News in the Channel - issue #17

NETWORK GROUP’S 30TH ANNIVERSARY

Future Looking ahead, the Network Group is still looking to grow, roughly to about 120 companies, David says. “The strength of the group isn’t that members get discounts on products or rebates or whatever, it is that as an owner running a small business, it can be a lonely occupation, where do you go to for support? With the Network Group, you can come into a room of peers, who aren’t competitors but cooperators. You can talk about what you’re struggling with,

UK’s leading IT community The event showcased the strength and diversity of Network Group. Today, Network Group is a collective of approaching 90 independent technology service providers across the UK and Ireland. “It’s the UK’s leading IT community,” says David. “It is a very active community, and the members are very cooperative.” Network Group has come a long way since it was established 30 years ago by a group of mutual acquaintances in the technology sector. “They were moaning that the pricing from distribution and the account management wasn’t very good and the little guys in the sector were not being looked after very well,” says David. “A lightbulb moment then happened with these guys when they thought ‘why don’t we come together to make things better?’ So they formed the Network Buying Group.” As David says, it began as a buying group, but has evolved over the years to reflect the changing market and today it is a very different beast. “We dropped the ‘B’ 15 years ago as it had changed by then,” he says. “Now, we are the Network Group, a community of technology service providers from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands and even one in Gibraltar. We come together to share best practise and leadership, to help each other to be better companies, grow and improve.” Today, businesses within the Network Group average an annual revenue of £2.5 million and employ about 18 staff. “We’re independent but help each other to be better and we have a good reach and a good reputation,” says David. “It’s an organisation run by the members for the members. “When I joined in 2005 there was about 30 companies and half were retail and the others were B2B resellers. Today, we’re 90% managed service provider, along with some providing retail services into solo and small businesses. Typically, most members have evolved into service providers.”

anything from how to keep hold of your best staff to what to pay people to sales strategies or security solutions. “The strength of Network

Group is that it provides a trusted space. That is the key thing for me: trust. You know you’re in a movement, you’re in something where you help each other.” With the managed service provider market thriving currently – and not showing any signs of slowing any time soon, according to David – it’s now attracting the attention of private equity and venture capital players, which brings its various pluses and minuses. While it could mean more M&A activity in the sector – and the chance for owners to make money – it could lead to bigger MSPs. “But if you get bigger there is a risk that you get further away from customers and they end up becoming numbers on a spreadsheet,” says David. “But when that happens you lose what is good about a smaller provider. Typically, MSPs serve their local area and develop relationships with the customers and reputations within their town or city – and that is crucial. “There’s a lot of development in technology and looking to the future with that, but it’s that good old-fashioned customer service that really does make the difference for many customers and that’s what our members have and that is magical. “We can do greater good by growing what we’ve got in the organisation. It’s been a bit of a rough time over the past four years, but we’ve never been stronger.”

The strength of Network Group is that it provides a trusted space. That is the key thing for me: trust. You know you're in a movement, you're in something where you help each other. “

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