Comms Dealer

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."

Fidelity Energy has secured a major tie-up with British Gas and Scottish Gas to help ICT resellers across the UK expand their portfolios into the supply of energy services.

The deal represents a breakthrough for the fast-growing energy business headed up by former Gamma channel boss John Haw.

"This strengthens our ability to help resellers serve a range of businesses in both the SME and corporate energy market," said Haw. "It also means we'll be able to sell Scottish Gas products, something our Scottish partners are keen on.

"British Gas and Scottish Gas supply gas, electricity and a range of energy services and the strength of the two brands will help our partners when offering energy services alongside the communications and IT solutions they provide.

"British Gas options have already been built into our Energy Management Portal and we share a similar CRM system in Salesforce.com which is enabling us to fully automate contract production for our partners."

Since its launch at Comms Vision at Gleneagles last November, Fidelity Energy has secured over 75 new reseller partners in the communications and IT sector.

TeleWare has partnered with London-based banking and financial IT company Linx Networks which will offer TeleWare's FCA compliant mobile call recording solution.

Steve Haworth, CEO, TeleWare, said: "This builds on our mission to work with strategic partners to develop and provide integrated compliance solutions to a wider range of sectors and customers."

Gareth Malone, CEO of Linx Networks, added: "It's crucial that any financial institution has a system that will cover them at every customer touch point.

"By working with TeleWare, we ensure that users are able to make and receive calls on their mobile while safe in the knowledge they are 100% compliant."

8x8 has been accepted on the Crown Commercial Services' G-Cloud 8 framework.

Kevin Scott-Cowell, 8x8 UK MD, said: "Public sector organisations want to be treated like any other commercial business with employees to look after, customers to delight and a bottom line to protect.

"It's a great achievement for us to be part of the G-Cloud 8."

A group of comms sector business leaders have set up the Entrepreneur Panel, a CSR initiative established in partnership with youth-led international development charity Restless Development.

The scheme brings entrepreneurs from across the ICT industry together to work on initiatives that promote entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Solar Communications founder Mark Colquhoun and Virtual1 CEO Tom O'Hagan have taken lead roles, working alongside former Alternative Networks Director and current Virtual1 Non-Exec, Jim Sewell, who is a trustee at Restless Development.

The Panel hopes to raise £1m during the next five years to support its efforts across the ten countries Restless works in. That would fund around 35,000 young volunteers to help 280,000 people lift their own way out of poverty.

Virtual1 has entered into a three year partnership with the charity and will be sending two staff members to visit Restless Development's projects later this year.

O'Hagan said: "We were looking to do something different in our charity work, something that involves everyone in our business, excites people and makes a difference in the world."

Colquhoun added: "I want to make a big difference in something outside my work. And I love the fact that I am helping people set up businesses. The Panel is a new concept, so I have the chance to play a part in its development. Who knows what its potential is?"

To find out more about joining Restless Development's Entrepreneur Panel, please contact Philanthropy Manager Ella McNab on ella@restlessdevelopment.org

The Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (ITP) has launched a consultancy service to help telecoms companies prepare for the apprenticeship levy, which comes into force next April.

The apprenticeship levy has been launched by the government to fund three million places for apprentices. From 6th April 2017, any business with a wage bill of over £3m will be liable to pay the levy which equates to 5% of the annual bill.

"With less than a year left to prepare, we have launched a consultancy service to take away the headache of researching the implications for our industry," said Ann Potterton, CEO at the ITP.

"We have specialised in apprenticeships for the telecoms industry for several years, supporting telecoms employers and creating jobs for young people. Therefore, the next logical step is for us to share our expertise and we will advise businesses on what to next, and how they can benefit from the levy."

The service will support businesses with all elements of the levy.

Potterton added: "There are many details employers need to be aware of, including how and when to start up apprenticeship schemes to meet the deadline. We aim to make sure the telecoms industry is ready to go by April 2017, and help attract many more talented people to our profession."

Total Fitness Health Clubs has partnered with Metronet (UK) for an overhaul of its technology infrastructure.

Metronet (UK) has provided a 17 site MPLS solution using both wireless and fibre connectivity.

This fully managed solution includes colocation and WiFi for use by Total Fitness' members and mobile workforce, enabling the company to push the business forward.

Total Fitness has over 95,000 members with 500-plus employees. The head office, along with the biggest gym, is based in Wilmslow where the team manages the day-to-day running of all the health clubs including marketing, membership and technology.

Tony Hughes, Sales Director at Metronet (UK), said: "Our MPLS solution means that companies with multiple offices such as Total Fitness can have all their sites on one network."