Technology Reseller v33

01732 759725 32 COVER STORY Technology Reseller (TR) : What motivated this deal? Matthew Riley (MR): I see a significant opportunity in the channel for cloud- based billing and provisioning software. We estimate the number of channel players will continue to grow and when you include ICT partners into the mix the market sits at approximately 14,500 partners. The combination of Union Street’s strong and historic profile and brand equity with Aurora’s development muscle will add enormous value to the telco and IT resell markets. I’ve known and done business with Tony and Vincent for a long time and seen them take Union Street from strength to strength and that’s going to continue. TR : What’s going to change at Union Street? Vincent Disneur (VD): The most notable difference is the increased scale and capacity of our joint operations. Merging Union Street with Aurora creates a combined workforce of 200 personnel serving 800 channel partners that, collectively, use our solutions to bill circa to £2bn per annum. Matthew is taking on the role of Chairman and has appointed me as Managing Director alongside Kevin O’Brien as Chief Finance Officer. Tony Cook, our previous owner, will remain as an advisor to the board. Union Street is retaining its brand identity and will continue to supply its aBILLity billing software with technical support and associated services just as before. Aurora, bolstered with significant new investment, will act as the company’s development division, driving forward R&D for existing products whilst developing new innovations for the channel. TR : How will this move benefit resellers in the IT Space? VD: Technologies are increasingly converging and there’s a growing desire among end users to work with one supplier for all IT and communications services. This presents a fantastic opportunity for MSPs and ICT resellers to expand their proposition to include communications services and many have already done so. At the same time there are numerous technological changes impacting the market that present enormous growth opportunities. There’s Blockchain, 5G, the move to all IP telephony, the list goes on and on. By combining our expertise, resources, and the best features of our software products, we can better assist ICT resellers and MSPs in capitalising on these and existing opportunities. MR: We have the opportunity to digitally enhance the way the ICT channel not only bills its end user customers, but also how it provisions those services. Getting your bills out right first time, on time every time is the mantra and to do that you have to provision correctly and get the sales paperwork correct at entry. We believe we can revolutionise the way the channel gets its sales to bill process delivered. This means happy end user customers, which means you can get paid quicker and grow faster and that’s what this business is about, helping you to grow your business. In August, leading provider of billing software, Union Street Technologies, received investment from serial tech entrepreneur, Matthew Riley. As part of the investment, Union Street is merging with fellow billing provider, Aurora, creating an independent cloud-based billing and provisioning software business. Riley and Union Street’s Vincent Disneur discuss what this means for the channel. Helping partners become bigger, better and more profitable Matthew Riley Vincent Disneur