Comms Dealer

Distributor ALSO Group closed the first half of 2016 with a consolidated profit of €27.8m and improved its profit by around 14% compared to last year.

Profit before tax (EBT) climbed by about 12% to €40.3m. Sales increased over the same period by almost three percent to €3.771bn.

"We were able to increase earnings and significantly outpace sales. And this despite continued high investments in our future. Both in Poland and in Benelux, we are expanding our presence. We are still expanding, "said Gustavo Möller-Hergt, CEO of ALSO Holding AG.

The Central European market segment recorded a slight declining sales of 2% to €2.304bn but with a 'significantly improved' EBT margin of 0.9%.

This is partly due to measures to stabilise earnings at ALSO Switzerland and ALSO France.

Business development in Germany was above average in the first half, it says. 

The previous year's figures for the segments have been adjusted because ALSO International B.V. and ALSO Nederland B.V. (Benelux) are new to the Northern/Eastern Europe region and no longer belong to the Central Europe segment.

In Northern/Eastern Europe, sales increased by 11% to €1.467bn, while the EBT margin declined to 0.4% from 1.2%. This is mainly due to start-up investments in Poland and Benelux.

In addition, cost-reducing investments were carried out in a warehouse in Finland.

International expansion remains a central component of the growth strategy of ALSO. In the past six months, ALSO opened up in Slovenia and Belgium.

The subsidiary ALSO Polska founded twelve months ago is also in a build-up phase while a new warehouse was opened In Pirkkala/Finland. 

The business expansion was also supported by new strategic partnerships and collaborations, it says.

Microsoft is working with ALSO on expansion of 'Workplace as a Service' while working with Logicom offers ALSO customers in southern Europe and the Middle East a cloud-based software service.

Entanet has called on Ofcom to make Openreach focus more on quality of service, believing that the regulator's plans to make Openreach a distinct company within the BT Group don't go far enough.

Neil Watson, Entanet's Head of Service, said: "Ofcom's chief executive, Sharon White, said that splitting Openreach off from BT completely - as we and many others in the industry have called for because we believe it's the only way to ensure free and fair competition - would take too long. 

"This sounds like a bit of a cop-out. It remains to be seen just how ‘independent' Openreach becomes while it is still a division within the BT Group.

"If there are improvements to responsiveness and service levels, it will be most welcome. But that's a big ‘if' in our view. We don't see how this organisational change will make Openreach perform better. It will still be part of BT, within the walls of the larger organisation.

"Until it is completely outside and independent of BT, we don't believe it can ever deliver truly fair and balanced service levels to the industry and to the UK's businesses and consumers."
 
Watson dismissed the claim that it would take too long and be too complicated to divest Openreach from BT due to land and pension arrangements as little more than excuses. "Ofcom is effectively saying that BT and Openreach can never be separated. We don't accept that. The commercial world faces challenges like this all the time. Of course it could be made to work. Where there is a will, there is a way."

Two directors of Telecoms World, Sam Diamond and Neil Barrall (pictured), have completed the Bikeathon, cycling 26 miles around London in aid of Bloodwise, a non profit organisation dedicated to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

The aim was to raise £200 for the charity, but thanks to the support of Telecoms World clients and staff they raised £1,170.

Barrall, a dedicated supporter of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, said: "I want to say a big thank you to everyone
who kindly donated. Sam and I rode the Bikeathon in memory of my father, Anthony Barrall. It means a lot to us that we can give back to the people who are dedicating their lives to beating blood cancer."

Over 1,200 people took part in the event raising an estimated £150,000 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

ITSPA has welcomed Ofcom's proposals for an increasingly independent Openreach, but called for a greater focus on measures to ensure Openreach's performance improves to a level that the communications industry and the UK needs.
 
Eli Katz, Chair of ITSPA, stated: "Members of ITSPA are pleased that Ofcom has proposed an increasingly independent Openreach, but has avoided full structural separation of Openreach from BT.

"In ITSPA's opinion, full separation would have been unlikely to address our key concerns around performance and could have created more difficulties than it would have solved.
 
"It is now essential that Ofcom continues to work on tough performance rules for Openreach, setting out minimum requirements on fault repairs and line installation.

"We look forward to further details on performance requirements being published later this year and to improved measures for closely monitoring Openreach's performance."
 
Commenting on Ofcom's update on its other ongoing work streams, Katz added: "ITSPA has already expressed concerns on Ofcom's proposals around a scheme for automatic compensation for customers of telecoms companies, and has highlighted the need for very careful implementation of this system to ensure that the competitiveness of the UK telecoms industry, and the presence of smaller communications providers in the market, is preserved.

"Additionally, we look forward to the publication of Ofcom's proposals on landline switching and urge Ofcom to include reform of the system for fixed number porting as part of this."

Solar Communications has acquired Essex-based Response Data Communications (RDC) for an undisclosed sum.

Solar is ShoreTel's largest partner outside of North America, while RDC is a ShoreTel Circle of Excellence Gold Partner and holds the vendor's Cloud Business Excellence 2016 award.

The acquisition adds a software defined (SD)-WAN platform and partnerships with Pure Storage, Rubrik, Nimble Storage, Balabit and Palo Alto, all boosting Solar's ambition in the cloud and managed services SME market.

RDC's MD Jason Evans and the business's employees will remain with the organisation.

John Whitty, CEO of Solar Communications, said: "RDC is a capable and exciting business with a talented team.

"Itsccombination with Solar will provide added depth to the business-enhancing services provided to both sets of customers.

"Following our acquisition of Armstrong Telecommunications in 2013, Solar has established the platform, people and services for growing the business organically. 

"Over the last 12 months the business has transitioned from its place as a telephone system reseller in the UK, into a fully managed service provider being at the heart of all ICT operations for its customers.

"This transformation has been enabled by the development of our managed services portfolio coupled with the strategic acquisitions, as well as the procurement and development of new technical services and product sets."

Evans, former owner and MD of RDC, added: "The time was right to take the next step.

"The introduction of Solar's telecommunications, WAN, cloud and managed services will allow us to provide a more comprehensive offering."

Pictured l-r: Jason Evans and John Whitty 

Ofcom's ruling to give Openreach greater independence and autonomy is a 'fantastic opportunity' for new broadband solution providers to make their voices heard, according to Jaime Fink, co-founder at Mimosa.
 
He noted that despite today's ruling the infrastructure problems facing the UK market that prevent the rollout of a nationwide next-generation broadband network still remain.

"This ensures that Openreach takes its strategies in new bold directions for the benefit of the UK marketplace," he said.

"Openreach must look at new technologies that can enable it to profitably deliver a sustainable broadband network.

"The company will have its eyes on the US where new market challengers, such as Google and Facebook, are selecting alternative broadband solutions like fixed wireless, to better connect their customers.

"The technology can deliver fibre-like broadband connectivity in any environment without the cost or disruption of its cabled alternatives."

Following Ofcom's proposals to make Openreach a distinct company within the BT Group Adept Telecom CEO Ian Fishwick said full separation was never an option given the complications of pension fund obligations.

"There are probably more ex-employees than employees and most worked before Openreach even existed," he said.

"So if you break off Openreach how do you decide what portion of the pension issue it takes with it?

"Many have been under the false impression that Openreach was a separate company with its own financial accounts. It never has been and it is amazing Ofcom has allowed this for so long.

"Perhaps the biggest issue is how the cash generated from Openreach's profits is used. Should BT be allowed to treat it as Group cash and fund areas like football TV rights, or should Openreach be forced to only spend its own cash on improving the UK's infrastructure? I sit firmly in the latter camp.

"Whether anything changes depends entirely on how this will be enforced. The devil is in the detail."

Ofcom's proposals to make Openreach a distinct company within the BT Group do not address the regulator's objective to reduce the country's dependence on Openreach and encourage essential investment in fibre, according to Mark Collins, Director Strategy & Policy at CityFibre.

"While correctly identifying Openreach as the principal source of the industry's dysfunction, it is hypocritical of Ofcom to focus on a restructured Openreach as a panacea," he said.

"Further debate and navel-gazing as to the appropriate structure of BT will continue to create a period of uncertainty at a time when the industry needs clarity, direction and competitive investment.

"Openreach has a critical role to play, but it is not prudent to entrust them with sole responsibility for our digital future."

Regulator Ofcom has stopped short of enforcing the sell-off of Openreach but said BT's infrastructure division should become a legally distinct company within the group that owns its own network, and has its own branding, culture and board of directors not affiliated to BT Group.

The new board will have a majority of non-executive directors, including the chair, and be appointed and removed by BT in consultation with Ofcom.

In Ofcom's proposed model Openreach should develop its own strategy and annual operating plans within an overall budget set by BT Group.

According to Ofcom's CEO Sharon White (pictured) these measures provide the benefits of independence and structural separation but without the time delays, complexities and costs of a sell-off.

White said: "We're pressing ahead with the biggest shake-up of telecoms in a decade to make sure the market is delivering the best possible services for people and business across the UK.

"Openreach will become a distinct company, legally separate from BT and obliged by law to act on behalf of all customers and the whole industry. Not just BT.

"The new Openreach board will have to take investment decisions as a matter of law and the decisions must work for the whole of the UK, not just BT.

"I understand why people see the attraction of selling off Openreach. It seems straightforward, but, for example, pension issues could take years to resolve. These new rules provide all the benefits of separating Openreach and can happen straight away, without delay.

"Ofcom will monitor the new Openreach and the flow of decisions and judge whether they are being taken in the interest of customers. If this does not deliver independence, faster broadband and better service we reserve the right to revisit a sell off.

"There needs to be more investment in fibre to the doorstep, with engineers arriving on time and doing the job first time."

In February Ofcom made it easier for telecoms providers to invest in competing infrastructure by improving access to Openreach's network of telegraph poles and its ducts.

On 31st July new rules come into force that will give telecoms providers further rights to access physical infrastructure. These measures are designed to reduce the cost of deploying broadband networks by sharing access to infrastructure across different sectors.

In February Ofcom also announced a range of measures to ensure that all phone and broadband companies provide service quality that customers expect. Since then the regulator has taken more steps to improve services, as well as boosting coverage, such as automatic compensation and easier switching.

Ofcom has also set out stricter minimum requirements for Openreach to repair faults and install new lines more quickly. From next year, Ofcom will publish tables on communications providers' quality of service, showing the best and worst performers on a range of measures.

Ofcom will introduce coverage checkers by address, providing information on mobile and broadband coverage by individual address, not just postcode.

Ofcom's plans come after last week's CMS Select Committee report criticised Openreach for its poor the quality of service and BT's under investment into the UK's digital infrastructure.

Enterprise applications specialist Unit4 is buying Munich-based prevero, a provider of Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions.

prevero has more than 4,000 international clients, and is a privately held company with customers including organisations such as ABB, Audi, BMW, Endemol, Heidelberg, Konica-Minolta, Mercedes, SwissLife and Swisscom.

prevero's offerings aim to complement Unit4's business solutions for services organisations, enabling customers to model service delivery around insightful strategic and operational data.

"As services organisations face increasing pressure to drive organisational transformation across all functions, CPM and BI are critical to successful strategy execution," said Stephan Sieber, CEO of Unit4.

"This is particularly true for services organisations that need to find new service models and revenue streams. Through intelligent enterprise solutions they can become more strategic and ensure efficiency and excellence in execution."

Alexander Springer, prevero's co-founder and CEO, added: "More than ever, services organisations are looking to optimise the performance of their often over-complex financial planning, budgeting and forecasting processes.

"They are also looking to drive that same kind of insight down to all facets of the organisation. As part of Unit4, we will improve our ability to bring these capabilities to organisations globally."

http://www.unit4.com/about/news/2016/07/unit4-acquires-prevero