Comms Dealer

Distributor DMSL is to launch Vonage's channel partner programme in the UK in a move that significantly extends the cloud comms provider's reach via DMSL's nationwide network of resellers. "Today's business requires a communications system that allows an increasingly mobile and distributed workforce to maintain a business presence and to be productive anytime, anywhere," said Simon Burckhardt (pictured), MD of Vonage UK.

"Employees are no longer tied to the office and the nature of cloud-based unified communications enables them to work from any location or device with access to the same information and functionality they have in the office. We are seeing increased demand for cloud communications solutions as a result and our partnership with DMSL enables us to work with its 300-plus resellers across the UK."

Vonage chose DMSL as a partner for its ability to identify, recruit and engage with its strong, network of resellers across the UK that understand the value of cloud communications for business.

DMSL MD John Carter added: "The addition of Vonage to our provider portfolio means instant access to flexible business communications solutions.

"We are currently at a tipping point for adoption as UK businesses see the potential of what a cloud communications system can do for their business."

DMSL plans to leverage its link-up with Vonage in a new reseller recruitment drive.

Carter said: "DMSL believes that being able to offer the Vonage solution will help us to attract more resellers. We are launching a new nationwide reseller recruitment programme focused on our ability to offer Vonage products and services. We expect to see a high level of enthusiasm from our resellers and their business customers."

Vonage generated revenues of $895m in 2015 and serves more than 70,000 companies. The firm launched in the UK in 2005.

Dell and EMC will combine on September 7th, and be known as Dell Technologies.

It follows regulatory approval of the Dell and EMC transaction by China's Ministry of Commerce, which has granted clearance for the companies' proposed combination. MOFCOM approval was the final regulatory condition to closing the transaction.

EMC shareholders approved the transaction on July 19th, with approximately 98% of voting EMC shareholders casting their votes in favor of the merger, representing approximately 74% of EMC's outstanding common stock.

"This is an historic moment for both Dell and EMC. Combined, we will be well positioned for growth in the most strategic areas of next generation IT including digital transformation, software defined data centre, converged infrastructure, hybrid cloud, mobile and security," says Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies.

Huawei's Shape the Cloud event in Shanghai reaffirms how seriously the comms giant is taking digital transformation, betting on widespread IoT and a change in IT buying strategy.

Ken Hu, Huawei's rotating CEO, explained that the company aims to position itself as the enabler and driver of an intelligent world.

Throughout this process, Huawei aims to become a preferred partner that enables digital and cloud transformation, while actively contributing to the cloud ecosystem through openness, collaboration, and shared success.

Hu says it is vital for enterprises to change their mindsets around the role of ICT: They should start treating ICT as a production system instead of a support system, and proactively use technology to redesign their production processes.

Second, enterprises should rethink talent, and equip their employees with basic ICT knowledge, particularly as it applies to cloud technology.

Third, enterprises should think big and act small, making headway with tactical, gradual improvements that build lasting confidence in new technology and the success it brings.

"Cloud is changing everything," added. "We view change as a process of rebirth. For any business in the Cloud 2.0 era, change brings hope."

Information and communications technology (ICT) will be the cornerstone of an intelligent world.

Ken Hu compared devices to 'feelers' that give all things the ability to sense their environments. Networks will connect everything, and the cloud will be the source of intelligence behind all things. These three elements form a synergetic architecture of devices, information pipes, and the cloud, and they are the strategic focus of Huawei's investment in the future.

"Over the next five to ten years we will see all kinds of smart devices that automatically adapt to various use scenarios," he added. "All people and all things will have the ability to sense their surroundings, and devices will serve as entry points to the intelligent world.

"Optical and wireless networks will provide ubiquitous, ultra-broadband connections. In the meantime, interconnected computers spread across the planet will aggregate vast amounts of data, forming a 'digital brain' in the cloud. This digital brain will evolve in real-time, and it will never age, providing intelligence that can be called upon at any time by people and machines via high-speed connections and devices."

These solutions are highly open and secure, and offer enterprise-grade performance in an integrated one-stop environment, aspects of functionality that are designed in direct response to customer pain points.

In addition to individual solutions, it stresses that the cloud ecosystem must be developed around creating value for customers, and that every organisation within the ecosystem must contribute its own unique value. Huawei isn't going to release a handful of clouds on its own; as an ecosystem enabler, Huawei aims to help all of its customers build all manner of clouds.

Enterprises that were born in the cloud led the development of the first cloud era, disrupting industries around the world.

Hu believes that the next ten years will be the era of Cloud 2.0, marking the rise of countless industry clouds.

By 2025, Huawei predicts that all enterprise IT solutions will be cloudified, and more than 85% of enterprise applications will be cloud-based.

Every company will integrate its core business with the cloud, and will be on the look-out for the cloud solutions that suit them best.

A business set up to plug the small business funding gap has swung its focus onto the comms sector where company founders Christoph Rieche and James Dear have identified a need for ambitious telcos with growth potential to leverage the financial resources offered by the firm.

The company has launched against a backdrop of shrinking financial solutions for needy smaller businesses as evidenced by BBA figures for Q1 2016 which show that banks approved £6.1bn of new SME loan and overdraft facilities in the period, 18% lower than in Q1 2015.

"Small businesses, unlike their larger peers, often don't have the capital they need to invest in new opportunities while managing cash flow gaps," stated Rieche.

"This is particularly critical in the telecoms sector where businesses are confident about their growth opportunities but they lack the resources to take advantage of them. That is why we launched iwoca."

London-based iwoca operates independently of the banks, has developed a proprietary technology platform and automatically collects thousands of data points on every business that applies. This is collected in real-time through integrations with major banks, accountancy software providers, payment processors and more.

"Analysing this data allows iwoca to approve a business for a credit line of up to £100,000 within hours," explained Rieche.

"A business can then draw down as much of the funding as they want, either for day-to-day cash flow management or to make an investment.

"Everything is managed through an online account and customers are free to repay early or keep the funds for up to 12 months. It works on a pay-as-you-go model - companies only pay interest for each day they borrow with no other fees and no long-term commitments."

Since it began its commercial life in 2012 iwoca has lent over £120m to more than 6,000 businesses including ACT Communications which uses funding from iwoca to achieve better deals on stock orders.

The firm's MD Matthew Peach stated: "Bank finance has always been available to us. However, as the years have gone by and bank lending criteria has changed it has become much harder to achieve a good deal with minimal required security.

"We needed stock quickly and short-term cash was required to get the best price. With an approved credit line in place with iwoca we can commit to deals and orders that in the past we would have avoided due to potential cash flow issues.

"The business as a whole is moving forward at a much quicker pace and this is simply down to readily available cash."

iwoca has expanded beyond the UK to support businesses in Germany, Poland and Spain; and David Cameron highlighted iwoca as one of the UK's most successful FinTech leaders in a speech to the Innovate Finance Global Summit. The firm was also crowned Alternative Lender of the Year for Commercial Credit in the 2015 and 2016 Credit Today awards.

US-listed cloud customer collaboration specialist Interactive Intelligence has reported rapid expansion of its partner ecosystem.

Since the first of the year, the company says it has signed 50 new partners with indirect sales accounting for nearly half of new customer deals.

In Q2, an Interactive Intelligence channel partner closed the largest indirect deal in the company's history, worth more than $12.5 million.

"We overhauled our Global Partner Program late last year to make doing business with us simpler and to give partners new revenue opportunities within the cloud market," said Darren Gill, Interactive Intelligence vice president of channels.

"Our recent results show that partners are benefitting from these changes, and we'll continue to find ways to support their business."

The Interactive Intelligence ecosystem now comprises nearly 440 companies worldwide and includes EMEA firms: Advania, Altea, Bizmatica, Capita, KPN International, Maintel, MTM, NTT Data, OBS, Procat International, QPC, Telefonica and Wren Data.

A key objective of the company's Global Partner Program revamp was to speed the time-to-market of its PureCloud solution, a microservice-based platform built on Amazon Web Services Cloud delivering customer engagement, communications and collaboration functionality.

Hull-based Pure Broadband has joined CityFibre's Gigabit City project as a launch partner in its home town.

The network spans 62km across Hull which joins CityFibre's growing ranks of Gigabit Cities.

CityFibre has installed fibre connections to mobile masts throughout Hull, upgrading the majority of the city's mobile traffic to 4G, following a national framework agreement with mobile network operators EE and Three UK. This project led to an increase in mobile Internet use on Three's network in the city by 380%.

Rob Hamlin, Commercial Director at CityFibre, commented: "By working with Pure Broadband businesses in Hull can now capitalise on gigabit speed internet connectivity to compete and succeed in a digital world."

Adrian Bolster, MD of Pure Broadband, added: "We look forward to delivering a range of fibre fed products which will finally put Hull on the map as a true digital city. The key message from Pure is that this is here, now, it is time for Hull to join the Gigabit revolution."

8x8 has been recognised by Gartner as a Leader in the August 23, 2016 'Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Worldwide' for the fifth consecutive year.

Vik Verma, CEO of 8x8, said: "This serves as an important milestone for us and we believe validates the significant strides we've made this year in the mid-market and enterprise with our global cloud communications platform.

"Customers around the world are recognising the need for a tightly integrated single platform for all their communications requirements across unified communications and contact centre, and 8x8 can deliver this at a global scale."

South West Communications Group is to be the sole UK outsource partner to resellers for all Toshiba Unified Communications & Solutions (UCS) products.

All day-to-day Toshiba UCS parts, licences and support will be provided by swcomms as the new operations and management hub in the UK.

swcomms MD Brian Lodge said: "We have worked in the telecoms industry for more than 30 years and have been a Toshiba partner for just as long, so we are ideally placed to offer advice to partners and resellers who need to escalate any technical issues they cannot resolve themselves."

Resellers can also outsource maintenance contracts on a remote and/or field basis to swcomms.

Timico Technology Group's Non-Exec Ben Marnham is to take over the CEO role as company founder and former CEO Tim Radford becomes Executive Chairman.

Marnham boasts 20 years industry experience and began his career at Alternative Networks where he worked for 18 years, most recently as Chief Operating Officer. He joined Timico as a Non-Exec in 2014, a year after setting up 28 Capital, an advisory and investment firm focused on telecoms and technology businesses.

Timico, which made its debut as the new sponsor of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March this year, has set its sights on ambitious growth following impressive 2015 financial results which saw group turnover increase by over 25% to £52.8m with pre-tax profit up by over 150% following two strategic acquisitions in spring that year - managed IT specialist, Wirebird and the telecoms assets of Coms plc.

Radford said: "Ben has taken up the challenge of leading the business into our next phase of growth and development. Advances in technology and changes in the way employees and their businesses work and communicate continue to drive the unstoppable shift towards all things cloud. We are perfectly positioned to make further inroads in this space.

"Ben will develop a unified strategy based around the group's capability of delivering fully-managed IT, network, unified communications and mobile solutions to business customers. His track record in the industry and the strategic contribution Ben has made to the group since joining the board make him the perfect candidate."

Marnham added: "Timico is a truly independent player offering a broad range of managed IT solutions to a long-standing base of SMB and enterprise clients. This longevity testifies to the team's commitment to putting its customers first and making the right investment decisions over the years in both infrastructure and expertise."

Timico was established by Radford in 2004 alongside a small but ambitious team, some of whom he'd worked with previously at Project Telecom (a company Radford set up in 1987 and achieved revenues of £330m before being sold to Vodafone in 2003).

CityFibre's incoming Head of Product Clayton Nash brings 20 years industry experience to the role including a stint at Openreach where he improved the build of NGA and managed a Carrier Ethernet, DWDM and TDM product portfolio worth over £900m.

Nash went on to head up Network Rail's internal telecom products and prior to joining CityFibre he worked on various projects at Vodafone, undertaking a full strategic assessment of consumer fibre network futures, advising on network investments plus technical input into regulatory programmes.

"CityFibre is approaching fibre with the right mindset, believing that bandwidth at gigabit speeds will become common and affordable and that we should stop managing scarcity and start delivering abundance," stated Nash. "This aligns perfectly with my view of where the industry is going, so turning down the opportunity to be part of making that happen simply wasn't an option."

When he joins CityFibre on September 1st Nash will set about 'merging simplicity with the abundance of bandwidth' to make products easier to consume. "I also want to break down the perception that dark fibre is an exotic choice and make it a simple alternative to traditional lit services; and I'll be working on some new and distinct uses for our long distance network.

"Gigabit speeds used to be the preserve of large business, but as more and more small businesses shift to cloud and hosted applications, the hunger for fast, affordable gigabit speeds, enterprise grade service and superior reliability is going to be non-negotiable for everyone."