Close Relations
While many resellers consist of external companies that do business with a number of suppliers, it would be wrong to assume that this is a universal rule. Spin-off companies, subsidiaries or entities somehow affiliated to their suppliers also are relatively common in the marketplace. The case of European satellite operator SES Astra is a case in point. Within SES Astra, the responsibility for resellers falls into the Enterprise unit — one of the company’s three vertical units alongside the Media unit and the Government and Institutions unit. In order to be able to address specific needs beyond satellite capacity, SES Astra relies on service companies such as Astra Broadband Services for satellite broadband; Astra Platform Service for playout and content management services; HD+ for HDTV technical services in Germany; and SES Astra TechCom for satellite consultancy services. You also have systems integrator and hardware manufacturer ND SatCom to add to that mix. “The service companies extend the range of services offered by SES Astra and provide integrated solutions to broadcast and telecommunications markets for media, enterprise and government segments,” says Frankland. The regionalization of operations also is an important element in SES Astra’s strategy. With offices in London, Munich, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Warsaw, Stockholm and Moscow, the company also has a strong local presence. “Our in-country sales teams are local experts who are our eyes and ears in the regional markets. Many of our pre-sales and marketing activities are initiated through these regional offices and sales teams,” he says.
Opposing Viewpoint
How do resellers see themselves and their role in the market? “Operators such as Inmarsat, Iridium and Intelsat depend upon Stratos to quickly ascertain and fulfill customer requirements via the deployment of our value-added services,” says Ian Canning, vice president, marketing and product management for Stratos Global Corp. “They also depend upon us to anticipate future customer needs and continually invest in new value-added services that meet those needs.” One of the key tasks a reseller should perform is to keep a pulse on the market, trying to meet and possibly anticipate customers’ requirements. “To maintain our high level of innovation, we employ some of the industry’s brightest product managers, engineers and [information technology specialists at offices worldwide,” says Canning. Through frequent summits and informal meetings, our teams keep abreast of how our services are meeting the complex networking requirements of our customers.”
One of their major concerns is cost savings. “As our customers in the maritime, land-mobile and aero sectors evaluate the latest mobile broadband satellite services from Inmarsat, Iridium and other operators, they are already convinced that the new systems can improve the performance of their business-critical applications. Their chief concerns involve efficient use of available bandwidth, monitoring costs and minimizing unnecessary usage. To address these concerns, Stratos offers a suite of value-added services that enable customers to attain the highest possible performance and support from their communications networks, at the lowest possible cost,” he says.
There are also risks associated with such a choice. First, a possible conflict of interests among players: How do those companies that also sell to customers avoid competing with their reseller networks? Weltz offers a glimpse of what is needed to harmonize strategies. “We ensure avoiding channel conflicts by establishing measures such as clear assignment of markets, segments and territories,” he says. The second issue is how can quality of service be guaranteed to the end user in an environment where resellers enjoy widespread freedom? The answers here are less clear-cut. “We can work with those who have issues. We can try to help them. We are very committed to our partner base. That’s the lifeblood of our business and we recognize that, but my sense is that over time, the cream is going to rise to the top, and that those people who are offering bad service will eventually go out of business,” says Griffler. “But the one thing I am not going to do is try to guess who’s going to be a good network operator and who’s not,” he says.
In other words, for those who believe in the market, resellers should vie for business trying to differentiate from their competitors, and it is the market that should assess quality. “We never do exclusives in a market or in a vertical. Our partners should have to compete, differentiating their offering in the market based on service quality and not the fact that they have iDirect equipment,” says Griffler.
Differentiation and quality of service is key, and companies pursue that in different ways. “We routinely put our prospects in touch with customers who have successfully deployed The Stratos Advantage suite of value-added services,” says Canning. “These testimonials help prospects understand how Stratos provides a granular level of customer support on a daily basis.”
But above all there is nothing like competition to stimulate an environment where only those who can deliver value for money to meet their customers’ needs will be able to thrive.
Giovanni Verlini is a communication executive and freelance journalist based in Europe. Email: giovanniverlini@hotmail.
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