Our focus as stated in 2019

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 fast growing UCaaS 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

In March 2021, we acquired Mission Labs bringing additional technology and product capabilities to the Group (Smart Agent and CircleLoop) as well as adding important software development capabilities. The integration of Mission Labs has gone well and is proceeding in line with expectations. We are leveraging Mission Labs’ relationship with Amazon to expand our offering into the Enterprise market through the Smart Agent product, which has generated new customers during the period. The CircleLoop product (which is a digitally based Cloud PBX product aimed at the micro business market) is also growing in line with expectations. Moreover, the Mission Labs team is working well with the existing Gamma technology and product teams which have collectively accelerated progress on product and feature development.

In line with our plan, we launched ‘Horizon Contact’ (which is a Contact Centre as a Service product) and we also integrated Microsoft Teams to our Horizon Cloud PBX product. These two integrations demonstrate significant progress in our ability to become more integral to our customers’ business applications and processes, a cornerstone of the emerging UCaaS market.

We continued to develop our relationship with Microsoft and launched Microsoft Teams Direct Routing in March – essentially a SIP Trunk which works specifically with Teams. We were also added to Microsoft’s select list of carriers who offer the “Operator Connect” service which is designed to enable seamless and integrated calling between Teams and the local telephony infrastructure (known as the PSTN). This selection demonstrates our strength in having both a UCaaS offering as well as an ability to provide integration to the PSTN.

Future Priorities

Our main strategic priority in 2022 is to begin the programme to roll out our product portfolio across all Group businesses. Tangible progress can be achieved during 2022 but this is a multi-year programme.

Our focus as stated in 2019

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 legacy operating model onto their 5G-ready network. Whilst some elements of this programme were disrupted by the first lockdown in March 2020, we launched the new service in the summer of 2021.

In each country in which we operate we have a mobile offering with one or more MNOs.

We also work with a number of data providers in each country to be able to deliver business grade broadband and ethernet products which support our UCaaS product portfolio.

Future Priorities

Our priority in 2022 is to complete the implementation of the new operating model with Three and 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 as stated in 2019

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

The acquisitions of HFO Telecom, Voz Telecom and GnTel in 2020 significantly increased our market presence in Europe. During 2021 we have developed and started executing our short, medium and long-term plans to drive growth. During the year we placed an emphasis on developing an improved proposition to our sales partners in these countries, as well as designing the operating model we need to move towards a single product platform across the Group. We have also continued to assess options to deliver scale through acquisition and we continue to evaluate a number of potential targets.

Future priorities

Our primary focus is to continue to execute the organic and inorganic growth plans with these businesses. In parallel we will start the introduction of our common product platforms and establish the supporting group operating model.

Our focus as stated in 2019

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

The acquisition of Mission Labs and in particular its product CircleLoop provided a step change in our Digital capabilities. Circle Loop is a ‘Digital first’ product with full self-service interfaces from initial enquiry, through provisioning, billing and support and is designed to address the micro end of the business market. This acquisition completed our portfolio of route to market channels, covering the full spectrum from Direct Digital, through Dealer and Wholesale models to fully managed services for Enterprise.

Future priorities

We now have a comprehensive set of capabilities to design, develop and take to market well designed, digitally orientated products and support services. We will continue to utilise these capabilities to enhance our existing products and move towards a single product portfolio across all Group businesses.