Comms Dealer

Almost half of European IT leaders say the IT department's core function is to reduce costs, according to latest research from Claranet.

With IT budgets going up in recent years, IT departments' fixation on cost reduction might be expected to be lower on the agenda than enabling revenue generation for the wider business or innovating to support growth strategies. However, recent research from Claranet shows IT departments across Europe are still fixated on containing costs at the expense of working on new value-add activities.

Independent research, which was conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Claranet and surveyed 900 European IT leaders, found that cost reduction is significantly more likely to be a focus for IT departments in 2016 than it was a year ago. In spite of budget increases, 46 per cent of respondents highlighted cost reduction as a core function today, compared with just over a third (34 per cent) in 2015.

This focus on costs is likely to come to the detriment of other value-add activities; just 29 per cent of IT leaders view enabling revenue generation for the wider business as a core function, and only a quarter (25 per cent) believe they should be engaged in increasing customer loyalty.

Michel Robert, Claranet's UK MD, said: "European IT budgets are growing, which would suggest there's a recognition within businesses of the importance of IT, however time and resources are still not being spent on more forward-thinking projects that can generate more revenue in the long-term.

"It is clear from the data that the focus on cost reduction and 'keeping the lights on' we witnessed in last year's report has been maintained and, for many, has actually increased. "It goes without saying that costs are important, but it's critical that IT departments can reposition themselves internally as enablers of business agility and innovation, rather than as cost centres."

Comedy legend and entertainer Ronnie Corbett has died aged 85. In 2009 he hosted the Comms National Awards and was an instant hit combining a sublime comedy spirit with sheer professionalism.

Nigel Sergent, Comms Dealer Editorial Director, commented: "The whole country will mourn the death of Ronnie Corbett. He was a true comedy legend.

"Comms Dealer was privileged to work alongside him at the Comms National Awards in 2009 and he was a true gentleman and a consummate professional.

"We will never forget 'Four Candles' and 'My BlackBerry's not working'. RIP Ronnie. Thanks for the laughs. You were one in a million."

Pictured: Nigel Sergent with Ronnie at the Comms National Awards in 2009

TWL Voice and Data is gunning to become the biggest UC provider in Wales following a link-up with Advance Communications that strengthens TWL's presence in the mobile space.

The Cardiff-based telecoms firm, which expects turnover of £2.4m for 2016, will offer mobile solutions to its customer base and service the fixed line and broadband requirements of Advance Telecoms' customers.

TWL MD Andrew Nicholson said: "The move is another step along our growth plan. Advance Communications will now act as our mobile division handling all queries regarding billing, technical support, tariff changes and new business.."

Advance Communications Director Andy Davies added: "We have grown consistently over the last nine years but the sharpest increase in business has been from the introductions we've made through our partnership with TWL Voice and Data.

"Currently, we manage over 2,000 connections between Vodafone, EE and O2. We expect this to significantly increase through our partnership with TWL Voice and Data."

A strong dollar has tipped the telecom infrastructure services (TIS) market into a Q4 2015 decline, down 1.5%, across all geographies except APAC which saw continued spending on network infrastructure deployments in China and demand for a range of services in India.

That's according to TBR's latest Telecom Infrastructure Services Benchmark which noted that forward thinking vendors are getting ahead of the market shift from product-centric services to outcome-based ones, such as IoT enablement and network transformation.

"Strong spend in China and India continued to buoy the global TIS market," said TBR Telecom Senior Analyst Chris Antlitz.
"A big issue many vendors will need to grapple with is how to continue growing revenue once operator capex spend in China goes post-peak.

"We expect that inflection point to occur in mid-2016. Once that happens, growth will become more challenging for the TIS market to achieve because network deployment volumes are coming down on an aggregate level and will be only partly offset by growth in professional services for transformation."

Ericsson continued to dominate the TIS market by revenue despite currency headwinds; but Huawei is on pace to take the leadership position in 2016 as it rides the China spend cycle and grows its IT business.

The combination of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will create a TIS market dominated by three super-companies starting in Q1 16, which could prompt further acquisitions and alliances as vendors try to stay competitive, according to TBR.

US technology group J2 Global has acquired Callstream for an undisclosed sum in a deal that saw the exit of Callstream's previous backers Octopus Investments and YFM Equity Partners.

Mick Crosthwaite, CEO of Callstream, commented: "Callstream has expanded significantly following backing from YFM and Octopus Investments. They have been terrific partners and played an instrumental role in helping us achieve our success." 

Grant Paul Florence, Head of the Intermediate Capital team at Octopus, added: "Callstream has developed a loyal customer base over the years and enters a new chapter of growth as part of a global enterprise."

YFM and Octopus were advised by Knight Corporate Finance. Paul Billingham, Knight Director, commented: "We have worked with Callstream since we founded Knight over seven years ago and this latest transaction is a culmination of advising on strategy, M&A and exit planning to ensure the best possible outcome for shareholders.

"M&A in the sector continues to be vibrant and we look forward to strengthening our position as an advisor in the lower to mid-market range in TMT."

Swyx's cloud-based UC solution is now available from PBX Hosting's data centre in Telehouse, London Docklands, following an agreement between the companies.  

Swyx International Cloud Manager Michael Hostbaek said: "By using PBX Hosting, our partners gain access to a ready-made facility that offers the supporting infrastructure and services they need to meet the demands from the growing number of SMEs that are looking for hosted communications."
 
Co-Founder and Sales Director at PBX Hosting, Stuart Gibson, added: "We anticipate huge demand for cloud-based Swyx over the next few years as demand from SMEs for subscription-based communications increases."
 
PBX Hosting also offers services such as SIP trunking, call termination and origination and number porting, and an online portal for channel partners to manage provisioning and billing for customers.

The appointment of Gareth McIntegart as Legal Counsel by Elitetele.com underscores the company's M&A growth strategy.

McIntegart joins from global law firm DLA Piper and his appointment to the newly created role follows a long standing business relationship with Elitetele.com CEO and founder Matt Newing.

Newing commented: "We've worked closely with Gareth over the last 10 years during which time we have successfully completed 12 acquisitions. It seemed a natural progression to bring him in house.

"Gareth will aid us further with our planned growth strategy which will include both organic expansion and growth by acquisition."
 
Elitetele.com has acquired businesses from telecoms, IT, mobile, data centre and connectivity sectors. The company recently secured a further £20m in funding for future acquisitions.
 
McIntegart commented: "I've always had a great working relationship with Matt and the Elite team and I'm sure my background and experience to date will stand me in good stead for this new chapter."

Alex Cliffe, Director of Mergers and Acquisitions, added: "2016 will be another significant year for us with the funding that we now have available.

"We're an agile buyer with the team and processes in place to enable us to move fast. Gareth will play a key role in the execution of this strategy at every step."

Virgin Media Business has swung its gaze onto the small business sector and entered the indirect partner channel having joined forces with distributors DMSL and Daisy Distribution. They aim to recruit 500-plus resellers this year to resell Virgin Media Business's small business products including broadband bundles with speeds up to 300Mpbs. 

The indirect partner channel will operate in parallel with the existing desk-based sales team run out of Virgin Media Business's Manchester office. 

Partners gain access to training, sales and marketing toolkits and will be supported by a dedicated indirect partner team within Virgin Media Business.

Mike Smith, Director of Small Business at Virgin Media Business, said: "Our new indirect partner sales channel will allow us to sell more services to the small business community which is crying out for a faster Internet connection."

John Carter, MD of DMSL, commented: "We have already started recruiting resellers for Virgin Media's ultrafast business broadband and the response so far has been encouraging.

"Virgin Media Business is making a long-term commitment to driving its channel business."

Daisy Distribution MD Dave McGinn added: "The addition of this product set into our portfolio complements our strategy of offering partners a complete range to market out to their customers.

"We believe that this is a real opportunity to deliver value back to Virgin Media and to the wider mobile and telecoms partner channels."

Virgin Media Business's 'Digital Opportunity' report, published in October last year, stated that digital technologies could provide a £56bn boost to SMEs, as well as create over 920,000 new UK jobs over the next two years.

Start-up hosted UC provider TelcoSwitch has entered the fray with guns blazing, emphatically throwing down the gauntlet to established comms providers and driving a 100% channel focused push into the UK market. The company launched last year as a supplier of unified turnkey hosted telephony services to the channel and is currently onboarding three partners per week to resell its product suite including CallSwitch, SimSwitch, NetSwitch and SipSwitch, all designed for large and small businesses.

CEO Russell Lux has pinned his hopes on the 'intuitive and simple' nature of TelcoSwitch's platform and the strength of its partner programme.

"Organisations of all shapes, sizes and industries are waking up to the business benefits that can be gained by having an effective communication platform installed within their business network," stated Russell.

"TelcoSwitch has created a unified turnkey open standards hosted telephony platform and we believe its has the ability to shake things up and challenge established market players."

"We will not rest on our laurels and have ambitious, aggressive growth targets."

Distributor Northamber's shares fell as its pretax loss widened in the first half (to December 31st), and it does not expect to see a near-term turn to profit.

Northamber said its pretax loss for the period was £547k, higher than the £292k loss a year earlier.

Revenue fell to £32.5m from £35.7m, hit by slow commercial sector sales and disruption surrounding the release of Microsoft Windows 10 software.

Microsoft announced the cancellation of Windows 9 in March and launched Windows 10 in July. This drove uncertainty in the commercial user sector and, after the release of Windows 10, reports of problems with the product led to this hiatus continuing, it says.

Northamber said the uncertainty in the market at present made it difficult to forecast any near-term return to profit, though it remains confident on the medium and long-term.