By Becky Shraga, NSN’s Interim Marketing Manager
I am delighted to have joined the NSN team at a time where so much activity and growth is happening. Over the last week things have been quite literally hotting up here at the NSN office. Since word got out that we had planned to enter 5 awards for the impending CNA’s in October there has been a buzz around the office. The last year has been seen a real explosion of activity from the NSN hub and it has allowed us to showcase some of the very best testimonials from our fantastic Customers and Partners.
This will be the first year to have ever entered 5 awards and it is a true testament to the hard work that our team put in every day. The range of categories we have entered really displays a true sense of how diverse the NSN offering is, whether you are a small SME or a large multi-site contact centre, we are able to find you a bespoke solution that fits your business.
CNA awards entered:

• Best Channel Support
• Best SME Cloud Solution
• Best SME Vertical Market Solution
• Best SME Contact Centre Solution
• The Nine Customer Service Award

We are expecting to hear the short list results in the next month or so and we have our fingers crossed for multiple selections. As ever with these awards, it would not be possible to enter them without the fantastic support of our customers and partners.
A bit more about Becky..
I have worked in Marketing for the last 4 years having graduated from De Montfort University with a 1st class degree in International Marketing and Business. Since leaving university I have worked in a variety of roles, in both offline and online marketing across multiple industries.
Outside of work, much like other members of my family, I am a keen road runner. So, if I’m not looking at the latest topics trending on Twitter, I’m out on the roads in my running shoes.
Over the next coming weeks, I will be working with the team to transform the marketing function here at NSN.
Our social channels are going to become our hub to keep you up to date with the latest product and industry news and I will be working hard to ensure our emails and newsletters contain the most relevant information for you.
I am very much looking forward to the road ahead with NSN and look forward to meeting and working with some of you in the very near future!

The NSN Partner Support Team were delighted to be rated as ‘Highly Commended’ by the Judgement Panel at this years Comms Dealer Sales & Marketing Awards event.

The £7.5M and above category was chock full of major UK vendors that have been around in some cases twice as long as NSN, with many of them significantly larger in terms of turnover. In contrast NSN is half way through its 8th year of trading and only just slipped into this revenue category by a whisker. NSN’s Managing Director Nick Shraga said:

It is a real credit to our Channel Director Ryan and his team that we are in the mix with the major players. I couldn’t be happier with our performance in what is increasingly becoming a saturated market place.”

At the inaugural NSN Awards event at ‘The NSN Arms’ last month Channel Director Ryan Kersey delivered an inspirational speech to an audience of partners and suppliers. Far and away the most significant part of his speech was the statement that NSN had managed to deliver more than £1M in commissions to its channel partners in 2017.
“In an industry where the majority of Finance Directors and CFO’s are seeking to reduce and curtail commissions paid out, NSN is actively striving to increase the level of value we can return to our partners” stated Kersey. “Adding in Energy and Cloud IT commissions from peripheral ‘green shoots’ NSNrg Limited and Cloud 100 Limited, the potential earnings for NSN Partners are only set to increase in 2018.”
Highlighting the potential for NSN Partners to increase their earnings by ‘going global’ with NSN’s Global Partnership Programme, MD Nick Shraga commented: “With the launch of the South Africa Partner Channel in January of this year we now have 100’s of customers billing across South Africa in the Rand, so if you have any UK clients with connections in SA you can get them connected with zero fuss or stress.”

Astounding growth

“The fact is that the sun never sets anymore on your potential to increase your recurring income streams with NSN. We now have customers connected from San Francisco to Sydney and from Harrogate to Hong Kong. The is frankly astounding and exciting for all of us here at NSN,” added Nick Shraga.
NSN’s CEO Mark Shraga believes the future is brighter than it has ever been for NSN and its partners. “Building on two decades of commitment to returning value to channel partners, I am personally delighted that we have stayed true to our promise to loyal and committed partnerships. When sketching out the brand and the focus of NSN back in 2010, I never dreamed it would increase its reach so dramatically.

More green shoots

“It really is a testament to our people and our partners. With senior staff having a meaningful stake in the green-shoots sprouting out from NSN, the growth horizon is totally limitless as we are keeping our best people for longer than ever.” “With service delivery being core to the needs of every successful business NSN has invested in the systems, people and services that can offer the highest quality with a competitive edge. Our clients and partners both feedback regularly to tell us where we have stood out from the general market place, both in how we deliver new installations and how we respond when things go wrong.

The sun never sets on your potential to increase your recurring income streams with NSN.”

– Nick Shraga, MD, NSN
 

NSN has always delivered…

NSN has always delivered on helping us create value here at ABC Ltd, and we have seen our commissions grow year in year out over the last 3 years. This month we received a five figure commission statement, our largest ever, and I can absolutely say NSN are meeting and exceeding my expectations.”

– John Miller CEO ABC Ltd

A gathering of NSN’s leading partners came together with a handful of suppliers on 29th April at the temporarily renamed NSN Arms (N19 in Archway). We were delighted to see so many come to celebrate the 7 winners, and to have the leading Channel journalist and publisher Nigel Sergent there to give out the awards.

See press here: http://www.comms-dealer.com/industry-news/nsn-raises-bar-star-awards

Ferrin Govender, a rising star within the global operation that NSN is fast becoming, was awarded Top Sales Executive for 2017.

I am extremely honoured to have received such an important award (Top Sales Executive 2017). I am earnestly grateful for the recognition I have received for my work and thankful to have been supported by a great team which aided me in achieving this.”

David Rushton collecting the Best SIP Network Provider for 2017 on behalf of Gamma had these words to say:

Just wanted to say thanks very much for this afternoon. It was a testimony to your people and business to have that many partners at the location on this date. Really good event with top people. In my 19 years in telecoms it’s the first time I’ve received an award from a partner!”

NSN Awards Winners

NSN returns again as a finalist at the up-coming Comms Dealer Sales & Marketing Awards for both the ‘Best Company to Work For Award’ and the ‘Reseller Sales Team of The Year Award (£7.5M+)’.

On hearing the news Channel Director Ryan Kersey stated that:

The two awards categories are closely connected in my view. As a channel sales team we work hard to support our partners and the company works just as hard to give us as many tools and as much traction as needed to get the job done. This means that we always feel that we’re in the driving seat, which is tremendously motivational.”

‘The smart business person in today’s mobile market knows that taking a deal straight with the network for ‘free’ hardware actually means taking a higher purchase agreement as you will be paying for the device with higher monthly payments over the contract term.

To fulfil our customers’ requirements and to battle the networks directly, in a very competitive environment, we have aligned our commercials to meet these needs.

With the cost of mobile devices spiralling with every new Smartphone release, we are now able to fund our customers hardware requirements on a finance deal to supplement the fantastic mobile tariff deals we offer on multiple networks.’

Over the coming months we are working with HHV Finance to bring extend this model across our complete range of business communications hardware solutions.

Ryan Kersey
Channel Director
New Star Networks Ltd

Henry Howard Vendor Finance partners with New Star Networks (NSN)

‘This partnership brings together the “can do” attitude of Henry Howard Finance, one of the UKs largest independent funders in the telecoms market and New Star Networks, with their commitment to always be connecting their customers now.’

‘The result is a flexible and accessible range of hardware finance options perfectly in step with the dynamic approach that NSN has leveraged to become B2B telecoms market leaders’

Dan Proctor
Commercial Director & Head of Henry Howard Vendor Finance

Case study

Events Company in London, were keen to shift their mobiles from being managed directly by the networks to having nsn manage them inhouse.

They required Apple iPhone 8 64Gb Handsets but were not wanting to pay anything upfront.
They are a very data hungry business so wanted 20Gb on each phone.

With our new leasing model, we were able to accommodate this at £55 per month with nothing to pay upfront*

*o2.co.uk business has this priced at £29.99 one off and £60.00 per month

Vodafone.co.uk business has this priced at £40.83 one off and £66.00 per month

New Star Networks South Africa (NSN SA), a Johannesburg-based hosted telephony solutions provider, has launched their Platinum Partner programme. The programme has proven to be a great success, with NSN SA growing from 11 to 51 partners on the day of the programme’s launch.

One of the highlights that piqued partner interest at the event was the broad range of data solutions NSN had sourced to create a one-stop quoting shop for all requirements.

Within a matter of hours of the Platinum Partner event ending, NSN received two new orders for over 120 hosted seats, with another 12 leads in play.

Best value proposition

Nick Shraga, NSN’s Managing Director, delivered a punchy presentation at the event, outlining how the NSN Hosted Telecoms Partner offering is the best value proposition in South Africa today.

For NSN, no business is too small to get a premium service level, and it can offer an array of opportunities across the spectrum. This was echoed in a statement from Martin Spautz, MD at Southern Sons Group – one of the new partner sign-ups on the day.

“We are happy to be part of NSN’s partner network from the beginning and are grateful that even small business will be taken into consideration to become part of NSN,” he said.

Toni Johnson at Spaceform, another company which signed up as a partner on the day, explained that the Partner programme is a promising, innovative, and all-encompassing approach to hosted telephony solutions.

“Space Form’s introduction to NSN was well received and fits strategically into our business plan of achieving a one-stop-shop service for our clientele.  The innovative approach adopted by NSN team, which encompasses various platforms to accommodate South Africa’s geographic footprint in the ICT sector, is a brilliant offering catering for the ever-evolving and fluid office environment. We look forward to a prosperous business venture between NSN and Space Form”.

To become a partner or to get updates for the next NSN event, contact Nick Shraga via email at nick@nsn.co, or call 010 880 2090.

This article was published in partnership with New Star Networks.

The PayAnnuity renewal system was built in 2007 and renews thousands of patent, trademark and design registrations annually for individual inventors, universities and multinational companies.

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Wishing you a Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year From all of us at NSN!!

Request a GDPR review

GDPR – First steps..

• Inform decision-makers on the impact of the GDPR and get consensus on importance and approach. 

o It is vital that the whole organisation understands the implications of the new regulation.

• Conduct a data mapping exercise to fully understand your personal data use and processing. Ask the following questions:

o Where is personal data stored?

o How secure is it?

o Who has control?

o Is it shared?

o Do you hold data of non-UK EU residents?

o Is data transferred across borders or outside the EEA?

• Who is accountable for data streams within the organisation? This can be used to create a template for maintaining internal records of data processing required under the GDPR. 

• Understand the legal grounds on which you currently collect and use data. 

o In particular examine how consent and legitimate interests are used as the basis for processing personal data and document these.

• Review your IT systems and procedures

o See if IT systems and organisational processes can cope technically with new individual rights in timely manner. Consider;-

Subject Access Requests, Data Portability, Right to be forgotten, records of the giving and withdrawing consent.

• Review staffing requirements for data protection compliance. 

o Staff will possibly need a review of their contracts and also training. All need to be recorded.

• Consider appointing a Data Protection Officer (DPO), mandatory for some organisations but useful for all. 

o What is a DPO role? The DPO should understand your business so they can assess key areas of privacy risks; DPO is required to act independently and report to the highest level of management so think about where the role will fit within the organisational structure but note that this position can be outsourced to a competent firm or individual which may be an option that smaller organisations may wish to consider.

• Focus on certified accountability of the organisation for data privacy. 

o Build a comprehensive privacy compliance programme and structure. Review current standards that may be in place already such as ISO27001, IASME, Cyber Essentials.

• Prioritise compliance activity and remedial measures on areas with highest risk and most significant impact. 

o Priority areas will include understanding legal basis for processing and the new more specific requirements on consent; Processing of sensitive personal data; compatibility of systems with new rights such as data portability, shorter time frames for subject access requests.

• Conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) for new activities.

This includes identifying the need for a DPIA, describing the information flows and understanding where your data subjects are located. Identify any privacy risks and then identify and evaluate the privacy solutions. You can then sign off and record the privacy assessment outcomes and integrate the outcomes into any project plan.

o Controllers will be required to perform a DPIA where the processing of personal data (particularly when using new technologies) is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of individuals. DPIAs will particularly be required in cases of (i) an evaluation of personal aspects based on automated data processing including profiling, (ii) processing on a large scale of special categories of data, or (iii) systematic monitoring of a publicly accessible area.

• Review and strengthen technical and security measures specifically use of encryption techniques. 

• Prepare for data breach notifications. 

o Establish process for notification to Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) within 72 hours of the breach.

• Set up internal procedures/strategy for data breach identification. 

o Establish process for notification to affected individuals; Explore what “risk” to individuals means; Build in effective ways of detecting breaches.

• Integrate privacy by design and default, collect the minimum amount of information and consider privacy from inception of the product, service or project. 

• Review and update privacy policies and notices

o Improve the transparency and legibility of all public facing documents.

• Special consideration should be given to privacy policies. 

o Review and audit commissioning supply chain and update contracts

o Review and revise legacy contracts to consider mandatory terms; negotiate on apportionment of liability.

We understand that this is a lot to take on all at once so here is a mind map we created on our own GDPR journey here at NSN – we hope you find it helpful. For more information or guidance on your GDPR journey please contact me directly.

 
Request a GDPR review