technologyreseller.co.uk 45 continued... Q&A With Gavin Jones, Head of Channel, BT Wholesale Technology Reseller (TR): To provide context for the BT Wholesale Partner Plus programme, please can you give me a quick overview of the different types of product that are available through BT Wholesale and the types of partners you work with. Gavin Jones (GJ): BT Wholesale is split into three primary channels: there’s the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) channel, which basically sells white-label mobile services; there’s the mobile network operator and hyperscaler segment, which addresses the infrastructure requirements of UK mobile operators and some of the newer hyperscalers; and then there’s my area, the classic wholesale space. We deal with about 3,000 customers and if I was to categorise them you’ve got facility-based operators, which are basically other telcos, including global operators like AT&T and Verizon, European ones like Colt and UK-based ones like Talk Talk, Sky and Neos Networks. Then we have a range of resellers – we would call them communication partners – that generally sell into specific industry verticals or corporate sectors. These might include companies like Exponential-e or Redcentric that have a turnover £100 to £200 million and sell into large and midmarket corporates in the southeast, plus others that might focus on the hospitality or leisure sectors or education. Then we have a tail of smaller resellers that tend to be either very niche or regionally organised and which are often rolled up by private equity into larger organisations. So there’s a pretty good mix and a pretty interesting mix. At the top end, we’ll be selling 100 Gigabit point to point circuits, whereas at the bottom end we’ll be selling managed internet links to be resold on to corporates. It’s a broad church. TR: Who is the Partner Plus programme targeted at? Is it mainly for smaller resellers or does it cover the whole spectrum? GJ: It’s geared to the bottom to the mid-end and, combined with the digital investment we’re making, it’s about making us easier to do business with and about bringing us closer to our customers. Instead of selling products, we’re trying to sell propositions and help our customers sell, so we offer things like campaign-in-abox, white-label collateral and marketing development funds. It’s really meant to create a deeper affinity with our partners and help them and help us to be successful working together. It’s about creating a sense of loyalty and a sense of belonging and recognising and rewarding that. TR: Does this represent a new approach from you? GJ: It’s been a new approach for the last 18 months to two years. Before that, we had a generic website which you had to come to to find stuff. Now, we’re creating a specific hub for partners that actually has content, collateral. It’s tiered, so there are different levels of access, but it’s really about making life easier for our partners and allowing them to have greater interaction and allowing them to help shape our business for the future as well. TR: What prompted you to make this change? GJ: We had a number of disparate businesses before, but we recognised that the market was changing. There is a big event happening in terms of all-IP and the 2025 switch-off and solutions were becoming more IP-based, more cloudbased and more complex. Selling products was very transactional and we wanted to help our customers create more value. We set up a propositions team which wasn’t just selling you something from A to B but was selling you a proposition with white label collateral, helping you to go and sell that, and actually creating campaigns in a box that you could use to reach your customers. So the change was really to enable support and to really work with our customers so that together we could drive value. Q&A Earlier this year, as reported in Technology Reseller, BT Wholesale launched an enhanced three-tier partner programme for Wholesale customers. BT Wholesale Partner Plus builds on existing services for the partner community and formalises previous offerings, making it easier for partners to collaborate and integrate with BT Wholesale’s suite of experts and services. Each tier provides an expanded range of benefits, including commercial support, sales and marketing resources and learning tools delivered through BT Wholesale’s new Partner Plus Hub. This provides an end-to-end digital experience and gives partners control of their account through a range of self-serve tools. To discuss this new programme and other developments at BT Wholesale, Technology Reseller caught up with Gavin Jones, Head of Channel at BT Wholesale Gavin Jones
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