Comms Dealer

ITSPA has accepted the proposed revisions made to the Investigatory Powers Bill as a useful next step in the process of passing the legislation.

The changes, published today follow on from three recent parliamentary committee reports which called for improvements to ensure that the Bill was fit for purpose.
 
Eli Katz, the Chair of ITSPA stated: "While ITSPA generally accepted the main principles of the Bill on its original draft publication in November, we did agree with the three Parliamentary Committee reports that more needed to be done to ensure the balance and proportionality around security, privacy and feasibility were maintained.

"The devil will be in the detail but we welcome some of the changes that have been included to help in resolve some of the concerns.
 
"Specifically, the addition of six codes of practice to set out how security services will use powers in the Bill is a welcome inclusion. Additionally, the clarification that a pragmatic approach to encryption, whereby communications providers will only be required to decrypt communications that they have added themselves and only when practicable, is welcome. What happens in practice still remains to be seen."
 
In principle, noted Katz, ITSPA has always understood the reasoning behind the proposed Bill and in many circumstances there will be no changes to what our members currently do to assist law enforcement agencies in tackling crime.

ITSPA has welcomed the principles of developing stronger oversight mechanisms and streamlining the current legal powers, which have become extremely complicated and unwieldy for communications providers to understand.
 
Katz added: "The Home Office's approach to this Bill has been much improved since its predecessor in 2012 and they have generally communicated with industry in an effective manner.

"We do now urge Government to continue that engagement process to address remaining areas of ambiguity in the Bill and stress the need for enough Parliamentary time to ensure the legislation is reviewed properly."
 

Ingram Micro has reported worldwide Q4 sales of $11.3bn, down 19% in dollars and down 13% on a currency neutral basis, when compared to worldwide sales of $14bn in the 2014 fourth quarter.

"We had a solid close to a strong year of execution, and we are pleased with the progress we are making against our strategic initiatives," said Alain Monié, Ingram Micro CEO.

"We are excited about our pending transaction to join HNA Group, as we will have the opportunity to better serve our vendor and customer partners and help them achieve their business objectives.

"Upon the closing of the transaction we expect to have the ability to accelerate our investments, both organically and through M&A, to enhance and add to our capabilities in high value IT solutions, mobility lifecycle services, commerce and fulfillment solutions and cloud, while also continuing to extend our geographic reach."

The Mobile World Congress edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report reveals the impact of different levels of network performance on smartphone users and their perceptions of mobile operators and digital content providers.

Neuroscience technology was used to objectively measure emotional responses to varied smartphone experiences. 

Delays in loading web pages and videos under time pressure caused mobile users' heart rates to rise an average of 38%.

Six-second delays to video streaming caused stress levels to increase by a third. To put that in context, the stress incurred is equivalent to the anxiety of taking a math test or watching a horror movie alone, and greater than the stress experienced by standing at the edge of a virtual cliff. Once a video begins, an additional pause can cause stress levels to increase dramatically.

In the study, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of an operator increased significantly when associated with a delay-free experience - by 4.5 points.

This finding was also reflected when measuring emotional engagement using a neuroscience-based motivational index.

However, the operator's NPS dropped on average four points with moderate time-to-content and rebuffering delays.

Interestingly, moderate delays result in a double negative for mobile operators: decreased engagement with their brand and increased engagement with competitors.

Other highlights from the Ericsson Mobility Report - Mobile World Congress edition, include:
• Social networking is second only to video for driving mobile traffic growth. Over the next six years total social networking traffic will be around 12 times that of the previous six years.
• 68 million mobile subscriptions added in Q4 2015, India added the most (21 million), followed by China (6 million), the US (5 million), Myanmar (5 million), and Nigeria (3 million).
• Total number of mobile subscriptions in Q4 2015 reached 100% penetration at around 7.3 billion - the same number of mobile subscriptions as people in the world.
• Global mobile data traffic grew 65% between Q4 2014 and Q4 2015.
• There are now one billion LTE subscriptions worldwide, with approximately 160 million additions in Q4 2015.

The productivity and employee engagement benefits that remote working can bring to businesses can only be realised with strong UC tools in place, emphasised cloud UC firm Outsourcery.

According to a new study by Vodafone, 75 per cent of companies worldwide have now introduced flexible working policies, enabling employees to vary their hours and working locations. Respondents believed that employee performance had increased as a result of flexible working, with 61 per cent saying that profits have increased and 83 per cent reporting improvements in productivity.

However, the productivity and efficiency benefits promised by remote working policies can be further enhanced by businesses that use UC tools.

Jon Seddon, Head of Product at Outsourcery, commented: "As this survey found, businesses that enable their employees to work from multiple locations experience great benefits to their efficiency, employee satisfaction and industry reputation as positive places to work.

"With the rise of millennials in the workplace, remote working and flexible hours are becoming more commonplace and suitable systems need to be implemented in order to ensure the benefits are realised.

"The effective collaboration and teamwork between employees working remotely is one that an integrated UC tool can greatly benefit. With voice and video calls, instant messaging and conferencing all enabled in a UC solution, workers are contactable regardless of their location, ensuring the business still runs efficiently.

"The ease of contact that a UC solution brings can also address the concerns of some managers who would prefer their people to be in the office. Team collaboration can be maximised with easy conference call set up across video, voice and mobile devices with powerful screen and document sharing built in.

"In addition, features such as 'presence' that enable office based employees to see the 'free/busy' status of colleagues working remotely mean that managers can maximise team engagement to ensure everybody is working productively. Modern UC products can record calls for customer facing employees, allowing performance to be measured from any location. Businesses are also able to manage contact centre staff in remote locations now that these features can be integrated."

Provider of cloud-enabled Wi-Fi networks Xirrus has rolled out an enhanced MSP partner programme featuring CommandCenter, a new control function that simplifies the ability of MSPs to offer Wi-Fi-as-a-Service (WaaS) to their customers.

CommandCenter, included free of charge with the Xirrus Management System for MSPs, simplifies and speeds up the activation and provisioning process for new customer installations to maximise revenue generation and reduce deployment cost and overhead, claimed the firm.

MSPs can create customer accounts instantly without the need to stage customer networks prior to provisioning. This reduces time to deployment and inventory levels. 
 
MarketsandMarkets forecasts the managed services market will grow from $107 billion in 2014 to $193 billion by 2019, which creates significant opportunities for MSPs to acquire new customers, expand the markets they service and increase revenue.

"Cloud-managed IT and enterprise-wide mobility ushers in a new set of challenges for businesses who need to design, deploy and manage fast, reliable Wi-Fi networks. More than ever, businesses rely on MSPs to support their mobility needs with Wi-Fi-as-a-Service," said Jillian Mansolf, chief marketing officer and vice president, channel sales at  at Xirrus.

"CommandCenter is designed specifically to deliver next generation Wi-Fi services with speed, security and flexibility. This ultimately enables MSPs to increase revenue streams without the need to add significant resources."

Agilitas has expanded its scope of work with independent IT group SCC to include a wider range of technical skills training for its field-based engineering teams.

The deal involves Agilitas creating and delivering a range of course content focused around the needs of SCC customers and engineering teams.

SCC was previously hosting its own internal training courses, however they were finding these covered too small a range of requirements for existing customers, so approached Agilitas for a solution to support expansion into new markets, grow existing client accounts and win new customers, with minimal upfront cost and risk.

The training enables SCC to use their own engineers, rather than relying on outsourced engineers.

Darren Heatley, Distributed Services Manager at SCC, commented: "With the legacy and current product training Agilitas is able to provide, in addition to the creation of bespoke course content, we have been able to ensure our engineers have the skills required to meet the needs of new customers and the growing requirements of existing ones."

Shaun Lynn, CEO of Agilitas, added: "By outsourcing training to Agilitas, we're helping SCC to expand its service portfolio into new markets, across server, storage and networking technologies.

"Course material is being delivered using a combination of classroom and lab delivery, with the emphasis around hands-on methodology. This approach is set to provide SCC engineers with the necessary skills to transfer the knowledge they've gained to deliver resolutions in real-life technical environments for customers."

Purple (formerly known as Purple WiFi) has introduced a new partner programme to enable partners to gain easy entry into a range of customers, including enterprise targets.

The programme promises new recurring revenue streams and access to budgets outside of IT and a gateway to analytics.

Purple's capability channel programme gives partners the option to choose between two tiers of partnership - selling Purple as an Authorised Reseller, or becoming a Certified Partner.

Both Authorised Resellers and Certified Partners can access Purple's reseller portal and all of the tools they need to take Purple to market. However, partners that choose to become certified will receive additional training, deal registration, discounts for registered opportunities and account management support.

Purple also offers various white label options.

Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, stated: "Authorised partners can continue to sell our products. However, if a partner chooses to become certified and goes through our simple online training process, they will experience another level of support."

Provider of cloud-based telephone analytics IOVOX has introduced IOVOX Insights, a new solution that allows service providers to turn their customers' static call data into visual and actionable information.

With IOVOX Insights, service providers can enable customers of all sizes to improve efficiency, deliver better customer service, and ultimately become more profitable, claims the firm.

"Traditional phone bills don't tell a story of business performance," said Ryan Gallagher, Founder and CEO of IOVOX.

"This can be debilitating if your business relies on phone leads. But once a business realises they are missing 20 per cent or more of their calls during certain periods of the day, they immediately recognise the value of dynamic and interactive analytics. IOVOX Insights enables service providers to lock in existing revenue while creating a foundation for upsell."

IOVOX Insights is configurable for multiple go-to-market strategies, including an integrated single sign on option that increases engagement between business customers and their existing SP portal. The Insights solution can also enable tracking and visualisation of many data points.

Among other cloud platforms, IOVOX Insights offers integration with BroadSoft.

Unify, the communications brand of Atos, has unveiled an enhanced version of its product OpenScape Enterprise.

The key aspects of OpenScape Enterprise v9 include new features and updates across all OpenScape applications and a more responsive design for OpenScape UC on both desktop and mobile.

"The accelerating on-demand nature of today's business creates an expectation for immediate access to services, people and information, yet addressing the human element of collaboration is also critical to an organisation's success," said Peter Kuerpick, Executive Vice President, Product House, Unify.

"OpenScape Enterprise v9 addresses both. It provides the security, reliability and scalability required for the enterprise, and brings users and content together to help them stay connected, be responsive and collaborate seamlessly."

3CX, developer of the software-based PBX 3CX Phone System, has collected an award from Frost & Sullivan for its 'high-quality, software-based Unified Communications solution'.

Frost & Sullivan said that the software-based 3CX Phone System 'excelled in terms of user features, architectural flexibility, ease of use and management', in the award analysis.

Elka Popova, Program Director and Senior Fellow, Connected Work Digital Transformation, Frost & Sullivan said: "Today, market evolution is driven by customer need to lower communications infrastructure costs and improve business agility.

"With its compelling functionality and lower total cost of ownership (TCO), 3CX has earned Frost & Sullivan's recognition as the price/performance value leader in the unified communications market.

"It is well positioned to capture growing customer demand for innovative solutions that provide a competitive edge while reducing the burden on internal resources. Through a strong value proposition, 3CX is better able to address changing market requirements and increasing competitive pressures than other market participants."

Nick Galea, CEO, 3CX, said: "Frost & Sullivan has recognised 3CX for its growing importance in the UC market, in terms of its large and fast growing installed base and technology.

"There is a clear trend towards software-based PBXs, and Frost & Sullivan has acknowledged that the features we provide are on the cusp of industry trends."