Comms Dealer

SAP's Chief Executive Bill McDermott says he has 'perfect and clear confidence' that Europe's largest software company will meet its full year targets despite a warning that first quarter results will be weaker than expected.

The first quarter is usually a slow one for SAP, but results are clouded by moves away from on-premise sales.

Sales of software licenses to corporate clients, particularly in Brazil and the US, fell 13% during the period as business customers continue to shift to cloud-based software instead of older software packages.

Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was worth 0.68bn euro (2015: 0.50bn euro), an increase of 35%.

"The first quarter is our seasonally smallest quarter," said Luka Mucic, CFO of SAP. "With a robust pipeline across our entire portfolio we are on track to achieve our full year outlook."

Satellite Internet has connected the third and final village selected to take part in a UK Government-funded Market Test Pilot (MTP) by providing high-speed internet to Broomfield in North Somerset.

Working with Connecting Devon & Somerset (CDS), Broomfield Parish Council and the wider community, Satellite Internet was able to provide 24 properties with substantially enhanced broadband connectivity within a very limited deployment timeframe.

Satellite Internet Business Development Director David Hennell said: "Despite the short timescales we were confident that we could provide the necessary infrastructure to make this third MTP deployment a success. However, we couldn't have achieved this without the enthusiasm and support of Broomfield Parish Council and the closeness with which we, the Broomfield community and CDS have all worked, ensuring that the installation has been a success."

Somerset County Council deputy leader councillor David Hall said: "The ability to access high-quality communications infrastructure is critical to businesses and an important part of improving quality of life. The more people across Somerset and Devon who are connected, the better for everyone."

Solar Communications is to stage two customer events in Manchester and London to showcase the firm's technology and communications portfolio.

Called 'solar Vision 2016', the events will bring together more than 100 Solar customers to witness presentations from some of Solar's senior leadership team and technology partners including TalkTalk, Mitel, Datto and ShoreTel.

John Whitty, CEO at Solar Communications, said: "Through our Solar Vision 2016 initiative we can ensure our customers know exactly how technology is evolving and how new solutions can help them achieve their business goals, save money, improve staff productivity and simplify their communications estate.

"Unified communications in particular is set to take off and is a market that experts estimate to be worth around $25bn by 2020. However, at this moment in time, just one in five SMEs have adopted this technology.

"There's a huge opportunity for organisations to take advantage of developments in UC and differentiate the way they operate from their competition."

A collaboration between Silver Lining and multi-channel payment service provider NetPay has come to fruition with the launch of SLPay, a secure phone payment service.

The move was prompted by an increase in enquiries from Silver Lining customers wanting to include merchant services in their managed service packages.

It is estimated that in 2014, £802bn was spent in the UK on goods and services using debit and credit card phone payments, a trend that is set to rise to £900bn by 2024.

Allan Packer, Managing Director, Silver Lining says: "We believe that only by listening to and understanding our customers' communication and data requirements can we offer the right bespoke solution."

Claranet has been ranked the 56th most profitable privately owned business in the country according to The Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 published April 10th.

The MSP has increased its profits by an average annual rate of 72% since 2012.

Claranet also appeared in The Sunday Times' FastTrack series, taking 118th place in The Sunday Times International Track 200 last year.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Claranet has evolved into a full service managed services provider with a presence in six European countries.

Charles Nasser, CEO of Claranet, commented: "Financial strength is core to our value proposition as a managed services provider and is critical if we are to secure the trust of our customers.

"Our ability to adapt to better suit a constantly changing market has enabled the business to improve profitability, securing its financial strength. By balancing fiscal responsibility with technological innovation we have been able to grow the business sustainably over our 20-year history.

"The combination of our strong local presence and international reach means that our business has been consistent in its growth both organically and through acquisition in Western Europe."

Cloud and managed services have helped to boost Annodata's profitability by 91.28% since 2012, securing the MSP 24th position in The Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 2016.

The annual Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table, now in its 16th year, ranks Britain's private companies with the fastest-growing profits over their latest three years of available accounts. To qualify, companies have to be registered in the UK and be independent, unquoted and ultimate holding companies.

First established as a provider of print services in 1988, Annodata has in recent years rapidly diversified its service offering, having successfully moved into communications, IT and cloud services. The strategically important acquisition of Keltec in 2014 accelerated Annodata's drive towards delivering managed services, supporting the company's growth ambitions and profitability.

Rod Tonna-Barthet, Annodata's CEO, commented: "As a company, we have evolved our strategy over the past few years as we set in place the foundations needed to grow the businesses and ensure we remain at the forefront of technological innovation.

"A number of key additions to our senior management mean that our leadership team has never been stronger, and our expanded service portfolio puts us in a strong position to respond to the often complex needs of our customers.

"Our customers and the business are reaping the rewards of these changes, and I'm delighted that the efforts of the whole team at Annodata have been independently recognised by the Profit Track 100 as being one of the most profitable businesses in the country."

Gamma has ramped up its play in the SIP space and is targeting the vibrant ISDN replacement market with its new SIP Trunk Call Manager service that, says the firm, gives customers more than cost savings and enables partners to add value to their SIP propositions via centralised instant call control.

"SIP Trunk Call Manager will enable channel partners to offer customers a smarter SIP trunk service to differentiate their proposition and open up new areas in the market," stated Roy Farrow (pictured), Advanced Services Product Manager at Gamma.

"Business continuity will be at its heart, enabling feature-rich call control in the network and giving users full access and control of the service through a mobile app."

According to Gamma, by the start of 2016 almost two million SIP channels were migrated from ISDN leaving 1.5 million still to be migrated, a million of which are expected to move within the next two years.

"The clock is ticking, so now is the time to add further value to our SIP Trunk service with SIP Trunk Call Manager, and help our partners move away from price-led conversations and give them a clear advantage in an increasingly crowded 'me too' market," added Farrow.

Gamma is currently beta testing with a number of partners and expects to launch mid-May.

One trialist, Nick Ward, Senior Product Manager at Intercity Technology, said: "It's great to see Gamma finding a way to put value and margin back into SIP Trunking."

Nimans has extended its trade counter service with the launch of a new 10,000 sq ft unit in Trafford Park, Manchester, adding to an existing service at the distributor's Salford HQ.

"I started Nimans more than 30 years ago by opening a trade counter and repairing radio equipment," said Chairman Julian Niman. "It's always been my ambition to develop more."

The new facility offers hundreds of new product lines and is led by Geoff Wilde and Bob Hinder who share more than 40 years data infrastructure experience.

New product lines include cable management tools, cabinets, trunking, fibre, power distribution and labelling machines plus accessories.

Nimans has also introduced new brands such as Super Rod (cable rods), Dymo (labelling), Draper (tools), Faithful (tools) as well as basket and cable trays plus accessories.

"Thousands of lines are available for immediate collection," added Nimans. "This new facility offers customers the chance to conveniently pick up a much bigger range of products and take advantage of expert advice from Geoff and Bob."

The Trafford Part trade counter includes a training room and is located on the outskirts of the city close to the M602 and M60 motorways and opens at 8.30am.

Pictured (l-r): Bob Hinder, Julian Niman and Geoff Wilde

Samsung's SCM-Compact pure IP telephony solution launched on February 24th at the Belfry is proving popular among the vendor's partner base with 30 resellers already equipped to sell and support the system following four fully subscribed sales training days and three technical training courses.

"Due to high demand we are organising additional technical training dates for May," said Wilf Wood (pictured), Senior Product Manager of Samsung Enterprise Networks.

"The success of the SCM-Compact release shows there is still a large demand for on-premise equipment in the UK market."

Over 100 Samsung partners attended the launch event that also signalled the Korean vendor's intent to up the stakes in the SMB space with its appliance-based version of the larger SCM-Express system that offers a comprehensive wireless solution.

Samsung has positioned itself as a 'wireless communication platform provider' closely aligned to the projections of industry watchers such as IDC which calculates that 75% of the western European workforce will be mobile by 2018.

"Samsung's ability to integrate with our mobile devices to provide a mobility solution for the workforce has strongly resonated with resellers and end customers," added Wood.

The new system belongs to the Samsung Communication Manager (SCM) family as a complement to OfficeServ and the vendor's hybrid range.

The SCM Compact scales up from 16 to 512 extensions, its sweet spot being 16 to circa 300 extensions. This means Samsung resellers are able to approach 76% of the UK market.

Following the product's launch John Bird, Head of Systems and Support Services at Samsung distie Exertis Enterprise, UC, said: "Resellers can deploy this pure IP solution with Samsung WLAN and negate the need to install costly structured cabling on site.

"This will become a single vendor office-in-a-box solution that will help resellers increase wallet share and promote end user lock-in."

True Telecom staff have raised £608 for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital by donating £2 for a dress down day on the last Friday of each month.

Members of True Telecom staff presented Hardeep, an ambassador for Great Ormond Street Hospital, with a cheque at True Telecom's office in Dartford.

Stuart Griffiths, CEO, said: "Supporting charity has always been a priority here at True, so it's a real pleasure to raise some valuable funds for Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Our employees love taking part in dress down days and donating to a worthwhile cause."