SCG Unveils New Vision of ‘Connection, Collaboration and Integration’

Spend an hour talking business with Mark Shraga and it can feel a little like you’ve been in immersive therapy. 

His subject knowledge is impressive enough on its own, but combined with his vision, energy and enthusiasm, the experience somehow leaves you uplifted and energized in precisely equal measure. 

They are the same two states of mind that many of his relatively new colleagues have doubtless been experiencing recently. 

That’s because Mark Shraga, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at UK business-to-business cloud services provider Southern Communications Group – has been tasked by CEO and new investor board to push the progressive reboot button. 

And now its customers and channel reseller partners are about to feel the full, invigorating impact of his bold new approach. 

It’s about providing a much bigger context of collaboration, connection and integration,” says Shraga, who has built multiple successful businesses from scratch, the latest of which he sold to SCG three years ago with the proviso that he joined the team and collaboratively reimagined the group’s strategic vision.  

“We will focus on how people come together to create meaningful contributions to their own lives and the lives of those with whom they interact.  

“Our job is to automate parts of people’s lives in ways which provide them with the ability to engage and enact.  

“That’s as much about understanding the human condition as it is about deploying technology” 

“It’s a reinvention of how we perceive ourselves as an organisation and how we deliver for our customers and partners. 

“And it’s also a new way of communicating our passion and vision for a future in which the power of the cloud can help all of us to connect and collaborate more simply, more effectively and more efficiently.” 

Neatly, Shraga’s refreshed and ambitious mission statement is actually a modern iteration of SCG’s original reason for being.  

Founded in 1965 and regarded as the UK’s oldest telecoms firm, it was originally one of the largest manufacturers of distributed office dictation systems that ran across businesses’ telephone systems. Its market was for smart businesses keen to leverage the opportunities created by the technological advancements of the day.  

Fast forward to now and SCG is a leading cloud-first enabler of subtle and extraordinary changes to the way business communicates; continually evolving better applications that improve every aspect of users’ lives. 

As a result of Shraga’s redesign, the wider group’s four member companies – MyPhones, 2Circles, New Star Networks, and Hello Telecom – will retain their autonomy but will benefit from strategic unification and a new group-wide brand identity, represented by a simple and clever cloud-themed logo. 

New websites serving the direct market and the channel will deploy fresh, modern language and imagery designed to play to the sophisticated and tech savvy cultures of today’s smarter SMEs. 

And – critically for the channel – the value of reseller partner relationships will be at the very heart of the group’s new long-term growth aims. 

All of its eight product groups plus associated hardware offerings are available for wholesale via the channel; backed by solution experts on hand to support both pre and post-sale. 

Perhaps most provocatively of all, Shraga’s new-look SCG offers resellers that are prepared to commit to championing its products and services a guaranteed acquisition exit deal unrivalled in the UK channel marketplace. 

“Our partners are the captains of their own ship, but we want to help them steer a course to wherever they are looking to go,” says Shraga. 

“All of the SCG connectivity, solution functionality and buying power is available to resellers in ways which will enable them to grow whilst simultaneously better serving their customers.” 

“We want to communicate a new passion and a new vision; and we want our resellers to benefit from that shift in mindset too” 

A powerhouse of energy, Shraga believes passionately in “the weight of positive activity” and re-framing luck as “indefatigability”.

He credits a “meeting of minds” with SCG CEO Paul Bradford for supporting his brave strategic redirect, admitting that when he presented his vision to the group’s board “it could have gone either way”. 

“Thankfully they saw the merits of a shift in emphasis and are fully supportive,” says Shraga. 

“We are creating a very different culture, but I am certain it is one that will drive success for our colleagues, our customers and our partners.” 

Bradford is just as positive.  

“We have been specialists in bringing people and technology together to create change for the better since 1965,” he says.  

“Since then, we have had a positive impact on many moments of change, transforming the ways that people and technology connect and create value. 

“This moment of unlimited connectivity, wherever we are, is one of extraordinary empowerment. 

“It brings us a step closer to everything we wish to be and the lives we wish to live; in the office, in our homes…in the Cloud.”  

For Shraga, the potential for the future to deliver big can be measured by the level of hope he says he can sense in the minds of those same colleagues, customers and partners eyeing a post-pandemic rejuvenation.    

“Hope breeds resilience,” he says. 

“And resilience ensures that we all stick around long enough to get what we hope for.” 

• To learn more about how you and your customers can benefit from SCG’s bold new refresh, visit www.southern-comms.co.uk