Comms Dealer

Channel investment company MXC Capital has agreed to cornerstone a placing of new ordinary shares in Castle Street Investments (CSI), an AIM quoted cash shell, in conjunction with CSI's proposed acquisition of Selection Services Investments, a provider of IT solutions and cloud services.

This acquisition kicks off a buy and build in the IT solutions and cloud services sector supported by organic growth.

Selection is an established business with £35 million of revenues, 65% of which are recurring. The acquisition represents a platform acquisition to start a buy and build in the IT solutions and cloud services sector, with a focus on the fragmented smaller end of the market.

MXC is investing £12.9 million out of a total placing of £30 million, amounting to 24.9% of the enlarged share capital of CSI.

The Placing was more than 2x oversubscribed and supported by high quality institutional investors.

In addition, MXC has been granted, subject to certain vesting conditions, evergreen warrants over 5% of the enlarged share capital of CSI at a price of 30 pence per CSI share, with subsequent adjustment to reflect any further equity issues.

CSI will acquire Selection on a debt free basis and will have £16.5 million of available cash resources and terms agreed on a debt facility of £7 million to support its strategy.

Peter Rigg, Chairman of MXC, said: "I am delighted to announce the second IPO led by MXC. The experience and skills of MXC in the sector will again be at the disposal of the Board of CSI in creating shareholder value. The transaction demonstrates the MXC model at work - identifying the opportunity, advising on the transaction, securing the funding - in this case twice over subscribed - and then adding the operational management experience to drive the buy and build opportunity. It's a good start to the year for us."

Following the Re-Admission of CSI to trading on AIM MXC will have a portfolio of six quoted investments and five private investments.

The Transaction is conditional upon the passing of resolutions by shareholders of CSI at a general meeting to be held on 20 January 2016, with admission of the enlarged share capital to trading on AIM expected on 21 January 2016.

Selection reported EBITDA of £3.3 million in the year ended 30 June 2015 and, as result of its capital structure (including bank debt and loan notes as is typical of a private equity owned business), a loss before tax of £1 million.

As at 30 June 2015, it had net liabilities of £24.9 million which included net debt of £20.4 million.

SIPHON Networks has been credited with the Microsoft Partner Gold Communications Competency just months after achieving Silver Communications Competency.

Ciaran Bolger, Sales Director at SIPHON, said: "We've invested in the skills, documentation and systems to reinforce our technology enablement offering for Microsoft Enterprise Voice.

"The cloud PBX opportunity for Gold Communications Partners that truly understand voice remains largely untapped. And the opportunity isn't restricted to greenfield sites. SIPHON can run health checks on existing voice deployments to test readiness for cloud PBX, as well as offering hybrid solutions as part of an overall evolution strategy."

Giuseppe Fragale, who runs the Microsoft UC Technology Practice at SIPHON, added: "SIPHON has a specialised in-house team that continues to help Microsoft partners overcome the integration challenges they face as they build their own Microsoft voice-in-the-cloud expertise."

SIPHON's Microsoft voice-enablement portfolio includes white labelled professional services, a Proof of Concept on Demand evaluation environment, plus a range of Microsoft Lync/Skype for Business end points with pre-provisioning and configuration services.

Alternative Networks has been awarded Platinum Partner status by Avaya.

The recognition was based on direct customer feedback on Alternative's ability and service, as well as Alternative's knowledge, training and certification.

Neil Rampe Commercial & Marketing Director at Alternative, said: "This is an excellent achievement and the Platinum Partner Status is testament to a mixture of proficiency, exceptional customer service and hard work."

Being a Platinum Partner carries a number of benefits, including securing stronger commercials.

DrayTek has launched the Vigor 2860Ln LTE (3G/4G) router, the latest in its business class Vigor 2860 series.

"4G/LTE is now a realistic practical option for many network requirements as an alternative to or augmenting fixed-line applications," said Julian Hubble, Sales and Marketing Manager, DrayTek UK.

The Vigor 2860Ln includes a SIM slot in the back of the router allowing users to insert a 3G/4G standard SIM card with the service provider of their choice.

The router can utilise 3G/4G as a 'pop up' broadband facility where fixed lines are not available and 3G/4G provides the main connection.

Common applications include construction sites or visiting teams, or permanent usage where fixed lines are slow, not available or less effective.

The router also functions as a secondary failover connection in the event of the fixed (primary) line failing.

It can also balance traffic across a main line connection and 3G/4G for optimum speed using DrayTek's load balancing features.

The product ships with two LTE antennae that can be attached directly to the router or positioned away from the device using its magnetic extension allowing users to fine tune the exact aerial position for optimum signal strength.

"As well as LTE connectivity for data, the Vigor 2860Ln makes good use of SMS text messaging," added Hubble. "Texts can be sent to the router to check its status or even reboot it with an appropriate command.

"The Vigor 2860Ln also supports WiFi and all of the business class features associated with the popular Vigor 2860 series routers."

After a lengthy holiday break, a lot of people returned to work and noticed that several colleagues were missing. Not just in comms, but in every office throughout the country - people suddenly disappeared, writes Clive Jefferys, Managing Director of telco recruiter JMA Network.

It wasn't alien abduction, but the beginning of the busiest period in the recruitment year! Several colleagues may have announced their resignation at the Christmas party, officially or on the sly. Others announced their intention in the last few days. But either way, this prompted three questions from you - why, where and how much?

There are many factors at play here. The most common include new pay plans, opportunities for promotion or just that simple realisation that it won't get better all on its own.

The winds of change blow hard through the winter months.

For hirers this means cuddling your best performers while looking outside for new hires. People are on the move right now. So whether you manage your recruitment needs directly or use agencies, this is the time to push your way to the front of the queue.

Nine Group is gearing up to launch connectivity and hosted telephony services through Nine Networks, a new division headed up by Barnes Clutterbuck (pictured). The acquisition of a data services business last summer provided a foundation for Nine to create its own data network, offering a full portfolio of broadband and Ethernet services to be rolled out later in Q1 2016.

Nine will also provide SIP and hosted IP telephony services following a trial run in Q1 ahead of a full launch in Q2.

A key part of the proposition is a revised ordering, provisioning and management portal.

"Nine has invested in software development throughout 2015 to develop an intuitive interface that gives resellers the visibility and information to better manage their client base," said Clutterbuck, MD, Nine Networks (formerly Nine Group Operations Director).

"Being in control of our own network portfolio rather than buying from other players will help to improve both the commercial and service offerings that we provide for our resellers through Nine Wholesale."

The Gloucestershire-based service provider has witnessed 10% growth in channel numbers and growing demand for SIP and hosted services.

CEO James Palmer commented: "Nine Networks is a major step for the Group and represents a key development in our business transformation.

"The networks division's product set will help our existing 450 resellers to be more successful, as well as play a key role in attracting new resellers to our business."

Avnet has appointed Marcus Adae (pictured) to newly created position of VP for Core Suppliers and Technology Groups, EMEA.

Adae is based in Munich, Germany, and reports to Graeme Watt, President, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA.

Adae's primary responsibility is to strengthen the relationships with Avnet Technology Solutions key suppliers in EMEA and drive business development in the company's focus technology areas.

He will work closely with Dieter Lott, Avnet's VP of strategic development and planning for TS EMEA, who is responsible for the strategic imperatives pertaining to next-generation technologies, high-growth customer segments and IT services.

Watt said: "Marcus's appointment creates incremental bandwidth and emphasis to align with our core suppliers and co-ordinate sales programs and business development initiatives through the EMEA region.

"In parallel, the appointment enables us to further focus on customers, particularly in high-growth segments, and deliver a clear value proposition around our solutions and services for next-generation technologies."

Adae has worked in the IT industry for 25 years with a strong sales emphasis on value-add and solutions distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

He was previously MD for Germany at Tech Data and most recently Ingram Micro's VP for the Central Region.

Adept Telecom's strong performance last year drove the fastest rising telecom share price on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 at +101.75%, followed by Gamma with +84.47% and KCom at +35.83% (source: Bloomberg 1st January 2016).

"We'd like to say a huge thank you to our investors for their support and also to everyone who has worked for us, or with us, to achieve the results that have underpinned this share price performance," said Adept's CEO Ian Fishwick.

Manx Telecom was ranked fourth with +26.56%, followed by BT at +20.23% and Maintel with +16.67%.

"All other telecom companies on the London Stock Exchange fell in value over the year," added Fishwick.

Inequalities in high speed broadband access are a great concern for many businesses in the deprived regions, but Philip Davies, CEO of Worcester-based VeloComms, has set about equalising this disparity with a bandwidth boosting bonding solution.

Accepting the broadband status quo is not an option for any business: Enter VeloComms, a specialist in broadband bonding, WAN connectivity, IP voice and a security systems integrator. "Our primary focus is broadband bonding," stated Davies. "By bonding between two and 12 broadband connections together, high speed connections can be cost-effectively delivered throughout the UK. Bandwidth can be quickly and easily increased to provide the flexibility and scalability that businesses require. With the increased use of the Internet, cloud-based services, IP voice and video, the need for high speed, cost-effective bandwidth has never been more important."

Although broadband is becoming widely available the bandwidth offered can vary remarkably by location. Three years ago Davies identified this variance as a clear opportunity to provide fast broadband connectivity to under-served businesses wanting to exploit VoIP, cloud and other online services. In 2013 the company signed an agreement with US firm Mushroom Networks to bring its broadband bonding solutions to the UK. The Truffle range of products enable the aggregation of low cost, readily available broadband connections. Individual Truffle units can be used for high speed access to the Internet and multiple units can be deployed between offices.

"We've come across companies on large business parks with connections of just a few Mbps," said Davies. "Using broadband bonding we increased their bandwidth and enabled them to boost productivity and reduce costs through the deployment of online and hosted services. With products that offer leased line emulation capabilities we can bond ADSL, fibre, EFM and other line technologies to create point-to-point and point-to-multi-point networks for branch offices. These are cost-effective and offer high performance, resilience and scalability."

VeloComms initially launched a series of dedicated routers aimed at the corporate market. They delivered throughput in excess of 900Mbps and had a feature set suitable for the most demanding of environments. "By launching a monthly subscription-based service with a range of affordable bonding routers we opened up a new range of market opportunities for our partners and ourselves," said Davies. "Low cost of entry and monthly subscription costs made broadband bonding viable for SMEs and home workers."

As well as Mushroom Networks, VeloComms' technology partners include Jola, Nubo Consulting and Sharedband. VeloComms has grown significantly over the last 12 months, primarily through the recruitment of a number of partners wanting products and services that complement their own offerings - whether that's VoIP, UC or cloud orientated. "We have enabled them to close opportunities where a lack of resilient, scalable and cost-effective bandwidth was a barrier to sales," stated Davies.

Another priority is to drive increased awareness of broadband bonding and its benefits. "There is still an expectation that high speed broadband will be available to all, but that is not the case," commented Davies. "For those have-nots, other technologies will need to be deployed and broadband bonding plays an important role, ensuring fast broadband is available to businesses that increasingly depend upon it."

Davies realised early in his career that businesses would come to depend on technology. His first exposure to the comms sector was working for an insurance company. He was shown an early version of an application that had the potential to replace a significant number of office positions. Fearing the worst, he jumped ship and found a junior network infrastructure role, and has never looked back. In these formative years Davies was also influenced during a period of employment by a serial entrepreneur.

"I saw how innovative products, great support and added value for the reseller channel were the foundations of a successful business," said Davies. "I always try to emulate the partnership ethos, hard work and focus that made an impression on me. Since then I have been fortunate to work both as an end user and in the industry during exciting, fast growth times. The constant change and evolution in our sector is a real motivation." •

Global expansion is beckoning fast growing Cisilion and Sales Director Nick Paul has no qualms about answering the call.

The name Cisilion draws attention to the company's heritage as a Cisco house, but there was the rub - the market had expanded and Cisilion recognised the need to provide its clients with a wider vendor offering, enabling it to be an end-to-end systems integrator. Cisilion was established 16 years ago by Roger Paul to help businesses simplify their IT deployments. The firm provides solutions to a client base in 56 countries across five continents and has big plans for global expansion.

Long-term strategic relationships with technology partners including Cisco, Microsoft, Riverbed, Dell and Oracle were bolstered in December when Cisilion built on its hybrid enterprise offering following a link-up with EMC. "This agreement allows us to work more strategically with EMC to help our customers achieve cost reductions while strengthening our own storage propositions," commented Nick Paul. "EMC's expertise lies in leveraging performance versus capacity, automating the provision of data protection and delivering infrastructure control via simplified reporting."

Cisilion expects to boost its £36 million turnover to circa £50 million this year, focusing on enterprise and commercial companies with between 500-10,000 employees. It targets senior level decision makers from all lines of business but primarily IT. "We provide transformational IT solutions spanning infrastructure, collaboration, security and the cloud," said Paul. "Our target markets include global organisations within the financial services, legal, insurance and construction sectors. Over the next five years we aim to continue our global expansion and increase revenues significantly."

Opening in Hong Kong and New York cemented Cisilion's reputation as a global partner to its clients. Another important development was moving the front office to the City of London in close proximity to clients and prospects. "In this office we launched our state of the art Innovation Centre where customers can experience first hand the latest IT technologies and solutions," said Paul. "They rely on us to understand the market and key trends, both today and what's coming in the future. One of our biggest strengths is the partnerships we have with clients. This enables us to understand their needs and in turn tailor our business to support them. We work closely with key vendors to shape our propositions; and our flexibility and level of service is what differentiates us."

The rise of the cloud continues to climb steeply and shifts towards the subscription model are well advanced. "Revenues are shifting from tin and boxes to virtualised systems and services," added Paul. "Businesses no longer want three or five-year big refreshes, therefore VARs and SIs need to adapt their offerings to deliver a much lighter, often hybrid IT infrastructure, which is less dominated by hardware choices with more focus on service and support."
This trend is redefining the role of many systems integrators and resellers who in the past have been focused on the plumbing of the network, often rooted in the provision of hardware infrastructure and licenses. "While this won't go away any time soon, in order to remain competitive SIs need to spend time building service propositions, consultancy services and user adoption practices to help their customers make the transition to cloud," added Paul.

Cisilion scooped Comms Dealer's Best Enterprise UC Solution 2015 at the Comms National Awards held last October at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London. The award recognised the merits of a large Microsoft Lync deployment at LeSoCo College where the company transformed its education system. Cisilion was also runner up for Best Enterprise Vertical Market Solution for its impressive work in the insurance sector. Rob Quickenden, Chief Strategy Officer at Cisilion, said: "Collaboration solutions are one of our strongest capabilities, and this recognition showcases the hard work we put into training our employees."

With an army of highly trained and motivated workers Cisilion is now stepping up the pace of its global growth ambitions. "To achieve our goals it's important to attract and retain the best talent in the market," added Paul. "It's the quality of our people, along with offering the most up-to-date technical solutions that will ensure we keep out-performing the market." •