Wick Hill is gearing up for a major push into the convergence arena, and leading the charge is incoming Business Development Manager Siobhan Gibbs, recruited to spearhead the growth of converged voice and data solutions through the channel.

Gibb's remit is to grow the channel for new Wick Hill vendor Samsung, getting the voice part of the business running and working on building up Wick Hill's converged voice and data portfolio. Gibbs has worked in telecoms distribution for 15 years, much of the time involved with successfully launching new products into new channels. She previously worked for Westcon Group as Head of Sales, and for MTV Telecom (now ScanSource) as Sales Director. She said Wick Hill represents an ‘excellent opportunity' for resellers as it has in-depth knowledge of the IP world.

To drive the convergence strategy Gibbs plans to use various methods such as knowledge transfer and awareness across both the voice and data channels. "Wick Hill has an existing customer base that understands the IP world, but equally there are a vast amount of voice resellers who can increase their skill set," she said. "We're working with voice and data resellers, to take them forward to achieve customer retention through delivering a complete solution. We're using various training methods to fill in the skills gaps and have an internal and external converged team to support resellers."

The biggest challenge in getting the voice part of the business up and running is the time scale, said Gibbs. "It's all about how quickly we can make things happen. In an ideal world, you'd be able move from conception to actual revenues exceptionally quickly. But it's very important that we spend time with the right resellers to make sure we put all the building blocks in place to take resellers to a point where they can generate revenue," she added.

According to Gibbs, the biggest opportunity, from a reseller's point of view, is customer retention. "It's no secret that the more products and services you can supply to any one business, the more important you are to that company, and the more likely you are to keep their business," she noted. "Financially, the margins for hardware and software sales are generally much lower in the data world than they are for voice, so voice products are margin rich for a data reseller. Equally - which is why it's interesting for voice resellers to be part of this too - the service and project management element in the data world is more margin rich than in the voice world."

Gibbs intends to pay close attention to building up Wick Hill's converged voice and data portfolio, saying: "We'll be selecting our vendors very carefully. We will choose products that are complementary to our resellers across the board. Samsung's range, for example, includes security, data, voice gateways and routers, so it encompasses both voice and data. We will be selecting good peripheral products that sit around telephony solutions, but at the same time looking at solutions for network services and hosting."

Gibb's job is also about implementing and putting a strategic team in place to support her and the channel, as well as about recruiting resellers. "I've personally been involved with recruiting a number of pure security resellers and more broadline data resellers and bringing them into the voice market," she stated. "It's helped that Wick Hill has been able to go with a rounded portfolio to its customer base. We have had some significant wins so far and exceeded our own, and Samsung's, expectations."

The key elements of Wick Hill's marketing, sales and technical support in educating resellers about the converged environment include seminars, demos and training courses. "We're also providing resellers with technical and consultancy expertise, either by phone or in person. We help them technically with pre- and post-sales support, and will accompany them on customer visits, aid with installations and provide product support post-sales," said Gibbs.

Her previous experience in telecoms has helped her to address the challenges of introducing voice to data resellers in a number of ways. "I understand what is needed from a delivery point of view," she commented. "In the past, I've successfully launched various products into the channel that have been outside the comfort zone of voice resellers, and have been first to market with those on several occasions. I'm used to taking products that the channel isn't used to, and helping make them an every day part of business, with associated high margins."

Wick Hill has made a long-term and large investment in building this part of the business and Gibbs finds its approach ‘refreshing'. "We pride ourselves on knowledge and driving demand at end-user level to support resellers in growing their business. It's all about partnership. It's fantastic to have this type of support around me. I'm looking to turn Wick Hill into a force to be reckoned with in the converged voice and data marketplace. Watch this space."