Comms Dealer

avsnet has strengthened its northern presence with the appointment of Quentin Birchall as new Regional Director for the North of England and Scotland, and the opening of a new Manchester office.

Birchall brings over 25 years of experience in the networking, communications and AV industries, including a stint as Managing Director of Tiscali's Business Services division, SVP of a 4G wireless operator and Commercial Director of an AV business.

Graham Fry, Managing Director, said: "Our strategy is to support our customers throughout their collaboration journey with us and recently that includes a large number of companies concentrated in northern regions.

"Quentin's wealth of experience in the industry will be hugely beneficial to our customers, especially from a network and unified communications perspective."

Birchall added: "The north of England and Scotland are important regions for us and our expansion enables us to bring the benefits of business collaboration to more organisations than ever before."

Content Guru welcomed James Puxley, Lord Lieutenant of the Royal County of Berkshire, who formally presented the firm with a Queen's Award for Enterprise: Innovation.

The Award recognises storm CONTACT, Content Guru's multi-channel cloud contact centre product, as an example of innovation. The award will be valid for five years and marks Content Guru as a leading innovator in the UK.

The Lord Lieutenant received a full tour of the company's Bracknell offices, speaking to members of staff and experiencing the winning product first-hand in Content Guru's Customer Experience Centre.

The tour was followed by the presentation ceremony which saw the Lord Lieutenant, assisted by his Cadet Sgt Holly Chamberlain, present a Queen's Award commemorative crystal bowl to Content Guru's CEO, Sean Taylor.

This was followed by a speech by the Lord Lieutenant and a reading of the Grant of Appointment, a document signed by the prime minister, by the Cadet. Mayor of Bracknell Forest, Tony Virgo, also delivered a short speech to celebrate the event.

Taylor commented: "We were honoured to welcome the Lord Lieutenant on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen to our offices. The award is the result of years of hard work from a highly committed and talented team and I'm so pleased that their efforts could be recognised in this way. It was a memorable day for all of us."

Going the extra mile for customers continues to pay dividends for North East IT company Synergi after it scooped a finalists' accolade at the recent Northumbrian Water GEM Awards.

The Gateshead firm picked-up the 'Greatest Contribution to Our Innovation Culture' award after seeing its expertise in delivering IT solutions recognised by the regional water supplier in the face of fierce competition.

Synergi is currently engaged in the roll-out of Nintex workflow automation software to over 2,900 employees as part of a strategic investment programme to embed Microsoft technologies into Northumbrian Water.

This includes the delivery of the Innovation Management Portal, health and safety apps and facilities management apps.

Synergi was praised for bringing a fresh perspective to work that's enabling the water supplier to quickly develop dynamic applications, which offer interactive multi-device user experiences.

The company was selected from dozens of other providers for the fifth annual 'Going the Extra Mile' Awards, which mark the achievements of Northumbrian Water's supply chain partners over the last 12 months.

Peter Joynson, managing director of Synergi, received the award along with fellow director Justin Short from the water supplier's CEO Heidi Mottram at a ceremony at Beamish Hall.

He said: "It's fantastic for the business and for the whole team to be recognised in this way.

"Our hard work, dedication, agility and innovation has been rewarded as we embark on a long and successful relationship with Northumbrian Water, who wanted us to share their appreciation for a team effort.

"Here's to another Team Synergi success and a huge thanks to all who have helped to make this happen with Northumbrian Water."

Synergi, which has seen staff and turnover increase throughout 2016 on the back of strong demand, also includes care home operator Hadrian Healthcare and Washington compressed air filtration and drying equipment company Walker Filtration among its customers.

Leyland-based radio communications provider TES has completed a project at 5 Broadgate, the new 'ground-scraper' in the City of London.

The newly installed system is set to serve the new 12-storey development in the heart of London's financial centre, whose four trading floors alone cover almost 67,000 square metres - the equivalent of four football pitches.

When fully operational this year, 5 Broadgate will be home to the biggest single concentration of traders in the City.

5 Broadgate has cost £500m, with the building's fit-out alone costing in the region of £100m. When fully operational the building will house businesses that manage assets worth £1.3trn.

TES Managing Director Keith Edwards said: "It's a stunning building and it presented massive logistical challenges for us, especially as our team had to synchronise activity around other contractors' timescales to install a distributed antenna system - they did a brilliant job!

"Our solution is part of a raft of first class technologies being deployed at 5 Broadgate. For example, the site will be packed with warm bodies seated in front of multi-screen data arrays. The designers had to find an innovative way of controlling the temperatures, so cold water will be pumped through desks to keep them cool.

"We have provided a Motrtrbo linked capacity plus system and approximately 170 handsets for secure, robust mission-critical communications. The system we've installed creates an integrated communications platform allowing radio users to communicate with mobile phones and tablet PCs.

"Always-on secure communications are vital to business security and a means to ensure a seamless customer journey - so we're really proud to have provided this solution in such a prestigious development."

In response to the new increased fibre tax rates from the Valuation Office Agency, ISPA Chair James Blessing stated:

"ISPA is extremely disappointed that the Valuation Office Agency has decided to significantly increase rateable values hitting companies that delivering superfast broadband hard.

"The Government rightly wants the UK to continually improve its digital infrastructure and our members are investing heavily in their networks.

"Significantly raising rates in this way is only going to put up barriers to investment and make bills more expensive to consumers and businesses.

"Brexit means the UK needs to show it is open for business, for Government to meet this challenge it needs to create a better environment for investment based on certainty and stability."

Internet service provider hSo has unveiled its new ‘Ethernet pricing powertool' that enables channel partners to view quotes for a range of connection speeds, contract lengths and carriers, with just one request.

"Connectivity buyers are often unsure about their options and uncertain about how much bandwidth they can afford," commented Avner Peleg, hSo's Customer Development Director.

"hSo:compare MultiQuote addresses this problem by lifting the lid on Ethernet circuit availability and pricing. hSo's channel partners will now be able to see hundreds of connectivity options on one screen.

"This will make it simple for our partners to give appropriate advice and provide their customers with pricing."

When using the tool, users can click on any price to be shown details of the underlying carrier and alternative quotes based on using alternative carriers' circuits.

"Typically, channel partners just want our best price, so that's what our tool shows by default," said Peleg, "However, some partners' clients may prefer to use a different carrier, to improve network resilience or to increase the chances of meeting a challenging delivery timescale.

"Whatever the situation, hSo:compare MultiQuote gives partners the facts they need to accommodate clients' preferences and identify the most appropriate connectivity options, within seconds."

hSo:compare MultiQuote was created by hSo's in-house software development team. It builds upon an existing Ethernet pricing tool first introduced in 2009 that compares pricing from national carriers.

Sennheiser has unveiled its 'Rolls Royce' of business headsets to address knowledge workers who need peace and quiet when talking on their desk phone or mobile in open plan offices.

The business-grade MB 660 Series is designed specifically for knowledge workers in noisy open offices. The solution features adaptive ANC (active noise cancellation), UC certified communication abilities to ensure crystal clear speech during voice calls and Sennheiser's superior audio quality for music and multimedia enjoyment.

Uniquely, the MB 660 does not have a boom mic - the headset cups contain three digital microphone arrays to deliver superior voice quality - regardless of how noisy the environment is. Sennheiser says battery life is 30 hours.

"Today's open office environments have been shaped to facilitate fast, flexible collaboration. But there will always be times when we need to reclaim space for ourselves - either to fully concentrate, communicate and collaborate in mobile work environments or simply to relax while listening to music," said Andreas Bach, President at Sennheiser Communications A/S.

"With MB 660, we can now upgrade the work experience for office workers, help them take control of their environment and create a disruption-free workspace for increased productivity and well-being."

The product will roll out to the UK channel via UK distributors Corporate Telecom, Duplex, Nimans, Tech Data, Westcoast and Westcon.

Converged Communication Solutions has snapped up Aberdeen-based IT provider Century Business Systems (CBS), its first acquisition.

The deal, valued at circa £500k, strengthens Converged's in-house service operation.

CBS was established in 1999 by Brian West and Kevin Sinclair and supplies computer hardware, software and technical support to businesses across north-east Scotland.

The firm's entire team will transfer to Converged and relocate to its premises, increasing the workforce at Converged to over 25.

Neil Christie, MD at Converged, said: "This is a notable move for us. To date, we have grown and expanded naturally, so our first acquisition is a major step.

"Brian and Kevin, supported by a talented team, have built a strong business and its integration into Converged will enrich the service that we offer to clients.

"Purchasing new premises, expanding our connectivity network and increasing our skilled technical support team illustrate our commitment to the north east and ensuring that businesses have access to a range of network connections to operate efficiently in it."

Channel M&A and finance specialist Knight Corporate Finance sponsored the 'Corporate Challenge' at this year's annual English Half Marathon in Warrington and netted £800 for Comms Dealer charity Sparks.

Other industry teams participating included VoIP hardware distributor ProVu.

"It was a privilege to be involved in such an amazing event and congrats to all the industry teams that took part," said Knight CF Director Paul Billingham.

Picture shows the Knight CF runners Sam Davies, Tom Jones (in the Knight costume), Rupert Mayo and Paul Billingham.

BT's Adastral Park technology and research campus (based near Ipswich) is home to a new higher education ICT training institute named after computing pioneer Tommy Flowers (pictured).

The institute will focus on bringing ICT sector organisations together with academic researchers to solve some of the challenges facing UK businesses, exploring areas such as cyber security, Big Data, autonomics and converged networks.

Dr Tim Whitley, Head of Research for BT and MD of Adastral Park, said: "This institute will bridge the gap between industrial research and the fantastic talent that exists in the academic sector.

"It's appropriate that it is named after Tommy Flowers, a true pioneer of computing and communications technology, who brought together the best of industry and academia to create the world's first Electronic Programmable Computer."