General Communications and Sprint Communications Systems (Sprint) will become Principal Partners, benefitting from increased marketing, sales and service support. Their promotion comes as recognition of the vital role both played in bringing Everything Everywhere closer to its goal of becoming SME market leader by 2015.
General Communications and Sprint have demonstrated outstanding results in sales to the SME community in their role as Orange Specialist Business Partners. General Communications has achieved 3,000 new connections and 5,000 upgrades on Orange, while Sprint has gained 6,000 connections and 15,000 upgrades in the past year. As Principle Partners, both will benefit from enhanced marketing support including dual branding, enhanced investment and dedicated resource.
Orange re-launched the Orange Partner Programme in March 2010, with a renewed focus on the indirect business channel to SMEs. Indirect resellers have continued to be at the heart of the growth strategy following the merger between Orange and T-Mobile to form Everything Everywhere, with the appointment of Darren Goldsmith as Head of Business Sales across the brands. Everything Everywhere has seen great success, with a 500% increase in SME connections over the last year across Orange and T-Mobile. T-Mobile is the primary brand for SME customers with fewer than 50 connections, while Orange focuses on those with 51-250 connections.
Paul Leonard, Managing Director, Sprint Communications Systems said: “The whole team at Sprint is extremely proud to be selected as an Orange Principal Partner. We try to make life as easy as possible for our business customers, and Orange helps us to do this by listening to what we need from them and working to provide it. Our customers have seen the benefits of the shared network and increased choice available with both Orange and T-Mobile, and as you can see from the growth we’ve had in connections, so have we.”
Andrew Comrie, Managing Director, General Communications said: “Working our way up from being an Orange Specialist Partner to becoming a Principal Partner will change the way that General Communications can do business. Our customers will be able to benefit from even greater loyalty deals and product choice, and our trusted relationship with Orange will not only help us to grow, but by allowing us to offer what the SMEs we work with need, help them to grow too.
Darren Goldsmith, Head of Business Sales, Everything Everywhere said: “It was always our aim not only to grow our SME market share through the indirect channel, but also to be able to reward those loyal and successful partners who helped us to do that. Working with both Sprint and General Communications is always a pleasure, and it’s wonderful to be able to recognise their success with this promotion. We hope now to accept many more indirect resellers into the Orange Partner Programme, so that we can help them to grow their own customer base and benefit from a true partnership approach with Everything Everywhere, Britain’s biggest communications company.”