Comms Dealer

Elite has launched a new VoIP platform and is offering channel partners free set-up on all hosted seats and trunks, with free call recording for all users, free calls to all internal numbers and use of Elite's presence feature and IM service.

Partners can also request a free SIP trunk trial to test the capability of the system in a real-time environment; while the system admins now have the flexibility to instantly scale up and down as customer requirements change, and can provision new users instantly.

"With the increase of remote working and hot desking, as well as the end of the legacy ISDN network fast approaching, more and more businesses are turning to VoIP as an alternative," said Matthew Rogers, Marketing and Business Development Manager.

"Following a successful beta trial period our new hosted voice and SIP trunking service is now officially taking on new resellers and customers.

"We have had an influx of interest and are servicing a considerable number of businesses across the UK through our network of channel partners."

Zen Internet has been named a Which? Recommended Provider for Broadband Services with a five-star rating for ease of set-up, reliability, clarity of bills, ease of contacting, customer service and technical support.

Which? questioned 3,717 broadband customers about their experiences to identify the best ISP providers in the UK.

The customer score (as a percentage) is based on overall score and the likelihood of users to recommend an ISP to a friend.

Andrew Fryatt, MD of Zen's Small Business & Residential Division, said: "This acknowledges the commitment of the entire team at Zen, especially our Technical Support and Customer Services team who go above and beyond for customers every day."

Which? said: "Zen Internet came top in our survey with the highest customer score of any provider - 98% of customers surveyed said they were satisfied with the service, and 95% would recommend it to a friend."

Simon Lowth is to join BT Group in July as Group Finance Director and an executive board director.

He is known for driving cost transformation and performance improvement programmes, and brings much experience to BT having been CFO and served on the boards of three publicly listed companies - BG Group, AstraZeneca and ScottishPower over the past eleven years.

He has also been non-executive director at Standard Chartered Bank since 2010.

He will replace BT's current Finance Director, Tony Chanmugam, following a handover period.

Chanmugam will then move to focus on integrating the mobile network provider EE into BT for a period of time.

Lowth said: "Having acquired one of the UK's leading mobile operators and with superfast fibre broadband available to well over 24 million homes, BT is well-placed for growth in consumer, business and wholesale markets.

"I look forward to working with Gavin Patterson and the rest of BT's strong team to build upon the solid strategic and financial foundations already in place."

Gavin Patterson, BT Group Chief Executive, said: "Simon brings a wealth of experience to BT having served as CFO and a board director for a number of major international companies.

"On top of his solid financial acumen, his strong organisational leadership and engineering experience at a number of leading infrastructure companies will be a real asset for BT."

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."?