Highlight views channel as key to revenue expansion goals

Network monitoring and reporting player Highlight has indicated it has ambitions to double its revenues, with the channel at the heart of those plans.

The cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) specialist has hired industry veteran Bimal Modha as director of sales, with a brief to hit the ambitious revenue growth target by the end of next year.

He joins the firm after a recent spell as head of business development and marketing at Luminet, where he was responsible for rolling out the firm’s partner portal and developing a number of key strategic relationships. His CV also includes time at BT Retail, BT Global Services, Tiscali, Virgin Media Business and Virtual1.

He gained channel experience in many of those roles, particularly at BT, where he was involved with making sure the comms giant hit its indirect business targets.

Richard Thomas, founder and CEO of Highlight, said circumstances had worked out in its favour, allowing it to attract someone of Modha’s experience.

“We are extremely fortunate that the timing of Bimal’s contract renewal, in combination with Covid-19, enabled us to snap him up. He has a fantastic track record in sales and considerable experience in the channel environment. His extensive team management skills, together with his energy and enthusiasm, will be instrumental in delivering on our ambitious growth plans,” he said.

Thomas said he was prepared to add to its team with the right people as it set its sights on expanding the business further in the next 18 months.

“People are our biggest asset, and as an agile organisation, there’s scope for me to grow the team,” he said.

Modha said working with the channel was going to be key, and one of his primary tasks would be making sure it could provide partners with the right level of support.

“We will be promoting how Highlight can really support the channel, giving assurance to their customers when it comes to renewals and upgrades and minimising churn across their managed services, particularly during these challenging times,” he said.

Modha added that coronavirus had added to the challenges partners were dealing with, but there were opportunities for those with networking skills to make a difference for users.

“With home working and demand for less profitable broadband connections replacing high-value ethernet services, providers are having to rethink how they can continue to operate, retain customers and grow their businesses,” he said.