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Fusion’s Partners and Resellers are reaping the rewards of competitive rates for Ethernet and EFM services but, if you’re thinking of joining them, which platform (Referral or White Label) is best for you?
Although both are relatively straightforward, the White Label (One Point) service does require a higher degree of commitment. Before starting as a full White Label Reseller, we recommend considering the following to achieve the best results:
Financials
When you first sign as a White Label partner, your company will need financial approval to commence trading with us. This may be dependent upon the initial level of business you are bringing to us but, if your company has a weak credit rating (for example, if you are a start-up or your company is listed as “dormant” with Companies House), this is likely to affect the credit terms we offer you. Similarly, if you are a sole trader or partnership, we may need some further proof of accounts before credit is granted. Typically in these circumstances, if credit is not approved, we will not reject a Partner outright, however we may ask for an advance payment if you are ordering a single service, or a “bond” to draw payments against if ordering multiple services.
For most businesses, credit checking to receive terms of trading is standard practice but, once credit is approved, we strongly recommend you have a robust billing structure in place to invoice your clients for these specific services. In White Label cases, Fusion, by definition, will only invoice your company for services. You will need your own billing platform in place to invoice your customers.
Also (and we hope this never becomes the case!) if your customer does not pay you, falls into administration or cancels the service, your financial obligations towards Fusion remain in place for the contract term.
Support
Pricing benefits and discounts to our Resellers and Partners are mainly achieved by you relieving us of the initial “first line” support. We will empower you with as many tools as possible for troubleshooting, however when your client calls in with an issue, you deal with them directly. If the issue extends beyond basic checks (is the hardware connected, is there a power cut? etc), then your support team can liaise with Fusion support to troubleshoot and fix the issue. As a White Label partner, Fusion will never contact, nor take calls from, your client.
Terms of Service
All Fusion services are provisioned within our standard Terms, plus specific terms (SLA’s etc) relating to each product. These terms however are our terms to you, our partner. We have no terms or contract with your customer. It is therefore highly recommended that you develop your own product terms and SLA’s to reflect the terms that we offer to you. This is particularly important if, for example, you are selling a service with specific guarantees (e.g. 100% guaranteed uptime) but only ordering a standard care (7 day repair time) from us. Always ensure the terms you are selling are the same terms you are ordering!
All the above may make the prospect of White Label reselling seem like a minefield but, for a serious comms Reseller, they should all be fairly standard points to bear in mind prior to signing up. However, if these considerations seem somewhat daunting, perhaps the best way to commence a partnership with Fusion is via the Referral channel. Virtually any business can sign up as a Referral partner, there is no credit check procedure (though we may check your referred clients) and we manage all support and the terms of service. Refer the client, and we you a pay you a year’s percentage of the full contract value after they sign up. Most Referral Reseller’s receive upwards of £300 for an Ethernet Referral, just for telling their clients to use Fusion.
Contact us to discuss which option may be best for you. |
