Barclay Communications, the Belfast-headquartered business mobile, landline and IT provider, is set to revolutionise the Northern Ireland telecoms sector with a £500,000 investment in ‘Barclay Bounce’, a one supplier, one bill product, that allows business customers to switch between the four main networks – O2, Vodafone, EE and Three providing 99.9% network coverage.
Discussing the £500,000 development Britt Megahey, Founder of Barclay Communications, says:
“Barclay Bounce evolved from listening to our customer’s feedback and conducting research within the B2B market.
“If the past 27 years in telecoms has taught us anything, it’s that one size doesn’t necessarily fit all. It’s seldom that we engage with companies where one network is right for everyone.”
Barclay Communications recognised that lack of flexibility was a massive frustration for businesses and developed a solution that tackled the issue.
“Flexibility traditionally isn’t a word closely associated with telecoms. Barclay Bounce is aiming to change that. Imagine having the ability to move between two or three different networks without paying early termination charges or starting a new contract,” says Britt, “That’s the level of flexibility Barclay Bounce provides. We believed we could use the strong relationships that we have with all the UK networks to create a valuable solution for our customers.”
Britt adds, “With a ring-fenced investment of half a million, our in-house began shaping Barclay Bounce which allows the customer to choose which networks they wish to use, O2, Vodafone, EE or Three and ‘bounce’ between them. So, for example, a business will be able to have 20% of SIMs on Vodafone, 20% on EE and 60% on O2.
“Barclay Communications negotiated with the different networks to get a strong, competitive price point and then began developing an online portal; an interface for customers to control their contracts, to switch SIMs between network or amend data packages. That means if a member of staff is travelling to Europe and requires significant roaming data, then a network such as O2 may work better for them, and they can change to that network if they’re on the Barclay Bounce plan. That’s one of the main advantages of the package.”
Outlining the type of businesses that Barclay Bounce will appeal to, Britt says,
“Barclay Bounce is very competitive and flexible. It’s an offering that will appeal to micro businesses and considerably larger operations with hundreds of connections, including public sector organisations. Our clients in dedicated IT roles are already telling us Barclay Bounce is a game-changer, because of the level of flexibility it offers. In particular, if you’ve staff working from different UK bases, and if you couple this with the fact you can move mid-contract, it’s truly revolutionary.”
With Barclay Bounce there is only one bill, which comes from Barclay Communications, an aspect that supports the efficiency of the plan. Britt highlights why this is important.
“Mobile usage research indicates that 14% of users experienced customer service issues including receiving incorrect or high bills and they’ve had difficulty contacting their provider. That’s why we developed the bespoke portal to support Barclay Bounce. This interface allows efficient management of SIMs and contracts, while our dedicated team of Client Account Managers are also available to handle any queries or issues clients may have.”
Barclay Communications has made significant investment in recent years to improve its service offerings for customers including a new £350,000 CRM system to manage customers through an omni-channel experience and £150,000 in specialist engineering staff to manage the installations of its landline and IT solutions which is set to double as it grows.
