Comms Dealer

telent Technology Services has teamed up with Unify to offer the OpenScape Voice solution as part of its new telentConnect service, in addition to rolling out OpenScape Voice across its own operations in the UK and Ireland.

Over the next few months Unify will provision OpenScape Voice to multiple telent office sites, enabling its employees to reap the benefits of collaboration whether office-based, mobile or both.

The OpenScape Voice is a carrier-grade native SIP-based platform that is scalable up to 100,000 users per system, plus a virtually unlimited number of users when OpenScape Voice systems are networked.

Andy Gifford, Head of Enterprise, telent, said: "telent and Unify have worked together for a number of years and we believe that telentConnect with OpenScape Voice will develop this partnership further.

"As a technology business, it is important that we look at ways to leverage UC to collaborate more effectively with each other and our customers, and this platform allows us to do that."

Barry Tuffs, Vice President for UK and Ireland Channels at Unify, added: "This is a natural step for telent given its continued business growth. We've had a great, long-standing relationship with telent over the past decade and we look forward to working together to bring modern communications to businesses across the UK and Ireland."

Matthew Parker (pictured) is to lead IP Solutions as CEO following investment from Livingbridge. His appointment signals IP Solutions' growth ambitions.

Parker's previous experience includes 10 years as a member of the leadership team at StepStone, the European online recruitment portal.

He was part of the team that delivered a 100m euro return to shareholders when Axel Springer acquired StepStone ASA in 2009.

He then led a management buy-out of the Solutions business, became CEO, and led the transformation of the business now called Lumesse.

"Taking IP Solutions to the next level following the investment by Livingbridge is a fantastic opportunity and I am looking forward to leading the business on this journey," said Parker.

IP Solutions' Chairman Andy Lockwood added: "Matthew brings the qualities of a professional, experienced leader combined with rapid growth in the technology sector that will add real value to our next phase of growth."

Azzurri has achieved the Government's Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation for a second year.

Azzurri achieved reaccreditation of the more advanced Cyber Essentials Plus certification, which means that the security and robustness of company's platform and internet facing applications have been independently tested and verified by an external certification body. This involved investigations inside the network, vulnerability scanning, remote access capability and penetration testing.

The Cyber Essentials Scheme was launched by the UK Government in 2014, and recognises the achievement of government-endorsed standards of cyber hygiene which can significantly reduce organisations' vulnerability. Adherence to the scheme is an essential certification for any public sector ICT supplier.

"It's another string to our bow to have achieved this accreditation once more, and it gives public sector organisations the guarantee that our security credentials meet Government standards," said Chris Jagusz, CEO of Azzurri Communications.

"Our public sector customers quite rightly consider robust security and cyber-crime detection mechanisms as more than a simple tick in the box. It has become a 'do or die' requirement that all their suppliers must demonstrate."

Provider of cloud-based telephone analytics IOVOX has formed a channel partnership with cloud aggregator Cobweb Solutions.

"IOVOX offers clear marketing attribution and telephone performance data, one of the key insights for a business in interacting and transacting successfully with the market," said Ash Patel, Director of Transformation, Cobweb.

"Our goal is to build enduring commercial relationships with an ecosystem of channel partners, and we do that by bringing them services that they can offer customers at an affordable price, while being able to still add value to the offering.

"This partnership with IOVOX is consistent with our vision, and we're confident our business customers will quickly see the value of IOVOX analytics."

IOVOX's intelligent phone numbers deliver real-time analytics on calls and text messages for hundreds of thousands of small businesses in 32 countries.

Unique, local IOVOX phone numbers supply data to an easy-to-read dashboard that reveals which ads are working and which ones aren't, whether businesses are missing important phone calls, whether calls come from existing customers or new ones, which geographical area most calls come from and much more.

Overall, IOVOX's intelligent phone numbers help small businesses increase calls, chart progress from new regions, and pinpoint their most effective advertising environments.

Carl Di Cicco, Managing Director of IOVOX, stated: "Cobweb already enables channel partners to build a sustainable cloud business model. As businesses continue to rely heavily on telephone systems, IOVOX analytics was a natural addition to the portfolio."

Ian Davey has been appointed Sales Director of distributor Mayflex, joining from Ingram Micro where he worked for 10 years as a Senior National Account Manager, then as Head of Sales and General Manager, and most recently as Sales Director with responsibility for over £800m of sales.

Andrew Percival, Mayflex Group Managing Director, commented: "The appointment of Ian follows a prolonged period of recruitment within Mayflex across all levels of the business, which has been necessary to continue initiatives for growth and ensuring our customers receive the levels of service they have become accustomed to.

"Ian has a wealth of experience, qualities and skills which are vital to assist Mayflex with the projected growth over the next financial year."

Davey added: "Having an energetic and motivated team on-board who are committed to further accelerating the business is key when achieving our 2016 goals and beyond."

Polycom has awarded avsnet Platinum Solution Advisor status, the highest accreditation in Polycom's partner programme.
 
This latest accreditation recognises avsnet's knowledge of the Polycom service portfolio and demonstrates the company's high level of expertise of the entire collaboration estate, from proof-of-concept, to service delivery, to long-term support and maintenance.
 
Graham Fry, Managing Director of avsnet, said: "Polycom plays an integral role in the services we deliver and this latest recognition shows the progress avsnet has made in recent years."
 

South West Communications Group has completed its investment in a 10Gbps direct connection to Europe's largest data centre to extend its influence in the hosting market.

This investment means swcomms has created a multi data centre infrastructure linking its own purpose-built data centre with a facility in Newport, south Wales.

swcomms built a data centre in the south west in 2001. Following a multi-million pound investment, it meets the security, controlled environmental conditions, clean power, fire prevention and network connectivity requirements while giving businesses in the region an alternative to data centres located in London, Manchester and other large cities.

John Holdstock, swcomms' ICT director, said: "The new 10Gbps link allows for very low latency connections for our customers and access to many of the world's tier-1 service providers."

The Next Generation Data facility's main building measures 750,000sq ft. It has its own private connection to the National SuperGrid delivering 90MW, low cost power generated from 100% renewable sources.

swcomms provides co-location, managed server, disaster recovery business continuity and Internet bandwidth solutions.

Rob Tomlin has been appointed as Managing Director UK and Ireland of Azlan, Tech Data's value enterprise division.
 
Tomlin joined Tech Data when the company acquired SDG in September 2012.
 
Previously, Andy Gass, Managing Director UK and Ireland for Tech Data, was also acting as head of Azlan.

Before taking up his new role, Tomlin was a Business Unit Director for Azlan with responsibility for various business and sales teams and the systems integrator and MSP business units.
 
As well as further developing key partnerships with Cisco, Citrix, Dell, EMC, HP Enterprise, IBM, Lenovo, Symantec, Veritas and VMware, Tomlin will be working closely with vendors and partners to accelerate Azlan's presence in software-defined infrastructure solutions and enterprise security.  

He will also lead Azlan's continued development and investment in cloud aggregation and managed services.
 
Tomlin stated: "Significant advances are being made in software-defined networking and storage, in information security and data protection, and in the delivery of cloud-based services.

"Azlan will provide resellers the solutions, services and skills to deliver much more dynamic, responsive and scalable infrastructures that these technologies enable."
 

Union Street Technologies has named David McGrath as Head of Cloud, a newly created role.

He will be responsible for defining Union Street's product strategy for the development of its cloud solutions, including the onward development of aBILLity Cloud, a cloud hosted variant of Union Street's aBILLity billing platform.

McGrath brings over ten years experience as a Senior Solutions Consultant for one of the channel's leading providers of managed hosted solutions. He has experience of working with clients operating in regulated industries, and previous experience of working in telecoms billing industry.

Managing Director Tony Cook stated: "David possesses wide ranging, first-hand experience of designing cloud environments and of the reseller model, making him the ideal candidate for this role.

"When developing our solutions David will be pivotal to ensuring they are cloud friendly, built on best practice, and with a high focus on fault tolerance and data security."

McGrath added: "As a privately owned and completely independent developer and provider or billing solutions, Union Street delivers the freedom and encouragement to design innovative cloud solutions for the benefit of our clients.

"It presents me with an exciting career challenge and I look forward to working with clients on cloud solutions that make them more productive and profitable."

Ofcom's Chief Exec' Sharon White has warned that the proposed O2 and Three merger could threaten competition and according to news reports she has raised her concerns with the European Commission.

In a letter to the Financial Times White said the merger could bring higher prices for consumers and businesses, disruption to the existing UK network arrangement and a 'shift in the balance of power' between operators and independent retailers.