Comms Dealer

Logicalis has appointed Mark Best as UK Services Director.

He brings much experience to Logicalis' services team and the wider UK business, having built his expertise over many years at both Enterprise and Service Provider organisations, including Vodafone, Omnetica and Affiniti.

Joining from Bio, he has been working with Logicalis on an interim basis since January this year.
 
Best said: "I hope to draw on my experience further, supporting the company's transformation as we look to put services at the heart of making every customer a reference."

Distributor Exertis, the trading name of DCC Technology, suffered a near 30% drop in operating profit compared to the previous year, according to its 2016 financial year results ended March 31st.

UK losses accounted for most of the dip, as the company depended on strong PC, tablet and phone sales. But for the rest of the DCC businesses, overflowing with cash, the time is right to invest in systems and grow organically and through acquisition.

The balance sheet for the group is strong, giving the company the wherewithal to pick up other businesses across Europe. The cash for investment and acquisition is there: The year saw overall growth of 35.5% in Group operating profit to £300.5m, driven in particular by the performance of DCC Energy.

But DCC Technology (the Exertis business) saw sales fall to £35.1m from £49.3m, making for a 'very difficult year'. The UK business, which accounted for 72% of the revenue of the division, found it tough particularly in the first half of the year, with weaker than anticipated demand for tablet computing, smartphone and gaming products.

These factors contributed to a like-for-like sales decline of 7%. Although the business achieved growth in other areas such as audio visual and components, the change in product mix, together with the effects of negative operating leverage, contributed to a reduction in operating margin in the UK.

A new UK distribution centre will come on stream in the next year, adding capacity and efficiencies. This is what vendors are asking for, said Ennis, also noting that Exertis has been behind the market in its e-commerce. Investment is also needed in its facilities and capacity where it has been working at full stretch.

In response to the challenging trading conditions in the UK the business has reduced its cost base and is continuing to build its market position in new and developing product categories such as smart technology, audio visual, network security and virtual reality.

DCC Technology's business in Ireland achieved strong growth and benefited from improved demand across a number of product segments, reflecting good business development activity and the continued recovery of the Irish economy.

The Continental European business also achieved good growth, reflecting strong organic growth in the Nordics and Benelux, offsetting weaker demand in the French market.

The business also added, in the final quarter, the specialist CUC, which has performed 'in line with expectations'. The acquisition of CUC has added expertise in cabling and connector products and also significantly broadened the customer base of the Continental European business.

According to Niall Ennis, Managing Director of DCC Technology and Group Managing Director of Exertis, the strategy is not 'one size fits all', and he is looking at emerging areas such as smart-tech, AV and more B2B products, as well as implementing a new ERP system.

He aims at using the new systems and capacity to build supply chain services, offering rapid time to market and demand generation for vendors, coupled with flexibility and speed of reaction. By offering fulfilment and a service direct to customers, 'we aim to be an excellent partner for vendors', stated Ennis.

Comms-care has been snapped up by Ingram Micro boosting the distributor's service capabilities in the UK. Comms-care's services include pre-sales support, configuration, professional services, maintenance and managed services.

The company has 225 staff and currently serves approximately 850 channel partners and customers in the UK, holding accreditations with Cisco, Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware along with technical capabilities in Dell, HP, IBM, Juniper, NetApp and Lenovo.

Brent McCarty, Ingram Micro VP and Chief Country Executive for the UK, said: "The addition of Comms-care supports our strategy to expand our global capabilities and expertise in fast growing, high value markets.

"Comms-care has developed a well-respected services model that exclusively serves the channel."

Ben Davies, Comms-Care MD, added: "Ingram Micro provides us with the platform to achieve our objectives of growing our business and helping our partners achieve more.

"Ingram Micro's broad geographic reach and reputation with vendor and customer partners throughout the world will enable us to expand our coverage into new regions and broaden our offerings to channel partners."

It's not exactly big news to announce that the impending vote is having its impact on the UK job market, writes Clive Jefferys of recruiter JMA Network. With half of the population undecided as to how they will cast their vote on 23rd June, the doom-mongers on both sides are creating a climate of profound uncertainty.
 
That's not a good place to be if you are thinking of getting a new job.
 
Which such a weighty decision on the horizon, the prospect of giving up a safe, but imperfect, job does not necessarily feel like a good idea at the moment. You can hardly blame people for waiting until all the hoo-ha settles down.
 
However, there is another school of thought that can play to the advantage of today's job seeker. With less people applying for jobs, there is also a lot less competition for the best roles too. Certainly this gives financial advantage to anyone winning a job offer today, as salaries continue to rise.
 
So what can employers do to increase their chances of hiring?
 
The number one rule has always been to make it as easy as possible for candidates to come in and see you. Don't make them wait too long as 'time kills deals', so make yourself available to interview at 8am, 6pm and Saturdays too.

You still have the right to set high standards, but make every candidate feel valued in the process. This is the age of inclusion, social networking and a sense of entitlement. It may go against the grain, it may not be how it was when you fought for a career - but it is how it is.
 
And here's my final bit of advice, an absolute maxim at JMA Network.
 
Make sure you have fun!
 
Recruitment is all about finding people you like and helping them to take the next step on their career path. Whether you are job hunting or hiring, every new starter is another step forward!

Daisy Worldwide has opted for Epsilon's Intelligent Network eXchange (eINX) solution to bring intelligent routing and end-to-end QoS to its networks connecting New York, London, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Daisy Worldwide will use eINX to interconnect with its customers and partners in their local regions while ensuring network performance on a global scale.

Regional breakout enables traffic to be routed in-region, creating new networking efficiencies and quality of experience benefits.

eINX also supports real-time automated routing to avoid network faults or areas of diminished quality.

Epsilon CEO Jerzy Szlosarek stated: "eINX removes the limits on what a network can do and opens up the possibility of more complex, demanding and innovative services. We offer guaranteed QoS and QoE on IP that is supported with real-time network data and analytics."

Daisy Worldwide supports some of the largest enterprises globally with end-to-end voice and managed services solutions.

Hayley Duckmanton, Commercial Director at Daisy Worldwide, added: "Epsilon offers a flexible opex-driven model as well as accelerating our ability to deliver high quality services both locally and globally. As we grow our business, eINX is ready to support us with scalability and intelligence."

eINX combines Epsilon's global network (which is supported by over 500 pre-connected carriers in 170-plus countries) with bespoke networking technology.

It is powered by Cataleya's next-generation session border controller (SBC) Orchid One which enables guaranteed QoS and QoE end-to-end on IP with near real-time visibility from transport to application layers.

It enables Epsilon to gain real-time insights into each session, service, application, MOS/R-factor scores, network and end-to-end SLAs.

The champagne was out at Fidelity Energy this week when the company secured its 50th partner contract in the comms channel just six months after launching at Comms Vision last November.

Headed up by former Gamma sales chief John Haw (pictured left), Fidelity Energy is helping to transform comms and IT resellers into utility providers by simplifying the supply of energy services and maximising on the close customer relationships they already have.

"Partner customers are crying out for someone to help them with their energy spends. In the last six months our reseller conversion rate has been phenomenal and we are now seeing real traction," said Haw.

"Our new portal enables resellers to write business even if a customer has an energy contract in place and the fact they can earn revenue share upfront is an enormous bonus."

Haw claims resellers can be earning high margin deals from energy within a month of talking to a Fidelity Energy representative and says his company is way ahead of rivals in the ICT sector.

"With our portal development, CRM systems and breadth of supplier contracts we have an 18-month lead on any other company entering this space," said Haw.

CEO Simon Payne added: "Historically, the channel was expected to find and sign clients to energy companies. We go the extra mile and bring the skill to closing the order."

Intermedia has launched two new resources for channel partners in a bid to help increase lead generation and improve lead conversion rates.

A new Marketing Automation Platform enables partners to implement a variety of month-long integrated marketing campaigns in less than five minutes, without any in-house marketing experts. The platform contains content for partners to brand as their own with pre-made templates for email, landing pages and social media etc.

The firm has also launched the Intermedia University, a new web-based courseware that provides partners with knowledge to close leads generated from the Marketing Automation Platform. It includes a library of interactive training to support partners selling Intermedia services such as Microsoft Hosted Exchange, Email Archiving and SecuriSync.

Jon Borgese, Senior Director of Channel Marketing at Intermedia, said: "We've already seen hundreds of partners register to use our new through-partner marketing automation platform. And over 1,500 partners worldwide have already used the Intermedia University. We expect to see significant growth in the partners using both of these platforms in 2016 and beyond."

The UK's 237 RNLI lifeboat stations have been thrown a connectivity lifeline by KCOM which has supplied a fully managed and upgraded WAN solution.

The project is well underway following two large bandwidth connections with resilient failover into the Poole HQ and a UK rollout of over 200 private FTTC and DSL connections including deployments in some of the most remote locations around the British coast.

IT Project Manager at the RNLI, Steve North, stated: "Lifeboat crews and volunteers input the details of lifeboat launches and then upload video footage from their rescues, which can be used for media, training and fundraising.

"A faster connection helps us to spread the word about the lifesaving work we are doing much more quickly. Investing in better technology at our lifeboat stations around the coast will help to do this."

Gary Young, Executive VP for Mid-Market and Consumer at KCOM, added: "Speed is vital in all aspects of the RNLI's work, not just in saving lives but also in raising awareness of the dangers at sea."

KCOM is now working with the RNLI to roll out plans for the Republic of Ireland which is due to be connected by autumn 2016.

TeleWare has augmented its Skype for Business proposition with the addition of compliant voice recording, IVR and enterprise class voicemail.

"This functionality can help organisations to increase productivity, support training, improve governance and help meet regulatory requirements, whilst also providing much needed differentiation for Microsoft resellers," stated CEO Steve Haworth.

TeleWare's status as a key Microsoft partner is such that it was awarded the Gold Partner Communications designation, putting it in the top 1% of Microsoft's partners in a global network of 430,000.

TeleWare also achieved its first £1m revenue month this year.

Haworth added: "TeleWare has a history of developing strategic partnerships with leading communications technology businesses.

"And we firmly believe that by focusing on R&D to foster the creativity that delivers innovative products, we can help our partners to create the differentiation they need to create growth and drive real value for their clients."

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has been selected by ISP Brightstar to deliver 100Mbps Ethernet connectivity in and around London where the majority of its customers are located, as well as outlying areas.

SSE Enterprise Telecoms' recent Project Edge network expansion meant that it was able to meet Brightstar's needs. With a network reach of 13,700km and 265 points of presence serving 250,000 metropolitan business postcodes, SSE Enterprise Telecoms' network coverage meant it could instantly service a number of Brightstar's customers.

In areas where its network does not reach, the third phase of Project Edge - Edge Plus, with its LIVEQUOTE tool - offers Brightstar an alternative.