FROM THE INDUSTRY So you saw an opportunity. Rhys Brine: That’s right. We expanded into equipment sales and now we have a fully-fledged service department, which is VIAVI approved, so we can calibrate and repair their OTDRs. We do Fibreplus calibrations and internal verifications for other desk test equipment manufacturers. We have the hire fleet. If a customer does need to send their unit off to a manufacturer and it’s four to six weeks’ lead time, then we can actually give them a hire product to cover that downtime and ensure they’re still working. A courtesy OTDR. Your customers must love that. Brianna Grant: For me it’s about just giving the customer everything they need, all under one roof. Often customers have to buy the product in one place, they get trained somewhere else and then they have to send it here to get it serviced and they call up someone else to get it hired. With us, they only have to set up one supplier. Rhys Brine: We specialise in just two manufacturers; we sell really only VIAVI and Sumitomo. Sumitomo is a fusion splicer brand. Anyone in the sales team can tell you about these products because we sell a limited range. It’s not like you walking into Argos and you want to know how many springs are on that trampoline, they can’t tell you because they don’t specialise. There’s a large amount of items available. We try and make sure that we know every item. Is this an exclusive arrangement with VIAVI? How does it work? Rhys Brine: VIAVI have a number of distributors in the UK. What makes us prominent is our access to the market, the contractors, the network providers that we deal with. Ross may be better placed to answer this, but I think that’s why VIAVI were excited to have us on board. Ross Stoddart: It’s not an exclusive agreement, but we’re delighted to have Fibreplus on board. It’s exciting to be able to expand our reach in the market with their wealth of expertise in this area and their end-to-end offering.
What kind of opportunities do you see with this partnership going forward? Brianna Grant: It’s exciting because historically we’ve specialised in FTTX and fibre-to-the-home cabinets, the typical network, but with the wider array of products that VIAVI sells and manufactures we’re able to get into all kinds of new areas now. Data centres have now become designated Critical National Infrastructure so that’s huge for us. More rail, transportation, renewables, aviation, security. If there’s a connection to be made, if there’s internet to be found, then fibre is going to be involved. It’s really exciting for us to be able to take advantage of that wider array of products to offer to people throughout the industry and adjacent industries. Ross Stoddart: You just have to look at the rate at which data centres are currently and will continue to expand over the next couple of years, a lot of which is driven by AI and machine learning. And all of that requires a lot more bandwidth. There are also various initiatives being driven by governments across the globe to protect and secure critical infrastructure such as communications networks. So there are many potential business opportunities for VIAVI with our partners like Fibreplus. How do you measure customer satisfaction? Rhys Brine: We keep in touch with our customers. Our account managers are on the ball, we have those relationships, we have that rapport that we can ask those questions. That was one of the reasons why so far that the switch has been a success, because the customers will buy the products because they believe in us as a company and the support that we provide and trust that we are giving them the right information. But ultimately the biggest metric for customer satisfaction is retention rate. And as Rhys says, their customers keep coming back. It’s relationship-driven, all this, isn’t it? Brianna Grant: We’re talking to our customers every two weeks. We follow up with them to ask you’ve bought
something recently, how is it? What are your experiences? Oh, you have an issue? We can solve that on the phone for you right now. We’re in very consistent conversation with everyone, regardless. Ross, does this arrangement with Fibreplus preclude you from selling direct? Ross Stoddart: VIAVI has many channel partners across the UK, Europe and beyond, as well as selling direct. It often depends on the products or solution they are working with. This agreement isn’t about restricting anything, it’s about expanding our reach into the market and the services offered to that market. There’s been a lot of talk about consolidation and it hasn’t quite happened at the rate everyone was predicting. What are your views and how will it impact your business? Rhys Brine: It could go either way. It depends how the consolidation works, who you are in with at the time, who’s making the most purchases, what equipment they use. There are so many factors to it. I don’t know whether it’d be a positive or a negative at this point. Every company in the UK is looking at ways they can diversify. home in the UK has fibre doesn’t mean maintenance is going to stop. It doesn’t mean that new housing developments aren’t going to be built which require fibre. It also doesn’t mean that legacy networks that are 20, 30 years old can’t cope with the speed requirements for the data that we require for today aren’t going to be replaced. I think there is still a lot there, but companies are looking at ways they can diversify with different products. Brianna Grant: In this sector one company might swallow up another, but at the end of the day, the engineers are still in charge of getting their kit. They’re not necessarily getting it from the larger parent corporation. We’re still there, every step of the way. If they need the training, we’re still there. If they need to hire short In what ways? Rhys Brine: Just because every
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Volume 46 No.4 DECEMBER 2024
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