Partner Perspective: Why Reach, Accountability and Service Experience Matter
Partner Perspective with Frazer Cannadine, Sales Director, Flexgrid
Business connectivity is changing. Higher bandwidth expectations, growing adoption of full fibre and increasingly distributed supply chains are changing what resellers, MSPs and their customers expect from connectivity providers.
Karen Burr, Director of Marketing & Growth Strategy at LightSpeed Networks, spoke with Frazer Cannadine, Sales Director at Flexgrid, about the changing role of AltNets, why aggregation matters, and what separates a network relationship that simply provides coverage from one that creates genuine partner value.
How has the UK business connectivity market changed over the past few years?
One of the biggest changes has been the shift towards FTTP as a genuine business connectivity option. When we started Flexgrid, we focused almost entirely on Ethernet. Today, customers expect far more bandwidth and, for many locations, FTTP has become a credible alternative.
People are used to having high-speed connectivity at home and they bring those expectations into the workplace. For retail, hospitality and other distributed businesses in particular, bandwidth requirements have increased significantly. Ethernet still has its place where customers need symmetrical bandwidth, tighter SLAs or other specific requirements, but FTTP now plays a much bigger role in the business market.
Where do AltNets fit into that changing landscape?
They have become hugely important. Flexgrid works with 32 AltNets today and we have been very deliberate about building that ecosystem.
Our channel partners increasingly need strong FTTP coverage and choice. There are very few opportunities now where some form of AltNet connectivity doesn’t play a part — whether that is the primary connection or providing an alternative for resilience.
Aggregation allows us to bring those different networks together and give partners access to the right blend of connectivity for each customer rather than forcing every requirement into one network or product.
Beyond network footprint, what makes a connectivity provider valuable to partners?
Footprint matters, but it isn’t enough on its own.
The feedback we consistently hear from our channel partners comes down to three things: they want to be able to quote quickly and easily; they want strong operational information and diagnostics; and they want very clear escalation routes when something goes wrong.
Those operational elements increasingly differentiate providers. Partners need to know who to contact, what information is available and what they can expect throughout the service lifecycle.
Why is operational accountability becoming so important?
Businesses depend on connectivity more than ever, so when something goes wrong the ability to understand what is happening and who owns the next action becomes critical.
For an aggregator, that means having clear escalation routes across every network partner. We then need to provide that same clarity to our channel partners.
It isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s about knowing who owns which part of the process, communicating openly and getting the right information to the customer quickly.
What role will technology and APIs play in improving that experience?
A very significant one.
Operational APIs, accessible diagnostics and better service information can help partners understand much more about a service before a fault even needs to be raised. Greater automation and visibility can remove unnecessary next steps and help everyone reach the underlying issue faster. We have invested a significant amount of time and resources into our automation capabilities and have a feature rich operations API stack that is available for our channel partners.
I think this will become increasingly important for AltNets over the next 12 to 18 months. The providers that make operational information easy to access will be much easier for aggregators and partners to work with.
What does LightSpeed Networks add to the Flexgrid ecosystem?
LightSpeed has a footprint that complements our existing coverage very well. There is relatively little overbuild in the areas where we use the network, which gives us additional reach and choice.
We’ve also seen flexibility around opportunities where extending the network can make commercial sense rather than treating availability as simply a yes-or-no answer.
That combination of useful footprint and willingness to look at the wider opportunity is valuable to us, and I see LightSpeed Networks as an important part of the Flexgrid ecosystem.
What will distinguish the strongest connectivity partnerships over the next few years?
It will be a combination of coverage, technology and people.
Partners want network choice and competitive products, but they also need automation, visibility, clear accountability and people who engage when something needs attention.
Technology will continue to make the industry more efficient, but the human element remains important. The strongest partnerships will be those where both sides understand that if the end customer succeeds, everyone in the supply chain succeeds.