Comms Dealer

NetPay has teamed up with Southampton Solent University, School of Business and Law to deliver research marketing projects with undergraduate business students.

NetPay will be providing opportunities for students to participate in research and marketing projects within a commercial environment.

Sian Campbell, Senior Lecturer in Business at Solent University School of Business, said: "NetPay is supporting our students to gain valuable skills and insights that will enhance their employability and influence their future careers."

Cerri Killworth, Marketing Manager at NetPay, added: "It is great to be working in partnership with Southampton Solent University and be able to offer students the opportunity to work on real-business projects.

"We are enabling them to gain practical real-world experience and the opportunity to see their work used in a commercial environment.

"I am confident that the work that we do together will give students career opportunities and skills that will benefit them when they begin their working life."

Endpoint detection company Confer has formed a UK&I distribution agreement with Distology.

"Confer is already protecting endpoints in more than 60 countries and we have seen a marked increase in demand for our platform in Europe since last year," said Mark Quinlivan, CEO, Confer.

"With an expanded presence in the region we can accelerate our market strategy and provide local support to our customers and partners with endpoint security technology, enabling them to deliver on the promise of secure business."

Confer's Converged Endpoint Security platform integrates prevention, detection and incident response using a 'lightweight' sensor, enabling businesses to secure all types of devices.

Fluidata has begun beta trialling a new SIP platform prior to a full launch in May 2016.

The platform has been designed to support a variety of dedicated and hosted phone systems and builds on Fluidata's track record in data and connectivity.

Piers Daniell, MD, said: "We have no existing voice revenue to cannibalise so we are being disruptive in our approach to delivering low-cost call routing.

"We have a simple design and package to ensure customers will see savings by routing calls via our SIP platform."

The platform will initially support over 300,000 SIP sessions and is supported in multiple data centres simultaneously.

A US-based specialist in enterprise information management solutions (EIM), M-Files, has secured a $36m round of Series B funding led by Partech Ventures along with the Finnish Industry Investment and Draper Esprit.

Capital earmarked for accelerating existing sales and marketing operations will also help expand the company into new markets in North America, the EMEA and APAC regions as well as strengthen its global partner network which currently includes 450 organisations in over 100 countries.

Jim Geary, executive chairman of M-Files, said: "This funding will enable us to build on our success, as well as further develop our professional services organisation and expand local teams in the UK, continental Europe and APAC to better support our customers and partners."

Bruno Cremel, General Partner at Partech, added: "Partech Ventures invested in M-Files because we saw a vision for a new generation of solution beyond traditional document management and enterprise content management (ECM) that has the potential to transform the market."

Partech, which is based in France, specialises in international investments across the high growth digital and ICT companies with three types of fundings - seed capital, venture capital and growth capital.

New data from Juniper Research has found that app advertising, using context and location targeting, will exceed $44 billion by 2020, up from an estimated $13 billion last year.

As the mobile advertising landscape matures, the simple geofence is being usurped by contextual data such as a user's interests, real-time location and even political leanings.

The new research - 'Context & Location Based Services: Advertising, Retail & Emerging Technologies 2016-2020' - found that social applications are providing a highly accessible pool of rich user data for advertisers.

Indeed, Facebook's recent earnings call highlighted the tremendous growth opportunity of this sector, with North American ad revenues per user rising by 60% over the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, players such as Pinterest are developing tools that serve to reduce the intrusiveness of adverts, with user-friendly approaches seen as crucial in avoiding a rising tide of ad-blocking utilities.

According to Juniper Research, in terms of ad revenues, the leading social applications using mobile location data to target users are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WeChat, and Sina Weibo.

The research found that social apps are beginning to incorporate a wide range of capabilities beyond their core function as peer-to-peer communications tools.

"This trend has been highlighted by apps such as WeChat in China, while Facebook Messenger has recently partnered with Uber to deliver ride hiring services," said research author, Steffen Sorrell. "This means that social apps are transforming into platforms themselves, offering even more data for ad campaigners."

Additionally, the research found that several factors are creating a 'perfect storm' for the commercialisation of indoor location services.

Bluetooth beacon deployments, improved Wi-Fi services, and the re-emergence of UWB (ultra-wide band) as an enabler of location based services are all likely to combine in the near-term to offer proximity marketing opportunities as well as commercial asset tracking capabilities. 

Other key findings:
• Commercial asset tracking and telematics is likely to be boosted significantly by the ISO approval of the AEM/AEMP Telematics API Standard.
•Big Data and the emergence of prescriptive analytics will play an increasingly important role in the commercial telematics and precision agricultural industries.

Automated threat security specialist Vectra Networks has rolled out a new Channel Partner Programme, comprising three levels - Authorised, Premier and Elite, with the basic Authorised partners eligible to resell Vectra products and services.

The other tiers get more benefits as they reach targets, including deal registration, access to sales leads, dedicated account team training, demo gear, participation in joint sales calls, and joint marketing investment.
 
Adam Davison, Sales Director of Vectra partner Cloud Distribution UK, said: "It is great to see Vectra investing in the channel and providing additional resources through the new programme."
 
Authorised partners can earn the opportunity to offer additional value-added services such as post-purchase detection reviews, managed security services and professional services. Channel partners can also resell Vectra professional services offerings to customers.

The ninth European Software & Solutions Summit in London in three week's time will assess the pace of change in three keynotes, covering the shifts in customer buying processes, the nature of European regulation and compliance, plus the core ideas behind the value of a software business.

A busy day will start with "The ten trends that impact the software industry" by Martin Hoff ter Heide, Lead Consultant, Information and Communication Technologies at Frost & Sullivan, followed by the head of the IBM Watson Group for EMEA talking about its Cognitive Strategy.

Europe's data-innovation-led future will be covered in the afternoon by Paul MacDonnell, Head of European Policy at the Centre for Data Innovation.

coMakeit's presentation will look at software product development using a distributed environment. Finally, the ways of building value in a software business will be covered by David Riemenschneider. Senior director at m&a specialist Hampleton.

Registrations are still open to qualified directors and senior managers of qualifying Solution Providers, ISVs and Application Developers. Apply at http://eusss.com/register.html

The addition of 70,000-plus seats since the beginning of this year has propelled Mitel past the two million cloud business communications subscriber milestone, reflected in the vendor's 44% cloud revenue growth in Q4.

"Demand for cloud communications continues across the globe as businesses of all sizes look for more flexible solutions and commercial options," said Jon Brinton, Executive VP and General Manager, Mitel Cloud.

Cobweb Solutions has signalled its intent to ramp up channel activities with the launch of Vuzion, a value add cloud aggregator focused on resellers, service providers and ISVs.

Cobweb boasts 20 years experience as a cloud services provider with a focus on Microsoft's CSP programme and according to newly appointed  MD Michael Frisby the company will leverage its experience for the benefit of partners.

"Cloud services are driving a significant disruption across the IT channel," he said. "Vuzion partners will be supported with knowledge on how to build a sustainable cloud business, successfully manage the customer lifecycle and speed up go-to-market time and growth rates.

"We are focused on building long-term sustainable relationships rather than being a mere marketplace to transact through.

"We provide integrated solutions instead of individual services, and partners can focus on building their own value add on top of cloud services while being confident their business model is future proof."

Clare Barclay, Microsoft UK's General Manager for Small and Mid-market Solutions and Partners, added: "Cobweb is bringing more value to both Microsoft and the wider VAR and service provider community."

MDS's managed service has been awarded Cyber Essentials certification, a new UK Government-backed and industry-supported scheme that guides businesses in protecting themselves against cyber threats.

The certification enhances MDS's accreditations, having received TM Forum Frameworx Conformance certification in December.

The Cyber Essentials scheme was developed by Government and industry to provide a clear statement of the basic controls all organisations should implement to mitigate the risk from common internet based threats, within the context of the Government's 10 Steps to Cyber Security.

Through the Assurance Framework, Cyber Essentials certification offers a way for organisations to demonstrate to customers, investors, insurers and others that they have taken these essential precautions.

"Cyber Essentials assures our partners and customers that we take cyber security seriously," commented Barry Dowd, Senior Vice President of Managed Service at MDS.

"This certification demonstrates that we are fully compliant when it comes to cyber security. Our partners and customers depend on us to provide secure infrastructure and we are always looking for ways to improve how we manage cyber security threats. For those we work with, this certification provides additional peace of mind."