is looking a lot brighter."

It could have been so different had the ATC administrators opted to close the business and put 300 people out of work. "They were dark days last year, that's for sure," commented Orr. "I was angry at myself for putting myself in a position of insecurity, and professionally I was upset to let good friends and contacts down by failing to deliver on Servassure expectations. I believed what we were doing was right, but we lived or died by the success of the group as a whole, and ATC was a failing business."

Orr also admits that Servassure's attempt to be a ‘master of all trades' was a mistake. "We had too wide a portfolio. We were letting resellers down because we couldn't service them. Saying ‘no' was hard," recalled Orr.

The Daisy sea change ushered in a completely fresh start. "We went from a large partner base to having to re-engage with all our channels and get them to re-sign new contracts. This turned out to be a positive exercise because we could be nothing but honest about the situation. Most of our major partners were keen to re-engage, and in truth at the end of the process we gained rather than lost partnerships. We did lose some but I honestly think they were just too disillusioned to win back, or a bit envious of Daisy's success."

Orr confirmed that Daisy has committed to run Servassure as a separate business, keeping its Harlow base to avoid channel conflict. Furthermore, Daisy has no ‘special deals' with the engineering business. Orr commented: "We are pleased there has been no move to change the name. We have spent two years building the Servassure brand and we reckon we are now one of the most recognised engineering and service brands in the industry. Winning the BT deal was massive and without it we would have been in an awkward position. It has also enabled us to leverage our reputation across the networks and into systems integrators and resellers. We are keen to maintain our independence in the channel which is why we have split the company into two units, BT and UK channels. Daisy sits within UK channels and is treated just like any other partner."

So what can the channel expect now from a regenerated Servassure? "The key message is that we have learned our lessons in over committing and not delivering. We are focused on giving resellers what they need to be successful," confirmed Orr. "We are aware that customers are fed up with paying over the odds for maintenance and getting one visit a year if they're lucky. We are committed to helping resellers provide a more comprehensive managed service encompassing voice, data and professional services which our reseller partners can white label.

"We never forget that the ownership of the customer stays with the reseller, and all we ask is that we are given the chance to prove ourselves again in making channel partnerships work so that we all benefit."