Comms Dealer

Mirakl has expanded its partner programme across Europe following the success of its UK operations.

The Paris-based provider of software solutions says it will begin recruiting new partners under its BLINK partner programme and expects to triple its UK business this year, with plans to hire pre-sales, sales and solution staff for its London office.

According to Mirakl the UK will become its largest EMEA market outside France.

"The UK is a strategic market to Mirakl and we have big plans for growth," stated Eric Chemouny, Senior Vice President of EMEA at Mirakl.

"UK companies are grasping the opportunity to be their own marketplace and free themselves of the limitations of other platforms."

Mirakl provides on-demand online marketplace capabilities to online businesses on a managed basis.

Nimans has launched an enhanced version of its music and messaging on hold solution that, claims the distributor, has the potential to generate average dealer profits of around £50,000 per year.

The Fortune series uses web-based functionality where users can choose a voice actor and pick from over 300 royalty free tunes. Message on hold (MOH), auto attendant, night greetings and Interactive Voice Response are all available for PBX, hosted and VoIP-based environments - all reseller branded.

Dealers can choose from self-script, dealer managed and now full service announcements (where the whole process can be conducted on their behalf).

A new video and brochure have been produced to promote the exclusive and expanded product range.

Tom Maxwell, Nimans' Head of Dealer Sales, said: "Fortune MOH is compatible with all phone systems and represents a cost effective and intuitive solution, based on hardware or software-driven voucher announcements.

"Music and messaging on hold is proven to enhance the customer experience, reducing the amount of abandoned calls.

"Fortune MOH is a fully customisable messaging service that can be set-up within minutes, and is a great way for resellers to ramp-up their sales and take advantage of ongoing revenue from the ordering of new announcements."

Maxwell estimates average revenue is around £100,000 per year (based on standard customer bases) with margins of up to 50%.

"This is potentially a lucrative area of business for dealers to capture in a quick, easy and hassle-free way. Projects can be completed from start to finish in as little as 40 minutes."

Gamma CEO Bob Falconer (pictured) believes resellers should rationalise their supply chains to compete successfully in the changing ICT market.

In his key note speech at the fourth 'Gamma does Downton' 2016 partner roadshow in London, Falconer told an audience of 300-plus partners that having just two or three suppliers gives reseller organisations the capability to cover the full spectrum of customer needs.

"Today it is vital to be selling a full portfolio of comms and preferably IT as well because competitors doing it all will always discount you. You could buy from more suppliers or even buy a company with different expertise to increase your portfolio, but that strategy is veneer thin.

"You could start building your own infrastructure but it takes time and can end up sub-scale, unreliable and unintegrated.

"You could wrap your business around a single big supplier but their contracts can be restrictive and controlling, and where does it leave you if their channel strategy changes which it can do on a whim?

"It is far better to work sensibly with two or three suppliers as it adds diversity to your business and means you can spend more time talking to customers and not trying to integrate a multiplicity of products."

This was all in line with Gamma's new product and service announcements which Falconer believes keeps them 'ahead of the game' with the help of its channel partners.

"Innovating is important to us, but is all about developing rapidly and getting disruptive products and services to the marketplace.

"We know the big boys are slower and will eventually commoditise so getting ahead is important. The channel is into every nook and cranny of UK business so you are the final part of our strategy."

Among the 'disruptive' products unveiled at the conference were a bolt-on Multi-Net mobile solution which will enable customers to seamlessly 'hop' from one carrier to another when a signal is weak; a business grade mobile voice mail solution; upgraded Ethernet and Inbound offerings and a new SIP trunk call manager solution that will give end users the ability to manage their own number via an app.

Product Manager Alan Mackie stressed that Gamma's MVNO offerings enabled resellers to compete and beat the big four with no loss of customer ownership. "You own the contract, you own the deals," he said.

Photo by www.bonjourimages.com  

KORE Wireless Group has snapped up Wyless Group Holdings in an all-cash transaction, creating a combined organisation with 350 staff and more than 3,000 B2B companies globally, serving six million-plus subscribers. The firm has become one of the six largest providers of M2M/IoT services globally, inclusive of carriers.

"Both Wyless and KORE have a long history, dating back to 2003, of serving the M2M market from its early beginnings through innovation and strong customer relationships," stated Alex Brisbourne, CEO of KORE.

"We expect our teams to come together to push into new realms of software services for tomorrow's globally connected business environment.

"That's where the real excitement lies. We are creating a true global, technology-rich provider of services for the fastest-growing and most interesting segment of the technology landscape, where data management and telecommunications converge."

The combined business will have a physical presence and data centre operations in Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America.

Brisbourne will continue on in his role as CEO of the combined business and Mike Coffey, current CEO of Wyless, will assume the new position of Chief Operating Officer.

The executive team will comprise of key executives from both companies.

According to Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO at Beecham Research, KORE's acquisition of Wyless has been a while in the making, but is 'hugely significant' now it is here.

"The combined business will have considerably more direct M2M connections than most Mobile Network Operator (MNO) M2M business units worldwide and will be the largest independent M2M network provider worldwide, certainly in terms of revenue," stated Duke-Woolley.

"Both of these companies commenced operations in 2003 as resellers of cellular airtime, in what was then a nascent M2M market. Both companies have also made significant acquisitions along the way. One of these for Wyless was Aspider M2M in the Netherlands and for KORE it was the acquisition of RACO Wireless in November 2014.

"Whereas the acquisition of RACO was almost entirely US-centric, Wyless adds both a European and a Latin American dimension. The overall company is now much more international in its scope.

"This move is significant for several reasons. First up, there are not many MNOs who are generating M2M revenue at this level. It confirms that the independent reseller market has a great future at both the national and international level - something that many predicted would not happen when the MNOs started to focus harder on the M2M market 6 or 7 years ago.

"Indeed, Beecham Research's own data shows that these resellers have in fact been growing at a faster rate than the MNOs over the last few years - both in connection numbers and in revenue terms."

UC provider Abzorb has acquired a data network and kicked off its new project with a free activation and migration offer on ADSL2+ and FTTC until 31st March 2016.

"Abzorb is investing heavily for the future, giving partners and customers access to the latest connectivity products and technology in a single secure and scalable network environment," said Mark Riddell, Head of Indirect Channel.

The data network offers bandwidth options up to 10Gbps, hyperfast Gigabit services in Yorkshire, Aberdeen and Hull, and features network monitoring tools that enable resellers to manage their customers' products through the Abzorb Portal.

"A quote tool incorporating multiple carriers means partners can edit and re-quote in seconds, while automated order processing with electronic signatures speeds up the order process," added Riddell. "Resellers can also set up alerting and reports to help manage their customers' connectivity."

Alongside the launch of its own data network Abzorb has introduced a managed CPE service plus free monitoring tools for CPE connected to its data network, such as Zyxel and Draytek routers.

The promotion applies to orders activated between 1st February and 31st March 2016. 

Technology giant NEC has merged its IT and comms divisions to form an IT and unified communications powerhouse offering off and on-premise cloud and hybrid solutions for partners to take to all markets.

According to UK & Ireland Sales Director Andrew Cooper the integration will enable NEC's 300-strong reseller channel to provide converged IT and communications solutions to every type and scale of business.

This is a major transition for NEC in the UK which has been seen by industry players as solely a traditional voice vendor for many years.

Speaking at the UK launch of NEC's new Smart Enterprise group, Cooper told Comms Dealer: "There have been major ongoing developments within NEC, obviously with the acquisition of Philips and the integration of that into the voice business.

"We then integrated the IT business which was based in France. If you look at the domestic market, we are the dominant player in the IT networking field as well but in the UK that is relatively unknown.

"We have now integrated our comms and IT divisions which formulated NEC Smart Enterprise Solutions and from that we formed the four pillars of the Smart Enterprise."

The pillars outlined by Cooper at the Smart Enterprise launch are Business Agility (enabling mobile workforces and creating a more adaptive IT environment), Cloud Delivery (delivering flexible deployment models), Collaborative Communities (enhancing the user experience for collaboration), and Assured Services (infrastructure designed for business continuity).

Incorporated in the Smart Enterprise solution is a new Cloud Store cloud aggregation platform that will enable resellers to offer customers ready-to-use business applications from the cloud including collaboration, security and applications such as Microsoft Office 365.

Cloud Store can be fully branded by NEC's channel partners and is managed by NEC in a Tier 3 data centre with all registering, ordering and billing capabilities included.

"This is a development that has been going on for a number of years with the likes of Telefonica and Deutsche Telecom so it is a tried and tested solution that is now being brought down into the enterprise space from the carrier business," said Cooper.

"This is genuine convergence of the voice and data marketplace. We are also combining our voice and VDI (Virtual Desktop Solutions) to offer a Smart Workspace integrated voice and data application."

NEC is claiming up to 99.999 per cent reliability on its platforms including the cloud communications suite via its Fault Tolerant servers and Express Cluster Software.

"Reliability sits across the entire portfolio and from an Express Cluster point of view its vendor agnostic so we can run that across Dell, HP or anyone else's platform," added Cooper.

"We are confident both current and potential reseller partners will now look on NEC as a secure one-stop-shop for integrated IT and comms emplacements."

Distributor Tech Data has introduced a new set of online tools including a marketing portal.

These resources are being made accessible through Tech Data Accelerate, an SMB-focused microsite that also provides links to Tech Data's Credit Elevator, vendor partner programmes and events.

The new Marketing Portal has been developed to provide an easier way for resellers to produce customer emails from a range of marketing templates, which they can further enhance with their own messages, links and contact details.

Over 30 vendors are represented in the portal, with names including HP, Microsoft, and Samsung providing SMB messaging; with public sector-focused messages provided by Cisco, Dell, Lenovo and others. Resellers can simply mix and match messages to achieve a broad market appeal.

Nimans has been named Distributor of the Year by structured cabling manufacturer HellermannTyton.

Data Infrastructure Sales Manager for Nimans, Adrian Barker, said product knowledge, training incentives, price and project support along with high stock holding all play a key role in attracting more installers to the brand.

Cat6 warranted systems and Cat5e cabling are some of the most popular products, as Barker highlighted: "HellermannTyton enjoy a reputation as a competitive premium brand backed by a 25 year warranty available through its accredited installers (when trained by the manufacturer)."

Karen Miller, UK Channel Manager for HellermannTyton, commented: "Nimans have shown exceptional month-on-month sales growth in 2015. We want to recognise this performance by presenting this award."

A new report on the outlook for the UK telecommunications sector produced by IHS has highlighted the key role of new players in driving broadband connections, accounting for a 70% rise in high speed broadband connections over the next five years, from almost nine million at the end of 2015 to more than 15.5 million by the end of 2020.

The report also identified CityFibre as a 'notable' alternative to BT Openreach.

"While BT is working on expanding superfast services using VDSL (FTTC) and G.Fast, alternative operators have entered the market using FTTP to increase their coverage," said Fiona Vanier, senior analyst at IHS Technology.

Infrastructure supplier CityFibre was founded in January 2011 and operates a 1,500km local (city network), 1,500km long distance network, and has 36 major metro footprints and network in over 80 towns and cities.

CityFibre is targeting a total of 50 major metro networks by 2020, addressing 20% of the UK market.

"This means that ISPs looking to move into certain towns or cities may have the option of choosing CityFibre as a wholesaler instead of BT," Vanier added.

"Key players in the UK broadband market, such as Sky and TalkTalk, already recognise CityFibre as a viable alternative to BT Openreach, and a number of significant agreements have been signed with CityFibre over the last 12 to 18 months."

Another company pushing the boost in connections is Gigaclear. "Gigaclear has found its niche in the market," Vanier said. "With take-up rates as high as 40%, it is clear that this company is expanding quickly in key areas in the UK."

Dell has added analytical data management platform Zizo to its Service Provider Partner programme.

As part of the new agreement, Zizo's analytical data management solution will be proposed to customers alongside data centre hardware and support provided by Dell.

The company delivers an end-to-end Analytics-as-a-Service platform, through its own patented technology, with customers including the BBC, Marks and Spencer and the Royal Mail in the UK.

Peter Ruffley, Chairman at Zizo, stated: "We chose Dell as a partner in order to provide consultancy and high performance data centre hardware. It has helped us to architect our service, and ensure that we have the tools to deliver."