With growth in the dial-up market beginning to stagnate, World Online will be looking to grow its business by up to 20% this year through the formal launch of its corporate sales and services division.
This announcement comes hard on the heels of the Tiscali acquisition of Vodacom`s 40% stake in World Online. Tiscali now owns 100% of World Online, having previously owned 60%.
"The corporate division has been operating since July last year and the growth to date has exceeded all expectations," says Derek Hunt, GM: sales at World Online.
Hunt adds that many of the existing 150 000 dial-up subscribers are small businesses that will experience and already are experiencing more demanding service requirements as they grow. Officially launching into the corporate space will allow World Online to tailor services and solutions for this market as its needs expand.
"In the past we serviced Vodacom, so we already have the experience and expertise required to provide a good level of service to these customers. We`re sitting on a wealth of business with the opportunity to migrate that into further opportunities for us," says Hunt.
Rather than selling shrink-wrapped solutions to corporate customers, World Online will adopt a differentiating consultative approach of understanding the customer needs and building a solution to meet them.
Customers stand to receive cost benefits because they will not be charged for services or infrastructure they do not use, as is the case with some current services. It also means that World Online can make more effective use of its bandwidth and better service customers.
Hunt hopes this approach will continue to garner the better than expected results so far experienced. "Growth has been 50% inbound with the remainder acquired. We would like to change those ratios to more inbound customer traffic," he says.
Strengthening ties with Tiscali is an opportune move for World Online. Tiscali is an Internet and telecommunications service provider offering integrated Internet access, portal and e-commerce services along with voice and data transmission services. The company evolved from a national telecommunications operator primarily focused on Internet access and voice services for the Italian market, into an integrated pan-European company with a presence in all the major European countries. It has the experience and infrastructure needed to support World Online`s move into the corporate sector.
Tiscali is fully committed to the SA and African markets. World Online is already represented in Botswana and is looking further abroad to the rest of Africa for expansion opportunities. "There is no doubt that growth in the dial-up market is slowing, so we are accelerating our move into the corporate market with a strong solutions focus," concludes Hunt.
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