Comms Dealer

Zest4 has added new pre-Ethernet and pop-up office solutions to its portfolio, a move that supports its roll out of M2M offerings.

"Pre-Ethernet solutions give partners the opportunity to provide reliable enterprise grade connectivity to customers whose businesses operate away from permanent premises or who offer a service that's based out on the road," said Anton Le Saux, Zest4's Head of M2M and IoT.

"Festivals, temporary retail outlets, kiosks, digital road signage and pop up offices are just some of the business types that rely on technology but often struggle to stay connected."

Zest4 supplies a range of enterprise grade routers and mobile tariffs with 4G broadband connectivity and the ability to connect to any network.

Le Saux added: "One of the challenges resellers have is the networks wanting to tie customers into long-term contracts when they take out a new SIM.

"Zest4 now has the ability to offer SIMs with flexible data that means a customer can consume as much as they need while they need it and then drop down to a bare minimum to ensure they have cover for failover."

Mandy Fazelynia, Zest4's Operations and Business Development Director, added: "We have had personal experience of using enterprise grade routers during our recent office move and they were critical in ensuring we could operate as usual despite a long wait for our fixed line to be installed.

"Pre-Ethernet solutions offer businesses the connectivity that they need to succeed."

CMS Distribution has acquired a majority stake in Scandinavian distributor Newgen Distribution.

Newgen's founder shareholders Axel Diurson and Max Ellberg will stay on with the business as joint MDs, and retain the remaining share capital.

CMS Distribution acquired a minority stake in Newgen as part of its acquisition of fellow distributor Widget earlier this year. That stake has now been increased to over 50%, making Newgen a subsidiary of CMS Distribution.

Frank Salmon, CEO of CMS Distribution, said: "CMS wants to become a significant player in continental Europe, opening up more opportunities for our suppliers and offering the benefits of scale to our customers."

Newgen will be managed separately from CMS Distribution BV, the group's 100% owned subsidiary in continental Europe, which is based in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Onecom has been awarded Premium Partner Status by Samsung, one of only five partners to achieve the top tier ranking.

Darren Ridge, Onecom CEO, said: "This certification assures customers that their businesses will have access to the latest products and support when they choose Samsung devices through Onecom. I look forward to maintaining and growing this valuable partnership."

Graham Long, VP of Enterprise Business for Samsung Electronics UK and Ireland, added: "Premium Partner Status is thoroughly deserved by Onecom."

Exertis has signed a distribution agreement with Enghouse Interactive for its multi-channel contact centre and customer interaction solutions.

Resellers will gain access to the Enghouse Interactive Communications Centre (EICC) and Enterprise (CCE) solutions together with its Quality Management Suite (QMS) and Real Time Speech Analytics (RTSA).

Enghouse solutions are platform independent but work with all the main telephony providers and can be deployed in the cloud, on premise or in a hybrid environment.

Typically sold into contact centres with between 10 and 250 agents, their solutions can scale from one to tens of thousands of users.

John Bird, Exertis, Head of UC Systems and Support Services, said: "Our partnership with Enghouse is a great opportunity to deepen our engagement with our resellers that offer ShoreTel and NEC unified communications solutions, creating additional profitability for their business.

"It also provides our Microsoft resellers with a platform to enhance Skype for Business into a fully featured enterprise call management solution."

DMSL and Cloud Telephones Sales Director Paul Gibson has announced his retirement having decided to focus on his own personal ventures and pursuits.
 
In a career spanning more than three decades, Paul Gibson has become a well-known figure in the comms and printer market channels.

Before joining DMSL he spent 15 years in the print sector working at OKi Printing Solutions, Kyocera Mita and Brother International.
 
DMSL MD John Carter said: "I want to thank Paul, personally and professionally, for the tremendous effort and enormous contribution he has made to both DMSL and Cloud Telephones.

"He leaves us in great shape and ready to move onto the next phase of development. It has been a pleasure to know him and to work with him. We are genuinely sorry to see him go, but wish him a long, fruitful and happy retirement. He has earned it, that's for sure."
 
Gibson plans to pursue some of his own business ideas and spend more time nurturing his passion for scootering and classic Lambrettas.

"It's been a long and exciting journey over the past 30 years," he said. "At times, it has been challenging but it has also been tremendously rewarding and a lot of fun."

4D, the independently-owned UK data centre operator and cloud provider, is buying and upgrading a fully fitted Tier-3 data centre from BT. The new data centre, based in Crawley, West Sussex, will be known as '4D Gatwick' and the company claims is will be the first dedicated colocation facility of its kind in the area.

The new data centre will have a capacity of up to 400 racks, 3 megawatts of power and dark fibre which will connect businesses to the internet and the heart of London. With up to 400 racks, able to draw 32Amps of power each over A+B feeds it will have diverse fibre into the 4D core network and 4D Cloud with resilient generators and UPS, it says.

Jack Bedell-Pearce, Managing Director of 4D, said: "Demand for colocation services from both existing and prospective clients is such that the acquisition of a new data centre was essential."

Nine Wholesale is set to roll out the approved Federation of Communication Services (FCS) format for billing data across its entire product portfolio.

Nine has been a member of the FCS Billing Group for a number of years and has worked collaboratively to develop a revised standard CDR format.

This new standard has been tested and is recognised and supported by all the leading industry billing systems.

Nick Jarret, Group Billing Manger at Nine, stated: "By working alongside FCS we have been able to influence the development of a standard billing data format, which responds to the regular feedback we receive from resellers regarding their requirements for comprehensive and accurate billing information.

"The new format also provides the versatility that we require to launch new products and services in 2017."

Leeds-based Simetric Telecom has added a call intelligence system to its Mobile-X product, enabling users to access the intelligence held inside their voice and SMS messages.

The move to unlock big data potential follows a link up with Cognia.

Simetric MD Gavin Sweet said: "There's so much data held in voice and text communications which businesses are missing out on by having no way of analysing.

"Adding Cognia to our Mobile-X service will enable our customers to record conversations across mobile, landline and SMS and analyse them all on one global system without the need for costly infrastructure to support it. The possibilities are endless."

The Cognia system enables businesses to intelligently investigate events, monitor communications and securely share the results with internal and external parties.

Cognia COO Ian Hook said: "Our cloud archive solution is designed to deliver not just traditional call recording requirements but to create value to all users, mobile, fixed and social."

TeleWare has moved its partnering strategy forward following a link up with SIPHON Networks, part of the Nuvias Group.

SIPHON was established in 2009 to support service providers with the launch of cloud telephony services via an integrated and centralised platform, offering a full UC proposition.

Initially, the partnership will focus on enhancements to TeleWare's Microsoft capability, primarily Skype for Business.
 
Steve Harris, MD at SIPHON, said: "Working with TeleWare just makes sense for us. We're of a similar mindset in terms of culture and our attitude towards collaboration.

"We've been discussing the possibility of a partnership since June this year and it's good to make it official. The nature of the work we do will mean that we will be able to provide what is essentially an end-to-end service and smooth the way for companies to implement genuine unified communications."
 
Steve Haworth, CEO at TeleWare, added: "This keeps the momentum going on our partnership programme which has taken off in 2016. The basis of this new partnership is Microsoft's Skype for Business."
  

Elite has acquired cloud specialist Tollon which boasts a large direct customer base and also operates a reselling model.

Founded in 1997, Tollon's portfolio includes Citrix cloud hosting, physical server hosting, email services, domain name registration and Internet connectivity.

"Tollon is a dynamic company, one that has been led by technological innovation throughout the years," said Matthew Rogers, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Elite.

"We will focus on offering customers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions over the next few months."

David Simmons, MD, added: "One of the most important parts of any company acquisition is the staff. The Tollon team shares the same core values as Elite, and we have worked together on projects for the last few years."

He also noted that it will be business as usual for all Tollon customers under the Elite brand.

Elite plans to add more diverse product ranges to its portfolio such as KVM and VMware cloud portfolio. The firm will also redesign Tollon's core network and implement a new cloud infrastructure estate across a number of data centres.