Multiple routes to market and a must-have product and service portfolio that makes you indispensable to a customer's business are key survival tools in a downturn, according to ATC's bullish Chief Executive Alex Tupman.

ATC Group grew by 10 per cent in the first half of this year across the business - Rocom, ATC Solutions and Servassure - and Tupman expects that to continue. He said: "The key thing is to have as many routes to market as you can, and as broad a product range as possible. That means you can satisfy customer demand and allows you to respond positively to economic changes, making you less susceptible to a downturn, and I believe it is reflected throughout our business."

However, Tupman conceded that some areas are performing better than others, and that there is clear evidence that the average customer spend has fallen. "We have a bit of everything," he said. "And while we're performing well on some fronts, elsewhere we are feeling the effects of the downturn. Our wholesale business, Rocom, grew by two per cent in the first half, but that is wholly because it grew its market share. The average customer spend has come down, and that says something about the economy itself.

"Rocom has to react to the performance of its resellers, and we believe we've got a much broader product and service offering for them to put to clients. But if we're growing - even by two per cent - somebody else must be losing."

"The key thing is to have as many routes to market as you can"

Tupman said the present economic climate brings the rational behind ATC's acquisition of Rocom into focus. "This is exactly what we thought we could deliver to Rocom when we acquired it," he said. "Rather than just quoting on a piece of tin, resellers can quote on everything else around it - services, connections, build, minutes - and source it all from one place, building ongoing network revenue and combining mobile, maintenance, CPE.

"We don't offer discretionary spend. This is must-have technology, which is used to keep the customer's business running. And if, as a reseller, you can combine non-discretionary spend from multiple suppliers in a single point of contact, you will be very attractive to any customer."

According to Tupman, the ability to show savings on a cost-per-user basis is becoming an increasingly important sales tool, and resellers can do that most effectively with a one-stop-shop like Rocom. "They don't need to have everything in house when they can get it from us," he said. "For example, a Panasonic reseller can walk into a potential customer off the street and sell maintenance on Toshiba or Avaya. It's an additional revenue opportunity."

Tupman said market consolidation might currently have stalled. An estimated £12 billion worth of merger and acquisition opportunities are on hold, but it is bound to accelerate at some stage, and that will open up huge opportunities in a market place that is still fragmented. "And there is bound to be consolidation where businesses struggle," he added. "But unless you are paying 100 per cent cash, acquisitions will be difficult for the moment."

Meanwhile, he suggested, survival depends on bringing more imagination to the table. "This is not like the hospitality industry where everything is based on discretionary spend," he said. "Where resellers have a good annuity based on non-discretionary spend, that will continue. The trouble with Capex is that it is discretionary. And obtaining finance for leasing is very difficult at the moment. So that aspect of the industry is suffering. Resellers will have to find new ways to get people to spend money without feeling it. And the winners will be those who blend product sales with managed services and absorb some of the Capex costs if they can."

Tupman said ATC will continue to focus on the opportunities presented by the difficult economic conditions. "What people want is to reduce absolutely necessary spend," he said. "But at the same time as reducing their cost of ownership, they want to have their equipment maintained at all times. This is a good opportunity for resellers to think in innovative ways about how they can make it easier for the customer to do business with them, and an ideal time to get customers to sign up for services like maintenance agreements."