Comms Dealer

Household names in the comms channel played a key role at the Twin Town Challenge 2016, helping to raise over £250,000 for charity SpecialEffect.

The event is organised by STL Communications and was backed by main sponsors Gamma and Oak with additional support from Pragma Distribution, Union Street, Virtual1, Fidelity, Entanet and Samsung.

One hundred cars costing less than £500 departed from Blenheim Palace on Friday 27th May and headed for Silverstone before crossing to France and heading for Le Touquet, Witney's twin town.

The event included laps around the Silverstone and Abbeville circuits, a street party in Le Touquet plus 'fun and games'.

The Twin Town Challenge is the brainchild of STL Communications MD Brendon Cross and is organised by a team of volunteers who act as marshals, fundraisers, minibus drivers, mechanics, scorers, and generally manage the 500 people taking part in the event.

Cross said: "When we were planning Twin Town 16 we thought a target of £250,000 was quite ambitious, but with the amazing support of the Twin Town community, the teams and everyone involved with the event, we have not only reached this figure, but are likely to smash it."

The money will be used by Charlbury-based SpecialEffect to help more young people with disabilities to play computer games.

Dr Mick Donegan, founder and CEO of SpecialEffect, stated: "The success of the Twin Town Challenge 2016 has left the SpecialEffect team stunned and humbled, not only by the remarkable funds raised but also from the feel-good factor generated by volunteers, sponsors and participants during a weekend that none of us will ever forget."

Joe Manning, Business Development Executive at Gamma, added: "The Gamma team had a great time driving our £395 car dressed as Mexican banditos. SpecialEffect is one of the charities that benefits from our Gamma Ball Rally, so we were proud to sponsor the Twin Town Challenge."

Red Hat grew both Q1 total revenue and subscription revenue at 18% year-over-year, and had strong sales execution that led to a record number of deals over $1 million dollars in a Q1, it says.

Total revenue for the quarter was $568m. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $502m, up 18% in dollars year-over-year and as measured in constant currency. Subscription revenue in the quarter was 88% of total revenue.

Regionally, EMEA's relative contribution to total bookings was lower than the prior year, but its underlying momentum was strong, said the firm.

In Q1, the EMEA sales team was faced with a smaller number of multi-year deals in its renewal base when compared to Q1 last year and there was a focus on driving significant new business and a higher growth rate in single year bookings.

The Q1 route-to-market mix was 78% from the channel and 22% from the direct sales force, compared to a 75/25% split in Q1 last year.

Within the top largest deals, all of them were $1m or more.

And the company reported record six deals in Q1 that were in excess of $5 million. Of these deals two were over $10m. 

Globally, this was a record first quarter for large deals with 45 deals over $1m which was up 50% year-over-year.

Cross-selling was strong, with a record high of 80% of the top 30 deals including one or more components from the group of Application Development and emerging technologies offerings.

Tech Data has been appointed as a distributor for the full range of wireless charging and portable power solutions from manufacturer TYLT.

TYLT's range of accessories include wireless chargers, power cases and portable battery packs.

One of its key offerings is the ENERGI Desktop Charging Station which can be used to replenish power stores for five devices at once, with rapid-charging USB ports that work twice as fast as standard wall chargers.

Darren Tobin, Business Development Manager EMEAI at TYLT, stated: "TYLT sees good opportunities for sales growth in the UK and Tech Data has the market reach to help us achieve our ambitions."

The dedicated system segment of the video conferencing market continues to decline, falling 6% in Q1 2016 versus the same period last year.

Although endpoint demand remains steady, infrastructure sales are plunging as alternative approaches such as embedded, virtual and cloud-based multipoint control units (MCUs) gain acceptance, according to Matthias Machowinski, Senior Research Director, Enterprise Networks and Video, IHS Technology.

Q1 2016 video conferencing revenue declined 22% quarter-over-quarter to $701m due to lower seasonal demand. Overall, videoconferencing revenue is also trending down slightly on a year-over-year basis, primarily due to decreases in infrastructure sales.

Demand for video conferencing endpoints is still growing, but the shift to cloud services is displacing a significant amount of infrastructure equipment revenue - two highlights in Q1 2016 were PBX-based video and immersive telepresence.

PBX-based video has proven popular because it offers organisations a cost-effective way to enjoy multimedia communication using infrastructure they already have.

PBX-based video took a breather in 2015 due to a videophone portfolio refresh at Cisco, but as of Q1 2016 the segment is returning to year-over-year growth-primarily due to a pickup in software demand.

Immersive telepresence grew for the first time in 2015 since 2011, and the recovery is extending into 2016 with Q1 revenue increasing 19% year-over-year.

On a regional basis, North America was the bright spot in Q1 2016-up 12% year-over-year-while all other major geographic regions declined. A flat outlook is forecast for the video conferencing market, with revenue of $3.2bn by 2020 and a five-year (2015-2020) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0%.

Turnover growth of 19% in five years to £10m, a hike in membership numbers to 11,000 and a strong ethical commitment have all combined to secure The Phone Co-op the 2016 Growing Co-operative of the Year Award.

The awards were staged by Co-operatives UK, a national network that supports member owned businesses, thought to be worth £34.1bn to the UK economy.

Vivian Woodell, Chief Executive of The Phone Co-op, said: "This award is a tribute to everyone involved, including our members. You've given us the encouragement to keep pushing ahead and to take The Phone Co-op and co-operation to the next level."

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, added: "The Phone Co-op has grown quickly in a difficult and fast-paced market while delivering unswerving support for co-operative and environmental initiatives."

CityFibre has signed a national Master Services Agreement (MSA) with Level 3 Communications.

The company also announced the first call off under the MSA across the Group's Edinburgh network.
 
The MSA sets out standard terms and pricing under which Level 3 can procure fibre from CityFibre's expanded network to service its numerous enterprise customers across the UK.
 
The first call-off under the MSA is a dark fibre metro ring on CityFibre's Edinburgh network, to which Level 3 will connect local customer sites. 
 
Greg Mesch, Chief Executive of CityFibre, commented: "This marks an innovative solution for CityFibre customers in providing both a resilient dark fibre metro ring as well as additional connections to customer locations.
 
"This agreement demonstrates the enhanced relevance our UK footprint now has to international service providers providing solutions to the UK market.

"Clearly, with our expanded presence in 37 towns and cities across the UK, we offer increased scope for Level 3 to migrate customers to on-net dark fibre connections with significant advantages in terms of cost and solution architecture."

GHM Communications has partnered with Unify and will offer the vendor's full range of phones, voice platforms, team collaboration and applications.

GHM has already attained Professional Partner Accreditation.

"GHM Communications is exactly the type of new partner that Unify wants to work with," said Barry Tuffs, Vice President of Channel Sales at Unify.

"It has the market coverage, capability and excellent feedback from their customers.

"Our mission in partnering with GHM is to enable them to build and grow a profitable business with Unify, and we look forward to working with the team to succeed in this mission."

True Telecom has formed a six month fundraising partnership with charity Make-A-Wish UK in a bid to help it reach this year's £11.5m target, which will allow more than 1,000 wishes to be granted to children and young people fighting a life-threatening condition.

True Telecom kicked off its fundraising efforts by staging a bake sale in its Dartford HQ. The company has a number of other charity events lined up and staff will contribute £2 per month to dress down on Fridays.

CEO Stuart Griffiths said: "Nothing makes people come together more than helping those in need and we are dedicated to raising money for Make-A-Wish during the remainder of the year."

KCOM has been selected by Rail Settlement Plan to replace and manage a new suite of applications deployed in the cloud to improve ticketing services throughout the UK.

KCOM will deliver a new Data Capture and Apportionment Service (DCAS), Portal Service and a re-architected and developed Replacement Availability and Reservation Service (RARS) to RSP.

As a Premier Consulting Partner for Amazon Web Services (AWS) there was also a clear operational and technological fit between KCOM and RSP for cloud services.

Replacing the legacy DCAS will provide major improvements compared to the current system, capturing all UK ticket sales information and apportioning the revenue of rail tickets, covering both the Train Operating Companies and third party retailers.

KCOM has already helped RSP increase ticketing capacity by 20%.

The development of a Portal Service will provide RSP with a secure messaging integration hub for both new and existing systems.

This will handle high volumes of messages with rapid response times. RSP collects sales data from 8,500 ticket-issuing systems from retailers alone, and ensuring the accuracy of the messages based on this data is paramount.

The new contracts will see KCOM deliver the critical RARS system, both improving the current service and delivering new functionality. This service will enable retailers to book reservations on all trains, coaches or ferries with reservable seats.

RARS will hold details of all available services including carriages, seats and fares and seat maps, allowing passengers to identify and reserve seats more easily. Furthermore this data will then enable train companies to better manage revenue.

As every journey planning and ticket issuing system uses RARS to confirm seat availability and to make bookings, both high availability and rapid response times are vital.

"These are critical systems for the passenger rail industry," said Brian Jones, Head of Programmes for RSP. "Customer facing processes such as reservations and ticketing, and the crucial revenue apportionment systems behind the scenes all need fast response times and complete accuracy. We look forward to delivering these innovative services with KCOM."

Bill Halbert, CEO, KCOM, added: "In 2011, we won separate competitive tenders to engage with divisions within the RDG. In 2014 we followed this with the contract to deliver Live Sales Management (LSM) to RSP, as well as work with National Rail Enquiries.

"We are proud indeed to have become such a key partner and hope to continue to develop significant innovations for the passenger rail industry."

Distributor Midwich aims to kick start channel sales of SMART Technologies products with a credit offer worth up to £30m.

The companies formed a partnership last month, and interactive displays and collaboration have been identified as growth opportunities in the education and enterprise markets, with the distributor aiming to push SMART's interactive flat panels and Learning Suite education collaboration software. 

Louise Nevard, Head of Credit at Midwich, stated: "While we are helping to accelerate SMART Technologies' channel strategy, we are also providing partners with ready-made credit facilities.

"For Midwich, the initiative will drive sales, open up new customer relationships and help us further strengthen our existing ones."

Stuart Mizon, Divisional Director at Midwich, added: "Continuing our support for the channel and enabling businesses to grow further through their partnership with Midwich is another major aim of our new credit strategy.

"Our proactive credit strategy will help channel partners sell more SMART Technologies products."