Comms Dealer

A mobile managed service delivered by Ethos Voice & Data to Valk Fleet UK has streamlined the food delivery company's communications operation and delivered significant savings across mobile tariffs, mobile devices and human resources.

Valk Fleet UK provides an outsourced food delivery service and operates a fleet of drivers who work around the clock delivering thousands of orders across the UK to restaurants.

Ethos Voice & Data, (which will produce £1m EBITDA this year and IS part of the Ethos Communications Group), secured the deal to provide a mobile contract and service for 1,200 users with 3,000 more to be rolled out this year.

Tablets will also be deployed across all independent restaurants served by the company.

"With no ability to lock down services on mobile and tablet devices it was difficult to control usage, type of usage and therefore billing control," said Matt Hill, Managing Director of Ethos Voice & Data. "The devices weren't always being used for their business function."

Valk Fleet UK also lacked control over the management of its previous mobile service. With no fixed monthly contract it was difficult to predict costs and to make matters worse tariffs sometimes increased without warning.

"MDM online software enables Ethos, as the partner to Valk Fleet UK, to track employees' mobile usage," added Hill.

"Each user can be bespoke configured when the device is shipped, and we can manage the device and all the applications remotely, therefore ensuring each user's usage is managed efficiently."

All mobiles are integrated into the driver fleet and SIM technology enables the tracking of driver activity and productivity.

In addition to enhanced visibility across its mobile estate Valk Fleet UK now receives a fixed bill, giving the food delivery service complete control of its communications spend.

"It is important for any business to manage costs and quality of service. We have helped Valk Fleet UK with both," added Hill.

"By providing a new three-year managed service mobile contract across all phones, tablets and tracking devices we have reduced the customer's monthly spend, with a projected £1m pounds saving over the term.

"The MDM tools we have provisioned control usage and make it easy for the business to roll out new versions of software to their apps, and also ensure that restaurants can communicate across Wi-Fi or 4G."

Valk Fleet UK CEO Steve Knight added: "We are constantly reviewing our cash management and Ethos has helped us save thousands versus our previous communication contract provider."

IT distributor Entatech UK has settled its legal battle with the liquidators of Changtel and is now solely owned by Stevinson Capital.

Dave Stevinson, Entatech MD, said: "The liquidators of Changtel Solutions UK have formally agreed a full and final settlement of all and any actions, claims, counterclaims, rights, demands and set offs that it had against Entatech UK.

"Over the past few months we have endured a lengthy, challenging and complex deal involving multiple firms of lawyers, yet we truly believe the settlements eradicate all uncertainty and has the vital components of affordability and flexibility, enabling Entatech to go forwards with purpose and confidence."

Nimans has put more resellers on the road to doing W-Fi business following Samsung WLAN workshops at its Manchester HQ.

A Bolton-based reseller said: "We're new to Wi-Fi and it's going to become a big part of our business moving forward, in line with network-based industry trends and customer demand."

The WLAN market grew by up to 30% last year with the £250m UK sector accelerating faster than the PBX arena, according to analysts at the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Nimans is planning a series of truanting sessions that run until March 16th, with more in the pipeline.

The distributor also offers sales training at a reseller's own premises.

Tom Maxwell, Nimans' Head of Dealer Sales, said: "WLAN is potentially a lucrative new area for our customers and training is one of the most important areas to help them maximise success.

"More courses are planned this year and we are now able to visit resellers at their own premises for individual learning too , following significant investment in additional resource here."

UC company ThinkingPhones has rebranded to Fuze (the video conferencing brand it acquired in 2015), and secured $112m in new funding led by Summit Partners, bringing the company's total funding to $200m.

The company is targeting established brands in the market.

Fuze delivers mobility-enabled and analytics-driven business communications. In 2015, the company grew revenue by more than 100%, adding more than 175 new customers and expanding existing customer relationships. 

In January 2016, Fuze was positioned by Gartner as a Visionary in the Magic Quadrant for Web Conferencing.

Expansion across Europe is a key part of Fuze's growth strategy for 2016. The company has already experienced substantial growth in Europe, increasing revenue from this market by 150% year-over-year and adding 60 new customers in the last 12 months.

The company's European headcount rose from 15 in January 2015 to more than 120 employees.

In January Fuze opened new offices in Germany and Switzerland to run alongside existing full business operations in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and France.

A new office has also opened in Australia.

"The way we communicate at work simply doesn't match up to the experience we expect in our personal lives," said Luca Lazzaron, Senior Vice President of International Operations, Fuze.

"Despite almost two decades of IP telephony and an established UC market, little has fundamentally changed. It's time for a revolution in workplace communication.

"The new generation of professionals expect voice, video, and collaboration to be instantly accessible from any device, and they expect it to simply work."

Steve Kokinos, CEO and co-Founder, Fuze, added: "Voice is only the beginning of our story. Work life is dynamic and unpredictable, and the new Fuze is all about flexible, always-on business communications, video conferencing, messaging, and collaboration. When voice, text, data, and video are 'fuzed' on a single platform, great things can happen."

Security firm Webroot's Q2 results ending December 31st 2015 show double-digit year-over-year revenue growth and expansion of its network of strategic security alliances and channel partners.
 
Webroot saw strong bookings growth of 47% in the business segment with 97% growth in the OEM sub-segment and 7% in the consumer segment.
 
"This was another good quarter of growth for us across all markets and geographies," said Dick Williams, CEO at Webroot.

"Acceptance of our next-generation endpoint security solutions for businesses and consumers is driving growth and profitability."

Webroot benefited from its partnership with Virgin Media to deliver Web classification data for Virgin Media Parental Controls integrated with the Webroot BrightCloud Web Classification Service.

The Web classification data lets Virgin Media Parental Controls to establish granular policies that enable parents to selectively allow, block, or isolate websites that their children may find in their web surfing.

Eclipse has launched its third annual Fastest 4 reseller incentive promotion and again features Ex-Stig Ben Collins who 'can't wait to get cracking' with the winners on race day.

The challenge to sell Eclipse's fastest four connectivity products (with the addition of Managed WANs this year) runs until 30th April and is open to the whole reseller channel.

Resellers with 40 points or more will join Eclipse at Palmer Sport to race some of the fastest cars in the world including the BMW M4, Ariel Atom and Caterham 7 Superlight.

Former Stig Ben Collins will oversee the contenders and giving tips from his days as James Bond's stunt driver.

Collins stated: "Fastest 4 is always a blast and I can't wait to get cracking again. I'll be doing another SuperRide in the Palmer Jaguar JP-LM for those who want the full Le Mans experience."

Henry West, Head of Channel at Eclipse, added: "Fastest 4 is a great experience for all involved. We have serious ambitions in this market and welcome the opportunity to reward our partners whenever possible. The gives resellers an even faster way to qualify."

HH Vendor Finance has launched a financial package designed to help mobile dealers boost ARPU by incentivising customers to upgrade their Apple devices every year.

Called HowUp, the package enables end customers to access the latest iPhone or iPad from dealers for 12 months via monthly payments before upgrading, without having to pay off the full cost of the device.

HH Vendor Finance provides Apple dealers with 100% of the retail price of the iPhone or iPad every time they refresh the customers' devices in line with Apple's annual upgrades.

"The dealer offers the end customers a contract whereby they typically pay 25% less than the full value of the device, split into 12 equal monthly payments rather than having to pay a large sum upfront at the full RRP," said Dan Proctor, CTO at HH Vendor Finance.

"If customers chose to upgrade at the end of the year and hand their device back, they do not have to pay the remaining 25% of the retail price.

"If they wish to keep their current device they can do so, by continuing to pay off the full retail value as part of their monthly bills until they own the phone outright."

Proctor also noted that by using HowUp, dealers receive money upfront meaning they are not forced to cover the value of the iPhone.

This is done independently of airtime contracts allowing the dealer to offer flexibility to their end customers.

Proctor added: "This product helps dealers sell new iOS devices each year and saves their customers money.

"We now know that Apple bring out a new phone every year so this is for people who want to keep up to date with the latest apple products.

"New applications will always work best with the latest technology and software so it is important for many people to stay up to date."

This HowUp programme is available for recent iOS devices only including the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPad mini 4 and the iPad pro.

Sabio has secured Gamma Platinum Partner status following its success in bringing Gamma's portfolio of SIP trunking and inbound number solutions to the contact centre market and broadening its network services portfolio.

During a four-year spell working with Gamma, Sabio has grown its network services operation, strengthened its technical, support and training expertise, and helped to reduce network services complexity for customers.

Gamma's Chief Operating Officer Richard Bligh said: "Sabio brings its systems integration capabilities - including skills in the design, provisioning and support of SIP trunking and inbound services - to provide organisations with a unified network services offering, from the PSTN all the way through to the delivery of calls to contact centre agents."

Sabio's MD Sebastian Henkes added: "We're already seeing considerable momentum as customer service providers take advantage of our services wrap, enabling them to benefit from co-ordinated SLAs across both their networks and systems operations.

"As a Gamma Platinum Partner we'll be looking to build on this, helping organisations to take advantage of the benefits that come from Sabio's simplified telephony supply chain and single support model."

Pictured l-r: Richard Bligh and Seb Henkes.

CounterPath has signed an agreement with Ingram Micro to distribute CounterPath's OTT communications solutions.
 
"The influence of consumer applications has radically changed the way small to extra large enterprise workers communicate," said Todd Carothers, EVP of Marketing and Products at CounterPath.

"The old paradigm of vertical, vendor-led platforms is out the door and is rapidly being replaced by solutions that support any device, any platform over any network.

"We leverage this shift and do it in a way that secures voice, video, messaging, presence and collaboration all unified across a common user interface. Our new relationship with Ingram Micro immediately expands our reach and relevance to IT channel partners."

IT infrastructure and support firm Onyx Group has reported record revenue growth and earnings.

Following its £10m acquisition of tech firm Knowledge IT in December 2014 Onyx have achieved an overall revenue growth of 34%, with turnover now standing at £28.3m.

Neil Stephenson, CEO, said: "As we live in an ever-increasing technological world, businesses now rely on IT for their everyday operations and the need to maintain the highest levels of uptime has driven organisations to incorporate reliable and flexible technologies, such as cloud computing and data hosting, into their long-term business strategies.

"Customers look to businesses such as ours to provide them with access to trusted IT professionals with the expertise to deliver an IT roadmap capable of supporting their future growth and development.

"In the past 12 months we have made significant investments into our infrastructure, including a seven-figure sum into the installation of a new 10Gb national core network and upgrades to our entire data centre portfolio to ensure it is now fully PCI DSS compliant."

Onyx Group landed two of its most high profile customer wins to date, with English Premier League side Newcastle United Football Club and Yorkshire-based tolling company Sanef Group.

The company executive team was strengthened in late 2015 with the appointment of former Daisy Group Managing Director Andrew Goldwater to the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Onyx's long-term plan is to become a national £100m revenue IT support and services business within the next five years.