Member Info for jointhedots

Looks like the company are embarking on an expansion drive - 17 jobs now advertised on Linkedin, including in Software / support platform development and sales support roles at junior level, that compares with pre-capital raise virtual standstill/headcount reduction with typically no more than 2 or 3 long-term unfilled jobs listed.

If they did not have their hands full they wouldn't be recruiting - good sign for 2022.

Looks like we need more clarity before the SP will move, not surprising after the BoD's recent performances. In the meantime we are treading water, the slight moves up or down are really meaningless IMO, especially as trading volumes have slipped away again.

The date of the trading update is anyone's guess as usual, but Steve's MO seems to be "say as little as you can" so I'm not holding my breath.

you knows, Steve and his team just please themselves.

But I would imagine it will be very soon or delayed to god knows when if the new guy responsible for finance has to sign it off, if the departing chump doesn't, I guess.

As I've said, endorsement from Partners and Clients are very useful in gauging the quality of Lookups offering, but perhaps even better has been the award of advances specialisation status for various capabilities by Mircosoft.

Now Bens next webcast on Wednesday look like it's gone one further with a guest session with Microsoft's Global Business Manager Taimoor Husain.

That promises to be a very interesting session and already has 64 attendees signed up - more than any previous session - IMO it shows Microsoft accept the likes of Loopup as part of the solution and not a problem and shows MS regard Loopup as a credible provider to large enterprises.

Session like that must assure potential client - well done yet again Ben.

Together they'll discuss:

- Microsoft's view of the voice space for enterprise & multinational customers
- Microsoft’s positioning in the enterprise/multinational voice space
- Common challenges for enterprise/international customers looking to migrate to Microsoft Teams telephony and how Microsoft & partners can help address them
- Calling plans vs. Operator Connect
- Opportunities for global partners and customers
- The future for Calling plans

https://www.linkedin.com/events/microsoftteams-globalcloudtelep6858353420693192704/

The market generally doesn't like a finance director leaving, but in this case he is not going under a cloud and is not likely to be missed by shareholders after just helping lead the company into a financial crunch with lenders - perhaps the big shareholders that just bought shares in the placing demanded his head (I hope so, as it might just ruffle the feathers of the CEO's).

They now need to recruit a credible replacement, not give the job to an insider or mate.

bunsenburner123 - The business of the client company write-ups is of interest because it indicates that the clients are in growth sectors or the new economy, so hopefully are savvy and likely to expand rapidly (generate extra revenues) - this new client for instance is backed by amongst others the Rockefeller brothers, presumably some relationship famous Standard oil dynasty. Whilst the ultimate major shareholder is a Norwegian multibillionaire.

So their expansion plans (backed by a huge amount of money and potential IPO) to quickly become one of the world's premier multinational -green energy companies should lead to and expanding revenue stream and hopefully visibility to their associates offering great expansion potential as was also the case with Guestline (last customer reported),

IMO, it is interesting who the clients are and the clearly wide range of PS is a positive, if they are technology orientated that is a bonus as it is an endorsement from presumably a switched on clients (as with the new partnership). There is also the possibility of creating some momentum in sectors as the go to supplier, as occurred with Legal

No disrespect to Birmingham or engineering (it's a great place and great industry) but if all the clients were stagnant engineering companies with a couple of overseas factories slowly replacing UK production in the Midlands and desperate to cut costs - I'd be quite worried.

So that's why I check out our new clients, most PI's are probably not interested especially if not concerned with the long term company prospects - but I keep some shares for over a decade.

Loopup go to great lengths to ensure clients know the breadth and nature of the carriers they use to ensure a high quality service - who you peer with really matters and I suspect who your clients are matters to potential new clients - for instance the making of one of the biggest players "RingCentral" was apparently the partnership agreements with some of the worlds biggest telecoms companies.

Good win, Around 350 users in 13 countries but massive expansion plan and backing of big investors.

Interesting company with even more interesting owner, 75% Aker Horizons who are into some very interesting Green projects.

Actually, I was referring to the new study just posted Stew200 -
https://loopup.com/en/resource-center/customer-stories/mainstream-renewable-power-a-flawless-migration-to-microsoft-teams-calling/

Mainstream Renewable Power not Guestline

It's a very good endorsement and they started going live in April so clearly no issues over an extended period.

Echoes my viewpoint guys, all to play for and key to everything as you say Pokerchips:

"the ball is in the BOD court ....... deliver results"

They've had all their own way from shareholders and given the benefit of the doubt on many fronts - now it's time to deliver 12 months grace should be maximum to demonstrate success - if not should be sacked without ceremony.

Actually. I'd definitely have sacked at least one CEO already if I owned the company - what does the US guy actually do???

God knows how long it will take for some degree of confidence to return after our CEO's just trashed the SP ( some sceptics might say for personal benefit).

But the elevated level of trading in recent sessions is a good sign that someone has confidence and will (perhaps) slowly unwind the the tangled web of fear the CEO's have so efficiently woven and encourage more watchers to pluck up the courage to buy a few.

Ben Lee's book is no trivial pamphlet, runs to hundreds of pages and will be available on Amazon from 7th December at £38, and is getting advanced sales - only 1 copy available.

It must reassure potential clients that Lookup have deep expertise.

Impressive effort from a non-academic (holding down a job in industry - maybe he should have been made head of IT.

Pokerchips - "Victor Sanchez as the Group's new Chief Technology Officer ?"

I really don't know, but we have no evidence that he is a star performer, but the chances of Loopup recruiting such a person are almost zero - they have been advertising for a software developer for months on Linkedin without success so it's not easy, perhaps Victor has the capability of moulding the team which we will need to innovate around our core offering and add the saleable services our CEO hinted at.

They don't have to reinvent anything, just develop good robust and complimentary software in a timely manner - so he could be perfect for that.

That's ultimately one of the key questions we ask ourselves and something the critical crew and trolls throw in time and time again - why would any company choose Loopup above competitors or even Microsoft. I recall one poster worried about the Unique selling point

Geographic coverage, expertise, support, risk reduction, peering group and even cost when compared to Microsoft direct spring to mind.

But there was one glaring weakness which I was concerned about, RELIABILITY, and more specifically the reliability of MS teams, which is very good but has had outages in the last year - Ben Lee was asked about it by presumably a potential client (whom he seemed to know) in one of his Webcasts and had no killer answer to give comfort and skirted a little.

Obviously, Reliability is one of the key metrics by which clients will judge a service and I believe Reliability in part was the truth of why Loopup lost many meetings customers - they had outages when migrating Meeting Zone customers.
So it's vital it is A1 for cloud communications or the business plan and all sales effort goes to waste. Even an hour with no service would be a nightmare for some clients

Availability and Reliability, go along with cost/quality of service, expandability an maintainability, service level and so on in deciding if the service is suitable and if Loopup fail on any for the very large discerning client they won't win the business - the client will stich with MS or may even go to Cisco, a Telco or whomever.

I'm labouring this because it's very important and it was one of the main business threats IMO as an unreliable MS Teams service - NOT even Loopup themselves would be seen as a failure and mean Loopup could not win business as we are tied rigidly to it.

So I'm extremely pleased with another blog from the company posted today, because it answers the problem and IMO provides a new (new to me and Ben Lee didn't disclose a couple of months ago) selling point that makes the service truly MS Teams plus.

Apparently Loopup are providing an alternative number service so that if MS teams goes down clients are automatically routed to alternative numbers so they don't lose their communications. It provides a multi-tiered resilient service to the ever demanding PS client Loopup are targeting - presumably at extra cos.

I don't know if that is a unique selling point/offering but it certainly gives me comfort - read the blog!!!!

https://loopup.com/en/resource-center/blog/microsoft-teams-backup-number-routing/

Loopup's claim to have some sort of special in-depth expertise that sets them apart from the crowd of Cloud Comms sellers is often queried on this BB as we ask if the really do have something compelling to offer - the jury is out and our CEO's do not inspire (to say the least!).

However, I've been impressed with Ben Lee's knowledge and confidence in his recent webcasts and the fact he has been getting out and about carrying the company's baton (in the absence of the overpaid CEOs).

Now, the company's Linkedin page reports that he has written a book in response to a request from a well known publisher, the guy clearly has in depth knowledge and IMO is a significant asset to the company. Now the company can hand out his book to potential new clients at trade fairs instead of the goody bag of tat normally handed out. All good as it really does demonstrate expertise from the company's MS Teams lead.

"MCA Microsoft 365 Certified Teams Administrator Study Guide is out now and available from all good bookstores including Waterstones and Bookshop.org"

https://loopup.com/en/resource-center/blog/mca-microsoft-365-certified-teams-administrator-study-guide-getting-the-most-of-teams-calling/

bunsenburner123 - The £58m in revenue is POTENTAIL, it is per annum in the pipeline of opportunities, so the pipeline is actually worth up to £174m based on the 3 years that most potential clients are interested in. Furthermore, once signed up, some companies could stay for much longer periods - we really don't know at this stage.

The pipeline does not include any business generated by new partnerships, the newly acquired business or other sales of add on services.

The pipeline has been growing rapidly and presumably still is at a slower rate as they are recruiting sales/marketing personnel and the sales effort gathers momentum. Some leads will go cold and new ones will come along (we don't know what criteria they use but I trust it is more than just filling in the enquiry form on the website to become a qualified lead).

More significant is the disclosure that around 20% of the leads are at an advanced stage, so about £10m of potential revenue close to sign up, if they manage to sign up a good proportion of that before year end then I believe it will transform opinion - we need to see a trend.

WRT trends, 3 contracts became 12 at next update so 12 becomes 48 at that rate of growth - clearly that is highly optimistic but I would hope it is well in excess of 12/quarter going forward to year end and significantly higher next year.

The deal is great news, but it also validates the business strategy to a great extent, something inferred in the RNS.

That validation has been a vital missing ingredient in the business proposition - now independent industry professional have taken a look and decided it's worthy of their involvement and can generate meaningful levels of new business.

Hopefully it's the first of many great announcements.

It will take time to lose those that have bought cheap and are looking for a small profit. But sell they will and hopefully the shares will pass to those in it for a little more profit.

Time will sort it out.

According to the company's website they already have coverage in China and India.

BeingTheBanker - of course it will be structured to be profitable - it would be ridiculous to think anything else. The volume of sales it generates is the key to how profitable -b but now they have employees of a big outfit working towards their joint goal and sharing costs.

IMO the most likely candidates are the owners of C&W or the outfit in Hong Kong, both of which we have had previous alliances with - the clue is in the 20 new countries so not likely US, UK or Western Europe based - other possibilities perhaps somewhere in Middle East/Asia/Africa.