Comms Dealer

Aerial Business Communications celebrated three decades in business on No Man's Fort in the Solent last month. The 30th anniversary bash included live entertainment from the Vernon Sisters, a break dancing flash mob, digital magician, DJs, mermaids and prize giveaways throughout the party.

The company, formerly known as Aerial Telephones, was founded by MD Paul Davis and began life as a mobile and car phone retailer operating from a small shop and employing three sales staff.

"30 years is a milestone in any industry, but with one as new as mobile and it's ever changing technology I believe it to be even more of a success story," stated Davis. "We will continue to keep ahead of technology by adding new products and services to our portfolio."

Aerial has developed into a full UC company with a 50-plus headcount, supplying mobiles, telephone systems, IT and Internet connectivity services.

Hats off to Swindon-based Excalibur Communications for collecting the Business in the Community's South West Responsible Business Award.

Business in the Community is the Prince's Responsible Business Network that works to build a fairer society and a more sustainable future, recognising companies that help create vibrant communities where people can flourish.

Excalibur's CEO James Phipps said: "It is an honour to receive this Responsible Business Award because it shows what a positive impact businesses can make when they manage growth responsibly and also operate responsibly as an employer, supplier and customer.

"At Excalibur we support a large number of causes in Wiltshire and beyond, as well as helping organisations hold events at our Cloud space in Arclite House. We enjoy bringing people together, so it is heartening to be recognised by Business in the Community as a good neighbour that is actively involved in building a fairer society and a more sustainable future here in the South West."

IT distributor The Change Organisation is set to undergo a business transformation under the leadership of incoming CEO Adrian Barnard (pictured).

The former MD of Modern Communications and Prime Networks (both businesses were founded by Barnard then sold and exited respectively) is a familiar face on media outlets as an industry spokesperson, appearing on BBC News, Sky News and BBC World.

His strategy at the Change Organisation is to strengthen the firm's presence in the IT communications marketplace by increasing the sales margins and reshaping the sales structure.

The Change Organisation began its commercial life in 1993 and works independently of many manufacturers and in partnership with niche vendors to provide a distribution service for audio visual solutions and data centre colocation.

Ashley Sterland, Communications Director for the distributor, said: "Adrian is inspirational and he has the industry credentials to enhance The Change Organisation brand as we enter the next chapter in the company's history."

Leeds-based Skyrack Telecom, which began its commercial life in 2009 as a provider of unified telecoms services, is to rebrand as Simetric Telecom.

According to its leaders, John Murray and Gavin Sweet (pictured), the revamp reflects their ambition to expand into new markets.

"The time is right for us to take the business forward and bring our voice services and technologies to a new audience," stated Sweet.

As well as kick starting a campaign to widen the market for converged phone systems the rebrand heralds new developments in mobile convergence services.

"We are positioning our Mobile-X network is a solution to the disconnect between fixed and mobile," added Sweet. "In the coming months we will roll out new services that push mobile convergence to new places."

The Mobile-X service works by blending landline and mobile telecoms using a SIM on any unlocked smartphone or standard handset, and is delivered in a channel reseller model.

To simplify hosted comms Simetric provides packaged systems, bespoke solutions and integrated mobile designed for all types of business.

Comms Supply has teamed up with CounterPath to deliver a mobile VoIP smartphone client, Bria, on its hosted PBX solution, YourUCP.

This technology allows users to receive and make calls from their main landline number via their smartphone, without having to put any call diverts in place.

Comms Supply will utilise CounterPath's Stretto Platform to manage and provision these mobile endpoints.

CounterPath is a global provider of desktop and mobile VoIP software products and solutions.

Its Bria softphone clients and cloud-based Stretto Platform provide an interoperable unified communications solution enabling quick deployment for Comms Supply partners and their customers.

"By using Stretto we are able to remotely provision the smartphone client for our partners' customers," stated Karl Alderton, MD of Comms Supply.

"This will make life far easier for our partners as they will not have customers struggling with the technical set up of the smartphone client."

The smartphone client works on IOS, Android and Blackberry.

Solar Communications has appointed Jeremy Millard, a partner in corporate finance firm Smith Square Partners, as a Non-Executive Director.

Millard has a strong background in providing corporate finance advice to companies in the sector having worked at Rothschild, Hawkpoint Partners, HSBC and Charterhouse.

He has advised on many transactions over the last 17 years, including acquisitions, disposals, public offers, IPOs, refinancings, mergers and demergers.

In 2012 he advised Logica on the £1.7bn public cash offer by CGI, as well as Cable&Wireless Worldwide on the £1.0bn public cash offer by Vodafone, having previously advised on the £4bn demerger of Cable and Wireless in 2010.

Millard is also a Non-Executive Director of AIM-listed software and services company Idox.

He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1999 and was awarded an M.Eng from Cambridge University in 1994.

Ben Marnham, Chairman of Solar Communications, commented: "The timing couldn't be better to welcome Jeremy to the board of Solar.

"His proven advisory track record and deep industry specialism will undoubtedly accelerate our progress as we execute our growth strategies. I have no doubt he will be an asset to the company as we move forward."

Millard added: "Having followed Solar Communications with interest over recent years, I am delighted to have been asked to join the board as the company enters the next exciting phase of its growth."

Union Street Technologies has achieved Gold Partner competency in Microsoft's partner network for Application Development and Intelligent Systems, adding to its existing Gold Partner status for Data Platform competency.

Examples of Union Street's work with Microsoft products can be found in the integration of aBILLity with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform, and in the development of a new, soon to be launched, hosted environment for aBILLity which, Union Street says, has been built from the ground up using Microsoft's Azure cloud platform as its foundation.

This new hosted environment has been designed by Union Street to deliver greater elasticity in resources and the highest levels of data security.

Tony Cook, Managing Director of Union Street, commented: "Gaining these accreditations from Microsoft clearly demonstrates the expertise we have in the development of software applications as well as database design and management.

"This expertise is crucial to developing our aBILLity billing platform which heavily utilises Microsoft technology and has enabled us to harness the power of Microsoft solutions to deliver additional resiliency and enhanced cloud based solutions."

Virtual1 has thrown its support behind Restless Development, an international development charity that aims to empower young people across the world who might otherwise be caught in a spiral of unemployment, poverty, lack of education and poor access to health services.

Restless Development currently works in eight countries in Africa and South Asia, where they listen to the young people of poor communities and train volunteers from these communities in a range of skills that can benefit their own communities.

Using young volunteers to provide the training, who can relate to the community volunteers, they help them to find the answers to the problems facing their communities. There is no right or wrong solution, as each community faces it's own set of problems.

Tom O'Hagan, CEO of Virtual1, said: "As a young company that has faced the challenges of entering a tough market, we understand this approach to a bespoke and non-packaged charity solution. By listening to the individual, and often unique needs of each community, the young charity workers can help the local volunteers to tackle their community problems in a unique way."

The partnership is for an initial three-year period and as part of the arrangement Virtual1 staff will be encouraged to take in various fund raising activities. The first of which has been the £1 challenge, whereby employees survived on just £1 per day for all their food and drink intake, for 5 days. Further activities include a Euro sweepstake, softball challenge, pub quiz with Partners and Carriers.

O'Hagan added: "I have a great team and whenever I've set them a challenge, particularly one that involves charity, they throw themselves into it wholeheartedly. I'm sure they will achieve the £20,000 target we have set for the initial years fundraising target."

Independent lender Henry Howard Finance has increased its credit facility with the Hampshire Trust Bank from £5m to £8m.

The larger block discounting facility will allow Newport-based Henry Howard Finance to extend its lending to a larger portfolio of SMEs across the UK.

Through its block discounting division, Hampshire Trust Bank offers funding direct to independent finance houses that want to use their loan book as security to fund the development of their business.

Howard Ross, CEO of Henry Howard Finance, said: "The extra funding will allow us to increase our lending to SMEs, supporting faster and more sustainable business growth and development."

This news follows soon after Henry Howard Finance announced it had agreed a £51m asset finance facility with the British Business Bank.

The facility, which is 50% guaranteed by the European Investment Fund, will also boost Henry Howard Finance's lending to UK businesses.

Capita has acquired Trustmarque Solutions, part of the Liberata Group, from parent company Ardbid for£57m. In its last financial year to 31st December 2015 Trustmarque reported revenue of £191.9m, net revenue of £107m, underlying EBITDA of £7.3m and underlying operating profit of £4.3m. Post-acquisition, with benefits from cross selling, cost savings and market growth, Trustmarque is expected to achieve Capita's target post-tax return on investment of 15% in 2018.

Trustmarque's core business is software resale, licensing and technology services. Key specialities include software asset management and strategic cloud consultancy.

Other service offers include business intelligence, workforce productivity and resourcing.

The company serves over 1,450 private and public sector clients and employs 620 employees based in five offices in York, Coventry, Sheffield, Edinburgh and London.

Trustmarque has a notable public sector presence in the NHS and in the private sector in accounting and legal services.

It is Microsoft's most accredited UK partner, holding 14 Gold Partner competencies, and is the largest Microsoft public sector licensing specialist in the UK providing over £100m of licenses each year.

It is also a Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider.

The business is targeting strong growth in strategic cloud consultancy and has identified a £5bn addressable UK market for its cloud services, including MS O365 and MS Azure.

Capita has worked with Trustmarque for many years, as the company was the embedded software fulfilment partner within Capita Technology Solutions, Capita's technology reseller and service integration business.

Andy Parker, Capita's Chief Executive, said: "This acquisition provides Capita with a set of capabilities and expertise that complement its existing businesses, and the mix of core reseller activity and higher value services is a strong proposition that will sit well with its wider technology offering.

"Trustmarque's 'Enterprise-as-a-Service' model will provide a number of opportunities to build new services and deepen our existing relationships with key partners, in particular with Microsoft.

"It will particularly enhance our growing Capita Technology Solutions business, expanding its ability to offer innovative services to current and potential clients. Specific specialities, such as software asset management and strategic cloud consultancy, have strong synergies with Capita's existing propositions."

Scott Haddow, Trustmarque's Chief Executive, added: "We are now well positioned for strong organic growth, supported by Capita's expertise, experience and scale.

"There are a number of opportunities for integration - including our success selling services through G-Cloud - that will help us to lower costs and cross sell services to customers.

"Capita's long history with Trustmarque means that the two businesses understand each other well."