Comms Dealer

European cyber security and managed security service provider SecureLink has gained a UK foothold with the acquisition of Nebulas.

Nebulas MD Nick Garlick joins the group management and reports to Marco Barkmeijer, CEO of the SecureLink Group.

"We share the same philosophy, have the same can-do mentality for our customers and believe this expansion is in line with our strategy to expand across Europe," stated Barkmeijer.

Garlick added:"Our customers will benefit from greater security intelligence, managed services and expertise as we accelerate our growth and take the business to the next level."

Fluidata and Metronet (UK) have agreed terms on a partnership that will enable Fluidata to wholesale Metronet (UK)'s Wireless proposition on a layer-2 basis to other UK ISPs and its direct customers.

The joint venture puts Fluidata into the upper tier of Metronet (UK)'s partners and positions them as a significant conduit for distributing its services across the UK for the foreseeable future.

Metronet (UK)'s wholesale wireless platform provides partners with an alternative to fibre in the ground.

Fluidata Sales & Marketing Director Phillip Oliver said: "The ability to use a wireless delivery mechanism means that service providers using our platform can add fully resilient services to their portfolio, while being able to install ultra-fast services into locations within a month that may have had long and difficult civil work requirements with traditional fibre technologies."

Andy Tatlock, Head of Channel Sales at Metronet (UK), added: "Our wholesale wireless offering liberates our partners from the typical constraints, limitations and lethargic nature of traditional Ethernet carriers."

New Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband technology was demonstrated by Openreach to Councillor Jonathan Glanz, Member for West End Ward and lead member for broadband and connectivity on Westminster City Council.

Councillor Glanz helped an Openreach engineer, John Hilliard, 'splice' fibre optic cable in Clifford Street, and discussed how the technology works and the opportunities it offers for Mayfair's economic future.

Councillor Glanz said: "I am delighted that this new way of bringing fibre to the premises is being piloted in the West End and hope that it can be extended throughout the central area of Westminster to allow residents and businesses cost-effective access to ultra-fast broadband which they have long craved."

Andrew Whale, Chief Engineer for Openreach, said: "It's great to see the latest Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology being deployed using the new methods we have developed.

"Using micro cables, which are small diameter cables designed to get through busy underground ducts, we are able to avoid costly and disruptive civil engineering work. This in turn makes deployment much quicker and enables FTTP to be available to more customers. It's the first time that we've used micro cables in the West End."

Dr Prabhjot Basra, BT's regional partnership director for London, said: "This is great news for Mayfair. It is the latest development in our continuing drive to make faster internet access as widely available as possible. The faster broadband speeds will make the local businesses even more competitive, helping to secure and grow local employment opportunities."

Councillor Philippa Roe, leader of Westminster City Council and chair of the West End Partnership, said: "Providing modern broadband for businesses and residents in the heart of London makes a major contribution to our city's economic success.

"The West End Partnership and Openreach have been working closely to rollout superfast fibre broadband in Westminster and it is clear that this relationship is already bearing fruit.

"This does not mean we are resting on our laurels. The council's ambition is to see every Westminster business and resident connected to superfast and reliable fibre broadband, and we remain committed to come up with and support new ideas and innovations that will help us achieve this goal."

Openreach recently announced it will make fibre available for a further 360,000 homes and businesses in London in the next two years.

Avaya's ambitions to digitally transform the SME and mid-market sectors have been advanced by the appointment of Ioan MacRae as Mid-market Director for Avaya International, focusing on Europe and the Africa, Middle East and Asia (AMEA) region.

MacRae joined Avaya in 2014 as Mid-market Director for Europe. He was previously General Manager at Westcon Group.

"Avaya is delivering tailored solutions that help mid-market organisations achieve their digital transformation goals at their own pace and path, in a model of their choosing," stated MacRae.

Fadi Moubarak, Channel Leader for Europe and AMEA, added: "The mid-market remains at the core of our strategy. Ioan will continue to help drive our go-to-market strategy and achieve equal and greater success in this new role covering a wider and more diverse region."

Symantec's Q1 results revealed a better than expected performance despite the major task of integrating acquisition target Blue Coat.

The company is eyeing Q2 non GAAP revenue of $960-$990, a 4%-8% year-on-year rise driven mainly by enterprise security where it expects a 14%-20% year-on-year jump.

Consumer security is becoming less important and registered a 7% year-on-year fall.

Greg Clark, Symantec's CEO (who was previously CEO of Blue Coat), stated: "Symantec is now positioned to take advantage of the market opportunities in helping customers embrace the cloud, protecting the mobile workforce and securing enterprises, governments and consumers from advanced attacks."

Thomas Seifert, Symantec's CFO, added: "Our revenue was above the mid-point of our guided range for Q1, driven by improved performance within enterprise security and continued in-line results from consumer security.

"With the Blue Coat acquisition complete, we are well positioned to accelerate our strategy as a pure play cyber security company and achieve alignment across the organisation.

"We continue to make progress in realising cost efficiencies and synergies by the end of fiscal 2018."

TeleWare has put visibility and control into the hands of SME contact centres following the launch of TeleWare Communication Manager (TCM), a new pay-as-you-go cloud-based, in-house configured and controlled solution.

Teleware Product Manager Terry-Ann Cocker said: "Companies are increasingly understanding the need to have a complete overview and understanding of workflow, especially when staff are in a wide range of locations.

"What's more, we're seeing a large and growing market for contact centre lite solutions with over 5,600 small-to-medium contact centres employing less than 200 people to manage their communications and more coming online every day."

TCM is positioned as a telephone system agnostic 'contact-centre lite' solution that offers central administrators a real time view of all inbound and outbound activity wherever staff are based.
Multiple dashboards can be configured in-house, allowing companies to tailor data views.

TCM comes with a minimum three month contract period followed by a pay-as-you-go monthly contract.

TeleWare CEO Steve Haworth added: "TCM is a flexible, simplistic and easy-to-use solution that not only gives a view of what's happening now, but helps companies to improve their performance by analysing historic data.

"Any company can then get more insight into their business and employee behaviour to make sure they're delivering the best customer experience possible."

Start-up technology company ST2's £100m development of a new data centre at the former ICI site in Redcar will create circa 400 local jobs.

Anne Stokes, CEO of ST2, said: "This is an important step forward in our ambition to develop an environmentally sustainable data centre and technology services business in the north east.

"Not only will this be an important source of quality jobs for the area, but demonstrates that the tech sector isn't just a phenomenon for the south of England.

"Our planned development in Redcar is part of a 20 year investment that will create long-term skilled employment.

"Data centres have become an essential part of the country's critical economic infrastructure so we will also be supporting a wide range of businesses and encouraging them to either set up shop or grow their existing activities in the north east."

Yorkshire-based Lily Comms has presented its strategic vision to staff, stakeholders, clients and suppliers during an event staged at the firm's offices and attended by 60-plus delegates.

The Strategy for Success (S4S) document sets out the company's vision, success factors, values and culture.

The company hopes that it will help to drive significant growth over the near term, from a projected £4.9m this financial year towards the £10m milestone.

"The S4S has been created to help Lily Comms push past the £10m barrier and beyond," said MD Chris Morrisey.

"Our strategy is part of a framework called The Winning Formula created by John Stein.

"The simple approach enables leaders to transform their organisation, lead and inspire change, deliver accelerated growth, improve operational efficiency and maximise the human performance potential of their people.

"Our S4S defines us. It will guide and motivate us as we grow and keep us focused on a day-to-day basis."

Beech Tree Private Equity has backed the £35m MBO of UC provider Wavenet and with the Royal Bank of Scotland provided an acquisition war chest that enables the company to make a number of strategic bolt-on buys.

Andrew Ashton joins the business as Finance Director and Edward Spurrier, former CEO of Alternative Networks, has been named Chairman.

Paul Franks (MD at Beech Tree Private Equity) and Adam Rudd, also from the investing firm, join the board.

Wavenet delivers UC solutions to over 2,000 customers and connects over 12,000 end points.

The business was founded by Chris Jones in 2000 and three years later the current CEO, Bill Dawson, invested and joined the business.
Dawson said: "Beech Tree Private Equity is on board to support our growth plans, both organically and through acquisition.

"Furthermore, by tapping into its industry knowledge and network we have been able to strengthen our management team with the addition of Ed and Andrew."

Franks added: "Wavenet's management team have invested heavily in the technology and infrastructure that will make the delivery of our growth plans much easier.

"We are also backing a team that has successfully completed several acquisitions. With the capital we have injected we think we can significantly grow the business together."

Pangea has partnered with Fidelity to provide Visit Sweden with connectivity during refurbishments.

Visit Sweden is the face of Sweden's official Tourism Board and is situated in the Swedish Embassy building.

Due to refurbishments it needed to relocate temporarily to the ground floor and required connectivity during the relocation.

Fidelity Group called on Pangea to facilitate this move by providing SIMs to enable a temporary 4G connection.

The solution delivered a 4G speed of nearly 30mbps download and 10-15mbs upload. And the latency was sub 50ms as a result of the efficiency of the network.

As a result, Pangea and Fidelity were able to win to secure the contract of almost £80,000.

Tim Holway, Business Development Manager at Fidelity Group, said: "The Speed and ease of deployment for Visit Sweden enabled by Pangea added a key element of winning this large refurbishment contract for Fidelity Group."