Comms Dealer

Daisy Group's Chief Digital Officer Nathan Marke has urged UK plc to fully grasp the digital transformation agenda.

His rallying call follows the outcome of a survey that showed 73% of SMBs and 45% of large enterprises are unable to keep up with the digital revolution despite the overall majority wanting to transform their businesses.

The study (commissioned by Daisy Group and conducted by Vanson Bourne) also found that 52% of large enterprises and 40% of SMBs are looking to digitise both their front and back office functions as quickly as possible, but issues around resource and time, strategic direction, skills and legacy technology are holding them back.

"Businesses large and small must embrace digital transformation if they are to grow their market share," said Marke.

"While the majority of businesses appear to recognise a need to change, their lack of a clear strategy is potentially holding them back.

"It is clear that businesses of all sizes still face considerable technology and resource challenges if they are to achieve their digital transformation goals.

"Through working with expert technology partners, businesses can ensure they are equipped with the right tools and knowledge to make their digital journey a success.

"Orchestrating and facilitating this digital shift shouldn't be taken lightly. But, ultimately, those businesses that fail to get their digital strategy right risk getting everything wrong."

ITSPA has launched its member guidance and model code on complaints handling. The document was prepared collaboratively by international legal practice Osborne Clarke LLP, also an ITSPA member.

It is a legal requirement for communications service providers to have a clear written customer complaints handling code in place which should be followed in the event of a complaint being made by domestic or small business customers.

Eli Katz, the Chair of ITSPA, said: "I encourage members to make use of this document to ensure that they remain compliant with the legal requirements in this area."

Jon Fell, Partner at Osborne Clarke LLP, added: "In recent years the industry has seen a couple of high profile cases of companies being fined for failing to comply with the legal requirements regarding complaints handling."

Virtual1's David Marchment has been appointed to the newly created Jeopardy Management role.

The move is part of Virtual1's drive to identify and resolve delays while managing the team and dealing with high-end escalations.

"Jeopardy management is an important element when coordinating the delivery of simultaneous projects and larger scale solutions," stated Marchment.

"The delivery may require a pool of resources from the wholesale provider, partner and end customer across the scope of works, order management and install.

"Jeopardy management enables the provisioning team to concentrate on fluid projects, maintaining volume and revenue."

Tom O'Hagan, CEO, said: "David will be instrumental in providing the strategy and leadership we need to streamline our WIP pipeline and push through projects."

Virtual1 is providing free routers on all Internet and cloud-ready circuits up to 1Gb.

Changing to a two-router model, Virtual1 is linking the router model to the maximum bandwidth of the bearer and not the bandwidth purchased.

This means that a customer buying 100/1000 receives a full 1Gb router, so any bandwidth upgrade would be soft and not require a hardware upgrade.

"This is all about enabling an easy upgrade over the term of the contract for our partners' customers,"said Tom O'Hagan, CEO of Virtual1.

"There is no point in a customer choosing a 200/1000 because they are likely to need to jump to a full 1Gb sooner than they anticipate, through growth and acquisition, which would mean an expensive new router.

"By choosing to move to 1Gb now they future proof their requirements and, with our free router offer, all we need to do is to up the bandwidth as required."

James Hickman, Virtual1 CTO, commented: "Looking at the trends of the last three years, these routers will take our partners to the next level of their bandwidth needs. With an eye to the short-term future, we are already working on 10Gb models which launch next month and we had our first 100Gb opportunity last quarter."

Knight Corporate Finance is putting its financial muscle behind one of the fastest growing running events in the north west

The channel M&A specialist has secured lead sponsorship of the English Half Marathon Corporate Challenge and has put out a call to the ICT industry to enter teams in aid of Comms Dealer charity Sparks.

The Knight team of highly trained athletes, featuring Tom Jones (Guinness World Record Holder for the fastest marathon dressed as a musical instrument) and Paul Billingham (runner up in Little Houghton Junior School's cross country race back in the 70s) want as many channel businesses as possible to enter and challenge them in the Corporate Challenge League table.

"We're proud to support Warrington's largest participation event, and hope many other organisations in the channel follow our lead and get involved, " said Knight CF Director Paul Billingham.

"Promoting physical activity and teamwork is more than a 'nice to have', it's a necessary step towards a cohesive, resilient and fit workforce and mass participation sporting events are a terrific way to help businesses meet and create long lasting relationships.

"The Corporate Challenge connects companies with each other and companies with their employees."
?"Sparks has a big profile in sport and is a wonderful charity raising money for research into childhood illnesses which will resonate with business teams who all want their families to be healthy and happy. We hope to get lots of teams running in Sparks vests and supporting the cause."

Teams entering will receive media exposure in advance of the September 18th event, brand coverage on the day and exclusive pre and post-race hospitality.
?Full details of the event can be found at http://ehm.contest-sports.com/corporate-challenge/ or email run@knightcf.com.

If you would like to sponsor the Knight team and donate to Sparks you can do so  here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/KnightCorporateChallenge

SoftBank has acquired chip designer ARM Holdings for £23.4bn as the Japanese telecoms giant bolsters its presence in the growing Internet of Things sector.

The deal will see heavily-indebted SoftBank pay £17 in cash for each share in ARM, a 43% premium to its closing price last week, marking the largest ever purchase of a European technology company.

Masayoshi Son, the founder and chairman of SoftBank, indicated earlier this year that he was thinking big and had a $40bn war chest.

Japan's third biggest telecoms company wants to become a 'global powerhouse' and this acquisition is part of its bet on IoT and AI.

Content Guru will renew its support of the European Contact Centre and Customer Service Awards (ECCCSA) for 2016, sponsoring the event's Large Contact Centre of the Year category.

Now run in association with the Call Centre Management Association (CCMA), the annual awards ceremony will take place at the new venue of London's Hilton Park Lane Hotel on Monday 21st November.

British television journalist, newsreader and television presenter, Fiona Bruce, will take to the stage as the evening's host, presenting a total of 18 awards across the evening's three main categories, including the Innovation, Technology & Effectiveness, Customer Service Team and Contact Centre Awards.

Martin Taylor, CMO of Content Guru, commented: "The contact centre industry is at an exciting juncture as the notion of the traditional call centre continues to decline and adoption of the multi-channel customer engagement hub gathers momentum.

"These Awards always provide a window into not only the innovative ways in which contact centres are deploying the latest technologies to enhance the customer experience, but also into the finest examples of the human element that is still at the core of many a customer interaction."

Ingram Micro UK is increasing credit limits and extending terms for more than 1,500 SMB customers.

Tony McMurray, Finance Director, said: "By granting and extending credit terms to a large number of SMB customers we are expressing our commitment to their sustained growth and continued success.

"We hope that this scheme combined with other newly launched initiatives demonstrates our willingness to work with our customers to achieve mutually beneficial results."

Edinburgh-based Commsworld has made great gains in the Scottish legal market and is claiming to provide 20% of the country's top legal entities with network and comms solutions.

Commsworld CEO Ricky Nicol said: "Fast and secure communications are vital for the smooth running of legal practices and the privacy of their clients.

"Our market share in this profession is indicative of the growth we're seeing throughout the whole business.

"The resurgence of personal communication along with a growing appetite for a service that fits each specific business has helped us expand as we diversify our services."

Vodafone UK's remodelled partner programme puts a spotlight on capability and customer experience rather than volume and kicks into action early next year.

"We've been readying ourselves and our partners for the launch of the new programme with convergence capabilities and customer experience at its heart," stated Nick Birtwistle, Partners and Alliances Director, Vodafone UK.

"We've invested time and resources in the tools, training and marketing materials to support partners as we move to a capability model."

The existing Platinum, Gold and Silver designations will be replaced by capability tiers called Approved, Specialist, Advanced and Total Communications.

"The new programme, unlike the old model, is converged and open to all Vodafone Partner Services (VPS) partners, both fixed and mobile," added Birtwistle.

Vodafone UK has also adopted a more regional focus, reflecting a wider move to a regional business support model in its direct enterprise channels.

Jan Collins, Kathryn Platt and Oliver Lofthouse are now heading up Vodafone Partner Services, which continues to be overseen by Birtwistle.

"We know that SMEs want a relationship with a local supplier or partner," said Birtwistle.

"Businesses today need to be ready for anything. They need to be agile, they need to respond quickly to changes in their own industries and they need to be able to meet their customers' demands.

"There is an increasing uptake of UC and converged communications among UK businesses, along with demand for cloud, hosting and IoT services.

"Communications, and particularly total and converged communications, has a big role to play in helping UK businesses to tackle these challenges, which is why capabilities are vital for our partners and a key focus within our own business."

Not all partners will be skilled in UC, prompting Vodafone UK to create a suite of training and certification materials.

For the first time partners will be able to gain Vodafone certification across the Vodafone fixed, mobile, converged and cloud portfolio.

"Because of the scale, our training and certification programme is the result of 12 months work and provides over 150 hours of learning materials," added Birtwistle.

"Our partner programme is also designed to be future proofed. For example, we can build in new capabilities, products and services as they are developed and become available."