Comms Dealer

NewVoiceMedia's international growth ambitions have been boosted by a $30m investment from BGF Ventures which joins existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Eden Ventures, Highland Capital Partners Europe, Salesforce Ventures and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).

NewVoiceMedia operates in the cloud contact centre market which is forecast to be 20 million seats globally by 2020, with upwards of 30% cloud penetration.

Last year the company grew its international new business by 528%, and the new investment will bring a stronger focus on the north American market.

Rory Stirling, BGF Ventures, commented: "We believe NewVoiceMedia will be one of the most successful software companies to emerge from Europe this decade."

Simwood's 2016 VoIP Fraud Analysis paper released last month underscore's the company's leading role in combating the issue.

Regulators and industry experts snapped up copies while still hot off the press as well as requests from three of the world's top 10 global carriers with combined revenues of 180bn euros.

"Take up from customers has been strong," stated Simwood MD Simon Woodhead.

BT Wholesale's CEO Nigel Stagg has stepped down following a 36 year career with the company.

His successor will be announced in due course.

Gavin Patterson, BT Chief Executive, said: "Nigel has made a terrific contribution over many years. "He has brought a wealth of commercial and operational skills and experience to all the roles he has held and he has helped us propel the company forwards."

Jodie Piper aims to double reseller numbers at DMSL's Cloud Telephones business from 60 to 120 and recruit more referral partners for DMSL's business and consumer broadband portfolio.

Piper, who has been appointed Reseller Development Manager following a decade working at the company, said:

"Cloud Telephones has been leading the charge towards hosted voice and the growth we are seeing in this area is phenomenal. We are also seeing solid demand and growth in broadband services.

"We fully expect a further acceleration in sales this year and need more reseller partners to reach the full potential that's out there."

Spitfire is to host 3CX Phone System v14 for 3CX Partners in the UK, offering 3CX in the Cloud as a self-configured and self-managed solution or as a fully managed service depending on the customers' capabilities and requirements.

"Hosted 3CX removes all the barriers that have been blocking the hosted PBX market with superior architecture and flexible delivery options," said Tom Fellowes, Spitfire's Sales Director.

"3CX in the Cloud is a fully virtualized instance, with its own set of dedicated PBX services, as well as completely separate data stores."

With 3CX in the Cloud, customers will have a dedicated PBX separated from and unaffected by other tenants.

In addition, they will have access to all the features of the on-premise version such as web conferencing, instant chat, presence etc. Furthermore, they can choose their preferred telecom vendor and retain the ability to move from hosted to on premise whenever they wish.

Nick Galea, CEO, 3CX said: "3CX in the cloud is not a multi-account system, it's a fully virtualized instance of 3CX Phone System with dedicated PBX services for each customer and complete data separation which sets it apart from old style hosted PBX".

Unify, now known as the Atos brand for communications software and services, has announced the new OpenScape Contact Centre v9, designed to help businesses improve customer engagement.

"Successful businesses recognise that customer engagement and superior customer service are critical differentiators in today's competitive environment," said Peter Kuerpick, Executive Vice President, Product House, for Unify.

"More than ever, consumers expect to control and influence how and when their needs are met. OpenScape Contact Centre was designed and enhanced to make it easy for businesses to intelligently manage customer engagement across the enterprise for greater user and customer satisfaction."

OpenScape Contact Centre features a new user interface, modeled on Unify's Circuit platform. It also supports a 360 degree customer view, providing a contextual history of all details and contact with a customer, regardless of media channel, to ensure a streamlined and personalised customer experience.

Additionally, the solution provides embedded presence and collaboration tools so agents can easily connect with colleagues and managers to speed contact resolution.

"Contact Centres are focusing on both customer experience as well as agent experience. Unify's new OpenScape Contact Centre v9 provides enhanced capabilities such as a 360 degree agent view of the customer, enabling agents to better serve customers," said Blair Pleasant, President and Principal Analyst, COMMfusion LLC.

"Its workflow-style routing and call history analytics give organisations the actionable intelligence needed for real-time problem solving that employs the resources ideally suited to the task."

OpenScape Contact Centre v9 will be available in February from Unify and its global network of partners.

Sennheiser has embarked on an initiative to offer premium noise cancellation headsets for markets requiring high levels of customer data confidentiality, targeting vertical markets requiring secure solutions, such as healthcare, government, financial and legal sectors.

"The ability to efficiently handle sensitive patient or customer data in these sectors is paramount, so the ability of the hardware to make this possible is equally important," said Jane Craven, Sales Director IT/Telecommunications, UK & Ireland.

"If an agent can't understand responses and these have to be repeated or read back for confirmation, this can significantly increase the risk of a leak of sensitive information in a public setting."

Regulatory initiatives such as the Data Protection Act in the healthcare market, PCI compliance standards in retail, and obvious security concerns in sectors such as government and finance have forced many businesses to adopt strict compliance measures.

In several of these instances, companies are subject to fines if patient data and/or customer credit card information is not protected according to a stringent set of criteria.

"By ensuring that our headsets deliver the very latest in noise cancellation, voice clarity and transmission quality, these companies can ensure their operators are best prepared to deal with customer information and keep sensitive data private and secure," added Craven.

"It's important that the benefits of high-performance headsets are recognised to ensure that relevant security compliances can be adhered to."

Jabra has launched a promotion for UK and Ireland channel partners operating in the public sector to drive sales of professional quality headsets and speakerphones.

The promotion enables Jabra's partners to better support public sector organisations' increasing need for cost-effective, high-quality technology investments, claims the vendor.

The offer, valid until 31st March, will run across selected products within the company's headset and speakerphone portfolio, including the Jabra BIZ 2300, Jabra PRO 900, Jabra SPEAK 510 and the Jabra EVOLVE series.

Nigel Dunn, Managing Director, Jabra Business Solutions UK & Ireland, commented: "Communications technology plays a key role in the delivery of UK&I Public Services because it enables mission-critical customer service.

"For this reason it represents a significant portion of Public Sector spend. Providing our partners with offers to maximise this opportunity enables them to effectively gain incremental revenue to support their Q1 sales targets."

Outsourcing bounced back in EMEA with a strong fourth quarter. Outsourcing activity in the region grew 44% compared to the third quarter and ACV exceeded €3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 for only the third time ever. But contract values continue to decline.

The EMEA results echoed the strong global market performance, which posted the highest quarterly level in 4 years, says researcher Information Services Group with global annual contract value (ACV) rising 17% in the fourth quarter, to $3.1bn, fueled by the signing of five mega-relationships.
 
It was only the third time ever that the EMEA region surpassed €3 billion in ACV in a quarter, and the first time since the third quarter of 2012. For the full year, EMEA was unable to counter the effects of a sluggish first half.

Regional ACV declined 8%, to €9.4bn, while the number of awards fell 7%, to 601. This decline can be attributed to a sharp reduction in ITO (IT outsourcing) activity and values, as the number of large infrastructure awards dropped sharply and contract values were lower across the board. In stark contrast, BPO (Business Processes) ACV in 2015 surged 24% for the year, with contract awards up 11%, led by industry-specific, Contact Centres and Facilities Management work.

"It is encouraging to see such a strong finish to the year in EMEA. Enterprises in the region are actively seeking ways to revamp their processes around cloud, digitalisation and robotics, resulting in a shift to smaller deals, which also allow for flexibility and cost variability," said John Keppel, partner and president, ISG EMEA & Asia.

"This new approach to outsourcing looks set to continue; globally, we see more enterprises are sourcing than ever before and they're paying less for services, which encourages them to outsource even more."

By market, the UK, while making some gains on its third-quarter results, fell short of 2014 full-year values as ACV sank 19% in 2015. However, in keeping with the trend toward more awards of lesser value, the 234 contracts for the year was a record high.

DACH had its best year ever, matching its 2011 performance, as ACV surged 69%. However, the sub-region bucked the trend seen elsewhere by posting its lowest contract count since 2007. Its strong ACV increase was aided by mega relationship awards, including Siemens' large contract renewal with Atos.
France struggled in comparison with its stellar performance in 2014, when it reached record highs in both contracting and ACV.

Values fell by 70% during 2015, while contract volume dropped by 40%. This sharp decline may mark a return to normal activity levels after a standout year of intense activity, rather than a longer-term weakening trend. Both the Nordics and Benelux saw ACV gains in the fourth quarter but an overall decline in both ACV and deal counts for the year compared with 2014.

By sector, Telecom followed the broad trend of increased contract activity at lower values, as the number of contract awards reached record numbers despite a slight decline in ACV. Travel and transport also achieved new highs in contract numbers, while values decreased.

The region's powerhouse sectors, Financial Services and Manufacturing, finished close to their 2014 figures. Financial services ended the year with a relatively flat performance while Manufacturing bounced back to post an 8 percent gain in ACV over last year, although its deal count plunged by 26 percent.

Keppel concluded, "The return of mega relationships in the fourth quarter gave EMEA the boost it needed to reach the landmark figure of €3 billion. After a slow start, the final few months of the year have helped put outsourcing in a good place as we exit 2015 and enter 2016."

Azlan has been named a distributor for the full range of Dell Software solutions. Tech Data will be placing a strong emphasis on the company's Back-Up, Recovery and Data Protection suite as it looks to extend the Dell's reach.

Mark Ceraolo, Server and Storage Business Development Manager for Azlan stated: "While Dell is one of the best-known brands in the IT industry, many resellers are not fully aware of the extensive capabilities of the company's backup, recovery and data protection software and appliances.

"We are aiming to change that situation and make Dell a leading player in this fast-growing segment of the security market."

Azlan already offers Dell enterprise solutions and is a long-standing Wyse and SonicWALL distributor, so adding Dell's Data Protection, Systems Management and vWorkspace solutions is a logical next step, he says.

"For partners already selling Dell servers and storage, Dell Data Protection is an obvious and valuable add-on to their portfolio. Those resellers can now turn to Tech Data for the full end-to-end Dell proposition."