HomeNewsColt Poised for Strong Growth at 25 Years

Colt Poised for Strong Growth at 25 Years

Three-year growth plan encompasses investing more than €500m to focus on dynamic network services and a commitment to customer centricity

Colt Technology Services has announced it finished 2016 with a strong top line growth and is poised for further, network-focused expansion as it marks its 25th anniversary. The disruptive, high-capacity network provider is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for bandwidth, as businesses upgrade their digital infrastructure to stay competitive. Colt plans to invest more than €200m into the business in 2017, as part of a planned strategic investment plan over the next three years.

William Fellows, founder & research vice president at 451 Group commented: “There’s a major disruption playing out in the telecoms market akin to, and in no small part driven by, that being played out in the cloud. Networking is exciting again. Old business models are breaking down and technology is taking a major leap forward, driven by software and virtualisation. Colt is investing in its core asset, its network – bringing in what’s effectively a shiny new car – to stay ahead in this race.”

In addition to the continued financial investment, Colt is addressing this upward curve with a new executive leadership team that has successfully implemented a strategic and cultural shift in the organisation. Colt has simplified the business to focus on core strengths – innovation, the Colt IQ Network and a new standard in customer experience. Coupled with increased investment in sales and marketing, the company has built a solid foundation for continued growth in 2017 and beyond.

Carl Grivner, CEO, Colt, said: “We are fortunate to not have many of the distractions of our peers, such as wireless, consumer and content. This means we can focus on building an intelligent network to meet the businesses requirements of today’s demanding enterprises. In fact, we believe our customers, and indeed all our competitors’ customers, should be more demanding of the industry. We are up for the challenge and we are confident we will deliver.”

An intelligent network for intelligent business

Colt is committed to expanding the Colt IQ Network. It currently spans 24,500 buildings and 700 data centres, targeted at enabling the most demanding of enterprises, those which have an increasingly global reach yet require specialist attention for their local presence. The further planned investment in the network in 2017 will triple the number of sites across the Colt IQ Network capable of providing 100G enabled Ethernet and IP connectivity, and optical services up to 9.6Tbps capacity per site. An expansion to roughly triple network sites by June 2017 will deliver high bandwidth connections into both private and public clouds. In addition, Colt will be enhancing its metro area networks in Singapore and Hong Kong, giving the company fully-owned fibre metro networks in key Asian and major European cities.

The cash injection has been driven by the exploding bandwidth demands of global enterprises, particularly in digital, data-intensive industries. But the investment isn’t just in the network. To support the increased network capacity and reach, Colt has appointed a new Chief Commercial Officer, Tom Regent, and will be employing several hundred new hires to support customer demands and needs in 2017 and beyond.

The benchmark for customer experience

Colt continues to put its customers at the heart of its business and believes the overall customer experience has been lacking in the market. The company is challenging the status quo by introducing On Demand network services, and intelligently redesigning its own internal processes and systems to bring service delivery times down from weeks to days and put customers in control. As testament to this approach, the company achieved a NPS (net promoter score)* of 35 in 2016, positioning Colt as the Best in Class Telco in the metric’s EU B2B Benchmark. In 2016 alone, Colt added over 1,700 new customers across the globe. Going forward, Colt intends to benchmark its customer experience against other industries as well, to stay ahead of customer demand.

Grivner concluded: “Almost 25 years ago, we emerged as a disruptive challenger in the market, and our mission for 2017 is to increase this challenger status as a digital enabler with global reach and local presence and agility. 2016 was a landmark year for Colt and proof that our strategy of simplifying the business, investing in the network and our people enables us to set new standards in putting the customer first.”

* NPS is the leading customer experience metric for all industries

About Colt

Colt provides high bandwidth services for enterprises and wholesale customers in Europe, Asia and North America’s largest business hubs. Colt enables the digital transformation of businesses through its intelligent, purpose-built, cloud-integrated network, known as the Colt IQ Network. It connects over 700 data centres around the globe, with over 24,500 on-net buildings and growing. Colt is also recognised as an innovator and pioneer in software defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualisation (NFV).

Colt has built its reputation on putting its customers first, with a focus on delivering true local presence and agility for enterprises that are global yet need local attention. Customers include data intensive organisations spanning over 200 connected cities in nearly 30 countries. Colt counts 19 of the top 25 global telecoms companies and 18 out of the top 25 global media companies (Forbes 2000 list, 2016) amongst its customers. In addition, Colt works with over 50 exchange venues and 13 European central banks. Colt is privately owned, making it one of the most financially sound companies in its industry and able to provide the best customer experience at a competitive price. For more information, please visit www.colt.net.

What's your goal today?

1. Are you on the Colt IQ network?

Our network connects over 31,000 buildings worldwide powering companies such as Hitachi, Atos, Forbes, Arthur D Little, Brussels Airlines and thousands of others. Find out if you're Colt connected now.

2. Learn about digital infrastructure

We've written thousands of guides and white papers, regularly publish content on our blog and host regular events on everything from enterprise network connectivity, to cloud, digital transformation and the hybrid workforce.

3. Join our team

To learn more about joining our team of over 5000 people around the world, and to browse our current open roles visit https://careers.colt.net/.