Comms Dealer

Cisco has stated its intent to acquire CliQr Technologies, the provider of an application-defined cloud orchestration platform to model, deploy and manage applications across bare metal, virtualised and container environments.

The acquisition will provide a complete solution to customers and help simplify and accelerate private, public and hybrid cloud deployments.

CliQr already integrates with Cisco ACI to enable application portability for on-premise and cloud environments and moving forward, Cisco will continue to integrate CliQr across its data centre portfolio.

Together, CliQr and Cisco will make it simpler for customers to automate and manage application policies across the entire data centre stack.

"Customers today have to manage a massive number of complex and different applications across many clouds," said Rob Salvagno, vice president, Cisco Corporate Development. "With CliQr, Cisco will be able to help our customers realise the promise of the cloud and easily manage the lifecycle of their applications on any hybrid cloud environment."

The CliQr team will join Cisco's Insieme Business Unit reporting to Prem Jain, senior vice president and general manager. Under the terms of the agreement Cisco will pay $260m in cash and assumed equity awards, plus retention based incentives.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, subject to customary closing conditions.

Snow Software has launched a global partner programme, reflecting the company's international growth which was 90% year-on-year in 2015.

Snow Software's partners include large global systems integrators and local Software Asset Management specialists.

Partners now operate under a three tier programme which recognises excellence and expertise for helping customers with their SAM requirements.

The programme is available to systems integrators, outsourcers, business consultancies, resellers and SAM consultancies. It covers both on-premise license sales and own-brand Managed SAM Services.

Jan Gottlander, Group Vice President, Snow Software, commented: "Demand for software asset management, in particular cloud-based, is not limited to a region or market, it's a global opportunity for both Snow and our partners.

"We recognise that enabling that growth for our partners around the world and offering a consistent experience is crucial in meeting demand and securing the future success of Snow's partners."

Akixi has exceeded 1,600 deployed sites globally, with customers based in Europe, USA, Mexico and South Africa.

Managing Director Bart Delgado said "We are consistently growing from month to month as a result of our offering of 200-plus real-time call statistics, dials, graphs and wallboards.

"Our service providers continue to grow and we meet the demand for a reliable and efficient call reporting and call management service.

"The Polycom VVX Integration has been positively received by our customers as this now gives them an additional option of where they can conveniently monitor and manage their calls."

Reading-based Wirebird, acquired by Timico Technology Group in 2015, is rebranding as Timico Technology Services.

The rebrand is a response to increasing demand in the market from customers requiring end-to-end voice and data solutions, complete with a managed services offering.

Nabeil Samara, Managing Director, Timico Technology Services, said: "The rebrand is a natural step for us to take. We have been working closely with Timico and have noticed a significant increase in customers wanting an all-encompassing service wrap around.

Our portfolios of managed networks, UC and managed IT services are a natural fit, and the last year has demonstrated organic growth for both of us. We are now in a position to present our customers with a holistic end-to-end solution.

"Essentially it is business as usual, but now customers have the advantage of accessing specialist skillsets and solutions from Timico Technology Group."

Tim Radford, CEIO at Timico Technology Group, said: "The Wirebird team have quickly become an integral part of the group and I am excited by the prospect of what they, as Timico Technology Services, will go on to achieve."

Mitel CEO Richard McBee attributes record Q4 revenues to a solid performance across the entire business.

In its financial results for the quarter ended December 31st 2015, the vendor reported a 44% leap in cloud business and a significant rise in mobile segment revenues.

Overall revenues of $335.7m were reported, exceeding estimates of $332.4m.

"The results were particularly impressive in our strategic growth pillars of cloud and mobile," said McBee. "Our cloud business continued to fuel recurring revenue growth which increased 24% on a year-over-year basis. 

"In mobile, we reported 73% year-over-year growth and expanded gross margins. These results lay the foundation for Mitel's ongoing transformation as the market migrates to next generation solutions." 

Tollring has won a three year contract to provide BT with call analytics products on the telco's Wholesale Hosted Centrex (WHC) platform.

The cloud-based iCall Suite will be deployed to customers on the WHC 2.0 version of the platform from June 2016, offering resellers a call reporting and analytics solution that provides historical reporting and trends, along with live events such as user presence, queue statistics, agent status and call answer times via customisable wallboards.

Steve Best, MD for BT Wholesale Products, said: "BT Wholesale resellers will be able to build high value call analytics and wallboard products into their WHC 2.0 offering which will help differentiate their proposition, increase their competitiveness and help drive new recurring revenues."

Tollring MD Tony Martino added: "iCall Suite offers security, scalability and flexibility which will complement BT Wholesale's multi-channel route to market."

Tollring is an approved BroadSoft Interop Partner and with a product roadmap aligned to BroadSoft's own development strategy, its products and services are continuously tested and proven on the BroadWorks platform.

Pictured: Oli Barker, Head of IP and UC at BT Wholesale with Tony Martino

The finalists for the European IT & Software Excellence Awards 2016 (www.iteawards.com) have been announced by IT Europa.

A total of 86 companies from 21 European countries have made the finals.

The winners will be announced at the European IT & Software Excellence 2016 Awards Dinner at the Lancaster London Hotel, on 14th April 2016.

Now in their 8th year, this year's European IT & Software Excellence Awards attracted over 400 entries from more than 31 countries.

The awards are given for IT solutions that get to the heart of customer issues, delivering better business, a clearer understanding of data, and more efficient and profitable outcomes.

The judges, with many decades of experience of IT industry involvement between them, have arrived at a list of finalists that they believe truly reflects both the strength of Europe's IT industry and some of the changes in the direction occurring within it.

John Garratt, Editor of IT Europa, who heads the judges' panel, said: "This year has seen more entries than ever, and an even wider spread of project types - from mobility, security and management to software-as-a-service packages for key vertical markets, and from data-driven systems using the new power of analytics to others which effectively replace costly old systems with new and far more efficient apps, increasingly driven in the cloud.

"The result is the best-ever advertisement for the capabilities of European IT, and we could not help but be impressed by the skills on display and the effort that has gone into effective IT delivery."

The award winners will be announced on April 14th at a gala dinner and awards ceremony following the day-long European Software and Solutions Summit 2016 (www.eusss.com) where director-level representatives of leading ISVs and Solution Providers will meet with hardware, software and service organisations to discuss some of the changes impacting the sector and to develop business relationships.

The finalists:
Solution Provider categories

SME Solution of the Year
Lanteria
123 Insight Limited
JETCAM international s.a.rl.
The NAV People
Schnell Solution Limited
Hardware Group
Utilize Plc

Enterprise Solution of the Year
Onyx Group
Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG
Green Fields Technology
Sprint Innovations?BearingPoint Software Solutions
Cleverbridge

Datacentre Solution of the Year
Brightsolid
Parallels Remote Application Server
DARZ GmbH

Vertical Solution of the Year
Comms365
Sequel Business Solutions Ltd
ASPEKT
Unicorn Systems a.s.
ContentGuru
Cegid

Public Sector and Utilities Solution of the Year
INSOFT development & consulting (nominated twice)
4net Technologies Ltd
Schnell Solutions Limited
SIVECO Romania
Azeus Convene
Arcus Global

Managed Service Solution of the Year
Utilize Plc
Databarracks
Informed Solutions
TIG
SCC
Six Degrees Group
Zenzero

Connected/Mobility Solution of the Year
Unicorn Systems a.s.
VMware Airwatch
SoftServe

Storage/Information Management Solution of the Year
Azues Convene
Nexenta
Tech Mahindra Ltd

Big Data, IoT or Analytics Solution of the Year
Accanto Systems
SoftServe
Tech Mahindra Ltd
LogicNow
Bell Integrator

Security Solution of the Year
Pirean
Webroot
Lava Group
Lieberman Software

Customer Experience/Management Solution of the Year
Ciklum
Azeus Convene
Arcus Global
Tech Mahindra Ltd

ISV Categories:
Information & Document Management Solution of the Year
CCube Solutions
ICB-InterConsult Bulgaria Ltd
SIVECO Romania
Pendigo
IBA Group

Big Data, IoT or Analytics Solution of the Year
Intuitive Business Intelligence
Information Builders
ExtraHop
LIFE IS HARD
PanIntelligence

Connected/Mobility Application Solution of the Year
Qualsys
VMware AirWatch
LIFE IS HARD
RingCentral
Arkessa
?Vertical Market Solution of the Year
SAS Global Communications Ltd
PureNet
Bell Integrator?Haulmont Technology
Fulcrum Worldwide

Government/Utilities Solution of the Year
Fincore Ltd
INSOFT Development & Consulting
GMO GlobalSign Ltd
Arcus Global

SaaS Solution of the Year
MitreFinch Ltd
itDesign GmbH
PureClarity
BroadSign International, LLC
Azeus Convene
Arcus Global

Software Innovation Solution of the Year
Fookes Software
INSOFT Development & Consulting
Escape Motions
StorageCraft Technology
General Solutions Steiner
BigHand
PureClarity
Supplier Categories

Channel Programme of the Year
Plan.com
NaviSite Europe
PanIntelligence
Kaspersky
EMC

Connected Technologies Provider of the Year
Arkessa
Schnell Solutions Limited
SAS
Huawei

Finance/Support Services Provider of the Year
Bluestone Leasing
Knight Corporate Finance
BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions

Security Vendor of the Year
Webroot
Kaspersky
AVG Business
Fortinet

Distributor of the Year
Exclusive Networks
Wick Hill
InfoQuest Technologies

Service Provider of the Year
Interoute
Musala Soft
Utilize Plc

Software Vendor of the Year
PanIntelligence
StorageCraft Technology
Bruxlab
Cegid

Technology Provider of the Year
Toshiba
ShoreTel
EMC

CityFibre's rolling campaign convoy across the UK's major cities is gathering pace following the company's acquisition of KCOM's network (excluding the Hull and east Yorkshire areas), giving it 21 additional metro footprints that are now being prioritised and prepared for launch as new CityFibre Gigabit Cities.

In the line up for a pure fibre alternative to the incumbent are Milton Keynes, Manchester, Leicester, Sheffield, Northampton and Nottingham with more city opportunities in the pipeline.

CityFibre's mission is to team up with like-minded launch partners in each city.

"Bristol was the first of the acquired KCOM network-based cities to be launched as a new Gigabit City in partnership with Triangle Networks," commented CityFibre's Commercial Director Rob Hamlin.

"We're now looking to replicate a similar city launch partner model across other acquired cities.

"An ideal launch partner is typically a mature service provider with a good reputation and established customer base in or near the project city.

"Knowledge of the local market is important and the provider should also have marketing resource that is available to work with the CityFibre team week-by-week. A strong, established sales engine is also key."

Hamlin explained that CityFibre will help its launch partners to map existing assets/customers plus potential new customers to the relevant pure fibre city network.

This information will then be used to help drive upgrade, retention and run heavyweight acquisition marketing campaigns alongside the partner.

According to Hamlin, CityFibre's launch partners have a rare opportunity to take fresh products to market and attract new customer types by leveraging the media attention and sales leads that result from targeted, joint local marketing campaigns with CityFibre.

"It's about innovating and accelerating our launch partners' business growth," he added.

Paul Anslow, MD of Triangle Networks, stated: "By becoming CityFibre's launch partner in Bristol we've effectively been given the opportunity to not only sell something fresh and innovative directly to businesses, but also to become a wholesale aggregator for other business CPs in our area. We're already working with many of our local competitors for example.

"CityFibre understands the importance of a local presence and gives us and our customers an alternative to the previous incumbent-only option."

Channel Telecom MD Clifford Norton has called for greater industry collaboration to tackle toll fraud, but his personal crusade has so far fallen on deaf ears.

"I have tried to get the industry to talk to each other," he said. "I have even invited some of the larger companies to discuss this in an open forum.

"Out of the 20 asked two responded. I have reported it to all the official bodies and even provided proof of certain people and companies actually committing the fraud. The police are far too busy and the regulatory bodies have little or no power. The industry's response to these issues is poor.

"The only real way to get the industry heard would be to get a good group of telecom companies together and lobby our concerns to the Government. This would of course need to be backed by various politicians."

Chris Harding, SIP Encrypt Product Specialist, Firstcom Europe, also wants more collaboration in the channel to address fraud but he believes there is potential for conflict due to confusion over who along the supply chain bears the financial responsibility when toll fraud occurs.

"As we are all ultimately on the same side, the industry could consider a policy where once toll fraud has been proven then the charges are not passed on, meaning that the revenue stream never reaches the perpetrator," stated Harding.

"A complete industry fix would be for the major carriers to not pay their international bill for fraudulent use. This would close down the services overnight. More often than not anti-fraud measures are aimed at the symptom rather than the cause. One way of getting rid of premium rate number scams would be to scrap revenue generating numbers altogether so there is no profit to be had."

Unless the authorities can become more effective at catching the perpetrators of fraud, the only option is to ensure it becomes ever less profitable, believes Ben O'Leary, Revenue Assurance Manager, Gamma.

"Steps such as communicating within the industry about monitoring techniques and stopping the flow of funds will be important over the next five years," he said. "The EU regulatory roaming data cap is a useful model and addresses the same basic problem, cutting off unwanted traffic.

"To address fraud, a similar regulatory requirement could be that all networks must offer the ability to bar any services at an agreed industry-wide threshold on an opt-out basis."

Tony Martino, Managing Director, Tollring, observed: "In other areas of the market such collaboration exists to strengthen protection against computer viruses and bad credit, for example," he stated.

The appointment of Clive Sawkins as Non Executive Director at TM Solutions signals a ramping up of the company's growth ambitions.

Sawkins is currently CEO of BCS Global Networks and brings wide industry experience including a background in emerging technology such as building public and private cloud solutions. 

His previous roles include senior positions at Cisco Systems where he was responsible for UC, telepresence and video collaboration; Avaya where he was Vice President UK&I; Unisys and Nortel Networks.

Sawkins is also President of the OVCC, a global industry body focused on video and unified collaboration. 

TM Solutions Director Duncan Wilkinson said: "We are delighted to have someone of Clive's calibre joining the board and assisting with our growth strategy."