Comms Dealer

Glamorgan Telecom MD Kelly Bolderson scooped the IOD Wales Young Director of the Year award.

Under her leadership the company has grown its client base by 22% and a number of new processes have been implemented including the introduction of an emergency engineering team and a 24-hour online help service.

She said: "We've already achieved so much but there are exciting plans in place for future growth. This is just the start of our journey."

Full profile in the June issue of Comms Dealer

KCOM's existing partner and reseller base will now be overseen by incoming Partner Manager Ben Johns (pictured).

He brings 20-plus years of industry experience and joins from Viatel where he was Account Director. Previous jobs include the Business Development Manager role at O2 Wholesale.

"With a wealth of experience across the corporate, business to business and wholesale arenas, Ben will be a real asset to our team," said Henry West, Head of Channel Sales.

Independent lender Henry Howard Finance has agreed a £51m asset finance facility under the British Business Bank's ENABLE Funding programme.

The facility, which is 50% guaranteed by the European Investment Fund, will allow Henry Howard to extend its asset finance funding to a larger portfolio of smaller UK businesses.

Henry Howard, backed by investor Cabot Square Capital and based in Newport, is the first South Wales-based lender to become a partner of the British Business Bank.

It has been providing finance to small businesses for over 20 years and last year it saw its lending grow to more than £70m from £40m. It aims to continue its expansion throughout 2016.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Every growing business needs to invest in the right tools to get the job done, whether that's upgraded laptops or new delivery trucks.

"This £51 million facility backed by the British Business Bank's ENABLE Funding programme and the EIF will allow small firms to get new equipment without taking a big hit to their cashflow.

"This means they can continue to grow, create jobs and benefit local communities across Wales and the rest of the UK."
 
Mark Crook, co-founder and COO at Henry Howard Finance, added: "Access to asset finance is a major barrier to growth for many small businesses. We hope the new facility will remove this barrier and allow more SMEs to grow and prosper."

Keith Morgan, British Business Bank CEO, commented: "This is the third transaction in our ENABLE Funding programme which has now provided a total of £202m to non-bank asset finance providers."

The ENABLE Funding programme is delivered by British Business Bank Financial Services, a subsidiary of British Business Bank, on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Equity Networks has kicked off a buy and build campaign with the acquisition of Cookham Dean-based Centric Systems and its hosted VoIP and connectivity sister company Centricomms for an undisclosed sum. "This is the first of a number of planned acquisitions, all based around a robust recurring revenue model," said Marcos Reid, Director and co-owner, Equity Networks.

"Cloud services are the perfect platform on which to build, and with both comms and IT within the same group the only way is up."

The deal was prompted by a growing number of enquiries from small business customers asking Equity Networks to help them move to the cloud.

"Microsoft Office 365 and cloud storage kept coming up in meetings," explained Reid. "It was clear that clients saw us as an ICT company, not just a comms organisation.

"We were also installing a lot of dedicated fibre Internet connections which was taking us into router and firewall territory, work that we had to sub-contract out.

"We had collaborated with Centric Systems on a couple of projects and were blown away by its technical capabilities.

"Then its owner, Abbos Azad, told us he was looking for an exit. It seemed a perfect fit.

"We are now busy building both companies and cross selling into each other's customer bases and making efficiency savings at the same time."

A 'must attend' event for ambitious comms and IT providers looking to grow their business will take place in London on June 28th.

Organised by M&A Advisors Evolution Capital and hosted by Nat West, the evening symposium will bring together a team of experts offering advice and knowledge regarding the types of funding available to business owners expanding their ICT business.

Summarising the event, Evolution Capital, Corporate Finance Advisor Simon Kelson (pictured) told Comms Dealer: "Directors of businesses in the TMT arena looking to grow or ultimately sell their business must get an understanding of the sources of capital available, the attributes of high growth enterprises, how to get fit for finance and how to develop a winning investment proposition.

"Our event will provide the knowledge they need and give them an opportunity to meet debt and equity funders, network with like-minded peers and meet successful entrepreneurs who have experienced the pain and gain of business growth."

Included in a heavyweight line up of speakers at the 'Get Backed, Get Big, Get Bought' Seminar will be Nat West's Ian Mason, who will look at debt funding for high growth business; Hans Prottey from Coutts will discuss the process of gaining high net worth investment; Chris Hodges from the Business Growth Fund will explore the process of Venture Capital investment; and Duncan Gregory from Evolution Capital will explain how businesses should go about developing a strategy for growth and provide tips for developing a successful investment proposition.

Adept CEO Ian Fishwick will also provide the buyers' perspective, explaining what they look for when making investments and what in particular they are prepared to pay a premium for.

"Aimed at business owners or leaders in the TMT sector with a turnover of between £5m and £30m our seminar promises to provide real golden nuggets of information and advice for ambitious channel players and we are expecting places to go fast," added Kelson.

To register for the evening event, which will take place at the RBS Conservatory, 250 Bishopsgate, London on June 28th ,go to  http://www.evolutioncapital.com/register.

Audio conferencing firm Konftel rolled out the red carpet as a thank you to key business partners for helping to drive a sales towards potentially record breaking trading.

Representatives from Exertis and Trust Distribution joined global counterparts for the three-day gathering in the Swedish wonderland of Saxnas where over 50 guests were treated to snow mobile rides through forests, lakes and mountains. The conference provided insights into Konftel's roadmap, upcoming product launches and business strategies.

Konftel's Regional Sales Director Jeff May said: "With a series of new product developments in the pipeline this year is destined to become one of our most successful trading periods ever. We are already witnessing growth triple the industry norm and the five star trip was our way of saying thank you to our most prestigious business partners. With sumptuous dinners, an awards ceremony, hot tubs and axe throwing it was a trip to remember, mixing business with lots of fun and laughter."

Six Degrees Group (6DG) has announced its Giving Back Scheme whereby employees have the opportunity to get involved with local community projects and gain volunteer experience during their working hours.

The company has pledged to 'give back' the equivalent of a 6DG employee's full working year to local communities, equating to 260 days. Every member of staff will have the opportunity to apply for a full or half days 'community leave' each year.

6DG is openly encouraging all staff to get involved in the local community and volunteering opportunities with their own choice of preferred charities.

Susanna Brown, Director of HR, said: "In addition to giving valuable time and support to those in our communities who need it most, we recognise that participating in such activities can also help play an important role in employees' individual personal development. At 6DG, we are eager that our employees get the most out of working life."

The Giving Back initiative will run alongside 6DG's CSR programme, Six Degrees of Hope, through which employees raise money for WeSeeHope.

6DG has supported the charity since the company was founded, fundraising through a number of annual events and individual challenges.

Hot demand for cloud services drove a 27% increase in Exponential-e's total revenue for the year ending 31st January 2016. Revenues reached £77.3m and EBITDA rose by over 35% to £13.8m with pre-tax profits up 47% to £6.7m.

Underpinning this growth was strong customer acquisition with a 35% increase in new business sales for cloud services.
 
"Over the last year we have enjoyed particular success in targeting the C-level community," stated CEO Lee Wade. "The security offered with our private cloud network has been adopted by many clients in sectors such as legal, finance and media, that have some of the most stringent privacy, compliance and security requirements."
 
Exponential-e is transitioning its business into a global IT brand and will focus on its core network and platform stack, investing in automation - SDN (Software Defined Network) and NFV (Network Function Virtualisation) - to drive a better customer experience and enable organisations to scale and deliver services more quickly.

"Moving forward, we will be looking for opportunities to build our capabilities in data centric services, machine learning and proof-of-concepts for artificial intelligence," added Wade.
 
Exponential-e aims to achieve 23% growth in its next financial year and will recruit an additional 60 staff. Last year staff numbers increased by 20%. 

UC provider Zest4 has launched an M2M Partner Programme following its link-up with Arkessa late last year.

The programme was unveiled at a Chester Races launch event and is designed to help partners fully address the growth opportunity in M2M and IoT services.

The package delivers education and technical support, training via the Zest4 partner academy, marketing support, optimised tariffs and competitive commercials.

"The launch day was a success and many partners are now seriously considering taking their first step into the M2M arena," stated Mandy Fazelynia, Zest4's Operations and Business Development Director.

"The M2M package that ourselves and Arkessa have made available to partners will help them unlock new revenue opportunities now and for the future."

Abzorb has bundled a PBX maintenance service with its UC and mobility portfolio following a link-up with maintenance partner CSR.

Called PBX Cover, the white label service will be officially launched at Comms Dealer's MiVAD event on June 9th.

The end-to-end service combines PBX system maintenance cover (99% of systems are supported), smartphone systems (Mitel Office 400) and the Money Box SIP gateway which enables SIP to be deployed on legacy PBXs.

According to Abzorb the proposition unlocks the potential for resellers to upgrade legacy kit with next generation products and services and further lock-in customers with a maintenance offering.

The 24/7 system maintenance and support service includes all fixed handsets as standard, response within one hour to all faults, quotes raised within eight hours, nationwide coverage for support, and resellers could earn up to 40% margin on Abzorb's annual pricing, said the firm.

PBX Cover also includes pre-sales and training via the Abzorbplus partner programme.

"With our smartphone systems, services such as SIP and hosted telephony can be accessed without the traditional stumbling blocks often encountered," said Mark Riddell, Head of Indirect Channel.

"Maintaining customers' PBX adds value and helps to strengthen loyalty on PSTN, CPS and SIP connectivity, while generating ongoing annuity revenue from maintenance and updates."

Abzorb's long-term partner BT Wholesale has welcomed the launch and predicts greater uptake of its hosted Centrex and Wholesale SIPT propositions as a result of resellers adopting PBX Cover.

Dave Axam, Director of Hosted Communications at BT Wholesale, stated: "By adding its PBX Cover service, Abzorb is able to deliver a complete end-to-end solution including configuration, installation and support."