Nimans has been a name in the technology sector for 40 years and, as Paul Burn explains,
a combination of reliability and innovation – as well as good old fashioned customer service – is key to the company’s continuing prosperity.
For a company in the technology industry to be thriving after 40 years is something to be celebrated, as there are plenty of names that have never made it that far. Nimans is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – and is set to be a name in the sector for many years to come.
For managing director Paul Burn, the secret of the company’s longevity is simple – providing products customers want, and the support they need, with high levels of customer service.
These principles mean that, while the market has generally been tough this year, it has been a good one for Nimans so far in its core markets of UC devices, cloud telephony and networking, according to Paul. “Our business benefits from being quite diverse, so we’re not reliant on one particular sector to do well for us to do well, we can deal with the ups and downs of our markets,” he says.
New partnerships
One of the more significant developments this year for Nimans is its partnerships with Intermedia and Yeastar to provide UC solutions including voice, video conferencing, chat, contact centre, archiving, file sharing, Microsoft Teams integration and more.
“These are really good companies to work with and have great solutions,” says Paul. “It is very handy for the UC resellers that we have, because in this market sector in the last few years since COVID, lots of manufacturers have left so it is a channel where it’s not about the name anymore. So rather than selling a solution because the end user recognised the name, it is more about it being a good solution.
“We’re still committed to this market, we’ve got good staff and good experience, so therefore we can support resellers with what they need because that’s our traditional heartland.
“You’ve got a massive installed base that resellers have got of all these phone systems that they’ve sold over the years. They need gradually transitioning out over the coming years as they age, with cloud telephony solutions now preferred and that’s where we come in.”
Video
Another significant side of Nimans’ business is video – another sector that is seeing constant growth and development. “There’s a video culture that’s been created and video meetings and calls are normal now, which means that businesses need to make sure that all meeting rooms are video enabled,” says Paul. “But there’s still an awful lot of meeting rooms in the UK that are just meeting rooms and not video enabled, so therefore, that’s a good marketplace and it’s still growing at quite a pace.
“Plus, those with video are also looking to upgrade their equipment, so that’s another opportunity.”
AI is also having an impact in this space. “Note-taking tools are becoming much more prevalent in meetings now, whether its Copilot or apps like Otter or others,” says Paul. “People are getting used to meetings being fully transcribed.
“For me, it’s a game changer because I can be more engaged in the meeting, which is highly beneficial, as I’m not worried about jotting down notes because I know that I’m going to get them at the end.
“Also with transcribing solutions, for example, it’s their ability to interact and integrate with video and software packages, which is key to it and needs to be considered.”
Complete package
But this is just part of the package, and increasingly businesses want a complete solution, including headsets, peripherals and bandwidth, the latter of which Nimans can provide through Nimans Connect.
“For us, it’s saying to our reseller partners ‘we can sell you the connectivity, the software, the hardware. Which bits do you want? We can sell you the cameras, the network switching, the cabinet’,” explains Paul. “Again, that means that our customer base is quite diverse depending on which bits they want to engage with.
“There aren’t many distributors like us that offer all these things and the support. We don’t sell laptops and things like that. That’s not a market for us. It’s the business solutions associated to enabling communication in the business, enabling meeting, presence in the meeting, all tools around that, and connectivity.
“The problem with selling hardware that is reliant on bandwidth is sometimes you can end up blaming the kit if something goes wrong. If you sign into a video meeting and it drops out, often the problem is nothing to do with the hardware you’re using, it is the bandwidth. From a reseller’s point of view, the more parts of the solution you sell, the more chance you’ve got of the customer getting the best experience and you being able to control that experience because you’re giving them bandwidth, kit and AI that you know the quality of. Therefore, there’s more of a chance at the end the customer is going to be happy with their solution. That’s what we try to help our partners with.”
Indeed, customers now want an integrated solution from one provider rather than bits from different ones and have that one billing point and one point of contact, rather than several.
“Because at the point that something happens, you don’t want to have three different businesses each telling you it’s the other’s fault,” adds Paul. “But it’s not just about solving something when it’s broken. It’s also about where are you trying to take your business? How can that technology enable you to enhance your business, make it quicker, faster, slicker, more efficient – and having one provider can make that easier to achieve.
“For customers, the end goal is to feel that what you get it making for a better business. That’s what we’re trying to do: we’re offering solutions that our resellers can go to the customers and say, ‘buy this because it’s going to make you a better business’.”
Getting connected
Often allied to this is billing, which is another service that is growing in demand that Nimans Connect provides. “It’s really grown over the last few years,” says Paul. “Again, there aren’t many distributors that offer billing services as well. We can also do white label billing, which means a reseller can choose to do billing to their customer and it will look like it’s them, which enhances their credibility and standing with the customer.
“We have a big team with lots of experience in our billing team. Billing is not an easy thing to do. There are the complexities in billing, it’s not just about voice minutes, but you’ve also got things data connectivity, bandwidth and the like that goes alongside the hardware. This has really grown for us over recent years.”
Fundamentals stay the same
But while much has changed in the sector over 40 years in terms of technology and services provided, some of the fundamentals about business haven’t. “People still buy from people they like and trust,” says Paul. “For Nimans, being around for 40 years means, hopefully, the reason we’ve survived that long is because we’ve got a decent reputation that we can be trusted.
“Customers can rest assured that we are not going anywhere and we’re going to give customers good service and try and do the best for them. Will we get it right every time? No, because that would be impossible. But we’re going to try our best to give our customers the best possible service we can. We know the technology very well, and we’ve got teams that’ll support it. That’s always the business message we give, because the technology will always be changing.”
Midwich benefit
Part of the trust comes from business stability, and that was enhanced in 2022 when Midwich acquired Nimans. “The acquisition rejuvenated us,” says Paul. “It meant that we knew that we were secure and could move forward with confidence.”
There are various benefits to being part of a larger group. “It has given us access to a whole new range of products,” says Paul. “For instance, we’ve got access to an AV space that we weren’t in before, which given we were already strong in the meeting room environment, gives us an extra offering for our customers.”
But significantly, Midwich and Nimans are similar businesses in terms of their culture, Paul adds.
“For customers, Nimans is still the same Nimans as it was before the deal,” he says. “I was part of the senior management team at that time, and we had a culture installed by our founder, Julian, and it is still run that way. Being owned by Midwich gives us stability, and they have been hugely supportive of Nimans since the deal and, while we are now part of a very big company, we haven’t lost what made Nimans in the first place, which was about how we go about business, how we treat people, how we treat our suppliers, how we treat our customers. That hasn’t changed.”
Plans
With Nimans on a stable footing, it means Paul and the rest of the senior team can focus on the future – and help ensure that the company is around for another 40 years.
But to achieve this will require a mix of the old and the new. “We’ve got to continue to innovate in terms of how we integrate the technologies together and how we go out to our customers,” explains Paul. “But some things won’t change; Nimans been around for 40 years and has been consistent with its principles of providing a quality service and, as the old saying goes, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, so we will make sure that we stick to those principles that if you treat your customers and your suppliers well, everything else will pretty much take care of itself. I know it’s simplifying, but it doesn’t need to be much more complex than that because we know that we’ll evolve with the technology because we always have done.”
Paul adds that technology moves fast and Nimans is always looking to be at the cutting edge, so that when resellers want to be early adopters, they can be there to support them. “If a partner is looking at the next few years wants a distribution partner that can help them develop their technology, I don’t think there’s many around better than us,” he says. “Our customers can rely on us as well as knowing that we’re offering innovative solutions. That’s always the key for me.”
This article first appeared in News in the Channel magazine issue#33.
