Vladimir Vlasov, CEO of First Degree Fitness
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 9:53 am
First Degree Fitness CEO Vladimir Vlasov: “The presence of FMC service in the MCN Telecom portfolio was a critical factor for us when choosing an operator”
When was First Degree Fitness founded?
The company was founded in 2001 in Australia, and First Degree venezuela phone number library Fitness is still headquartered there. We are the official representative of the company in Russia and the CIS countries, as well as exclusive distributors of the products. First Degree Fitness is an innovative company that creates unique rowing machines with water resistance that completely imitate the rowing process. We produce equipment for both professional sports and home use. The range of First Degree Fitness machines is the widest among competitors.
What are the specifics of the rowing machine market? How competitive is it?
Exercise machines of this class have become popular in Russia relatively recently. This is due to the fact that rowing as a sport was not very popular in our country, unlike Great Britain, New Zealand, the USA and other countries. For example, in England, rowing is not just an elite sport: every higher educational institution has its own rowing team. Rowing is an incredibly effective cardio workout, it evenly loads all muscles, while being safe for joints. Rowing on a rowing machine burns many more kilocalories than training on a treadmill or elliptical trainer. This is why rowing fits very well into the modern concept of fitness and a healthy lifestyle. We have seen a surge of interest in this fitness area in Russia since 2014, rowing is becoming fashionable.
It is characteristic that during the crisis our market segment not only did not suffer, but also showed confident growth - more than 20% per year. This is due to the fact that the main clients of rowing machines are represented by the premium segment. Now the segment of clients with average incomes has also become interested in rowing fitness.
How is the work of the company's Moscow representative office organized?
The company has a distributed structure in the EMEA region, which includes the Moscow representative office. Our regional office is located in the Netherlands, where only 7 people work. We believe that the outsourcing business model is the most effective. And all the business processes that could be outsourced, we have long ago and successfully outsourced (logistics, some marketing functions, etc.). The main clients of First Degree Fitness are the B2B segment (dealers), we also have a retail division, but we are more focused on the business segment.
How is the telecommunications infrastructure organized in the company?
Telecommunications are critically important for us, since most of the employees work remotely, and if they are present in the office, then very rarely and for a short time. Thus, communications must be clearly structured both between clients and between company employees. For this, we use all modern communication channels: telephony, internal numbers, convergent FMC services. It was the presence of the FMC service in the solution portfolio that was a critical factor in choosing a telecom operator. I will not hide the fact that we tested various operators providing FMC on the market, and only MCN Telecom demonstrated the best price/quality ratio. Thus, one of MCN Telecom's competitors, which conducts a fairly aggressive advertising campaign on the market, during testing constantly shifted responsibility in case of any malfunctions to its technology partner. MCN Telecom behaves differently: there is a single entry point for any problem that arises, and this is very convenient. The company is customer-oriented and uses an individual approach to each client, which can be difficult to achieve in large telecom operators.
The second important aspect for us in telecommunications is related to recording all calls from the company's clients and the ability to integrate telephony with the CRM system. The specificity of First Degree Fitness is a small number of clients, but with a very high level of solvency. That is why the quality of communication is critical for us: we cannot afford to miss a single incoming call from a potential client. Over three months of testing telephony from MCN Telecom, we have not recorded a single connection break or inability to get through.
When was First Degree Fitness founded?
The company was founded in 2001 in Australia, and First Degree venezuela phone number library Fitness is still headquartered there. We are the official representative of the company in Russia and the CIS countries, as well as exclusive distributors of the products. First Degree Fitness is an innovative company that creates unique rowing machines with water resistance that completely imitate the rowing process. We produce equipment for both professional sports and home use. The range of First Degree Fitness machines is the widest among competitors.
What are the specifics of the rowing machine market? How competitive is it?
Exercise machines of this class have become popular in Russia relatively recently. This is due to the fact that rowing as a sport was not very popular in our country, unlike Great Britain, New Zealand, the USA and other countries. For example, in England, rowing is not just an elite sport: every higher educational institution has its own rowing team. Rowing is an incredibly effective cardio workout, it evenly loads all muscles, while being safe for joints. Rowing on a rowing machine burns many more kilocalories than training on a treadmill or elliptical trainer. This is why rowing fits very well into the modern concept of fitness and a healthy lifestyle. We have seen a surge of interest in this fitness area in Russia since 2014, rowing is becoming fashionable.
It is characteristic that during the crisis our market segment not only did not suffer, but also showed confident growth - more than 20% per year. This is due to the fact that the main clients of rowing machines are represented by the premium segment. Now the segment of clients with average incomes has also become interested in rowing fitness.
How is the work of the company's Moscow representative office organized?
The company has a distributed structure in the EMEA region, which includes the Moscow representative office. Our regional office is located in the Netherlands, where only 7 people work. We believe that the outsourcing business model is the most effective. And all the business processes that could be outsourced, we have long ago and successfully outsourced (logistics, some marketing functions, etc.). The main clients of First Degree Fitness are the B2B segment (dealers), we also have a retail division, but we are more focused on the business segment.
How is the telecommunications infrastructure organized in the company?
Telecommunications are critically important for us, since most of the employees work remotely, and if they are present in the office, then very rarely and for a short time. Thus, communications must be clearly structured both between clients and between company employees. For this, we use all modern communication channels: telephony, internal numbers, convergent FMC services. It was the presence of the FMC service in the solution portfolio that was a critical factor in choosing a telecom operator. I will not hide the fact that we tested various operators providing FMC on the market, and only MCN Telecom demonstrated the best price/quality ratio. Thus, one of MCN Telecom's competitors, which conducts a fairly aggressive advertising campaign on the market, during testing constantly shifted responsibility in case of any malfunctions to its technology partner. MCN Telecom behaves differently: there is a single entry point for any problem that arises, and this is very convenient. The company is customer-oriented and uses an individual approach to each client, which can be difficult to achieve in large telecom operators.
The second important aspect for us in telecommunications is related to recording all calls from the company's clients and the ability to integrate telephony with the CRM system. The specificity of First Degree Fitness is a small number of clients, but with a very high level of solvency. That is why the quality of communication is critical for us: we cannot afford to miss a single incoming call from a potential client. Over three months of testing telephony from MCN Telecom, we have not recorded a single connection break or inability to get through.