Increased competition and budgetary pressures are the biggest challenges currently facing channel partners, according to Roan Pratt, sales director of indirect channels at Onecom Partners.
Pratt said that the announced £40 billion tax rises in the chancellor’s Autumn Budget in October 2024, £25 billion of which will be incurred by businesses, had caused many companies to reign in their spending.
Among the biggest concerns amid firms is the increase in national insurance contributions (NICs) from employers from 1.2 per cent to 15 per cent and the threshold at which NIC becomes payable falling steeply to £5,000 from £9,100.
“Typically, going into a new year, companies would be looking at their targets and budgets,” said Pratt. “But this year, following the announcements in the Budget, there has been cause for them to pause and think again.”
Pratt said that, added to that, competition has heightened, with increasingly more telecommunications companies moving into offering IT services and vice versa. As a result, he said that partners have to work even harder to maintain their existing customer base while also going out to find new growth opportunities.
One such key area they have been looking to exploit, said Pratt, is mobile sales. Given its wide reach across the Channel, this enables them to cross- and up-sell multiple products and services, he said.
Strategic partner program
To enable partners to grow further, Pratt said that Onecom Partners has established a strategic partner program which provides advice and funding for acquisitions and going after new customer bases. Over the last 12 months, he said that the company has worked with five partners on making between 10 to 12 acquisitions, using its Onecom Direct knowledge and skillset to support it.
“It has been a key differentiator for us, enabling us to better understand our partners individual pain points and needs, and, therefore, help to meet them,” said Pratt. “By becoming an integral part of our partners’ ecosystems, we can develop a mutually beneficial relationship that works in the interests of both parties.”
Through the program, Pratt said that Onecom Partners is also looking to bring a cyber dark web monitoring product to market. It is also aiming to launch a secondary voice offering, as well as a service using virtual assistant meeting AI bots that takes and summarises notes.
“It’s all about giving our partners that choice of capabilities,” said Pratt. “Buyers are more educated and savvy than ever before, so if they don’t find what they want from you they will simply go elsewhere to find it.”
In terms of its own results, Pratt said that the company has reported a record year for both hosted voice and mobile services. Mobile alone was up by 300 per cent year-on-year in 2024 and it has only continued to grow this year, he said.
Moving forward, Pratt said that a key focus for Onecom Partners is IoT, which it’s looking to bring to market in Q1. Given the current growth trajectory, he said that the timing of the launch couldn’t be better.
“IoT is a big growth area right now,” said Pratt. “Whether that is for mobile phones, router back-ups or Ethernet, its adoption is fast-becoming widespread.”
More generally, though, Pratt said that the company is focused on growth this year. That means delivering a broad and relevant product portfolio to meet partners’ needs and demands.
“For partners it’s about making those quick wins,” said Pratt. “So, we’re looking to build a portfolio of products that provides the right solutions end users need in an ever-evolving technology market.
“But amid all these technological advances, it’s equally important not to overlook the importance of the human communication and interaction. Automation is great, but it’s vitally important to be able to speak with the right person if you need to raise an issue.”