Comms Dealer

A report by Scottish Rural Action (SRA) has criticised Community Broadband Scotland (CBS), a government initiative led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise for its sole reliance on BT-partnered programmes.

And Charlie Boisseau, Chief Technology Officer at Commsworld, believes the mission to provide superfast broadband to 100% of properties by 2020 is, at this stage, a 'pipe dream'.

He said: "It would be difficult to disagree that the government has failed in its mission to provide broadband.

"Whether any one party can be blamed for this shortfall is open to discussion but if any progress is to be made in providing everyone with 'superfast broadband' the government must open the building of network infrastructures to more companies."

The Edinburgh-based telecommunications company, which criticised the decision not to split BT and Openreach earlier this year, hopes to see further attention paid to the rapidly advancing capabilities of smaller service providers.

Boisseau added: "Even with significant government subsidies rural areas are of little to no interest to tier one providers like Openreach who stand to gain little from what is, comparative to city infrastructure projects, a lot of work.

"Although these projects are of vital political and local importance, the biggest providers will always leave the highlanders and islanders to last. That is if they pay them much heed at all.

"While larger companies may offer a cheaper service for the provision of broadband in the main it is our view that the use of smaller companies to 'fill in the gaps' they leave behind could establish a network that is a lot closer to meeting the Government's ambitious aims than the system currently in place.

"For this to work though, they must stop merely paying lip service to smaller providers and throw all their resources into getting companies of various sizes working on making Scotland a more connected country."

Organisations need to move faster to prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) according to Annodata.

With more than 9 in 10 organisations reporting a data breach in the last five years, businesses need to rapidly put measures in place to prevent the loss of Personal Identifiable Information (PII), especially with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set to transform cyber security regulation in Europe with significant financial and legal (not to mention reputational) implications.

A recent report from Lloyd's on what European businesses are doing to tackle cyber security shows that 92% of organisations have suffered a data breach in the last five years, highlighting the increasing threat of data loss within organisations.

Furthermore, 57% of businesses surveyed stated that they know 'little' or 'nothing' about the GDPR, despite the serious financial (with costs of up to 4% of revenue) and legal repercussion of not complying with the regulations.

"With the introduction of the GDPR fast approaching, organisations must ensure they maintain strict control over their sensitive data, this includes securing their partners and automating their mailrooms," said Joe Doye, Marketing Director of Annodata.

"In light of the mounting threats organisations face in today's security landscape and with the deadline for compliance with the GDPR rapidly approaching, it's vital for organisations to address the possibility of data leakage and security breaches so these pressures can be tackled effectively.

"Printer technology has advanced with the help of smartphones and tablets, leading to staff breaking free from their desktop computers.

"These mobile devices are now fully integrated within the IT estate of many organisations, affording broad functionality such as the ability to print from mobile devices and to scan to email and network drives.

"Although this new usability brings big benefits, new areas of vulnerability rise in parallel. As a result, it's vital that organisations ensure they pay close attention to the security posture of their devices, data, network and internet-enabled printers."

SBL Group and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) have formed a channel training partnership that sees SBL provide engineer training on Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Office and OmniPCX Enterprise to ALE channel partners.

SBL will launch the new SBL Academy in October 2016, kicking off with an OmniPCX Enterprise Starter course.

"We are seeing an increased demand and interest for UK training on the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise portfolio with a solid engineer led framework," said Peter Tebbutt, UK&I Managing Director for Alcatel Lucent Enterprise.

"The new SBL Group management team have focused on driving the business forward, especially in the areas of customer care and professional services. This new initiative will enable them to optimize the investment they have made whilst also enabling Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise to offer increased local training services for UK and international partners."

Pan-EMEA distribution firm Nuvias Group has acquired UK-based UC distributor Siphon Networks in a deal that promises to extend Siphon's influence in the UK and across the continent. Post-acquisition it's business as usual for Siphon which will continue to be led by Steve Harris (pictured) who remains MD.

"We will protect what has already been built by Siphon," confirmed Nuvias Group CEO Paul Eccleston. "We will enhance it through the other capabilities in the Nuvias Group, and we will expand it across EMEA.

"Siphon's service and solutions capabilities for the channel are aligned with the Nuvias Group's philosophy and strategy. Siphon is also complementary to the cyber security, advanced networking and UC capabilities of Wick Hill and Zycko, the existing businesses in the Group."

Harris added: "This enables us to accelerate our growth plans and expand geographically in the UK and EMEA as part of a much larger organisation which shares our core beliefs and dedication to high service levels, and has the resources to help us realise our goals."

Siphon began its commercial life in 2009 when Harris co-founded the company with a £50k investment in the midst of a global financial crisis.

In May last year Siphon received a £1.5m investment from Finance Wales to boost its presence in the UK and Europe.

It currently generates approximately £20m turnover, has offices in the UK and Benelux, circa 50 staff, and works with vendors including Polycom, Oracle and Broadsoft.

In autumn 2015 Siphon was ranked 23rd fastest growing technology company in the UK and one of the fastest growing technology companies in EMEA by Deloitte.

Microsoft says it is boosting European cloud investment to $3bn as it adds a number of initiatives, including plans to bring Microsoft Cloud to France.

CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft has more than doubled its cloud capacity in Europe in the past year, noting that the company has invested over $3bn across Europe to date.

"We continue to invest heavily in cloud infrastructure to meet the growing demand from European customers and partners," said Nadella.

"Building a global, trusted, intelligent cloud platform is core to our mission to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. There's never been a better time for organisations across Europe to seize new growth and opportunity with the Microsoft Cloud."

Microsoft intends to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from data centres in France, starting in 2017 with Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 from multiple locations in France.

Microsoft Cloud services are already available from data centres in the United Kingdom (Microsoft Azure and Office 365) and Germany (Microsoft Azure with Office 365 planned for early 2017), with the latter offering a new model in Europe where access to customer data is controlled by a data trustee, T-Systems International, an independent German company and subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.

The collective investments, including hubs in the Netherlands and Ireland, which continue to expand, together with locations in Austria and Finland, aim to enable Microsoft to meet anticipated customer demand in Europe.

 Huddersfield-based VoIP distributor ProVu has added two new apprentices to its Technical Support Team.

The company has now taken on five apprentices following a link up with a local college's apprenticeship scheme in early 2015.

New recruits William Dobson and Jordan Carr will undertake a two year course in IT, software, web and telecoms.

MD Darren Garland said: "So far our apprenticeship scheme has proved to be of great benefit to the company as we can help our apprentices identify their strengths and place them most appropriately according to their skills and the company's needs.

"We welcome our new recruits and look forward to seeing them develop their skills which will undoubtedly make a positive impact to the team.

"As we continue to grow year on year, it is vital that our team grows to reflect this. Through apprenticeships, we can nurture our own and help our staff to reach their full potential."

Team Virtual1 has completed the 2016 Windsor Park Spartan Race in aid of charity Restless Development.

The 20-strong group tackled the five mile Sprint race which includes over 20 obstacles (jumping through fire, wading through mud and crawling under barbed wire etc) in a bid to raise over £5k towards Virtual1's charity target.

Team member and CEO Tom O'Hagan said: "Virtual1 is a young, vibrant company, with a set of employees to match. Each day we face the 'it cannot be done' in our business lives, so tackling the Spartan Race was an obvious choice for us.

"The team wasn't made up solely of fitness enthusiasts, but the whole group worked to get everyone round the course, which is the way we approach our everyday business."

"We smashed our £5,000 target, with over £7,000 raised to date, which is a magnificent achievement and one which will benefit Restless Development greatly."

Telecoms firm NGC Networks has achieved £4.5m turnover after a strong performance across its products and services.

This year's results are up £0.5m on last year and the Wakefield-based business, which employs 30 staff, plans to hit £5m turnover in 2017.

NGC Networks provides business telecommunications and internet connectivity solutions to companies across the North of England.

Managed by directors Nikki Guest and Dean Harrop, the business has maintained profitability and attracted new clients both in the Yorkshire region and beyond.

These include Bradford-based mail order business Freeman Grattan Holdings, The Family Fund in York and First Choice Catering in Cannock, Staffordshire.

Harrop said: "We have enjoyed significant growth as a result of building our work with existing clients as well winning new ones.

"In addition, we have consolidated our position in some key sectors including education and health where we provide our bespoke telephony and internet solutions to a range of academies, schools and medical centres across Yorkshire."

NGC's network services division has seen considerable growth in the last 12 months - it is now routing 4.5m calls per month on behalf of clients, up from 1.7m a year ago.

NGC Networks is currently recruiting for various positions at its Calder Park offices.

IT and communication SMEs have the UK's second largest business savings pots, with telecom firms holding an average of £804,000 in their savings accounts, reckons Hampshire Trust Bank in a survey report.

Accountancy SMEs, which hold an average of just over £1 million in savings, are the biggest business savers. The national average for business savings is £556k, 57% of a SMEs total funds.

Following the outcome of the EU Referendum, almost half (45%) of businesses within the telecoms sector said they were increasing the amount of cash in their firms to build a cash buffer, higher than the national average of 38%.

This percentage of businesses building a cash buffer increases to 50% for charities and the construction industry.

Stuart Hulme, Director of Savings at Hampshire Trust Bank, said: "The organisations that have been stockpiling cash into current accounts should consider the opportunities to make more out of every £1 earnt. The benefit of making use of savings accounts is not only the interest rate return you get as a business, but also the knowledge that the money is being lent on to SMEs looking to grow, delivering double value and supporting investment in the UK."

Tech Data is aiming to recruit and on-board up to 30 new partners for the Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) programme by the end of the calendar year with its new CPS Accelerator initiative.

The company is looking to sign-up partners for the Tech Data Office 365, Azure and the Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) Accelerate Programs and will be providing three training streams - for sales, technical, and marketing - to help resellers get on board and attain the Silver- and/or Gold-level accreditations in Cloud Platform and/or Cloud Productivity that will help support and grow their Microsoft CSP business.

Dwayne Earl, Software Business Unit Manager at Tech Data, said that the programme was being launched in response to rising interest in CSP.

"We've been involved with CSP from the outset and over the past year it has really picked up. We are now seeing more Microsoft Partners wanting to get fully on board and taking it forward as a strategic part of their business," he said.

Earl said Tech Data would be seeking up to ten resellers for each product set - Office 365, Azure and EMS - for the current wave.

Resellers will be required to put at least two members of their team forward for the technical track and one for both the sales and the marketing tracks. "The aim will be for resellers to have the marketing capabilities ready at the point that the individuals in their business have gone through the sales and technical tracks to help generate revenue to support attainment of the Silver or Gold Cloud Competency."

Earl expects the resellers that go onto the programme to gain the accreditations within a six month time frame. Tech Data will also provide support to each partner through named Business Development Executives, Solutions Architects, and its own CSP Specialists.

The programme will be repeated on a six-monthly cycle with the aim to recruit more partners each half. Tech Data has already had a lot of success with the Microsoft CSP programme and now has a ten-strong dedicated team in place providing support to CSP Partners. The team consists of three CSP Specialists, three Business Development Executives, two fully-qualified Microsoft Solutions Architects, one administrator and one manager, all of whom are 100 percent dedicated to the programme.