Britannic are award-winning specialists in business communications, systems integration, digital transformation and managed services, maximising the ICT investment of private and public organisations across the UK. In his first interview, Jonathan Sharp, newly-appointed CEO of our channel partner Britannic reveals where he thinks the channel is going—and what companies need to do to succeed.

Changed days in the channel

8x8: Congratulations on the new role, a fantastic next step in your channel career. How does the industry feel now compared to how it was that first day you started?

Jonathan Sharp (JS): When I joined Britannic in 1997, the channel and market were very different. There were a lot more local smaller resellers, and the types of solutions provided to market were much less complex. Analogue systems were commonplace, and companies were just starting to introduce digital PBXs to the market. Customers’ needs were simple: calls and lines with a call logger and a phone system delivering ring groups and voicemail. The internet was still dial up!

The market changed with the introduction of IP, software clients and with the increase in communications channels (multi and omnichannel communications) followed by the move to cloud. Over the years, many early entrants have fallen by wayside or been swallowed up by larger competitors.

The pace of change in the communications market has been phenomenal, making it hard for customers to keep up. Our customers have always been appreciative of our vision and forward-thinking attitudes and sharing our insights and experience. We take them on a journey, at their own pace.

We were one of the first resellers to offer business grade VoIP solutions in 2002 and move our first customer to our inhouse developed SIP service in 2004, followed by onboarding our first customer into our private cloud back in 2012. It’s hard to believe that’s over two decades ago!

Throughout my time we have acquired two software companies and released a wide range of innovations to market, including our own NGN portal again ahead of the market. Our inhouse SIP development and resilient cloud architecture, which enabled us to raise the bar by providing 99.999% SLAs with money back guarantees, alongside building out our NOC (Network Operations Centre) with proactive monitoring of services. This led to the provision of managed services, Master Service Frameworks and technologies which assist customers with automation and productivity gains. And let’s not forget networking, connectivity, and carrier interconnects, all of which underpin our end-to-end managed communications solutions.

Today, it’s about driving true business value by problem solving, integration, and digital transformation through a deep understanding of customers, a consultative approach and designing and implementing solutions that meet those needs.

8x8: What do you remember from your first day?

JS: Meeting a great team, with a real family atmosphere and complete focus on our customers. We capitalised on this and within a month (September 1997) we were awarded most customer focused reseller by SDX Business Systems, as the leading reseller of the INDex product. This was a real testament to how the Britannic team pulled together and the obsessive attitude towards customer service.

8x8: When you joined did you think you’d be in it this long and reach the heights you have?

This was my third job straight out of university, and I thought I would be at Britannic for a couple of years then move on to climb the next rung on the ladder. But as the business was progressing, I was presented with new and exciting opportunities and responsibilities, giving me the chance to learn, develop, take on new challenges and develop my career and the value I could bring to the business and our customers.

My ethos, which I share with the team, is that there’s no such thing as can’t. It’s about learning, striving to develop new capabilities and skills that bring benefit to all.

The secret to success and becoming a channel CEO

8x8: Overall, in your career, what do you think has been the secret to your ongoing success?

JS: Fundamentally being open and inquisitive, being prepared to take on new challenges, and, most importantly, always seeking to add value. Problem-solving is a skill that is strong in Britannic. We challenge the status quo, ask questions and don’t accept things at face value. With a deep understanding of our customers’ business as well as the full remit of the end-to-end experience, we are well positioned to provide answers and solutions. Our desire is always to step into the shoes of the customer, take new things on and extend the capabilities of technology and the business.

Investing in relationships and building strong teams is a key element of success—you can only go so far on your own.

8x8: Was the CEO role offered to you or did you apply?

JS: I have had a long and successful tenure at Britannic, joining initially as marketing manager in 1997, building and running the network service business unit, being appointed to the board in 2003 as marketing director and sales and marketing director in 2007. It was a natural progression for Richard Dendle, founder of the business (and now Executive Chairman) to appoint me as CEO in April of this year, after a year of working closely together towards this transition point.

8x8: What do you think made the powers that be offer you the CEO role?

JS: I share a passion for the business, customers and colleagues along with my senior management team. This, coupled with my unwavering drive, market insights, customer focus and proven track record contributed to the success.

The future of the channel

8x8: It’s obviously a period of great change for the channel, where does it go from here?

JS: Britannic has always operated at the forefront of the market and embraced innovation. We will continue to see growth of the cloud, whether public, private or hybrid / multi-cloud. New models of engagement and business opportunities will continue to emerge with the mass market adoption and augmentation of AI and automation, data insights, personalisation and human augmentation will present new opportunities.

What we are seeing is the importance of partnerships and change management. We are 100% committed to working closely with our customers in partnership to help them evaluate, embrace and transform with technology, underpinned with personalised care and support, maximising investment in technology and delivering the competitive edge.

Consolidation is likely to continue amongst the channel and vendors, but Britannic remains fiercely independent. It gives our customers peace of mind that we are not driven by private equity stakeholders and we can continue with our visionary and long-term outlook, keeping abreast of new technologies and finding innovative ways to incorporate them into new solutions.

The pace of innovation and change is not likely to slow down any time soon, which will drive some businesses out of the market, but Britannic with its innovative mindset will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

8x8: More specifically, where does Britannic go from here?

JS: We will continue to develop the business through managed organic growth. The focus will remain on adding additional value to our customers and establishing our position as a key strategic value-added partner. Our innovation hub will grow in importance as a catalyst for new ideas and an experimental mindset with colleagues, customers and partners, exploring new concepts and identifying new solutions to business challenges, which can rapidly be tested through collaboration, proof of concepts and focused evaluations.

Working with 8x8 as a channel partner

8x8: How have you found working with 8x8?

JS: We commenced our partnership with 8x8 during lockdown, and for me it has become the new benchmark in partner experience from onboarding to ongoing engagement. The products have enabled us to more readily extend our reach to market in scale and geography. We have made significant investment into our partnership with 8x8 and this investment has been reciprocal across all levels within the business, evidenced by our technical commitment in reaching the highest levels of technical accreditation and already reaching the Apex level of partnership.

8x8 and Britannic making a difference in social housing

8x8: Of late, Britannic and 8x8 have secured a number of deals in the public housing space. What do you attribute that success to?

JS: We always seek to be the best we can be and masters in what we do. We have made significant investments into building our own skills and expertise which put us in great stead within our peers in the market. We recognise customers have choice and by working closely with the 8x8 team we present a strong, cohesive and unified team to the market which has been very well received.

We have built a reputation for trust, collaboration and excellence in the housing sector where we secured the first contract over 20 years ago. This was not by chance. We deeply researched the housing market over several months, understanding the key drivers and KPIs before building solutions that would solve their problems and empower them to succeed. Their success is our success. We recognised the importance of tenant engagement and the social responsibility to provide care to some of the most vulnerable in our community. We set out to provide an excellence of service, while supporting changes in communication in a highly pressured and emotive environment.

The contact centre is now the focal point for change and customer experience. Moving to the cloud, our customers are reducing costs and complexity. Together we are providing the benefits of a unified platform with XCaaS that spans contact centre, unified communications, and integration to Microsoft Teams. We’re integrating video communications through webRTC into the contact centre and directly into housing management systems, providing the housing sector with an easy-to-use system that spans their entire organisation.

Being customer-obsessed

8x8: You were one of the first to be a strong champion of customer experience (CX). What was it about CX that made you feel so strongly?

JS: I always understood the importance of customer service and customer experience. People buy from people, and it is so important to always deliver value and treat others as you would want to be treated yourself. Britannic acquired a software company back in 2000 which enabled us to develop CRM solutions. Where we had two years of immersion into the philosophies of CRM and running workshops with customers and the market that provided so many stories about the good and great of customer experience. We took those learnings forward into system design principles for customer solutions.

We work very closely alongside our customers on a day-to-day basis and feel great pride in helping them to deliver great service to their end customers and colleagues and solve problems. Great CX makes a real impact on a person’s day, a real feel-good factor.

CX is for every department

8x8: You’ve said before that you believe everyone in an organisation has a role to play in customer contact points. What advice do you offer to companies who are slow to realising this?

JS: Something we have been working on recently within the team in Britannic is to work through our customer promise and our promise to colleagues, with each team approaching this from their own perspective. It is a great way to see how everything that we do is connected to the experience and the positive impact each person and function can have across the business and the customer journey. Once this is realised it provides a great mandate for all members in the business to understand the part they play and the positive difference they can make.

Customer experience is judged across all touchpoints and steps in the lifecycle. Taking some time to understand this and widen the conversation across the business with board level sponsorship is key.

These exercises are typical as to what is happening in forward-thinking organisations. We work closely with our customers to understand the impact of their business processes on the customer experience. Those who are slow to realise the importance of the whole organisation as customer contact points are likely to be left behind.

8x8: What sectors do you think are setting a high standard and example for CX?

JS: We work across all sectors and are proud to work with many change makers in their own industries. There are always the good and bad in each industry, however we are seeing and supporting some great initiatives centred around CX across many sectors, spanning retail, travel, housing associations, local authorities, finance, insurance, professional services and hospitality. The opportunity is there for all to embrace, it's about getting started, being brave and being prepared to take risks. You don’t have to do it all at once. Getting started, learning and continuous improvement is key.

What the future holds for the channel

8x8: Keith Jackson, 8x8’s VP for the channel for EMEA, thinks the next few years will be a period of incredible change—but also incredible potential—for the channel. What’s your thoughts?

JS: I wholeheartedly agree with Keith. We are living in extremely exciting and fast-moving times. The mass market availability of AI will change how we work, live, learn, play, service and interact and will undoubtedly deliver much greater value, much quicker than previous technological advances we have seen—such as the introduction of the internet.

The power of SaaS in modern, digital transformation

8x8: You’ve said in the past that the next few years would see a stronger move towards unification of tech and business processes. Do you think that’s accelerating, it’s still going steady or has it stalled?

JS: We are starting to see this pick-up pace as businesses are seeking to streamline, manage growing costs whilst still delivering a great experience, with increased pressures on resources. Context-aware, communication-enabled business processes are a great way to augment efficient self-service and customer journeys. These can be augmented with the value that people bring alongside multimodal communications to enrich the customer experience. This will continue to evolve over the coming years as competitive forces, technology availability and customer expectations and experience drive this to become commonplace.

Things are definitely accelerating—with a strong focus on customer experience and understanding the role of technology to deliver it. Every organisation is reviewing how they operate and transform. We talk daily to a wide variety of senior stakeholders in organisations. There is a much greater interest in technology across businesses and the recognition of technology as an enabler. These new change makers are driving business forward. You only have to look at the great strides made by many new business leaders, which are made possible by the advent of cloud technologies and SaaS. It is far more difficult to make a rapid impact and build out services with legacy technology.

8x8: Have there been any challenging moments in your career? If so, how did you get through them?

JS: Resolving a challenging situation is always made easier by involving others, building shared goals and understanding and a desire to move forward together. You need a team to grow and share the aspiration and vision.

I learnt long ago that it’s always possible to find a solution. It’s about attitude and mindset. As a student I was fortunate to have a father who was the regional director of Institute of Management who arranged varied work experience for me, including a work placement with a midlands manufacturing business.

The business had reached an impasse in introducing a new computer system despite having their best people on the job, because the computer outputs weren’t matching the paper-based system. I spent the first day with my head in my hands not knowing where to start and how I could possibly succeed where others had failed. That night my dad, my mentor came to my rescue. He taught me one massive lesson. There is no such thing as can’t. He encouraged me to think laterally and logically, break it down and have a go. On day two I saw the pattern and on day three I presented the results to the MD.

The lessons: step back, approach the problem calmly and remain positive. Test and review. All problems are solvable—it’s all about mindset.

Fundraising for Cancer Research UK

8x8: Away from work, what motivates you?

JS: Family and gaining new experiences. Last year I turned 50 and embarked upon 50 challenges to raise money for Cancer Research UK. This created so many great experiences and shared memories with family members and friends, including cycling to Paris and going surfing with my daughter, walking the three peaks and swimming in a COLD lake in the Lake District with my wife, making and racing a go-kart with my son and father and so much more! I have carried this on, walking and visiting new places with friends and family.