InTechnology plc
Size: £23m (within a £350m FTSE group)
Managed data, IT security and network services
The project
InTechnology is an AIM listed investment and distribution group engaged to provide managed data and voices services to users over its own end to end quality assured IP network, with a network of channel partners.
For the past 25 years, it has successfully created multiple technology brands and businesses, largely with a focus on excellence of customer service within novel data and voice solutions.
Its ethos has always been to take an idea, build it, prove it, bring it to market, and sell it to larger enterprises that could realise the technology’s full potential. InTechnology was incorporated in January 2000 and floated on AIM as an investment company with the intention of acquiring businesses. It continues to invest where it can add value, utilise its expertise and knowledge and drive innovation.
The challenge
InTechnology’s owners had invested in other technologies. These included a large fibre broadband network around the UK, over which they had built a smaller managed data storage solutions business which, after three years, had stagnated to around £9m annual revenue.
The main company had about 1,000 storage resellers, many of whom were not sufficiently geared up to sell a complex high-end managed service to a new customer base, targeting finance and IT directors. There was a high-touch sales team of 12 people, the majority of whom had not been sufficiently trained, and the company had lost faith in them.
David has helped three businesses, where I have been involved, improve the level, quality and quantity of sales activity and bring established practices and processes into situations where operational metrics were previously weak.
Charles Cameron
Partner, Cameron Barney LLP
(formerly director, investor and shareholder of InTechnology)
The solution
We created and delivered comprehensive solutions selling training programmes and workshops for the sales team and channel partners. This included carefully selecting and recruiting key resellers with the drive and ambition to succeed. Only around 100 made the grade.
We also created a new branded partner programme, InPartnership, which offered a comprehensive portfolio of reseller benefits and accreditations.
We introduced highly focused marketing programmes to build awareness and attract new sales leads. These were supplemented with robust, effective tools and systems for sales planning, forecasting and performance measurement for sales teams and channel partners.
Finally, we segmented the sales team and marketing activities into key target verticals to bring greater focus and success.
The impact
Our solution resulted in a complete transformation of the managed services business into a highly motivated, focused team who were passionate about delivering the highest quality product solutions, professional sales engagement and customer service excellence.
We successfully drove divisional growth, built new channels to market with more than 100 partners, and successfully launched new network and security services. Within two years, managed data service division revenues grew from £10.4m to £22.9m (an increase of 120%), delivering more than 65% gross profit, with an additional £60m in forward order contracts.