Comms Dealer

Cloud Telephones, the specialist VoIP and connectivity services provider, is predicting a surge of activity for its reseller partners around the year-end as PBX maintenance and support contracts come to an end and businesses look to switch to hosted voice services.

Most PBX contracts run for three or five years and the last time they were up for renewal, businesses were uncertain about whether or not they should commit to IP-based telephony.

But attitudes have changed and this time around, most companies will abandon the old systems and switch over to hosted voice services, says John Carter, Managing Director of Cloud Telephones.

"Earlier in the decade many business people were still wary of moving all their telephony over to IP, either because they could not get sufficient bandwidth at an affordable price, or they thought VoIP did not deliver high enough quality and reliability.

"Now that faster and more affordable broadband is widely available, and there is much greater confidence in hosted services, most of the businesses reaching the end of their PBX contracts are definitely going to make the switch to VoIP.

"While hosted VoIP solutions can be deployed quickly, any business that is looking to update its phone system in January will need to start thinking about it now. Resellers that want to make the most of the potential should start running local advertising and marketing campaigns without delay."

Selling hosted VoIP is profitable business, Carter notes, and often opens up a wider set of opportunities for resellers. "As well as the initial commissions, resellers will generate regular monthly, recurring income from all their VoIP sales, and once customers have embraced hosted voice they are often keen to go further and look at other online services, such as cloud backup and Office 365.

"We are already helping many resellers develop their subscription business and with almost every customer, VoIP is the starting-point."

Independent cloud hosting provider Cobweb Solutions has been recognised by Symantec as the Outstanding Cloud Partner of the Year at Symantec's annual EMEA partner conference, held in Madrid.

Ash Patel, Director of Business Transformation, said: "Ever increasing numbers of customers are experiencing the truth that not all clouds are equal, with Cobweb showing UK businesses where true value lies by liberating businesses from restrictive technology."

At the core of 'the Cobweb' is the Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure and the rest of the Microsoft cloud solution provider services, plus a portfolio of additional vendor cloud services and the Cobweb London cloud for business applications requiring UK data residency.

Zayo is the latest connectivity provider to launch a point of presence (PoP) at LDeX Group's second carrier neutral data centre facility, LDeX2, in Trafford Park, Manchester.

Zayo delivers dark fibre, wavelengths, Ethernet and IP services to customers in the enterprise and wholesale sectors; and complements LDeX's existing list of Tier 1 carriers and ISPs, which are already on-net in the facility, offering customers that require high capacity bandwidth access to key connectivity locations via diverse dark fibre routes.

Rob Garbutt, LDeX Group's CEO, said: "This point of presence will enable LDeX2 as a carrier neutral data centre and allow its customers to connect to approximately 19,000 on-net locations across Zayo's global network.

"Attracting infrastructure providers such as Zayo to the facility aligns with our strategic plans to be the best-connected data centre operator in the UK.

"Zayo is already a provider of connectivity services for customers at our first London-based colocation facility so this is a logical extension of our relationship."

EE has been selected by the Home Office to provide Britain's Emergency Services with a national mobile network, giving 300,000 critical emergency workers access to 4G voice and data for the first time.

The Government's £1 billion Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) will ensure that Britain is a world leader in Emergency Services communications, and a 4G pioneer.

The EE 4G network will significantly improve the efficiency of the Emergency Services by giving them access to the type of data and applications that have benefitted private businesses in recent years. Some of the applications that the new network will enable for Britain's Emergency Services are:

EE CEO Olaf Swantee said: "We've worked closely with the Police and Ambulance crews to show the power of 4G in helping save time and save lives. We will now work tirelessly to deliver a highly resilient, truly nationwide 4G network to serve all of Britain's Blue Light and First Responder teams across the UK."

EE's new 4G Emergency Services Network will replace the existing TETRA system from mid-2017 as current contracts expire.

8x8's EasyContactNow (ECN) cloud contact management solution has been accepted for inclusion on G-Cloud 7, the Government's online digital marketplace for the broader public sector.

ECN is a key part of 8x8's Enterprise communications as-a-Service (ECaaS) suite and is complementary to the company's Virtual Contact Centre solution that is targeted at traditional, structured contact centre environments. 

Sharon Maslyn, Sales Director of 8x8 UK, said: "With ECN 8x8 makes it practical for organisations to use sophisticated contact centre capabilities that require efficient, personalized communications with employees, citizens or customers."

ECN offers Government departments features such as call back, IVR workflow builder, call recording, SMS, instant messaging, browser integration, full data management and integration with leading CRM solutions.

In addition to traditional customer-facing deployments, ECN can also be utilised by other key line of business functions, including IT service desks, credit control and facilities management.

This latest extension to 8x8's offerings for the public sector comes just two months after the company's accreditation under the UK Government's Cyber Essentials Plus scheme.

Exsel Group will be spreading some Christmas cheer next week by holding a 'Gift for Glasgow' event at their Citypark offices.

The company is hoping Scottish companies will support the event by bringing along a gift and taking the chance to network and celebrate with likeminded business people.

Managing Director Tom McDonald told Comms Dealer: "There are many families in Glasgow that will have a hard decision to make this Christmas: Feeding their families or buying gifts. By collecting as many presents as possible for the Salvation Army, we hope to alleviate some of the pressures on families and make it a special Christmas for the kids affected by poverty."

The event on December 11th, run in association with Health Rewards and the Scottish Football Association Business Club, will also include a Christmas fare, entertainment and a whisky and spirit tasting.

For further information or to donate a gift contact  Tom McDonald at tom@exselgroup.com

Nimans has produced a Network Services overview brochure of its voice, IP and data propositions.

The 12-page guide highlights key areas of an ever-evolving division including data connectivity, voice services, wholesale mobile and hosted and cloud solutions.

"Established since 1996 Nimans Network Services has developed an extensive network proposition and partners with leading industry suppliers to offer voice services, mobile solutions, connectivity and hosted and cloud solutions," said Mark Curtis-Wood, Head of Network Services.

"We have created commercial models to meet the needs of resellers in terms of billing and support which includes a designated bureau service.

"Our proposition is at the core of enabling successful business communications for resellers' end customers. We provide traditional voice and mobile tariffs as well as core data connectivity."

A Bureau billing collection service, GS Hosted (Nimans' own hosted telephony service) and The Hub, an order provisioning, management and billing portal, all feature heavily in the guide.

Despite CEOs and strategists working around the clock to realign their businesses to embrace digitalisation, a new global study from Arthur D. Little (ADL) reveals that the majority of corporations still underestimate the risks of failing to keep pace with a rapidly digitising economy, and feel ill-equipped to make a holistic digital transformation.

In The 2015 Digital Transformation Study, ADL found that although front-runners have emerged, most companies still take a piecemeal approach to digital transformation.

Companies struggle to fully embrace digitalisation because of lagging adoption in their business models and, from an HR perspective, new data-based personalised services and overall digital capabilities.

Only 17% of surveyed companies have comprehensive roadmaps in place to master the digital transformation.

"As customers across the world embrace the new marketplace of shared ownership, on-demand services, and personalisation, no industry is immune to the growing need for digital transformation," said Dr. Michael Opitz, initiator of the study and leader of ADL's TIME Practice.

"We fear that today too few CEOs recognise the urgent need to not just invest in new technology, but fully realign every aspect of their businesses to the new digitally driven marketplace."

SSE Enterprise Telecoms has opened its third Network Operation Centre (NOC) located in Thatcham, Berkshire, adding to its existing NOCs in Hampshire and Perthshire.

Colin Sempill, MD at SSE Enterprise Telecoms, said: "With an ever increasing portfolio of high profile security and network availability conscious blue chip customers, as well as our own Energy generation, distribution and supply businesses, our third live Network Operations Centre is designed to demonstrate our commitment to providing a non-stop network service."

Swyx Solutions' long-term Gold partner EBC Group based in Birmingham is to offer the vendor's cloud-based UC/telephony platform via its privately owned data centres.

EBC Group MD Richard Lane commented: "Having made significant investments in our own core infrastructure, including two privately owned data centres, we already provide our customers with a range of services via the EBC Cloud Suite so adding telephony to our portfolio was a natural progression."

Swyx Director of Business Development, Michael Hostbaek, added: "The needs of today's modern companies are changing with greater demand for flexible, quick and easy access to communications regardless of location.

"As a result, more and more customers are asking our partners for cloud-based communications allowing them to closely match both the budgetary and operational needs of individual businesses."