Comms Dealer

Avaya has appointed Fadi Moubarak as Channel Leader for Avaya International which covers Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

This role will see Moubarak spearhead a new channel strategy focused on driving digital transformation in the enterprise and mid-market sectors.

Moubarak has been with Avaya since 2013 overseeing the channel engagement strategy for the AMEA region, while keeping it aligned with sales execution and coverage to drive incremental business.

Moubarak has been in the technology sector since 1990 and holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the American University of Beirut, and an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School. Based in Dubai, Fadi is also a board member of the American-Lebanese Chamber of Commerce.

Nidal Abou-Ltaif, President, Avaya International, said: "Fadi's deep understanding of the channel community priorities and the regional business environment has been a strong driver of Avaya's success in the MENA region. I am confident that he will continue to help drive our go-to-market strategy and achieve equal and greater success in this new role covering a wider and more diverse region."

Midland Networks has rolled out a new free Pro-Active Broadband Support service on all business broadband packages.

The service is designed to increase transparency and improve the quality of service that broadband customers receive.

With proactive monitoring, Midland Networks is able to detect any connectivity issues early, inform the customer and take immediate action to resolve the issue.

Broadband connections are monitored 24/7 and customers are contacted straight away if any issues are detected, such as a drop in connection.

This means that resolution begins immediately, regardless of the time of day or night, in order to ensure that disruption and downtime is kept to an absolute minimum.

Customers also receive regular reports with their connectivity stats including uptime, downtime and response times.

This forms part of a drive to improve customer satisfaction following disappointing results in the national surveys of business broadband customers.

Midland Networks is also offering its Pro-Active Broadband Support Service as a white labelled service to other resellers on a per-connection basis.

Radius Communications will make its inaugural appearance at the third annual Central and Eastern European (CEE) 2016 Global Carrier Community Meeting (GCCM) as a silver sponsor.

The two-day GCCM event will take place at the Adlon-Kempinski Hotel in Berlin on the 28th and 29th June, bringing together over 450 members of the Global Carrier Community, including hundreds of telecoms operators and tier 1 network providers, as well as a range of enterprise clients from SMEs through to large multinational corporations.

The Carrier Community is an exclusive global telecom club and industry networking platform for wholesale telecom service providers.

It was founded to enhance business opportunities across the industry's various sectors through contact and the exchange of information within a central and transparent environment.

Every year, the Carrier Community hosts a range of annual networking meetings in locations across the globe, from London and Berlin to Dubai, Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro.

Radius Communications is a member of the Redwood Technologies Group. The company will sponsor the event's opening coffee reception as well as the first evening's networking event, with VPs, Directors and Senior Managers from over 50 countries expected to attend.

Martin Taylor, CMO of Radius Communications, will also deliver a keynote address within the Enterprise Connect Lounge of the event, where a range of panel sessions and presentations will be held over the course of the two days.

Taylor's speech on 'Multi-channel PBX and Contact Centres: A Burrito in Berlin,' will take a look at how the diverse layers of multi-channel cloud communications infrastructure, such as the storm® platform, can seamlessly interoperate and reap benefits for German city carriers, other network operators and consumers alike.

Taylor commented: "Our Group has been involved with German city carriers since the late nineties, when their in-network services platforms presaged today's cloud offerings.

"Now, with analysts such as BITKOM predicting that the German cloud market will grow by an annual average of a third in the coming years, we're excited to re-engage with this growing market as we continue to build our cloud presence in Germany, across Europe and beyond."

The industry can expect a short and medium-term impact on enterprise IT investment following today's Brexit vote, but the regulatory impact will be minimal, according to Ovum analysts.

"Senior executives will want to prepare their core systems for any implications of revised trading and legislative agreements, and may postpone investment in non-mandatory IT projects such as digital transformation until the needs of the business-as-usual environment become clearer," said Tim Jennings, Chief Research Officer, Enterprise IT Management.

"Ovum's conversations with enterprise IT leaders suggest that few have planned or prepared for the changes that might be required as a consequence of Brexit.

"This is understandable given the unprecedented situation in which the UK now finds itself, but is likely to increase the level of caution that is applied to ongoing investments in business improvement and more speculative innovation projects, and may also play out against a potential downturn in the macroeconomic environment.

"This IT budget uncertainty will persist for at least the two-year EU withdrawal process, but beyond that time frame the level of uncertainty will be dependent on the clarity of the UK's future trading arrangements with Europe and other global partners."

Brexit will have minimal impact on the UK's regulatory environment, believes Luca Schiavoni, Senior Analyst, Regulation, at Ovum.

"It is highly likely that the UK will continue to be part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European approach to regulation borrows a great deal from the UK's experience of privatisation and market liberalisation.

"It is unlikely that the UK will adopt a radically different regulatory approach, which will still be characterised by regular market reviews."

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."