Comms Dealer

The Office of National Statistics revealed today that at 1.67 million the unemployment rate is at its lowest point since 2005.

This coincides with the largest employed workforce the country has ever had at 75.5% of the economically active population.
 
"With over 31 million people in work, including 1.8 million EU nationals, this success story is the envy of most of the world's developed economies," Said Clive Jefferys of recruiter JMA Network.
 
"There is never any room for complacency, as surveys also indicate employers are cooling their recruitment plans during BREXIT uncertainty.

"However, the skills crisis actually makes this factor unimportant as the market is fully led by candidate availability at this time,
 
"A period of economic slowdown would produce an uplift in people available for hire who would rapidly regain employment. These are strange times in recruitment!"

Dabs.com founder David Atherton has joined Entatech UK as Chairman.

Dabs.com was one of the earliest online retailers of IT equipment growing from scratch to over £200m revenue per annum.

Atherton sold the business to BT in 2006 and has since worked as an angel investor and as a partner in an accountancy firm.

Entatech UK MD Dave Stevinson commented: "I have known Dave for many years and have always been impressed with the manner in which he works. His track record speaks for itself. He is the right man to strengthen our leadership team and I cannot wait to start working together again."

Atherton added: "After several years out of the game I am delighted to return, especially to work with Dave Stevinson who I have known for over 25 years.

"Despite a changing technology world, best management, service and delivery principles remain constant, and this is a market I know well and I'm hoping to add value to the Entagroup."

KCOM saw a 50% increase in new faces at its annual Fastest 4 event held at Palmer Sport in Bedford where The Stig put 24 of the channel's fastest sellers through their paces.

As well as hosting the day, The STIG spent one-on-one time with partners sharing stories from his days at Top Gear and as a James Bond stunt driver, giving each racer a thrill ride with him at the wheel in the Le Mans JP-LM Palmer Jaguar at top speeds.

The STIG said: "It was as fun as ever putting KCOM's guests through their paces and everybody lived up to the high speed challenge. There were plenty of smiles and white knuckles from my passengers."

Henry West, Head of Channel Sales at KCOM, said: "It's great for the team to spend time with new partners and learn how we can serve them better, and to see many familiar channel faces at this event."

GCI Network Solutions is to acquire the entire business and assets of Outsourcery Hosting following the appointment of EY as administrators. Outsourcery suspended trading on AIM earlier this month stating it is no longer able to present its results for 2015 by the deadline of the end of June.

In April the company, which was co-founded by former Dragon's Den star Piers Linney, warned it needed short-term working capital, and it was investigating alternatives to raise money, including a fundraising, restructuring and the sale of non-core assets.

Later that month, Outsourcery reached an agreement with its principal secured lender, mobile giant Vodafone Group, for the terms of a new conditional drawdown working capital facility to provide it with funding while it realised its assets.

Outsourcery said Friday it has progressed with restructuring, including talks with third parties about the sale of business assets. It said it continues to carefully evaluate the approaches for the assets, as well as other options to strengthen its immediate and long-term financial position.

It said that the talks have had 'no material adverse impact' on its current business activity, as it has secured new contracts and continued with further project development.

In May 2013  Linney floated his tech firm on AIM with a market capitalisation of £34.6m, but the company's market value has since slumped.

Sam Woodward, Joint Administrator and Restructuring Partner at EY, said: "Over a number of years Outsourcery had invested significantly in its IT infrastructure and cost base in anticipation of strong revenue growth from its O-Cloud platform. In practice, the pace of revenue growth was below expectations resulting in Outsourcery suffering trading losses and cash flow pressure. 

"The Board was unable to secure additional working capital funding and as such, commenced a process to identify potential buyers for the business.

"I am pleased to report that following that marketing process, we were able to secure a sale of the majority of the Outsourcery business to GCI Network Solutions immediately following administration, which presents an excellent outcome for the business, preserves approximately 100 jobs and provides continuity of service for its customers.\" 

GCI CEO Adrian Thirkill stated: "Outsourcery has some great underlying characteristics, some talented people, a strong Skype for Business capability, an impressive customer base, some well-engineered platforms and lots of potential. We see this as a nice fit for GCI.\"

Thirkill emphasised that the deal is not a capability purchase. "We already have considerable expertise in the cloud and UC space, including tens of thousands of Skype for Business seats deployed across the UK and Europe via our direct and indirect sales channels," he explained. 

"The acquisition builds upon an already strong foundation and raises our profile in a market reported to be growing at five times the rate of traditional voice services. Most importantly, this acquisition also provides assured continuity of service for all of Outsourcery’s customers, resellers and partners.\"

GCI is a Vodafone Platinum Partner (through its London-based Commsxchange operation) a Microsoft Gold Partner and a Virgin Media Business Strategic Partner. "This is a capable blend which positions GCI nicely in the ascending UC market,\" Thirkill added.

Wayne Martin, GCI’s founder and Chairman, stated: "This is another well-considered step in GCI’s journey, a journey that started more than 15 years ago and now sees GCI with a nationwide presence from London to Glasgow, a joined up portfolio of fully managed IT services, and customers across multiple sectors, from small businesses to 700 site organisations.

"GCI’s raison d’etre has always been about building an integrated, disciplined and tech savvy organisation able to take customers on a consultative transformational journey. 

"Traditional voice just isn’t cutting it any more, UC is the new kid on the block. The benefits in terms of productivity gains, collaboration enhancements and the avoidance of time and cost routinely frittered away on trains, planes and automobiles is a message that’s really starting to hit home. The acquisition primes us perfectly to be a leading player in the UC space.\"

GCI's Chief Strategy Officer Scott Riley will oversee the Outsourcery operation and its integration. He noted: "This acquisition, when combined with our own Microsoft Centre of Excellence, gives us the ability to accelerate our penetration of a market forecast for double digit growth through to 2020. That is an exciting prospect.\" 

MSPs in Europe generated revenues of circa 350bn euros last year but with just 36.5% of them offering telecoms and 13% delivering managed print services these two important market segments offer the potential for significantly more growth.

The managed services market in Europe is fast-moving with profitability linked to scale and M&A activity on the up, according to a new database report by Comms Dealer sister company IT Europa that sampled the market across 34 European countries.

The 'Managed Service Providers in Europe - the Top 1,000' research report states that the overall market grew 8.5%, with smaller markets registering the fastest growth (Bulgaria 33%, Slovakia 21%, Turkey 18%).

Russia and Norway both grew 14%. France, Netherlands and Germany recorded expansion of just over 10%, while the UK achieved 7% growth. Spain showed a decline.
IT Europa's analysis also separated out a geographically diverse top 20 MSP league table based on the best growth performers.

The study also segmented the main growth markets addressed by MSPs: 86.5% offer network and infrastructure management; 72.4% server and web management; 71.9% provide security management; 61.2% deliver storage and back-up management; 60.5% provide SaaS solutions and just over 50% offer applications management.

"We are seeing more and more traditional channel organisations embrace managed services as a delivery model as customer demand continues to rise," stated Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The factors behind the surge in demand, the changes in customer buying behaviour driving them and the opportunities this presents for MSPs will be a major subject for debate at the Managed Services & Hosting Summit 2016 which takes place in London in September."?www.mshsummit.com?www.iteuropa.com

James Flitton, Vice President Service Delivery at Level 3 Communications, has joined The Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (ITP) Board of Directors. 

The ITP is governed by the Board of ITP UK which is made up of experienced industry professionals who have held senior management roles. 

Board members are appointed by the general membership during the Annual General Meeting.

Lucy Woods, Chairman of the ITP, said: "Together, our board is responsible for running the business on behalf of our members.

"James brings with him a wealth of knowledge from his extensive telecoms background and we look forward to his input and guidance driving the ITP forward."

A collaboration between BPL Broadcast and i2i Events will bring the whole of the UK media and entertainment industry under one roof in Q1 2017.

The convergence of two key industry events is a UK first and will create a holistic platform as BVE 2017, the established broadcast and production technology event, collocates with Connected Media Europe which showcases the underlying connected technologies that enable people to view, discover and interact with content on any device anywhere. 

The event takes place on February 28th to March 2nd at ExCeL London in the capital's Docklands area, and according to BPL Broadcast VP Neil Nixon the full weight of BPL's marketing machine and industry credentials will draw Europe's connected broadcasting community to London.

"This launch represents a positive step for exhibitors and visitors to BVE 2017, extending the reach of this already highly successful event," he said.

The project builds on BPL Broadcast's track record in delivering similar signature destinations, such as organising the Connected Media|IP area at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, a runaway success that Nixon is confident he can replicate in London.

"Connected Media Europe is perfectly placed within the main BVE 2017 event to demonstrate and discuss IP-focused technologies including IPTV, OTT, mobile, social and cloud," he explained.

"As BVE is the UK's largest event for professionals involved in creating, managing and distributing video content, it was the obvious partner for us in delivering Connected Media Europe."

Connected Media Europe incorporates a seminar theatre and TV-style interview studio in an exhibition that features 300-plus leading manufacturers, distributors and resellers of professional production and broadcast equipment and systems.

Daniel Sacchelli, Event Manager at BVE, added: "Co-locating Connected Media Europe alongside BVE will see us continue to create an all-encompassing event for the entire media and entertainment industry. It will benefit exhibitors and visitors by providing them a more complete and diverse business platform at a single event."

To find out more about Connected Media Europe at BVE 2017 click the following links:
www.connectedmediaeurope.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axhtWI6eOpY

The ongoing spread of flexible and remote working patterns has prompted audio conference firm Konftel to launch a company-first portable speaker phone.

Called Ego, this personal collaboration product includes a LCD display with the sound performance and features needed to carry out business-class remote meetings.

"We're seeing a clear change in user behaviour," stated Regional Sales Director Jeff May. "Business professionals are increasingly on-the-move and need complete flexibility as to where and when they hold remote meetings.

"The Ego device has been designed to enhance this work-style and reflects the uptake of communication tools such as Skype for Business conferences."

Ego works seamlessly with Skype for Business and has been successfully tested in a Microsoft-certified laboratory. The product also works just as well with other conferencing platforms such as Cisco Jabber, Avaya Communicator and the latest generation of online services.

In practice Ego users can set-up meetings in any location by connecting to a mobile phone, tablet or PC. Its design has been recognised with a Red Dot Award and the sound quality is said to be bullet proof, with OmniSound patented audio technology delivering HD quality when making calls and playing music, whether through wireless Bluetooth or wired USB connections.

"Bluetooth can be made easier with NFC support, while a built-in battery enables cordless conversations," added May. "We have taken large volumes of advance orders ahead of the official launch in July."

Customer contact technology specialist Sabio has been listed in The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 - an annual ranking of Britain's Top 200 mid-market private companies with the fastest growing international sales.

In its first year as an International Track 200 company, Sabio entered the sales growth ranking at 140, qualifying with 25.4% two-year average international sales growth per annum.

"Our position reflecting the increased value that our international customers place on bringing core customer contact technologies together under a single global partner," commented Sabio's Managing Director, Sebastian Henkes.

"With our ability to provide a consistent service delivery model across multiple technologies and multiple locations, Sabio is proving increasingly successful at decreasing risk and simplifying SLA management for international customers."??Sabio has service hubs in the UK and Singapore, typically supporting multiple technologies for each of its global customers.

Sabio now delivers projects and support in 51 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and the Americas.

A major eight year IT managed service contract worth over £60m has been secured by Excell Group. The deal with Workspace Group builds on an existing relationship and has the potential for greater revenue yield as Workspace expands its portfolio.

Workspace owns and manages circa 70 properties across the capital and is home to around 4,000 fledgling and growing businesses including a number of companies that feature in Bloomberg's Business Innovator List 2016.

The partnership with Excell Group offers those businesses access to secure high speed networks as well as managed connectivity, cloud and communication services.

Excell Group and Workspace will continue to invest in upgrades to connectivity in Workspace properties, including the installation of what is said to be one of the UK's first 10gb fibre connections and 1.3Gbs community Wi-Fi into a commercial multi-let building.

A building-wide Wi-Fi network is designed from the ground up to avoid wireless signal interference, and a security management system ensures the resilience of the network and aligns with each customer's internal network security.

"Speed, flexibility and secure connectivity are top of Workspace's agenda as its customers look for smart ways to connect people, processes and data," stated Excell Group Chairman Darren Strowger.

The partnership provides bespoke packages backed-up by tech support from the outset and offers customers flexible contracts that match the break clause in their Workspace lease, which gives them the freedom to develop and grow.

Workspace Operations Director Chris Pieroni said: "The provision of business-class connected services is fundamental to our customer base of new and growing companies. They see high spec connectivity as a basic requirement in their office space. These businesses are increasingly looking for location, location, technology."

Strowger added: "The Workspace business is at the forefront of changing ways of working across London.

"With around 4,000 businesses already on board, Workspace needs to provide an agile service that its customers can rely on."