Our focus

Having established market leading positions in both the SIP and Hosted PBX markets, our focus is to build on that position and take advantage of the Unified Communications as a Service market. This requires us to gain market share for both team collaboration (Instant messaging, Video conferencing, Screen Share) and Multi-Channel customer contact products and services. In both cases these need to be integrated with our core Hosted PBX and SIP offerings, underpinned by our fixed and mobile network solutions. The pandemic has accelerated adoption of these technologies and we are aligning our programmes accordingly.

Achievement

Following the launch of our Collaborate product in 2019 we have delivered significant growth from 5,000 seats at 31 December 2019 to 46,000 seats at 31 December 2020. We now have a steady monthly run rate of collaborate subscriptions and a healthy attachment rate of 7% across the base.

During 2020 we have successfully built the development capabilities that put us in control of our UCaaS product roadmap. This capability allows us to design and develop ‘application’ based products and services for desktop and mobile devices.

Following the acquisition of Telsis in 2019 we have successfully integrated their Cloud Contact Centre service with our existing Horizon Cloud PBX, this will be launched in 2021 as a ‘bolt on’ option for new and existing Horizon customers.

The acquisition of Exactive in early 2020 gives us a significant capability to support communications enabled Microsoft solutions, particularly for the Enterprise and Public sector markets.

Future Priorities

Our main priority in 2021 is to  continue to enhance the integration between our products and Microsoft Teams, as well as launching our Horizon Contact Centre product. The acquisition of Mission Labs in March 2021 will give us additional capabilities in the rapidly evolving markets of Cloud Contact Centre and Cloud Communications.

Our focus

In anticipation of the forecasted market shift from low end ethernet to high speed broadband our focus is on strengthening our broadband proposition and adding value into these services. At the same time, we have to ensure we are competitive in high speed ethernet services. Whilst the mobile market is relatively flat, we see significant disruption through the adoption of 5G services and ‘Unlimited’ data bundles. This reinforces our decision in 2018 to move to a light MVNO model with an appropriate partnership model that allowed us to exploit this disruption.

Achievement

In November 2019 we announced the partnership agreement with Three UK that supports a smooth transition from our current operating model onto their 5G-ready network. Whilst some elements of this programme were disrupted by the first lockdown in March, we have since made good progress and anticipate launching the new model in H1 2021.

On Broadband we reached agreement with Talk Talk to become our second wholesale provider of broadband services and this was launched at the end of 2020.

Future Priorities

Our priority in 2021 is to complete the implementation of the new operating model with Three and have commenced the migration of customers to the new platform. It should be noted that this is largely a background system process with minimal customer disruption.

Our focus

There are a number of large European markets where the adoption of Cloud communications services is much lower than the UK. While each country will have its own unique reasons for this, we believe that the advent of UCaaS and the shift to desktop and mobile applications for communication in all forms, will be a new and disruptive driver for the adoption of Cloud-based services (catalysed further by the pandemic). Our focus is to gain a position in relevant markets through acquisition and leverage our UK experience to gain significant market share through organic and inorganic growth.

Achievement

Following our previous acquisitions in the Netherlands in 2018 and 2019, we entered the German and Spanish markets in 2020, with the acquisitions of HFO Telecom and Voz Telecom respectively. We also extended our presence in the Netherlands and Germany with the acquisition of gnTel.

Whilst these deals were concluded during the pandemic, we had been fortunate enough to build good relationships with the management teams in these organisations prior to travel restrictions coming into force. This has enabled us to progress the integration and growth plans with all of these businesses without any delay.

Future priorities

We are focused on executing the organic and inorganic growth plans with these newly acquired businesses. As part of the 2026 strategic review we will assess the opportunity for expansion into additional markets.

Our focus

To ensure that we have straightforward sales, service management and product user interfaces which align with customer expectations and differentiate our overall proposition, whilst at the same time allowing us to optimise our operating model and grow efficiently.

Achievement

Despite the practical challenges of recruiting and onboarding team members during the lockdown period, we have made good progress in building our design and development capabilities to support our UCaaS strategic programme.

In our UK Direct business we have continued to develop our online sales and support platform in line with our plans.

Future priorities

As well as supporting the launch of the new products in 2021 we will continue to build our capabilities in line with our UCaaS strategy. The acquisition of Mission Labs enables us to accelerate our digital channel strategy, through Mission Labs CircleLoop platform. We plan to launch our first jointly developed product (PhoneLine+) in Q2 2021.