Why US Channel Partners Choose Colt for Converged Network Services and Cloud IT Services in Europe

Why US Channel Partners Choose Colt for Converged Network
Services and Cloud IT Services in Europe
A Telecom Association Interview White Paper,
September 2012
The following interview was conducted between
Telecom Association’s Executive Director Dan
Baldwin and Colt’s UK & Ireland Sales Director
Nastasi Karaiskos to educate TA’s 3,800 members on why US channel partners and telecom agents
doing business in the European Union countries why Colt is being chosen over larger carriers and
service providers.
To learn more about becoming a Colt partner, visit Colt’s partner website.
1. ELEVATOR PITCH ­ What's the quick but complete one or two sentence description that you use to
describe what your services or solutions do for your customers?
Colt is the information delivery platform, enabling its customers to deliver, share,
process and store their vital business information. An established leader in
delivering integrated computing and network services to major organisations,
midsized businesses and wholesale customers, Colt operates a 22­country,
43,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 39 major European
cities with direct fibre connections into 19,000 buildings and 20 carrier neutral Colt
data centres.
In addition to its direct sales capability, Colt has four indirect channels to market;
Agent, Franchise, Distributor and Wholesale which includes Carriers, Service
Providers, VARs and Voice Resellers.
2. PRODUCT SETS, SOLUTION CATEGORIES & MARKET SEGMENTS ­ What do you sell and who
do you sell it to?
Colt has a wide portfolio of Data, Voice, IT Managed Services and Data Centre Services which are
delivered with award winning customer service and industry leading security. These include Hosting,
Cloud services, Data Networking, Internet Services, Security Services, Telephony and Interactive Voice.
We serve more than 30,000 organisations in 22 countries across Europe. Our customers are
organisations in both the private and public sector ranging from multinational or national corporations to
smaller companies in a single city location.
Our 30,000+ customers include 1000+ Finance customers including 24 of the world’s top 25 financial
institutions, 25+ European stock exchanges / Multilateral Trading Facilities and 13 European central
banks.
Colt is one of the leading pioneers of next generation converged networks, and today our complementary
European Ethernet and IP networks connect seamlessly and securely to over 100 major cities. We
consistently achieve some of the industry’s highest levels of performance and security and have ensured
that our Ethernet has become a key catalyst in providing flexible enterprise computing services.
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In addition to our direct sales capability, we have four indirect channels to market; Agent, Franchise,
Distributor and Wholesale which includes Carriers, Service Providers, VARs and Voice Resellers.
Colt Communication Services provides the information delivery platform to customers with a European
footprint through indirect sales channels: fixed and mobile network operators, service providers,
distributors, resellers, franchisees and agents. We combine state­of­the­art technology and systems
with skilled people to provide network, IT and communications services that are easy to order,
implement and manage.”
Colt Communication Services specialise in the provision of channel­ready transactional ICT services that
can be deployed through indirect sales partners who serve the needs of small, medium and large
businesses.
Are there any metro, verticals or other niches where you're especially competitive?
We serve more than 30,000 organisations in 22 countries across Europe. Our customers are
organisations in both the private and public sector ranging from multinational or national corporations to
smaller companies in a single city location.
Customers use our pan­European network reach as a gateway to doing business in Europe or to
complement their own network and services capabilities. Here are some examples of how we respond to
our customers’ different needs:
Financial services: Every day our network carries trillions of Euros worth of transactions securely and
reliably, enabling the mission­critical trading activities of financial markets to operate.
Legal: Sharing, storing and protecting information is vital to the legal sector. Law firms increasingly use
sophisticated information, document management and billing systems. We help them to do so with
efficiency, reliability and security.
Media: Media customers rely on us to deliver and protect their creative work. In an online world this also
means managing ever increasing volumes of rich content and media. We can handle this capacity with
guaranteed resilience.
Healthcare and Government: We work with national and local government organisations and healthcare
providers who depend on us to deliver and manage their information with the utmost security. We can
help customers comply with data protection legislation across Europe requiring transfer, control and
storage of sensitive data.
3. CATALYSTS TO ACTION & GOOGLE INQUIRIES ­ What are the primary pain points or initiating
events that become the catalysts for your prospects first taking a look at your services and solutions?
TO Be Done
What are the Google inquiries that prospects are typing into search engines that lead them to your
solution sets?
To be Done
4. COMPETITIVE COMPARISON & OBJECTION RESPONSES ­ Who are the other competitors that
your prospects are looking at and how is your service or solution better or different from them?
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Colt Communication Services Competition
In the fixed­line market Colt competes primarily with the local and national incumbent Public Telephone
Operator (PTO). For voice, data and managed services traffic Colt competes with a number of alternative
service providers, and for cross­border business pan European operators provide further competition. The
voice market is also subject to competition from VoIP operators, who have offerings in the small and
medium size corporate markets.
For our access and networking services we see most competition from the incumbent operators as well
as regional carriers and service providers. From a pan European perspective there is limited competition
that can match Colt’s network reach and service offering.
Colt is the only company to combine three critical elements on a pan­European basis:
Pioneering European Ethernet and IP Networks
Significant IT infrastructure and services
Expertise in creating integrated IT managed services, networking and communication solutions.
We are committed to excellence in everything we do – and a long list of awards shows that we mean
business.
The proof that we are serious about delivering on all our promises comes with external recognition.
There’s no better measure of a company’s effectiveness than recognition by its peers, and by
organisations whose job it is to judge quality. Our long list of awards proves that we have never wavered
from our commitment to excellence in everything we do. Take a look through some of our recent awards
and you’ll see that we have excelled on all fronts: from technology to customer service to data centre
operational excellence and innovation.
I include a list of Colt awards below, for a full list of awards, please visit our website: www.colt.net
Data Centre 2013 Awards ­ Energy Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability
Uptime Institute’s Awards – Management & Operations Stamp of Approval for Colt’s London 2 and
London 3 data centre facilities (2012, 2011); Tier III Design Certification Award for Colt’s London 3 data
centre facility (2012)
Data Centre 2012 Awards – Modular Data Centre Solution Award
Information Age Innovation Awards – Data Centre Innovation Award (2012)
DataCenter Dynamics Awards – Innivation in medium data centre (2012) Data Centre Leaders Award,
Judges Discretionary Award for the modular data centre (2010)
Data Centre in Europe Awards – European Award for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres (2011)
Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards – Ethernet Business Innovation (2012) Corporate
Application Innovation (2011), International Optical Service Innovation (2009)
VMware Partner Awards – VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) Partner of the Year, both EMEA
and Global Awards (2010)
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World Communication Awards – Best Regional Operator (2009, 2005), Best Brand (2006), Best
Customer Care (2001 to 2004)
Metro Ethernet Forum Awards – Up to four awards each year from 2005 to 2012 – Categories include
EMEA Best Business Ethernet Service/Portfolio, Service Provider of the Year, Innovation
Capacity Global Wholesale Telecoms Award – Best European Wholesale Offering (2010, 2005)
Transform Awards – Gold Award, Best rebrand by sector (2011)
Ethernet Expo Europe ­ Service Provider of the Year ­ Best Product Portfolio (2009)
Light Reading ­ Strongest Ethernet product portfolio (2007)
Frost & Sullivan ­ Customer Service Leadership Award (2006)
What are all the objections that you competitors raise about your company and what are your standard
objection responses?
Network reach –
Our managed network reaches more of Europe than any other. Customers of all sizes and working in
every sector benefit from the fact that we offer direct­line connectivity to over 18,000 buildings in 39 major
European cities. That last­mile fibre connection delivers the security and reliability our customers
demand as they work to succeed in a fast moving marketplace.
For many of our customers, we are their single, dedicated supplier of Data, Voice and Managed
Services right across Europe. We are present in 22 countries in Europe plus the US and have
agreements with providers in others so we can ensure total European coverage.
Our advanced infrastructure means that you gain from our flexible, responsive and reliable services day
in, day out. Our stringent service level agreements (SLAs) for our on­net customers are one of the most
demanding in the industry and mean you can be sure that you’ll be able to make the most of our
network 24/7, 365 days a year.
We have built 20 data centres across the continent and they are fully integrated into the Colt network to
give you the certainty you need to work with confidence. They are continuously monitored, and employ
the latest technology to deliver cutting edge performance in a sustainable way. For instance we use free
air cooling in some of our data centres to cut power usage. The point is to deliver environmental benefits
whilst offering an excellent service to our customers.
5. CASE STUDIES & SHOWCASE SOLUTIONS ­ Can you share with us a couple of recent case
studies where a business used your products, services or solutions to solve a problem.
We serve more than 30,000 organisations in 22 countries across Europe. Our customers are
organisations in both the private and public sector ranging from multinational or national corporations to
smaller companies in a single city location.
Customers use our pan­European network reach as a gateway to doing business in Europe or to
complement their own network and services capabilities.
We have an extensive range of case studies that address the business requirements for financial
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services, education, health, insurance, legal, IT &Telco, media, hospitality, entertainment, transport,
local government, online business and manufacturing.
We welcome you to review of our case studies on our website: www.colt.net or view customer
testimonial videos on our YouTube channel.
6. GREEN FIELD OR MIGRATION ­ Are your customers migrating to you from a competitor's
similar solution or are they more likely to be a "green field" opportunity?
Due to our wide portfolio of Data, Voice, IT Managed Services and Data Centre Services which are
delivered with award winning customer service, we can provide solutions to both greenfield sites and to
customers looking to migrate their services to Colt from another provider.
Colt’s network is critical to delivering reliable, comprehensive IT and communication services to our
customers. During 2012 we added almost 1,000 new buildings to the Colt fibre network including 18
strategic business sites and 30 third party data centres. We also added points of presence in 10 new
cities across Europe, including Keflavik in Iceland. We have strengthened our international network with
some significant new fibre routes including three new ultra low latency routes and a new route between
London and Dublin.
We continue to invest in our network and access capabilities to ensure we deliver an optimal information
delivery platform for our customers.
7. HOW TO BUY ­ What are your different "go to market" channels? Direct, channel partners,
wholesale, etc?
In addition to our direct sales capability, Colt has four indirect channels to market; Agent, Franchise,
Distributor and Wholesale which includes Carriers, Service Providers, VARs and Voice Resellers.
Colt Communication Services provides the information delivery platform to customers with a European
footprint through indirect sales channels: fixed and mobile network operators, service providers,
distributors, resellers, franchisees and agents. We combine state­of­the­art technology and systems
with skilled people to provide network, IT and communications services that are easy to order,
implement and manage.
Colt Communication Services go to market
Colt branded solutions: European businesses seek highly specialised, local advisors to help them
navigate the plethora of communications and IT services available to them. In response to customer
demand for converged communications and IT managed services we recently extended and broadened
our partner base selling Colt branded solutions by establishing two new sales channels, a franchise
channel and a specialist distributor channel.
Together with our well­established agent sales channel, the franchisees and distributors are taking our
Colt brand into the market place. This year we appointed franchises in France, Spain and Italy, with
further expansion planned across Europe. Our Franchise offering includes a comprehensive range of
flexible communication, networking and compute options, designed to meet the specific needs of small
and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Franchise partners exclusively provide Colt services in
conjunction with their own complementary offerings, allowing them to create a profitable new revenue
stream through a range of cobranded solutions and services. Their customers benefit from the expertise
and experience of both Colt and its franchise partners, with the franchise partners maintaining the direct
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relationship with their end­user customers, including all customer relationship management and billing.
In 2011 we announced the appointment of Magirus as our first cloud services distributor, reaching a
specialist network of IT resellers who have the necessary skills to sell cloud services to small and
medium­sized businesses. In 2012, using Magirus’ existing channel, we have accredited more than 140
resellers to offer Colt’s vCloud services. The recent acquisition of Magirus by Avnet Inc. has formed one
of Europe’s largest value­added IT distributors opening up a further opportunity for Colt’s offering. During
2012 we also concluded an agreement with Arrow ECS to launch a new Colt cloud storage service
through its new ArrowSphere cloud services business unit.
White Labelled solutions: For our wholesale partners our mission is to offer a one­stop ‘network
solution’, using our unrivalled European network capability for delivering both on­net and off­net services.
Our customers can interconnect with Colt via a single interface and have access to our entire network
capability and assets, underpinned by our automated systems and transactional business capability.
This approach proves highly attractive to those providers and operators who want to gain access to the
European market as it allows entry into Europe for those who do not have the operational or financial
resources to ‘build’ their own capabilities and network infrastructure.
Our product offering includes a broad range of telecommunications and related services including Voice,
Ethernet and IPVPN networks along with cloud compute services delivered from our European data
centres.
8. ABOUT YOUR COMPANY ­ Can you give us the history or background of the company? What led
the company to be where it is today and who's running the company? Where wil the company be in five
years and are there any exit strategies?
Colt began in 1992 with funding from Fidelity Investments. Within a year we’d completed 15 km of our
London network, and been granted a PTO licence so that we could offer voice and transmission
services. We soon had our very first customer.
We then signed various interconnect agreements and by 1995 had completed the initial phase of our
network in London’s West End. That meant we could compete for business amongst the vibrant media,
advertising and broadcasting community located in that area. We won more and more customers and by
1996 Colt was floated on the London Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. We opened for business in
Frankfurt, and gained our licence to operate in France.
Our European expansion continued as we raised new capital, won many awards, and began to work in
Spain, Switzerland, and deepen our presence in France and Germany.
As of today, we are Europe’s leading information delivery platform, with over 30,000 European business
and government customers. We have the fastest end­to­end European Ethernet network, seamlessly
connecting over 100 cities. We also own and operate 20 state­of­the­art data centres.
At Colt, we continue to invest heavily in our ability to deliver integrated network and IT managed services.
We have over 250 skilled experts, working across a broad range of technologies. We are also helping to
lead industry standards and certification for cloud services.
Looking ahead, we are committed to constantly growing our ability to deliver solutions that make a real
difference to our customers, and to underpin this with award­winning customer service.
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9. ANY OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF ­ What else do we need to know?
If you are looking to expand your reach into Europe or you currently serve customers with European
requirements, contact me today to find out more about the potential revenue opportunities for your
business.
Why become a Colt Agent Partner?
•
Competitive & flexible commissions
•
Dedicated account management
•
Expand your reach across Europe
•
Online portal for connectivity checks and online pricing
•
Access to online training and marketing collateral
•
Access to an award­winning portfolio of services and solutions
To learn more about becoming a Colt partner, visit Colt’s partner website.
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