Comms Dealer

Ellie Farley has rejoined Entatech UK as Microsoft Product Manager, picking up on a previous five year stint working at the distributor.

Her remit is to increase Entatech's market share and help customers to upsell from Windows Home to Pro. She will also lead the distributor's licensing business and front-up Entatech's DPaaS (Digital Platform as a Service) for the firm's electronic software fulfilment.

Dave Stevinson, Entatech MD, said: "Ellie is no stranger to Entatech's reseller partners and was one of the reasons why our Microsoft business grew so much. Ellie's return will cement the existing foundations and provide a fantastic platform for our ambitious growth plans.

"Our investment in Microsoft software has been extensive in early 2016 and we are looking to increase our headcount to capitalise on new marketing and product initiatives. By reintroducing Ellie to the team, this demonstrates our commitment to Microsoft and the partners."

Content Guru has been awarded a Queen's Award for Enterprise for its storm CONTACT cloud contact centre product.

storm CONTACT has been adopted by hundreds of the world's largest enterprises and allows customers to communicate using any type of medium, such as email, instant messaging, SMS, social media, video and voice and provides a range of fully-automated and agent-assisted services for sectors such as financial services, online, retail, travel and utilities.

Sean Taylor, CEO of Content Guru, commented: "Cloud computing is currently undergoing tremendous growth and we have been able to utilise that technology to improve the customer engagement services that enterprises large through to small are able to offer.

"Behind the scenes the Content Guru team have had to work incredibly hard to keep at the forefront of our industry and receiving a Queen's Award is such a tremendous way to recognise that effort, especially in such a special year during which the Queen celebrates her 90th birthday."

Daisy Group has updated the comms infrastructure at a flat once occupied by the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix.

The London flat, now a museum opened in February, benefits from hosted VoIP and dedicated managed broadband provision.

Simona Tocco, Facilities and Buildings Manager at Handel & Hendrix in London (a museum dedicated to composer George Frideric Handel is in the adjoining property), said: "I had no idea what a hosted VoIP telephone system was prior to speaking to Daisy."

Due to the museum's location and Grade I listed building status, fibre broadband was unavailable, so Daisy installed a dedicated managed Internet connection, not shared with other businesses, which provides guaranteed speeds and improved reliability.

Dave McGinn, Managing Director at Daisy SMB Services, added: "It's a real thrill for us to be so centrally involved in preserving the legacy of such an iconic figure as Jimi Hendrix. He was an innovator himself, just like we are, so we hope he's looking down with approval!"

With the deadline for Fastest 4 approaching, partners have less than a fortnight to qualify to race supercars at the world renowned Aerodrome at Palmer Sport on June 8th.

There will be many new faces at this year's event as 50% of racers are newly on-boarded partners and ex-stig Ben Collins is looking forward to putting both new and long established Partners through their paces.

"I gather we have some fresh meat on the track this year alongside the track veterans, which is great news for my scream collection. I'll be doing another SuperRide in the Palmer Jaguar JP-LM so I'll make sure they get the full Le Mans experience!" said Collins, host at this year's Fastest 4.

The Fastest 4 incentive is proving more popular than ever according to Henry West, Head of Channel Sales at KCOM.

He said: "Ethernet Lines and Leased Lines are the most popular point getters so far this year but we do have some players that qualified really quickly by signing managed WAN deals with us. It's the quickest way to race!"

www.fastest4.co.uk

Bob Swallow is to lead Logicalis UK as MD following his promotion from Sales Director and the completion of a wider company restructure.

Swallow said: "We're seeing a decisive change in leadership priorities across the world. We understand that prioritising digital transformation is front of mind for many progressive organisations, and therefore we've spent the past 12-18 months adapting our own business to support and serve our customers on their digital transformation journeys."

"This year our focus is on making Every Customer a Reference, and to achieve this, we anticipate growth in our core portfolio of solutions and services, investment in disruptive technologies and services and the simplification of our business processes."

Mark Rogers, CEO, added: "Bob brings a wealth of experience to the role having spent the past three decades leading IT businesses in key sales and executive management positions."

A digital divide is opening up across the British economy, with just over half (55%) of 'pioneer' firms adopting digital technologies and processes, while the other half (45%) are falling behind, according to new research by the CBI and IBM.

Despite the UK taking top place globally for e-commerce and fifth place for the availability of technology, it ranks only 14th in the world for company-level adoption of digital technology, with many companies struggling to digitise their businesses at the rate of peers in other countries.

Companies cite a mix of connectivity challenges and security concerns as barriers to digital adoption, but predominantly they are hindered by a lack of appropriate skills inside their business (42% of firms) and an unclear return on investment (33%).

The problem is not lack of conviction about the potential impact. Nearly all firms believe that digital technology has the ability to revolutionise the business landscape, driving productivity (94%), growth and job creation, and almost three quarters (73%) see improved customer satisfaction and experience as its biggest benefit.

Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, said: "Businesses globally are in the throes of an extraordinary digital revolution that is transforming productivity and creating a new generation of winning companies. But in the UK, too many firms are being left behind.

"While pioneering firms are seizing digital opportunities, nearly half are struggling - a growing digital divide that is threatening UK competitiveness.

"It's vital that businesses in all sectors - from manufacturing to retail - truly understand digital technology's potential, from the boardroom to the shop or factory floor.

"Giving digital a human face by appointing a Chief Technology Officer will help businesses build the long-term digital strategies that will be critical to their futures."

Manchester-based UKFast has secured a £40m funding boost from the Royal Bank of Scotland to drive organic growth.

The company provides cloud and managed hosting to 5,000-plus customers and has posted double digit organic growth every year since it was established in 1999, adding over £10m in recurring revenue during the last two years.

The European Commission has put forward ideas to support and link up national initiatives for the digitisation of industry and related services across all sectors, and to boost investment through strategic partnerships and networks.

The Commission also proposes measures to speed up the development of common standards in priority areas such as 5G communication networks or cybersecurity, and to modernise public services.

As part of its plans the Commission will set up a European cloud that, as a first objective, will give Europe's 1.7 million researchers and 70 million science and technology professionals a virtual environment to store, manage, analyse and re-use a big amount of research data.

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, said: "The industrial revolution of our time is digital. We need the right scale for technologies such as cloud computing, data-driven science and the internet of things to reach their full potential.

"As companies aim to scale up across the Single Market, public e-services should also meet today's needs: be digital, open and cross-border by design. The EU is the right scale for the digital times."

Azlan is offering its partners the opportunity to demonstrate high definition graphics software being used in Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop virtual mobile workspaces, after installing the latest NVIDA graphics card in its Business Solutions Centre (BSC).

The NVIDIA GRID vGPU allows multiple virtual machines to directly access the graphics processing power. A full virtual desktop environment can be shown in high definition, running multiple VMs, with complete application compatibility and giving each user exactly the same experience they would get on a physical device.

Phil King, Solutions Practice Director at Azlan, said: "The BSC is an impressive resource which resellers can use to make a great impression on their customers and prospects.

"With the ability to demonstrate a true graphics workstation experience through XenApp and XenDesktop in high definition, it is even better.

The number of potential applications is massive and so therefore, are the opportunities. As far as we are aware, very few demonstration facilities in the UK have this capability, so we're pretty excited about it."

Excalibur has created a new communications infrastructure for the Home Instead Senior Care Swindon & Vale of the White Horse, a growing provider of relationship-based services that allow older people to remain living independently in their own homes with assistance from their team of CAREGivers.

Just nine months into its start-up year, call quality had started to suffer at Home Instead with practical issues needing to be addressed such as physically having to pass the 'on call' mobile around staff.

Excalibur started with addressing the call quality and connectivity issues, so a combination of Vodafone One Net and Microsoft 365 were implemented along with new mobile devices and contracts.

The new unified communications solution means that Home Instead is now a cloud-based business and resilient with security.