Henderson was alarmed by recent news that he had ’sold-up’. “Last month the phone was ringing off the hook with calls from just about everyone I know in the industry. They had read that Direct Telecom had been taken over and wondered why I hadn’t mentioned that I was selling up. When I investigated I realised that the company that was sold was Telecom Direct,” he said. “I’m happy to set the record straight and I accept that in the rush to get the magazine out, the odd slip will happen. But two things were noticeable. The first was that callers were concerned about the possible reasons for what they had read. The second was that the Comms Dealer readership clearly has strength in depth.” The fact is that it is just too early for Henderson to consider a sale. “Direct Telecom goes back a long way. It was set up in 1983 and has turned in steady profits from a loyal SME customer base for years. I joined in 2002 to head the administration function and then moved on to sales. In 2005, when the founders wanted to exit, I bought the company. I still have targets to meet.” When Henderson took control, Direct Telecom was staid, settled, profitable, but hardly in full scale expansion mode. “We’re changing that. We may sound like Stalin but we have put a five year plan in place. This follows two years of consolidation, process analysis and the recruitment of key people, which is one of the hardest things for an ambitious SME to tackle successfully. We now have everything in place and in this fiscal, the first in which the new strategy is fully operational, we have increased revenues by over 40 per cent,” he added.  Direct Telecom shows clearly that size isn’t everything. “We have a comprehensive portfolio of products and services,” says Henderson. “On the systems  

As with any industry, every channel player has to be alert to change side, we specialise in Panasonic, Avaya and Alcatel Lucent.   

 “A significant proportion of revenues come from installation, maintenance and cabling, and we have recently developed a substantial business in CCTV. Our network offering covers Wholesale Line Rental, Leased Lines, Hosted Services and, more recently, a business mobile proposition utilising the four major networks. We changed our carrier relationship recently and went back to BT. It is, after all, the most reliable national carrier and when allied to the personal service that companies such as ours can deliver, makes on ideal end user proposition. ’The advantage we have is that our flexibility is a bull point. We’re privately owned, we don’t have to subject ourselves to shareholders’ ;scrutiny and so can operate at a highly personal level. We’re not ;laves to corporate procedures.”  the result is that Direct Telecom s quick on its feet. As Henderson outs it: “We are able to engage with our customers and adaptable enough to concentrate on what they need rather than push what -night be convenient for us. ’While we are not a big corporate organisation, we do work nationally Our home turf is, broadly, the M62/M1 corridor, but we follow our customers as far afield as Southampton and Glasgow. Then again, we’re of a size that fits comfortably with our core customer base. The beauty of the channel is that while a publicly quoted reseller s geared almost exclusively to talk to an organisation such as a major oil company - and we operate n the corporate space too – we tend to get a clearer run in the heavily populated SME sector.”  The company is based in Skelmanthorpe near Huddersfield. Henderson is sometimes tempted to move to a city centre site but resists it consistently. “We’re better off in our attractive rural retreat, and in any case, customers seem to enjoy the trip out to see us.”  As the company expands, Henderson is aware of potential challenges. “As with any industry, every channel player has to be alert to change but by keeping on top of new technologies we are well placed to continue profitable growth. There has been a great deal of discussion, for example, about hosted services and in time they will certainly achieve significant market penetration. At the moment, however, many customers are wary of quality standards and costs. We needn’t be too concerned about their impact yet.”    Despite having had to keep repeating that Direct Telecom is still in his hands, Henderson does have an interest in mergers and acquisitions. He is, in fact, on the acquisition trail himself, so as he becomes the hunter and not the hunted, he’ll be getting a press release ready to mail to Comms Dealer sometime in the future. 

 As reported in Comms Dealer March 08     

To all of our Customers

I would like to inform you of our dates of closure for the Festive period 2007:

Direct Telecom offices will close at 5.00pm on Friday 21^st December 2007 re-opening at 9.00am Wednesday 2^nd January 2008.

Please ensure that any changes required to your telephone system to cater for your festive closure times are submitted to the Helpdesk by e-mail (support@directtelecom.co.uk) in as much advance as possible before 21^st December.

Our on call engineer will be available for faults only outside of the Bank Holidays and customers who need to report  a fault should telephone 01484 867867 and an engineer will respond. 

Please do not hesitate in contacting your Account Manager or Customer Service Team should you have any queries regarding these arrangements.

Thank you for your support during 2007 and can we take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Kind Regards,

Direct Telecom Support Team

0871:  Ofcom has also announced a delay in the implementation of the 0871 regulations until the summer 2008, due to the late submission of the PhonepayPlus (ICSTIS) Statement. The 1st February, 2008 is therefore not applicable; no firm date has yet been set.

We are currently waiting upon a formal statement from Ofcom regarding the above changes and will keep you fully informed when further information becomes available.
If you wish to find out more then please contact us by clicking here and entering the nature of your enquiry / email header as Delay in Ofcom Legislation.