Comms Dealer

Rising star car racer Josh Webster, son of Nine Wholesale MD Nick, secured a first win for the Renault RSO1 in the GT Open Series and his second win at Spa on May 23rd.

The 22-year-old received a last minute call on 21st May asking him to drive alongside ex-F1 racer Nicky Pastorelli at the International GT Open at Spa Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium, the next day. They finished the race in second place before taking the flag the day after.

Webster commented: "What a feeling to cross the line as the winners! The V8 Racing team and GP Extreme were absolutely delighted with the win and it felt amazing to be back on the top step of the podium at Spa alongside Nicky after such a fantastic race."

VoIP and hosted dialler services are key to unlocking the full potential of cloud-based recurring revenue sales with 300% increases up for grabs, according to Hostcomm.

The company is hosting two webinars this month that will outline the three steps resellers should follow to significantly increase billable VoIP minutes, open up new revenue streams via value added dialler services and wrap workflow automation into the solutions.

"Diallers aren't just for making automated calls and they're no longer only used by contact centres," stated Chris Key, Director at Hostcomm. "For agents and sales teams, they turn making calls into a convenient one-click process, driving productivity.

"For managers, it's easier to delve into detailed reports about performance on an organisational, team or per-salesperson basis. Work can be quantified, tracked and measured effectively. And managers are empowered to make real-time changes as and when they need to.

"Over time, as that becomes the standard way to work and drives performance, it creates new efficiencies for customers and profit for partners."

The webinars will take place on 15th and 22nd June. Click link for more information

http://marketing.hostcomm.co.uk/acton/media/22154/3-steps-to-boosting-voip-recurring-revenue-wbs

Cloud-based security specialist iSheriff has named Simon Carr as Director of Sales for EMEA.

He joins from CMS Distribution and prior to that worked at Bell Micro, Ideal Hardware and Digicorp.

Carr is the latest addition to the iSheriff team and follows the recent appointment of industry veteran Carrie Roberts to the position of Vice President of Global Sales.

Isheriff says this is part of a growth strategy for expanding its local presence in the region. Simon Carr will be driving sales through existing and new channel partners for iSheriff's scalable, SaaS solution to protect endpoints, web and email.

"He will play a major role in empowering our resellers, distributors and integrators to meet the growing demand for robust and reliable cloud-based security solutions. High-margin revenue streams will also be a focus for us within EMEA," said John Mutch, CEO at iSherif.

iSheriff recently announced the release of iSheriff Complete, aimed at small and medium sized enterprises, offering a cyber security platform with no up-front costs and managed through an interface with a single set of enforceable security policies.

"Faced with increasing multi-vector threats and the success of Software-as-a-Service models, companies are turning to cloud-based platforms to deliver scalable, real-time protection," said Carr.

"iSheriff removes potential malware and viruses before they ever reach the network, allowing our customers to focus on running their business."

Large numbers of employees are circumventing IT, with 40% of workers currently using their personal smartphones for work and 69% claiming their personal tech is better than the options available at work. That's according to the new App Generation report launched by business communications provider Fuze.

The Fuze report, which examines the expectations of technology in the workplace through a survey of 5,000 workers and 2,500 teens across Europe, reveals the extent to which employees are now bringing their own devices, regardless of whether they have been approved by IT.

In addition to using personal mobile phones, 32% of UK workers use personal laptops for work, while 21% provide their own tablet computers.

The same is true of software and applications, with many employees ignoring IT policies and installing personal applications that have not been approved for business use. This includes 32% who are using instant messaging, 25% regularly making video calls and 21% using cloud storage, all without their IT departments' permission.

Commenting on the issue of shadow IT, Luca Lazzaron, Senior VP of International Operations for Fuze, said: "IT departments across Europe are faced with a stark choice, improve business technology or expect to be cut out of the loop.

"Unlike the employees of ten or 15 years ago, App Generation workers are not afraid to adopt their own technology. These are individuals who have grown up surrounded by laptops, iPhones and internet applications and the idea of installing an app to get something done comes naturally. IT departments do not represent security or consistency, they represent slow bureaucracies and unnecessary barriers.

"Businesses need to accept the demands of the workforce are changing. This means providing the latest technologies that ensure young workers, and in fact every employee, can work in the way they want to, but within the safe confines of a secure, managed IT environment. Until this middle ground is achieved, IT departments will continue to be circumvented by the new generation."

Worcestershire-based telecommunications firm Armstrong Bell has provided a new telephone system to South Bromsgrove School, improving connectivity across the school and enabling it to exploit new technologies.

Replacing a costly and inflexible ISDN system, Armstrong Bell supplied and installed a hosted VoIP solution complete with a package of features and benefits to support the school's internal and external communications.

With 150 staff and 1,300 students, the school required a local supplier that could provide a system that was easily adaptable, would provide advanced call handling features and one that would exploit the school's existing high-speed broadband connection.

Janet Lines, facilities manager at South Bromsgrove School, said: "Phones are an important service that we have to have, and our old ISDN system was archaic. Every time we wanted to make a change, such as someone's name on the system, we had to have people come in to do it, making maintenance of the system slow and expensive. We needed something that would allow us to make use of our high-speed internet connection, introduce voicemail for all staff and allow us to use headsets - something our previous system didn't support."

The system has put control of the phones back in the school's hands through an online portal. The addition of an auto attendant allows messages to be put onto an automated system, passing information to pupils and parents when they call. Phones can also be moved across the site, allowing for a phone to be set up wherever there is access to a data point. Integration with Microsoft Outlook allows for users to make calls directly from their computers.

William Copley, MD at Armstrong Bell, said: "Being local to the school really gave us an edge. We were able to visit the school, provide training and support, and demonstrate the system to them before they committed.

"Our team worked closely with the school's facilities and network managers to provide a smooth transition to the new system, keeping downtime to a minimum. A team of three Armstrong Bell engineers installed the system out of school time and we provided a full day of training for staff on the first day back."

After claiming a successful initial launch of the MatrixCube in Belgium this past year, Minkels is extending it to the Netherlands.

The Dutch market launch will then be followed by other countries including Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and global export regions.

The Minkels MatrixCube is an modular data centre solution with racks, cooling, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), Power Distribution Units (PDUs), cable management and monitoring systems.

Minkels' customer research showed that not all companies are ready for outsourcing their IT infrastructure. Many of them prefer to keep their IT infrastructure, in whole or in part, within their own organisation.

This is the reason that Minkels and its parent company Legrand have developed the MatrixCube - aimed to be a turnkey and reliable mini data centre that is easy to set up. This mini data centre solution is now available in Belgium and the Netherlands, with other countries to follow in Europe and beyond.

"The new fully integrated solution meets the needs of small and medium sized companies that want to keep their IT infrastructure within the four walls of their organisation," says Vincent Liebe, Marketing Manager at Minkels.

"The MatrixCube is also well-suited for companies that want to keep parts of their hybrid IT infrastructure in-house, or some of it in the cloud.

"We will first introduce the MatrixCube to the Dutch market, followed by other countries where Minkels is active, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After that, we will introduce the MatrixCube globally depending on customer demand."

Distributor Avnet has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Broadcom to cover EMEA.

Under the new agreement, Avnet will serve as the exclusive broadline distributor for Broadcom in the Americas and EMEA regions and will also continue its franchise in Asia.

It gives Avnet access to Broadcom's range of analogue and digital semiconductor connectivity solutions, primarily in wired infrastructure, wireless communications, enterprise storage and industrial markets.

"As the technology industry continues to globalise, the ability to serve customers and suppliers wherever they do business is critical," said Lynn Torrel, senior vice president, semiconductor business development, worldwide.

"What Avnet can also bring them is the scale and scope their customers need to get to market faster - it provides true differentiation."

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has announced that its network services are now available at a further 30 BT exchanges located across the UK.

This latest expansion adds to SSE Enterprise Telecoms' existing 13,700km, 232 Point of Presence (PoP) UK-wide fibre network, and is part of the operator's ongoing commitment to offer a networking alternative to enterprises located in all of the UK's key business districts.

Dubbed 'Edge 2', the latest initiative provides businesses located in a further 50,000 prime business postcodes with easy access to SSE Enterprise Telecoms' network.

Edge 2 is the second phase of SSE Enterprise Telecom's 'Project Edge' network expansion programme.

"In 2015, we experienced a 250 percent increase in orders of our Ethernet services, demonstrating the success of our ongoing network expansion," said Colin Sempill, Managing Director, SSE Enterprise Telecoms.

"With 30 new exchanges now live as part of Edge 2, and more to come within the next few months, organisations can now benefit from even greater access to our high quality Ethernet services, regardless of where they are in the country."

A new partnership between TeleWare and global system integrator Cisilion will initially focus on offering added value to Microsoft Office 365 and Skype for Business users with a range of enhancements, targeting finance, legal and insurance businesses.

The enhancements include Intelligent Number, a single number that users can access on any device anywhere in the world, regardless of mobile signal or Wi-Fi connection.

Users will also be able to add enterprise class voicemail, audio conferencing, IVR and voice recording to Skype for Business.

TeleWare CEO Steve Haworth said: "The strength of this partnership is the combination of TeleWare's product offering alongside Cisilion's strength in the finance, legal and insurance sectors."

Venus Business Communications is launching 10 gigabits per second connectivity at London's Media Production Show.

"Our 10 gigabit per second service will transform the industry's working environment making it much more efficient to transfer and share projects online at thousands of megabits per second," said Brian Iddon, Venus Business Communications Director.

"Our local field survey team aim to reduce installations times by a month and we recognise that reliability is key and the industry needs peace of mind.

"It's important to have local engineers that can respond rapidly and effectively to keep the network up and running in addition to an account management team that delivers the support the industry needs."

The Venus network is proving popular with over 1,000 customers in London enjoying high speed connectivity transferring half a terabyte of data a day.