Comms Dealer

A north west business man who could not get what he wanted from regional data centres and decided to build his own has reaped the rewards of his 'must do something' approach with a year of growth and bigger plans for 2016.

Mashukul Hoque, MD of Manchester-based software firm Sandyx, launched his purpose-built data centre in 2014 under the company name Datacentreplus.

He said: "At the end of 2013 we were developing applications for a customer and needed data centre services. I required somewhere nearby with the ability to colocate and get easily accessible support.

"None of the big data centre operators were interested in talking to me about my relatively small, but vital, requirements. There appeared to be little or no flexibility on offer. It was either a 12 month contract or, failing that, anything less being quoted at a ridiculous price. I also discovered there were a lot of hidden costs.

"By adding in annual costs, set-up fees and network engineering support fees, I felt as though my business was simply being discredited and being pushed away."

With Datacentreplus Hoque hopes to 'disrupt the marketplace' by applying competitive pressure to the pricing and flexibility of the cloud and hosting services currently offered to small and medium-sized businesses.

The Media City-based business has experienced growth in its first year of trading, growing to a team of eight, with plans to triple the workforce over the next 12-18 months.

Based on his early experiences Hoque is now dedicated to helping new start-ups with 'cash-friendly' access to the cloud, and helping businesses with traditional operating models transition to the cloud.

"Many businesses have old operating habits and don't have enough people within the business that know enough," said Hoque. "Often an IT person may know the systems and processes inside out and that can be dangerous for future-proofing. In addition, some businesses think that movement to the cloud means the end of the IT team.

"The cloud is in fact a great way to grow your business and ease the pressures on the IT department, ensuring that their energies are focused on strategy and helping their organisation growth through technology, not constantly firefighting with legacy systems and processes.

"We believe that many providers in this space aren't geared towards addressing these issues or have the ability or inclination to understand them. Businesses need to be talked through a transition and hand held, not bamboozled with technology or offers that lock them in for long-term contracts. Our mission is to provide transparency for those we work with."

Customers will show greater preference for technology-based services than agent-based ones, according to Frost & Sullivan.

The firm says that more than ever, European enterprises and governments understand the benefits of partnering with business process outsourcing (BPO) providers for their customer contact needs, and today there is an array of pan-European and regional providers to choose from.

Decision makers need to assess BPO providers carefully in order to make optimal investments that best address their specific needs.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, 2015 Europe Contact Centre Outsourcing Buyer's Guide finds that the market earned revenues of 14.04 billion euros in 2014 and estimates this to reach 16.48 billion euros in 2019.

Even though Europe's contact centre outsourcing market experienced challenges over the past few years, the technology-based services segment will see relatively vigorous growth going forward. The segment's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will surpass 12 percent over the forecast period, while traditional, agent-based services experience a CAGR of just over 2 percent.

"The proliferation of automated and non-voice channels is proof of the importance of technology-based customer engagement," said Frost & Sullivan Digital Transformation Program Director Stephen Loynd. "Over the next five years, contact centre providers that differentiate and compete on multichannel capabilities and value-added technology solutions will have an edge over providers that insist on competing simply on cost and labour arbitrage."

In other words, in a connected world, it is important for BPO providers to appreciate that both existing and potential clients expect to see innovation, agility, and best practice implementation in their BPO partnerships. This is perhaps even more true in a region as vast and differentiated as Europe.

Although the market for outsourced services is often counter-cyclical, benefitting from the cost-cutting of enterprises, a lack of demand in some cases can present challenges to BPO providers in Europe. There also have been a host of mergers, acquisitions, and reorganisations across the region.

"Staying up-to-date on the changing nature of the BPO market is easier said than done," noted Loynd. "Consider the dizzying number of recent mergers, acquisitions and reorganisations, involving players as diverse as Acticall, Sitel, Comdata, Atento, Arvato, Webhelp, SNT Deutschland, Walter Services, Serco, SYKES, TeleTech and Teleperformance."

Finally, BPO providers also may want to look to expand into new markets, perhaps leveraging existing client relationships to do so. And in today's world, in some cases, it might also be wise for BPOs to push for organisational change whenever necessary to promote increased focus and accountability.

VoIP and connectivity services provider Cloud Telephones aims to double reseller numbers in 2016 from its current stable of 70 partners.

Since the start of the year, Cloud Telephones has seen monthly income from voice services subscriptions grow by more than 200% with half of all monthly revenues going to the reseller.

John Carter, MD, said: "The demand is there, we just need more resellers to get involved. Most customers understand hosted voice well enough now and we take all the hassle away from the reseller, so they don't need to worry about the complexity of getting customers set-up.

"We generate the original leads, manage all the provisioning and provide support. We have managed thousands of installations already, so the customer gets a great experience and all the reseller needs to do is go out and sell."

David Rushton, Business Development Manager for Unified Communications at Gamma, added: "Cloud Telephones has carried the flag for the Gamma Horizon service and achieved phenomenal partner sales growth since the start of this year.

"It has paved the way for what we believe and expect will be a further and considerable increase in volume in 2016. Selling VoIP services will deliver long-term rewards for reseller businesses."

Cloud Telephones is planning to stage a reseller recruitment event in partnership with Gamma Telecom - its primary hosted VoIP partner - in the New Year.

Mobile workforce technology provided by Aeromark has delivered a 20%-plus increase in productivity and 40% improvement in service levels for customer Arcus Solutions, a national refrigeration, HVAC, M&E, lighting, drainage and renewable maintenance specialist.

These improvements were achieved during the first six months of full operation.

Arcus required a new system that would help improve the management of the maintenance service to its customers and optimise the productivity of its 155 strong engineer work force.

Aeromark Optimatics was selected as it offered smart technology that provides clear visibility of field operations and optimisation of the whole service process minimising operational costs, while at the same time improving service levels.

Optimatics provides a complete solution for managing the entire process of service delivery, from scheduling, workflow driven mobile applications through to vehicle tracking and provides Arcus's administrative employees a more consistent approach to working, which enables them to plan reactive jobs more efficiently, by sending accurate customer data directly to the Aeromark mobile application.

"Aeromark's agile approach combined with the power and flexibility of its Optimatics technology has enabled our entire business process to be optimised and aligned with best practice," said Parag Gogate, Head of Projects and Quality at Arcus.

"This has resulted in over 50% reduction in touch-points, statutory paper records have been replaced with electronic documentation and we have seen a significant, reduction in fuel and wasted time.

"As a result of the considerable success of this project, we have decided to roll out Optimatics as our standard enterprise software across the whole group."

Roger Marks, Managing Director of Aeromark, added: "Arcus Solutions has not only enthusiastically embraced the technology but also the associated changes in business process."

iomart has snapped up managed hosting company United Hosting, its second acquisition this year, for a total consideration of up to £11m, with £7.5m settled in cash on completion.

A further £3.5m is contingent on United Hosting achieving agreed EBIT performance targets in years to April 2016 and 2017.

United Hosting was founded in 1998 and provides managed, dedicated and shared hosting services and domains to approximately 6,500 customers, the majority of which are small businesses.

The company is based in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, where its main data centre facility is located. It also leases data centre space in London and in Dallas, Texas and has a support function based in India.

Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart, said: "In line with previous acquisitions made by iomart, United Hosting is a profitable, growing business whose services reflect those we offer. As such, the business fits well within our acquisition criteria and will be a valuable addition to the Group."

The co-founders of United Hosting, brothers Matt and Simon Wallis, will remain with the business.

Matt Wallis, Director of United Hosting, said: "This is a huge opportunity to develop and grow the business. We are now backed by one of the leading providers of managed hosting and cloud services in the UK as well as a company with all the regulatory and financial strength that comes with being listed on the London Stock Exchange."

In June iomart acquired SystemsUp, an IT consultancy specialising in the design and delivery of public cloud solutions.

Yorkshire-based comms provider Intouch Advance has been awarded a four year contract for the supply of telecoms services to mail order fulfilment company Kingstown Associates.

Intouch Advance is implementing a contact centre solution with new fixed line voice, high speed data and Internet services in a three-phased project approach that will eventually move the company to a cloud-based phone system.

Phases one and two are already underway and phase three is scheduled for completion in January 2016.

Kingstown Associates' Head of Operations, Paul Chambers, said, "We needed to overcome several fundamental communications issues that were impacting our day-to-day operations.

"Consolidating our suppliers into a single-source supplier has enabled us to move towards a cloud-based PBX platform."

As part of the contact centre solution, Intouch Advance is deploying an Akixi hosted call management and contact centre reporting system.

This will enable all call centre information and activities to be displayed on TV screens, giving supervisors real-time views and reporting of call centre statistics, including agent activity and performance.

New contact centre services will also include an agent friendly call recording feature, which will interlink with the company's Sage Pay platform.

Currently, the company's contact centre handles four million inbound call minutes per year. The new systems and services will also enable Kingstown Associates to increase rebates across its 08 number ranges.

Scott Walker, Intouch Advance Sales Director, said: "This implementation is a true convergence proposition supporting all their inbound calls, from 0800 to 0871 numbers, as well as a fully fledged, unified communications, contact-centre solution supporting high-speed Internet and data.

"As part of our service, we will also be conducting regular, proactive business reviews of usage and technology to ensure the best tariffs and latest and most efficient products are being used in the implementation.

And we've also included a guaranteed rebate over the term of the contract, which underscores the confidence we have in our ability to deliver."

The first stage of digging has begun to bring ultrafast broadband to homes and businesses in the east of Epping Forest District, as part of the £7.5m Superfast Essex Rural Challenge Project.

Ultrafast broadband provider Gigaclear is installing its pure fibre cable network directly to more than 4,500 homes and businesses, providing internet speeds up to 1,000 times faster than currently available in the area.

Homes and businesses in 18 parishes will have access to Gigaclear's ultrafast service as a result of the Rural Challenge Project.

The contract was awarded to Gigaclear in June 2015. The pilot project was designed to test an alternative way of bringing faster connectivity to rural areas which were until now not included within the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) rollout.

The main BDUK project in Essex, which is being implemented by BT, is on track to provide 116,000 premises with access to superfast speeds of 24Mbps and above by 2019, using Fibre-to-the-Cabinet technology.

Gigaclear will invest £5.5m in the Rural Challenge Project, which equates to more than £2 for every £1 of state aid.

It will be combined with £2m public funding from Essex County Council, BDUK and Epping Forest District Council.

Cllr Channer, who is also the Chairman of the Superfast Essex Steering Board, said: "It is great to see the plans for our rural pilot project starting to come to life.

"This will make a tremendous difference to residents and businesses in this area. Well done to the team for their continuing hard work to keep everything on track."

Matthew Hare, Chief Executive at Gigaclear, said: "By installing a new Fibre-to-the-Premises network we are giving residents and businesses in the Epping Forest District Internet speeds that will transform their online experience, meaning working from home, running a business, studying, being entertained and play will now be possible for all.

"Living in a rural area doesn't mean you have to tolerate bad broadband, and we're here working with the Superfast Essex team and Epping Forest District Council to futureproof communications within the Epping Forest District."

Local events are being held by Gigaclear and Superfast Essex as part of the rollout to provide further information to those who will have access to the service.

Residents and businesses will have the opportunity to ask questions about the project and have their broadband questions answered.

Cloud-based UC and contact centre solution provider 8x8 is expanding its UK operations with a new office in Manchester.

Currently, the company has UK offices in London and Aylesbury, forming part of its global operations that employ more than 800 people worldwide.

New digital companies in Greater Manchester saw growth of 70% between 2010 and 20131. 8x8 will be the latest global technology company to move into the area, with plans to further expand in 2016 to support customer growth.

Kevin Scott-Cowell, UK MD of 8x8, said: "Manchester has spent billions creating a global hub for digital companies and its Northern Quarter is tipped to rival London's Tech City.

"Working with our channel partners we want to be part of that growth and be able to support not just those fuelling the digital economy in Manchester, but also those in the burgeoning north west."

This is the latest move in 8x8's growth plans and follows European expansion earlier in the year with the acquisition DXI.

Managed services provider Claranet has appointed Ian Furness as Operations Director for the UK business.

He takes over from Wiebe Nauta who is now Managing Director for Claranet Benelux.

Furness joins with over 15 years experience in the telecoms and managed services space.

His most recent position was COO at Advanced 365, part of the Advanced Computer Software Group recently sold to Vista Capital for £725 million.

Michel Robert, Claranet's UK Managing Director, commented: "Claranet's Operations Team is responsible for delivering our service strategy and for ensuring that the highest standards of quality are delivered to our customers.

"The team comprises the frontline in our daily customer interactions so the role of our Operations Director is critically important. Ian brings with him a wealth of operational experience in the managed services industry and his skill set will serve us well as we strive to continually improve the service we provide to our customers."

Furness added: "The services that we provide for our customers are increasingly business critical and are growing in complexity, but working alongside the team I am confident that we can improve further upon the standards for which we are known."

Distributor Exertis has promoted Phil Brown to Sales and Commercial Director for IT, to lead the commercial business units and IT reseller base for B2B and VAD solutions.

He will align the sales and commercial units more closely.

The move sees him promoted from B2B Sales Director, a remit which involved responsibility for the core IT and specialist sales teams, reseller partners and B2B vendors.

Before this, he was Commercial and Marketing Director at Exertis, driving vendor strategy and relationships while identifying investment opportunities.

Prior to Exertis, he undertook sales and general management roles at ASUS, Samsung Electronics and Computer 2000.

"This position will enable me to help develop the Exertis proposition and ensure that all our partners have access to a wealth of great technologies, solutions and services we offer," said Brown. I can't wait to get started."

MD Paul Bryan added: "Phil has already demonstrated his skills and attributes in the course of his previous roles with us and I am confident he will build on this in his new role. This is an important next step in our evolution as we enhance our focus in the market."