BT Enterprise’s SoHo unit to exploit micro-business boom

BT’s recently-launched SoHo unit is seeking growth opportunities in earnest with senior leadership bedded in and an ongoing recruitment drive.

Formally launched in June 2021, BT Enterprise’s SoHo unit aims to exploit the trend of remote working that has exploded over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to an uptick in the number of single office, home office (SoHo) workers.

Although details on the SoHo unit’s financials remain scant at this early stage, it is said to have an annual contract value of more than £500m (€600m). The unit has started hiring for several senior roles in three teams under the SoHo banner: Channel; Commercial & Propositions; and Finance.

Among key appointments in recent months was that of Edward Bownass, formerly Vice-President, Digital Transformation at BT Global, who was named SoHo Channel Management Director. He has since started hiring for a Senior Manager, Planning & Performance within the Channel Management function, a position described as a “key leadership role to drive performance across our multiple sales channels”.

Caroline Southall is another recent newcomer, named Director of SoHo & Small- and Medium-size Enterprise (SME) Desk Sales. The former Head of Regional Sales, Desk at Vodafone Business is well-versed in UK telco, having been at Telefónica UK in an SME sales role prior to Vodafone.

The pair joined a handful of others who have been assigned SoHo roles in recent months. Among them are:

• Mari Jones, former Head of UK Retail Commercial Operations, was appointed Director of Emerging Channels, SoHo.
• Haider Khan, who pivoted from a Consumer role to become Director, SoHo Solutions & Enterprise Customer Experience.
• Laura Pocock, who was named Human Resources Director at BT Enterprise with a remit covering Resourcing, SME, and SoHo functions.

Micro-businesses making waves

BT Enterprise’s SoHo unit is headed by Managing Director of SoHo & Marketing Chris Sims, reporting to Enterprise Chief Executive (CEO) Rob Shuter. Shuter hived off the SoHo segment from the broader SME division in June 2021, in an effort to better tailor services to businesses with five employees or fewer, and instil a more disciplined approach to segmentation for SoHo customers who fall somewhere between traditional ‘consumer’ and ‘enterprise’ groupings.

Historically, the SoHo market has been occupied by small businesses looking for enterprise-grade services and support, as well as traders who prefer consumer-focused solutions for ease of use. Through the dedicated SoHo unit, BT Enterprise is hoping to better serve these two extremes by segregating them from larger SMEs.

Speaking to BTwatch in mid-2021, Sims cited Office for National Statistics figures that indicate more than 95% (5.7 million) of the UK’s private sector companies employ fewer than nine staff. He noted that this provides an expectation of growth in the SoHo market, “and we want to be riding the crest of that wave”.

BT Enterprise’s data at the end of FY20−21 estimated a UK SoHo market worth £1.6bn, with an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of +1% to FY24−25. Based on those figures, with ‘SoHo’ defined as businesses with five employees or fewer, BT Enterprise claims 28% of the addressable market.

 Rivals in the mix

BT’s SoHo interest coincides with that of its rivals. Vodafone Business launched its SoHo-focused team in 2020 and has since been running a recruitment campaign of its own. CEO Nick Read has repeatedly flagged plans to focus on the SoHo market in the UK and elsewhere in the operator’s European footprint, saying in 2020 that “big commercial initiatives” were in the works. In a similar vein to that of Shuter, Read laid out an ambition to “decouple” the SoHo sector from the consumer market to better serve specific needs (Vodafonewatch, #183 and #194–#195). In late-2021, Vodafone Business launched a SoHo-specific Business Pro product in the UK, with the proposition described as a core element of the Group’s 2025 growth strategy that places emphasis on service provision for SME and SoHo customers (Vodafonewatch, #201). It seeks to rival BT’s Halo for Business mobile broadband product, launched in the same year (BTwatch, #321 and #325).

Virgin Media O2 (VM O2), the recently forged joint venture between Telefónica UK and Virgin Media, is also setting its sights on the market. VM O2 Chairman and Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries said the operator holds “only about 10% share of the SoHo space, but [is] growing fast”. VM O2 went on to introduce its first converged product for consumers and SoHo clients in October 2021 with the launch of Volt (Telefónicawatch, #156 and #159).