Video: FNG on Seeing The Invisible With Wireless Surveys

hey Channel insiders welcome back for another episode of Channel Insider partner POV your source for untapped opportunities and unfiltered opinions in the it Channel all to help you make Better Business decisions I'm your host Katie boso my guest today is Greg Upton sales and business development director at FNG a uk-based solution provider specializing in Wireless surveys which Greg says are helping his clients across different Industries and countries see what was previously invisible and become more efficient welcome Greg thanks very much thanks for having me thank you so much for being here so first of all let's get to know FNG and now I'm referring to it as a couple of letters or a few letters but why don't you give me the background on what FNG stood for or stands for now and a little bit about your company FNG were formed in 2019 we are a coming together of two companies fortitude Global and Nixa Global both of which were operating within the same domain for for many years prior to 2019 I also should point out you are my first International guest which we're very excited to have you tell us where you're based what you specialize in and the customers that you serve I'm based in the UK uh a place called Derby which is right in the center of the UK being placed here is great in terms of uh distribution in terms of being able to support our clients within the UK and worldwide and there's four four different areas that we work within Hardware maintenance which is typically uh the kind of Hardware that you would find within a data center so Enterprise Solutions unless anything from servers to diss storage networking switches yeah anything else that you would typically find within a data center we also do a lot of Wireless services and then pro professional services so we provide Engineers on site to a lot of our our clients globally uh the type of things that we do on a day-to-day can vary from break fix so going on site to fix something that's broken to install in new equipment Network refreshes very ious different projects that we work on and then finally staff augmentation so we provide it resources to our our customer try to provide an agile solution to meet their needs so whenever they need an IT resource on site whether that be shortterm longterm once a week five days a week however however they want uh was to provide that service we augment that for them I think that's incredibly important considering the shortage that we're seeing globally on the just the it side of the house where people are having such a hard time finding and keeping Talent so Staffing anywhere where you can augment the existing human beings that are on site uh I'm noticing that becoming an increased offering and I think it's really important talk to me about what your customers verticals typically are I'd like to dig into that a little bit more do you see a pattern or a niche in which you specialize in when it comes to the industries that your clients operate in we work in a lot of different Industries so from Financial to to manufacturing office type buildings we're quite lucky in in that respect that we can and do work with various different clients I think what we what we really are starting to specialize in is Wireless surveys uh and the demand that we're seeing for that is is massively increasing so we use a tool called eaho it's really the best thing out there in terms of optimization and that uses a combination of AI and expert input to optimize access point settings for example optimize access access point placements within a building to get the best performance and we can really tailor that to um the client's requirements and I guess the benefits that we provide are the reduced cost in in Hardware by ensuring they're not installing too many access points uh which in itself can cause an issue due to channel interference if it's not designed properly and yeah having this incredible tool is one thing but of course you need to have the expertise to to know what you do in it to maximize the benefits that you get out of it so so yeah we have our Engineers certified within that that tool and and that's really a growing market for us why do you think that you've seen more of a uh pathway towards people wanting these wireless service is it because that they're just noticing inefficiencies are they spending too much are they not sure if either one of those options are something that they're putting too much effort into and why eahal for you that is also a vendor that I personally haven't heard of before so I'd love to hear more about that I think what it comes down to is is various different things the first B for example it managers they're realizing that they can now see what used to be invisible what we can provide to them by uh a utiliz in this tool is we we go on site we can do a survey we can either design a brand new network for them or um remediate uh a network that isn't performing optimize a network we can put it on a piece of paper send it to them and say this stuff used to be invisible but you can now see what's going on you can now see um how each access point is performing you can see if there's any uh environmental factors impacting their their Network any CH Channel interference and yeah really just helps us in that respect in terms of Designing the network what we do is we go on site to get an understanding of their environment and we offer two two solutions first being a remote predictive or what we call a remote predictive design what that really entails is US utilizing the tool they have every make model you can think of within that tool that we can simulate how the network is going to perform when the client then goes to install their their access points so we can optimize the settings of the access points before they go in we can tell the customer where to place them to get the the best performance um and yeah give them a visual if this is exactly how your network is going to perform when you install your new kit when it comes to eahal go into a little bit more for me why that particular provider um I'm curious again because I haven't heard of that name and I would just like to know are they offering something that doesn't exist elsewhere or are they offering something that is just better than what you've been able to find and customers are happier with it a bit of both really I think that uh what they provide certain elements you you can get out out of other tools but that's certainly the the market leading tool um and and the one that our customers tend to ask for and I guess the key features of of eaho are uh the AI Auto planner um the the different access points it has within the system that you can simulate um it has an integrated Optimizer automated Channel planner so there's various reasons to to pick that as a tool um for ourselves it it saves us time so we can reduce that cost to our customer we're not spending as much time doing a survey we're not spending as much time doing a a design Cu uh the tools doing a lot of the hardware for us we were talking a little bit earlier about some of those customers and some of the verticals that they face I know that you have a military contract and you are involved with the military in the UK can you tell me a little bit more about how that differentiates your business is that something that anybody can do or do you have to go through an extensive what I would imagine is an extensive approval process to do that and what are some of the spaces that you may be able to talk to where you can provide services there there are certain things you need in place to be able to provide services like that so Engineers have a certain level of clearance to be able to go on site and perform them services on site which you know wouldn't be able to get anyone just go in and walk their whole facility um without them clearances which is what's needed as as part of a a wireless survey our Engineers have to have in the UK we call it SC clearance um depending on locations there there is different variations of what that what that is and what each client requires so of course we we're limited to the information that we can give when it comes to doing them types of projects but we've um yeah we've surveyed military ships well not just their ships their their ports so that their offices and buildings that um with their whole infrastructure that goes with that yeah we we've done some very interesting projects I want to talk about a success story that you love to talk about when you think of FNG you love to bring up this success story is there one that you can share with me and walk me through that that Journey so something that we've done pretty recently was a a design for it was it's a US company actually um who has a warehouse in the UK and what we did for them was a design of their uh their new infrastructure again Wireless infrastructure what they were initially planning to do was a replacement of their existing access points for new ones so so they weren't intending to do any type of survey they weren't intending to to remediate what they had and so what we did for them was propos to for us to go in let's let's find out what you have and let's try and optimize that let's try and offer you a solution where you're not just going to go and replace one for one have the same issues you're you're facing now let's really look at how we can how we can fix the problem long term and so yeah we went in we did a survey and what we found was that we could reduce their spend on Hardware by about 50% I think they they were planning to put in about 150 access points and we we surveyed designed them a network that required uh about 50% of that and so that was quite a significant saving that they were able to make um just by uh what was a two day Wireless survey that's really impressive can you also talk to me about how you're building those trusted relationships with your clients obviously you have a lot of services break fixes included in there but you're going from that transactional just you know I'll see you when I see you kind of relationship moving into an extension of your client's team talk to me about how you build that trust and what are some of the ways that you make your clients feel heard and seen so there's a couple of things that we're we're doing to make that um that interaction with the customer less transactional uh and more relationship based so we've done things like build service standards uh update our company culture that really really drives that uh relationship based transaction and that starts with the account managers and sales reps who are really key to that they're the ones that hold them uh strategic relationships they have that first touch point with our clients um when they have a requirement and I mean I truly believe that with the modern way of working the clients aren't that they're not wanting to be sold to they don't just want to see a number on a piece of paper to say this is what it's going to cost to to deliver what you're you're asking what they're really looking for is like you said is for us to be an extension of their team uh to have that expertise to build a solution that fits their need so yeah really really driving that across the board within the company has uh has been important we've recently had a uh a Rebrand of our delivery team they're now known as the customer experience team minor structural changes process changes is making sure we're we're hiring 18 players within our team and that's really just helped to improve our things like customer satisfaction scores but I think the really the the key thing in doing that was to change that mentality within the team that they're not just here to provide that transactional business to them we want to build relationships we want to be an extension of their their team are there any benchmarks that for you personally you know we've crossed that bridge now and we are the client's trusted advisor are there any moments in time where you say that is an indicator that that has finally happened I think the biggest thing is the uh repetitive business that we get from our clients if they keep coming coming back to us that in itself tells us that we're we're doing a good job and that's key for what we do you know working in the channel um we're quite targeted in who we who we work work with and so it's key that you you're delivering that service that quality level of service and you keep them relationships so I think the the success factor is just that repetitive business that keeps coming back to us when it comes to the technology and the solutions that you're keeping a close eye on I'd love to know especially when it comes to wireless are you working at all with Wi-Fi 7 or 5G is there anything there that you're keeping an eye on or that you're expecting to impact your business yes I certainly Wi-Fi 7 is something that we need to to keep an eye on it's it's pretty funny that that's already becoming a thing when Wi-Fi 6 is so so new to to everyone what we're finding now is I think this this comes hand inand with the increas in demand for wireless Services is clients are implementing Wi-Fi 6 and so we're doing a lot of surveys and a lot of installs around WiFi 6 but uh yeah Wi-Fi 7 is is already on the horizon and and uh I'm sure it won't be too long before we're we're talking talking about that well Greg if I'm a prospective client or I want to explore your resources and your articles and learn a little bit more about FNG where can I go to find out more and to contact you okay to our website it's fortitude nia.com um and yeah we've got we've got plenty of uh blog articles case studies on the website so reach out to us thanks again to my guest Greg for joining me today and thank you for watching or listening you can check out all episodes of Channel Insider partner POV on our website Channel insider.com or watch on YouTube at Channel inssider newws and Trends you can also listen to the podcast version of each episode on your favorite podcast platform don't forget to like follow And subscribe wherever possible to never miss an episode we put out a new video and podcast every week and if you can give us a rating we would really appreciate it if you've got a question for me or you want to come on the show email me at partner poov Channel insider.com once again I'm Katie boso and I'll see you next time

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