Comms Dealer

The countdown to Gamma Ball Rally V has begun with 35 teams preparing to converge on Dover (14th September) for the three day event that kicks off with a 'best dressed' competition.

Overnight stops are planned in Brussels and Bonn, with a day out at the Nürburgring and a treasure hunt along the Rhine River.

The spending cap for each car is £500.

The final evening will be celebrated with a black tie gala dinner where the Auction of Promises will also take place.

Event sponsors include BroadSoft, Polycom, Akixi and Genband).

Richard Bligh, Chief Operating Officer at Gamma, said: "Now into its fifth year we're proud of the reputation the rally has built up across the channel. It's a great opportunity for our channel partners and sponsors to enjoy themselves while raising lots of money for two great charities - Action Through Enterprise and SpecialEffect. The money raised makes a huge difference to these charities."

All proceeds raised from the rally will be donated to the nominated charities, this includes team entry fees, sponsorship, auction bids and donations.

Russell Attwood, Chief Executive Officer at Unify, said: "We really enjoyed taking part in the Gamma Ball Rally last year and can't wait for this year's event. It's great to spend time with so many like-minded people, having fun and raising money for such good causes!"

Over 60 IT and business professionals joined Content Guru, Vapour Media and Spearhead Interactive for an evening of innovation at the White Cloth Gallery in Leeds to learn more about the latest advances in business communications.

Guests had the opportunity to see how WebRTC technology can be seamlessly incorporated into the contact centre to enable organisations to increase internal efficiencies through engaging more effectively with customers using enhanced web collaboration, voice-to-browser communication, and encrypted video conferencing.

Participants also had the opportunity to immerse themselves in virtual reality with Spearhead's futuristic headsets as well as texting, calling and emailing Content Guru's multi-channel drinks ordering service, storm BAR, to order a range of complimentary drinks, from local Yorkshire ales to Italian wines.

Tim Mercer, CEO of Vapour Media, who gave a keynote presentation about the emergence of new technologies on the night, commented: "We were delighted to see such a fantastic turnout at this event and to have the opportunity to work with a wide breath of technology innovators, who collectively demonstrated how emerging technologies are set to rapidly change the way businesses and consumers interact over the next few years."

Martin Taylor, CMO of Content Guru, commented: "Technological advances continue to accelerate at an unprecedented rate and here at the White Cloth Gallery we've seen some fantastic examples that are ready for businesses to use today.

"WebRTC is absolutely transformative - as everyone will see over the next few years - and we're delighted to have been able to support Vapour Media with an early demonstration of how the storm platform is already ushering in this next era of customer engagement."

Zerto has appointed Jason Cowie as its new Senior Director of Global Partner and Channel Sales.

Cowie will be responsible for managing the expansion of Zerto's channel sales team through the enablement and support of technology, resale and cloud service provider partnerships.

His addition supports the investments Zerto has made over the last year in partner resources on both the partner-facing sales and marketing teams.

Prior to joining Zerto, Cowie held executive leadership roles spanning sales, strategic alliances, product management, and business development at various companies including Virtual Instruments (acquired by Load Dynamix), Configuresoft (acquired by EMC), Drive Protected (acquired by Allied), Embotics, Microsoft, and Mission Critical Software (merged with NetIQ).

"Jason brings a wealth of channel experience to support our diverse, global partner ecosystem," said Paul Zeiter, president at Zerto. "Zerto's commitment to sell exclusively through channel partners has resulted in over 100 per cent year-over-year sales growth for four consecutive years, which is a result of attracting top talent to continue that growth pace."

Imago ScanSource has added a new range of audio communications products to its portfolio following a link up with Phoenix Audio Technologies.

The deal gives Imago ScanSource exclusive distribution rights across the UK for microphones, voice capture technology, digital signal processors (DSP), speaker phones and audio conferencing mixers.

Phoenix Audio Technologies has been established since 2004 and has a large footprint in the US market.

James Vickerage, Vice President for the UK and Ireland at Imago ScanSource, said: "The products are easy to use and the DSPs in particular allow audio within a video conference to be managed precisely, whether that's directing sound to speakers in the ceiling and walls or onto a recording device. This will give our reseller channel a great opening to start new conversations with customers."

Entatech UK has sealed a new distribution agreement with Veracity, a provider of IP video surveillance solutions.

Dave Stevinson, Entatech MD, commented: "We have worked hard to build up our networking reseller database, and the inclusion of Veracity will provide high margin opportunities for our customers.

"It will also open up a number of opportunities for Entatech as a distributor, as we will be in a position to provide large scale project attachment prospects."

Daisy and Virgin Media Business are to host an event on July 19th (The Courthouse Hotel, London) that will explain the business case for ultrafast business broadband and arm partners with the information they need to take these services to market.

Julien Parven, Marketing Director at Daisy Distribution, said: "The addition of Virgin Media Business' broadband network will allow partners to significantly broaden their broadband revenue streams.

"This event provides the opportunity to put any questions that they may have to both Virgin Media Business and Daisy Distribution, so that they have that foundation from the outset to take hold of these new services and run with them."

A UK&I distribution deal between ICON and COBS AB sees the St. Albans-based distributor ship the Swedish alarm and messaging provider's SMART1 System in Q3 2016.

Mark Shane, Sales Director at ICON, said: "ICON has been distributing DECT and Wi-Fi solutions for almost 17 years, and the SMART1 solution complements our existing offering as well as our core skill set.

"It combine DECT and Wi-Fi technology into a single device. Features include a dedicated alarm/emergency button, builtin location awareness, a top mounted display for alarms and messages, rugged design, and push-to-talk capability."

"The SMART1 solution is an opportunity for existing customers who have invested in DECT technology and want to introduce applications by using the Android platform, and new customers where messaging and location services are needed."

Sören Erlandsson, CEO of COBS AB, added: "We recognise ICON's abilities and pedigree in this area and look forward to helping them achieve our goals for the UK market."

Mitel's merger deal with Polycom is off following the Canadian vendor's refusal to match a superior proposal from private equity firm Siris Capital. Polycom will pay Mitel a $60m termination fee.

Rich McBee, President and CEO of Mitel, stated: "The agreement announced on April 15th resulted from a detailed due diligence and negotiation process that we feel accurately determined fair value for Polycom. We feel it would not be in the best interest of Mitel shareholders to adjust the existing agreement."

Under the terms of the new $2bn merger agreement outstanding shares of common stock of Polycom will be exchanged for $12.50 per share in cash at the completion of the merger.

Venus Business Communications collected the Business Broadband provider of the year award at ISPAs gala dinner. The company was also shortlisted for the Superfast Broadband category.

Venus CEO, Brian Iddon, said: "To win the award is a tremendous achievement and testament to our commitment to provide reliable, consistent and fast services to our customers.

"More than ever their businesses rely on connectivity to be successful and the consequences of interruptions or slow connections can be extremely damaging to productivity and the bottom line."

Oak Innovation's expansion into the mid-market will be supported by a new technical apprenticeship scheme developed with training provider New Horizons Computer Learning Centres and Highbury College, both based in Portsmouth.

The course is a Level 3 Advanced IT Apprenticeship Programme in IT Systems and Networking and will be accredited by City & Guilds.

Joint-CEO Phil Reynolds said: "This upskilling will help our team gain confidence and be better equipped to deal with the complex business and product scenarios that the mid-market entails."

First Line Support Technician, Daniel Sosnowski, is the first to be enrolled on the year-long scheme that will see him gain vendor certifications from CompTIA and Microsoft as part of his Level 3 award.

Sosnowski will be joined by another member of the team as part of the September intake, with plans to make the scheme available to others in the future.

Annie Turner, Human Resources Manager, added: "In terms of training, this signifies a new direction for Oak Innovation that will benefit our people individually and add significant strength to the service we provide."

Oak will also provide CompTIA Network+ training for the whole of the technical support team.