Comms Dealer

The Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (ITP) has revealed more details about its annual seminar on the June 23rd at the BT Centre, London.

This year's seminar will reflect the history and future of telecommunications with key topics discussed by industry leading lights.

Philip Nugent, Technical Director at Mpirical, will open the event with an overview of the history of telecoms, highlighting the convergence of PSTN, Internet, mobile, LAN and IMS Systems, as well as examining key milestones.

The future of the network will be examined by Dr Timothy Whitley, MD Research & Innovation and Adastral Park, BT. Paul Adams, Marketing Director, Nokia, will discuss the case for 5G, while Ray O'Hanlon, BT Technical Solutions Architect, at Cisco will look at the future of the cloud and data centre.

The session will be followed by questions and answers.

"The future is about allowing people to interact with everything digitally‚" said Crissi Williams, Head of Operations at the ITP. "In essence, to have the digital world as a natural extension of our lives."

Tickets are free for members and £99 for non-members and include lunch. For more information please visit: https://www.theitp.org/calendar/event/view?id=555 

Abzorb's latest portal revamp reflects continuing developments to order processing, in particular for mobile services, enabling resellers to better manage their mobile proposition and make faster connections.

"These improvements include the ability to allocate bars/services, amend tariff and bundle pricing, and an automated allocation of a relevant mobile number when creating a mobile order," stated Mark Riddell, Head of Indirect Channel.

New mobile functions such as improved bundle management mean changes made to a connection's bundles integrate directly with Abzorb's network level provisioning processes.

Another key development is the Abzorb API, a toolkit for partners who build their own software and want to integrate more closely with the Abzorb's systems.

"This means managing mobile orders, connections, bars, SIMs, customers and tasks can all be processed from their own in-house systems, reducing or eliminating the need to retrain staff," commented Riddell.

Abzorb has also introduced a white label reseller branded customer care portal enabling customers to manage their own mobility requirements.

Riddell added: "More portal developments are on the way, such as the ability to authorise reseller orders for distributor users, hosted centrex ordering, tighter integration with the Syniverse MNP platform, more useful informatics and reporting, and a fresh new design across the portal."

Distributor Exclusive Networks has done a deal with Security intelligence vendor Exabeam to cover UK enterprise sector, with a view to expanding this into further EMEA territories later in 2016.

In France, Certes Networks, a software-defined security specialist has partnered with Exclusive Networks France to push its CryptoFlow enterprise application security and breach containment solutions in that market.

The UK move supports Exabeam's 100% channel model, which is focused on recruiting specialist partners, market-maker VARs and international/global SIs.

Exabeam's solutions deliver user and entity behavioural analytics (UEBA) for hunting-down and cornering elusive threats that have propagated within the corporate network.

"Sooner or later, every enterprise is affected by threats that penetrate outer defences and secretly work their way across to the most sensitive or valuable data assets.

"Clues to these dangerous attacks are typically undetectable or hidden in masses of logs and other security big data.

"This is what Exabeam was designed for; putting security operations teams straight on the scent and in for the kill," said Graham Jones, Country Manager at Exclusive Networks UK.

Distributor ALSO Group says it increases profits in the first quarter 2016 by 18.5%, with a record sales level.

Profitability rose faster than sales as margins improved. "We improved our earnings quality continuously," said Gustavo Möller-Hergt, CEO of ALSO Holding AG.

Net income for the first quarter 2016 was €14.1m up from €11.9m in the previous year (+18.5%). Profit before tax (EBT) rose in the same period to €20.3m. Sales were up 2.6% in the first quarter of 2016 to €1.916bn.

The company says it again outperformed the overall market, with a slight decline in sales in the Central European region countered by a much improved business in Northern/Eastern Europe.

In a trading statement a couple of weeks before it announces annual results for last year, Datatec, the holding company behind distributor Westcon and integrator Logicalis, has warned of mixed global economic conditions and a currency headwind.

As a result, it says, Group revenues for FY16 are expected to be $6.5 billion, which is in line with the prior year, but costs have risen.

It now expects earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation in H2 FY16 to be marginally above H1 FY16. But EBITDA in FY16 is expected to be approximately 22% below the $206.4 million for FY15.

Group gross margins have improved in H2 FY16 and are expected to be approximately 13.5% for FY16, up from 13.1% in H1 FY16, however.

As anticipated, operating profit in FY16 was impacted by the strength in the US dollar (reporting currency), ongoing restructuring in Westcon EMEA and Logicalis UK and foreign exchange losses, particularly in Angola.

The Group has increased its provision against trade receivables to reflect the weaker economic conditions in some markets.

Exertis is to distribute Yealink's VC series designed for the SME market, offering enterprise-grade video conferencing without high costs or advanced technical expertise.

Michael Thompson, Exertis UC business manager, said: "Yealink delivers a friendly UI with easy-to-use buttons allowing almost all operations to be carried out in just three simple steps.

'This means that even small businesses with no specialised IT staff will find the Yealink VC series easy to use. Auto deployment, USB recording, no licenses and no update costs are designed to make installation and operation pain free for both the reseller and end user alike."

Exertis will be offering the VC400 solution, VC120 end point, VC110 end point, VC Desktop Client and T49G video phone. Resellers can take advantage of free certified training, a partner programme and if required on-site technical and sales support from a Yealink VC product specialist.

CityFibre has announced that Leeds and Bradford have become the UK's newest Gigabit Cities.

With nearly 200km of pure fibre optic infrastructure now available for use by businesses and the public sector, Leeds and Bradford are now among the best digitally connected cities in the world, future-proofing themselves for the digital age.

A new generation of affordable, gigabit speed internet services are now available from CityFibre's launch partners Exa Networks and Diva Telecom. Until now, businesses based in the centres of Leeds and Bradford were poorly served in terms of Internet connectivity, with a shortage of 'fibre to the cabinet' services limiting their digital capabilities.

The new networks alleviate these concerns, offering speeds up to 100 times faster than the UK national average and unlocking a host of productivity benefits to organisations increasingly reliant on digital systems and communications.

CityFibre's pure fibre network will help support the drive for a 'Northern Powerhouse' by providing the infrastructure to enable the next-generation of digitally based businesses to flourish across the region.

The North already contributes about £10bn a year in digital GVA to the UK economy. Pure fibre infrastructure will only help to accelerate this as businesses become more productive and the region becomes increasingly attractive as a location to build and grow a business.

Alongside other Gigabit City projects such as York and Huddersfield, CityFibre has extensive fibre networks across the region that it will be launching in the coming months.

Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, said: "As thirst for greater internet speeds continues to grow in all sectors, it's fantastic to be able to offer cities the world-class digital infrastructure they need to meet the demand. As Gigabit Cities, Leeds and Bradford will be on the digital front foot, able to compete and succeed in a digital world.

"We have already invested over £70m in next generation digital infrastructure across the North, and now businesses in Leeds and Bradford will be able to capitalise on this to build better-connected, more innovative, companies."

Comtact is featured in The Leap 100 2016, a list of the 100 fast growth companies in the UK, launched by Mishcon de Reya and City AM. All the companies selected have demonstrated substantial growth over the past 12 months and been identified as the 'ones to watch' for 2016.

Comtact, recognised as one of the UK's fastest growing IT service companies, has continued to invest in its people and a state-of-the-art 24x7x365 Network Operations Centre (NOC).

2015 saw the facility being significantly developed and expanded into a SOC - Security Operations Centre, helping organisations fight the exponential cybercrime wave, with the recruitment of some of Europe's leading Cyber security experts, combined with a highly integrated suite of Gartner leading solutions delivered as a managed service.

Dominic List, founder and Chairman of Comtact, said: "It's great that Comtact has been selected as part of The Leap 100 for 2016 - in Comtact's 10th anniversary year.

"This year we broadened our proposition to help our customers protect against the real threat of cyber attack or ransomware. With 80% of companies unaware they have already been breached, we added our managed cyber security solution to the portfolio to help our customers take back control.

"Alongside our complementary infrastructure management solution, Aurora365, we're ensuring dependable, secure IT and eliminating downtime. We've also seen increased adoption of our intelligent Wi-Fi tracking solutions, especially in the healthcare sector. We look forward to joining other The Leap 100 companies in building on this success over the coming year."

The Leap 100 companies, which range in terms of scale and sector, were chosen because of their growth potential and ability to make the leap to the next level in terms of revenue.

Wi-Fi vendor 4ipnet has signed ICON as a UK distribution partner.

ICON will distribute the 4ipnet range of Wi-Fi infrastructure solutions, provide third line support for the UK channel, and deliver the 4ipnet product training for UK engineering and sales teams.

ICON's Mark Shane commented: "Our partnership with 4ipnet means that the UK reseller channel now has access to a versatile and affordable range of Wi-Fi solutions that have been winning business from the major enterprise Wi-Fi vendors in country markets around the globe.

"Until now not available in the UK market, we believe that the 4ipnet Wi-Fi solutions will become a significant revenue earner for the channel displacing many of the traditional enterprise Wi-Fi vendors from their preferred supplier position."

A report by the US industry watcher Network Computing ranked 4ipnet as one of only 12 Wi-Fi vendors to watch alongside the likes of Cisco Meraki, and described 4ipnet as a company looking to aggressively expand into regions around the globe.

Solar Communications has expanded its Solar SIP, Ethernet fibre and DSL offering following an agreement with TalkTalk Business.

The deal gives all Solar customers access to TalkTalk Business's next generation network and the services that overlay connectivity.

The new partnership also helps Solar to gain better visibility into customers' networks by using TalkTalk Business's provisioning, management and support portal.

The portal offers advanced diagnostic tools so Solar support staff can proactively spot issues and act quickly so they don't escalate.

Solar Communications' CEO John Whitty said: "This year is forecast as the crossover point from ISDN to SIP, so 2016 is the perfect time for an alliance with TalkTalk Business."

TalkTalk Business Director of Partners Alex Tempest added: "There is an increasing need for next generation voice and communications solutions to make businesses function successfully today.

"TalkTalk Business and Solar Communications both recognise that businesses need straightforward access to this broad range of services, backed up by knowledgeable customer services, to remain competitive in all industries."