Comms Dealer

Jane Ashworth, Managing Director for SMART Technologies UK&I, has only one purpose - to reclaim the company's dominant market status by developing staunch channel partnerships and working hand in hand with key resellers in core markets.

It took Ashworth just two months to overhaul SMART's go to market strategy. She introduced a new distribution model, rebuilt the entire sales team and realigned the marketing operation. The extent of the transformation rendered the firm's previous modus operandi almost unrecognisable. "The team has a start-up mentality, and we're ready to reclaim our number one spot in the UK market," commented Ashworth.

Given the recent history of SMART's progressive action plan Ashworth is confident that she will quickly turn strategic vision into reality by working more closely with partners and supporting resellers directly. "Our new partner strategy revolutionises our approach to sales throughout the UK," added Ashworth. "We're seeing high demand for interactive flat panels throughout the education sector with a 37 per cent increase in 2016. Our whiteboards, interactive displays and software are designed for educators and businesses that believe in the power of collaboration, and a priority right now is working with our loyal partners who have helped build the market."

SMART's revamped channel strategy is based on a hybrid distribution system with partners Midwich and Westcon. "We now have a lighter touch distribution model," added Ashworth. "We're directly involved in the channel and showcasing a clear product roadmap. Our new partner programme has completely transformed our UK route to market. We're looking to serve a growing customer base more efficiently and we're noticing an increase in demand for interactive flat panels throughout the UK education sector. We have high expectations for the market and will continue to invest in a dedicated sales team both from a channel and user perspective. Aligning with our partners more effectively to develop and continue to drive the market is also a key priority."

SMART specialises in touch technologies and software. The company was founded in 1987 and is perhaps best known as the developer of the SMART Board interactive white board introduced in 1993. The portfolio has expanded greatly to include an array of hardware and software for businesses and schools to collaborate. To date the company has installed over 3.2 million products worldwide and claims a 70 per cent interactive white board market share in the US and UK. Over 2.8 million K-12 classrooms in 175 countries use SMART solutions and software to make education more engaging, effective and fun. SMART's flagship products include interactive whiteboards, projectors and flat panel displays that enable greater collaboration, productivity and performance. "The interactive flat panel market has taken off, particularly in the UK," commented Ashworth. "We're synonymous in the education space, but looking at the enterprise opportunity, the launch of kapp iQ in 2015 laid down a marker."

The 4K kapp iQ is a smart display designed to expand the whiteboard's reach beyond those in the room. Users can walk up and use it, like any whiteboard, and it's accessible by up to 250 remote meeting participants at a time through a unique URL. Any drawings made by the presenter on the kapp iQ are pushed to each connected mobile device in real-time. The presenter and participants can click a camera button to save a snapshot of what's on the board, which then gets stored on each participant's mobile device. Another turning point was Bett 2016 when SMART launched Classroom-as-a-service, or ClaaS, a subscription model that allows schools to spread the financial cost of interactive displays and collaborative learning software into schools, upgrade technology as well as provide training and support while keeping within an education body's budget.

"We are not going to drive the market through hardware alone," emphasised Ashworth. "Most opportunities are software led, and leading with software as a solution will make the most impact in classrooms and boardrooms. SMART empowers people to work and learn together in ways that simply make sense, enabling people to naturally collaborate and contribute in classrooms, meeting rooms and beyond. We're freeing people to evolve their thinking, simplify sharing and explore unlimited ideas by creating spaces that intuitively connect across devices and locations."

According to Ashworth SMART has a social responsibility to shape the classrooms of the future. "We now have an online store for teachers to buy one-off licenses, and we're making great steps to accommodate the challenges we face in the market today," she added. "Working with partners like Midwich and Westcon is vital to reach organisations looking to capitalise on software and hardware for collaboration. We are poised to quickly gather pace and accelerate our new channel strategy. What's core to reclaiming our number one status is supporting our most strategic and loyal partners by working with the AV sector to drive a successful solution strategy. Resellers that sell solutions, not box pricing, are the future. They will deliver more margin for the business through add on services. Resellers that are stuck in the past and fixated on price won't survive."

Ashworth joined SMART in January 2015, moving from HP where she was Commercial Director for the Print and Personal Systems Group, managing the channel. Prior to her five year stint at HP Ashworth spent 13 years at Sony in various UK and European consumer roles.

"It was a great, creative time to be at the forefront of innovation," she said. "My career in IT began during an exciting time in the development of consumer technology, bringing an array of devices to market. Seeing first hand the high demand for Walkmans, MP3 players and integrated digital AV systems got me hooked. In the consumer market I had a great chance to see fast growth first hand, learn different cost models for various products and compete with Apple and Samsung. I've always loved being at the forefront of technology, from the excitement of major product launches to hearing the feedback from customers."•

The dialogue continues to jog along, as we look to our leaders to start talking about real plans and stop market-testing public opinion, writes Clive Jefferys of telecoms recruiter JMA Network.

In Europe, the politicians are warily watching Old Blighty, wondering who is going to make the first move. Seventy six years ago, the Battle of Britain raged overhead and today at home an air of siege mentality pervades.

Is the Brexit coming? When will it happen?

"Be calm - it's coming! It's coming!" Jean-Claude Juncker declares from his commissariat in Brussels.

I may not be Churchill, but I say we shall prevail.

Growing up in the dark 70s and painful 80s, I recruited all through 1992's Black Wednesday, the Tech Bubble of 2000, the Bankers Crash in 2008 - and throughout all, IT and telecoms hiring held up. In many ways, these periods were the spur for invention and significant growth in our sector, and I see no reason to think otherwise today.

Telecoms is both a necessary utility and a technological opportunity for businesses and consumers.

If anything, the pace of change is accelerating with the full impact of cloud and hosting only just beginning to be felt.

Certainly, our customer base is reporting good business and dogged determination to succeed among their customers. 

On the other side, candidates continue to register for new opportunities and we know that at least half of them wanted change by voting the way that they did in June.

Sure, negotiation of packages is tough, but when was it ever easy to hire a data salesman, a provisioner or a billings manager?

Meanwhile, Crane Watch is reporting record activity over Britain's cities, plenty of work to be had there over the next three years. The road ahead might have a few twists and turns, but as career options go telecoms has never been more attractive.

A free training scheme introduced by plan.com designed to remove all barriers to VoIP sales for mobile dealers has yielded strong results, so much so that the company is recruiting to roll out the initiative across the south of England.

"More mobile partners are realising that to grow and secure their business they must expand their offers across different channels such as VoIP, fixed and broadband," said Chris Reilly, Training Manager.

"Over 90% of all VoIP connections that we process come from VoIP virgins - partners who have never sold anything other than mobile before - which is great to see."

Reilly trains partners in their own offices and tailors the content according to their requirements.

"Our training scheme not only helps partners understand our portal and what it can do, it also gives them the tools and knowledge to offer a range of solutions that could, in time, add resilience into their business models."

plan.com's in-house tech team have boosted the firm's partner portal with new software that reduces the change of business ownership process to just minutes.

Keith Curran, plan.com's co-founder, said: "With thousands of businesses changing hands every year, most people would assume that the change of ownership process would be simple. But the industry standard to carry out this process can take days and even weeks.

"Our partners tell us what is required to make life easier for them and their customers and we provide the tech solutions."

Chris Smith, COO, added: "In today's fast paced business environment you can't afford to have manual processes slowing things down. Customers know there are quicker and easier ways of doing things, and if they are not happy they will vote with their feet. That's why we continuously invest in technology."

Knight Corporate Finance has revealed details on its role as advisor to Growth Capital Partners (GCP) for its investment in Godalming-based Arrow Business Communications.

The comms and IT solutions provider is headed up by CEO Chris Russell and provides mobile, fixed line and IT support services to over 4,000 business customers.

Knight advised GCP on commercial matters, the telecommunications market and shareholder strategy.

Arrow is now set for fast growth and M&A activity following the investment that sees both parties hold a 50% shareholding in the business.

Arrow has completed seven acquisitions in the last six years and almost trebled in size, moving from its mobile roots to a broader based business communications supplier.

The company is now on the hunt for larger acquisition opportunities to bolster its hosted, data and IT services portfolio.

Arrow also holds service provider licences with both Vodafone and O2.

?Knight Director Paul Billingham stated: "This transaction is a good example of how we can leverage our relationships and deep understanding of the telecommunications sector to support an investment process.

"There have been a number of transactions involving private equity in the sector recently and we see no sign of this abating. M&A in the sector continues to be vibrant."

Richard Shaw, Investment Director at GCP, added: "Knight was instrumental in ensuring that we were at the forefront of the Arrow process and able to provide insight into the sector to complement our other due diligence streams."

The latest data from the Markit/REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) Report on Jobs showed a rise in the volume of permanent staff placements during August, following decreases seen in the preceding two months around the Brexit vote. Short-term staff billings also increased at its strongest rate since May.

Reading-based businesses now have access to ultra-fast Internet services through CityFibre's launch partner BtL.
 
Approximately 30km of pure fibre network bolsters Reading's reputation as an emerging smart city, promoting business incubation units and the use of the University of Reading's city centre campus to exhibit and test innovative ideas.

BtL will work closely with CityFibre to encourage businesses across the city to connect.
 
Rob Lamden, MD at BtL, said: "We have been observing demand for ultra-fast services grow exponentially in recent years, and this project has the potential to unlock a tide of demand for faster, more resilient and more affordable services.

"Businesses can now stop concerning themselves with bandwidth restrictions and instead optimise their operations, improving their experience and driving the bottom line."
 
Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, added: "Our network is designed to accommodate Reading's current and future digital needs, from connecting public sector sites, schools and hospitals to powering the masts and small cells needed to deliver 4G and even 5G mobile coverage. Connecting businesses large and small is only the first step in Reading's Gigabit City journey."

Cyber security provider F-Secure and ten research organisations have co-founded a consortium in response to concerns that increasing efforts to secure digital infrastructure and data may come at the expense of European rights and values.

The CANVAS (Constructing an Alliance for Value-driven Cyber Security) consortium brings together participants from various scientific traditions and fields to structure and disseminate research regarding the ethical, legal, empirical and technological issues related to cyber security.

It aims to create resources that inform policy makers, experts and the public on the development of cyber security technologies and policies that offer security without sacrificing emerging needs, such as basic access rights.

"Right now everyone's struggling to secure digital assets," said Sean Sullivan, security advisor, F-Secure.

"Doing nothing is not an option given the capabilities of today's attackers, but at the same time, being too heavy handed harms innocent people and companies looking to make the most out of new technology.

"Governments, companies and the public are coming to the European cyber security industry with questions about how to make security both effective and practical for their needs, and CANVAS is going to help us get answers to the people that need them."

The project is supported by three years of funding from the European Union and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.

"Cyber security is becoming more important as people and societies are relying more on digital infrastructure than ever before," said Dr. Markus Christen, senior research fellow and CANVAS project coordinator, University of Zurich.

"But at the same time, it's important that we avoid burning the village in order to save it. Values like autonomy, privacy and equality need to be maintained while we're securing systems and data, and CANVAS will work with people, companies and policy makers to help them balance these interests."

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has added two more data centres to its national fibre network. Customers of Ark and Datum's data centres, both located in Farnborough, now have access to SSE Enterprise Telecoms' range of Carrier Ethernet, dark fibre and optical networking services.

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has more than 70 commercial data centres on-net; and since lighting up the two Farnborough facilities SSE Enterprise Telecoms has signed its first deal with Efar, a Southern Communications Group Company, to deliver a 10Gbps wave between Ark and Equinix LD5 in Slough.

"By connecting both Ark and Datum's data centres we're continuing our expansion plans to bring networking solutions to the most strategically placed facilities in the UK," said Colin Sempill, Managing Director of SSE Enterprise Telecoms.

Vaioni Wholesale has set-up more interconnects with cloud partners including Gamma and TalkTalk to meet growing demand for end-to-end QoS on SIP and related services.

Sachin Vaish, MD of Vaioni, said: "Our interconnects have been in place for sometime but we are seeing strong demand from channel partners to directly interconnect to key providers of various cloud services.

"As the connectivity provider, we are more than happy to help our partners achieve these goals, including interconnects with cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and AWS, as well as some standard ones.

Vaioni has embarked on a wider roll out of interconnects to cloud providers in line with demand, and has pledged to work with partners on new interconnect requirements that may, for example, help them to win bigger deals.

"We always set-up multiple connections to ensure resilience," added Vaish. "With the interconnects in place, our partners can reassure their customers that they are receiving end-to-end quality of service, guaranteed lower latency, privacy and security."