Comms Dealer

IBM has swooped on UK-based Optevia, a software as a service (SaaS) systems integrator specialising in Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions for public sector organisations, for an undisclosed sum.

The company will be incorporated into IBM's Global Business Services group. Optevia, which was founded in 2001, focuses on UK Emergency Services Central Government, Local Government, Health Authorities and Housing and Social Enterprises.

Its clients include ministries, councils, regulators, licensing and grant management organisations, transport authorities and social housing organisations.

Incom Business Systems has deployed the Mitel MiVoice 250 telephone system, a 50mb+ Ethernet leased line and 20 SIP trunks for designer menswear retailer Clothingsites.co.uk.

Clothingsites.co.uk sells several thousand product lines across its e-commerce sites, Woodhouse Clothing and Brown Bag, from over 50 high-end clothing brands including Emporio Armani, Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein and Vivienne Westwood.

The firm needed a faster, more robust broadband connection to facilitate rapid daily stock refreshes.

With 50 staff at its 75,000 square foot headquarters in Manchester, the retailer also needed to upgrade its communications systems to improve staff collaboration and customer interaction, and reduce operational costs.

Managing Director at Clothingsites.co.uk, David Foster, commented: "We had a very tight deadline for the deployment of the new infrastructure and communications solution, which Incom delivered on time and to budget."

Grant Counsell, Corporate Sales Director at Incom Business Systems, added: "With ambitious plans to expand overseas and customer service at the heart of their operations, upgrading to the Mitel solution and a superfast broadband connection has proved a big success for Clothingsites."

Lily Comms has launched a Leadership Development Programme in association with The Winning Formula.

Created by author John Stein, The Winning Formula is a performance framework designed to support and equip leaders and managers with the knowledge and skills required to create agile, successful and sustainable organisations.

The Leadership Development Programme is a collaborative learning initiative involving the Lily Comms Senior Management Team, with discussion and focus led by Managing Director, Chris Morrisey.

The programme has been rolled out to equip departmental leaders from Client & Network Services, Operations, Finance & Marketing with the skills necessary to drive their departments forward.

The collaborative process will form Lily Comm's business strategy primarily for the next three years, but also takes into account the future beyond that period. The 'strategy For Success' or 's4S', due to be launched in April, is a blueprint set out for all employees to follow to not only help develop Lily Comms, but also aid their own personal growth.

Morrisey commented: "This is a pivotal time for the business. The Leadership Development Programme is a tried and tested guideline for empowering senior management and growing a successful business.

"Lily Comms is an opportunity provider and we are proud of our commitment to putting significant time and resource into staff development."

Co-owner Adrian Jackson added: "When we launch the Strategy For Success next month it will be a major milestone for Lily Comms. It puts down a marker which shows that we're absolutely focused on growing and developing the business and our staff."

Exertis has appointed Matt Cushway to the newly created role in the commercial team of Microsoft General Manager.

Based at Exertis' office in Harlow, he will report to Alex Croft, Exertis Home Commercial Director.

Cushway will be responsible for maximising opportunities across all areas of the business impacted by the vendor including gaming, software, Linx tablets, hardware and peripherals.

"Matt has a wealth of sales and purchasing experience in the retail and entertainment industries and is a welcome addition to the commercial team," said Mike Buley, Exertis Retail Director.

"He will be responsible for developing our Microsoft business and relationship, acting as the focal point for the vendor to drive opportunities and growth across a variety of category areas."

Cushway joins from Twentieth Century Fox where he was head of sales. Prior to that, he has held a variety of commercial positions including buying manager for games and console at Tesco, commercial product manager on PCs and emerging tech at Dixons, Senior Account Manager at Warner Bros.

Former EMEA Sales Director of Arrow ECS Stephane Duplaix has joined Exclusive Group as Group Director for Strategic Alliances.

He brings strong experience in the cyber security and data centre distribution industries and will steer the Group's partnerships business with an increasing number of global systems integrators and key vendor partners.

Barrie Desmond, Exclusive Group COO, stated: "We're on the radar of an increasing number of global SIs and service providers, and maximising this is a major priority for us.

"In parallel, our vendor global footprint expands almost weekly. This perfect storm of opportunity needs harnessing and we could think of no one better than Stephane to help achieve this."

Duplaix added: "I've seen Exclusive Group challenge the old business models and offer a new service-centric vision. Achieving this on a global scale is the next and most exciting part of the journey."

At Arrow, Duplaix managed a significant channel sales organisation across 30-plus countries.

Previous roles include stints at McAfee, F-Secure, Azlan and EdenWall Technologies.

US-based endpoint protection and threat intelligence specialist CrowdStrike has announced plans to increase its presence across the EMEA market.

The move follows a significant growth in demand for its endpoint protection platform and response service which saw a 200% rise in its EMEA business in the last year alone, it says.

To accommodate this growth the company has made a decision to set up a corporate office in the UK and hired Michael East, who previously held a senior sale role at FireEye's EMEA, as its new vice president of EMEA Sales.

In his new role he will run the company's EMEA go-to-market efforts. Additionally, the company plans to augment its existing European presence of engineers, intrusion and intelligence analysts to also include sales, marketing and partner development resources.

George Kurtz, CrowdStrike's co-founder and chief executive officer, stated: "CrowdStrike is seeing significant growth in the EMEA and will bring its next-generation endpoint protection, intelligence and response services to the market with a total focus on helping companies stop breaches.

"Establishing a centralised brick-and-mortar presence in the EMEA will accelerate our go-to-market strategy as we deepen relationships with local partners and continue to support our rapidly expanding customer base."

CityFibre has been selected by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council to supply a 50km future-proof dark fibre network connecting 120 public sector sites throughout the town.

The deal, worth £3.24m over ten years, will provide scalable, ultra-fast connectivity to underpin the council's digital strategy and make Southend CityFibre's latest Gigabit City.
 
The new network will provide Southend-on-Sea Borough Council with a dark fibre platform from which it can upgrade the existing connectivity provided to sites including schools, colleges and council offices.

The new infrastructure will enable the Council to deliver cost-effective and efficient digital public sector services, while catalysing business growth and inward investment.

Mobile masts can be connected to the network to support upgrades to 4G and 5G services, and ultimately the network can provide a backbone for Fibre to the Home deployment.
 
The new network will be made available on a wholesale basis to service providers. These will then be able to offer the majority of Southend's 6,000 businesses access to gigabit speed services.

Greg Mesch, Chief Executive at CityFibre, said: "Southend demonstrates many of the key indicators of success. It has a forward thinking council with an ambitious digital strategy and the appetite to become a leading example of a smart city, while its business community is growing and hungry for best-in-breed connectivity options."
 
Cllr Ian Gilbert, Executive Member for Community & Organisational Development, added: "Connectivity is a critical issue for today's businesses, so this has the potential to be a massive boost to jobs and investment in the town."?

Venus Business Communications welcomed a large turnout of partners and resellers for its 'Bet on Red' event staged at The London Hippodrome.

Many of the new features and services announced on the night have been in direct response to partner feedback received over the last 12 months.

These include the availability of 10Gbit/sec fibre to premises Internet, a capacity increase of the Venus backhaul network, development of the new Venus portal (to be officially released later this year) and the introduction of a premium DDoS mitigation service.

"Venus works hand in hand with partners to help them attract new revenue streams," said Brian Iddon, Director of Venus.

"In order for Venus' partner programme to grow and prosper we need to listen to our partners and understand what they need to help their business grow.

"The current market does not just focus on pricing but also the additional value add services and support.

"Venus has recently introduced white label marketing, product training and dedicated project management to our growing base of partners.

"This is just the beginning, we're a dynamic fast growing business and we want to help our partners grow in the same way."

The Redwood Technologies Group has been awarded ISO 14001:2004 certification following an independent assessment by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), a UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accredited provider of independent assessment services.

The internationally recognised standard is awarded to organisations that have an effective Environmental Management System (EMS) in place, demonstrating a business-wide commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its activities, products and services through effective recycling, safe waste disposal, pollution prevention and legal compliance to environmental legislation.

The standard demands measurable objectives, regular monitoring and continual improvement.

Sean Taylor, CEO of the Redwood Technologies Group, commented: "With the Redwood Technologies Group expanding and with consumer expectations increasing across the board, it is essential that all our current and future business activities align, and continue to align, to best practices whether that concerns data security, quality assurance, information security or environmental protection."

Genius Networks has made two new London-based appointments to support its expansion plans.

Amit Chhabra joins the business in the role of Technical Pre-sales, while Jonathan Bunney takes on the position of Channel Director.

Both appointments are through the company's onsite recruitment partners, Ingenio, who have been retained to help Genius deliver its ambitious long-term growth plans.

With over 15 years experience in developing networking solutions that help clients address complex communications challenges, Chhabra has expertise across a range of vendor technologies and will bolster Genius's front-end planning capabilities.

His track record includes major projects for HMRC, Select Service Partners and Jaeger, where he was the lead architect for its 100-site MPLS global network.

"It's an exciting time to be joining Genius," he commented. "I'll be working closely with all the team across the portfolio and am looking forward to helping the business achieve its goals."

Bunney's brief is to grow and strengthen Genius's channel business. It is an area in which he has successfully operated throughout his 30 year career in business communications, working in senior sales and business development roles for some of the industry's biggest names including Cable&Wireless, Telia and Easynet.

Bunney said: "I've lived and breathed the channel for many years and have seen how the market has now become commoditised and saturated with me-too offerings. But Genius is redefining the possibilities for global networks. It's this kind of innovation that's a real differentiator and I'm already seeing its impact in the traction I'm getting with service providers."

Genius CEO James Roberts commented: "Investing in top talent has always been a priority for us because it's our people who are the innovators and our people who give us the edge. As well as being integral to our growth strategy, these appointments will help to ensure we continue to be recognised as a leader in our industry."