Comms Dealer

Dartford-based reseller Astro Communications has called on channel companies to embrace apprentice training after securing double success at the annual Institute of Telecommunications Professionals Awards.

After proudly seeing James Tuck win the ITP SME Apprentice of the Year and Joe Wing a runners-up place at the awards ceremony in London's West End, Astro co-founder and CTO Steve Smith told Comms Dealer: "We were absolutely delighted when they were nominated and for James to go on to win the award and stand alongside some of the UK's industry giants is a huge success for a small company like Astro. The ITP team are hugely supportive enabling small businesses to provide an apprenticeship on par with the likes of BT and Virgin Media.

"Anything that actively promotes the development of young talent within our industry is to be celebrated and Astro will continue to support the ITP and the apprentice programme for many years to come. Furthermore, we strongly recommend other small businesses in our industry do the same. There is no better investment in the future."

The full line up of winners were: ITP SME Apprentice of the Year, James Tuck (Astro);. ITP Intermediate Apprentice of the Year Kayleigh Hunter (Virgin Media); ITP Advanced Apprentice of the Year, Lauren Tiller (BT); ITP Higher Apprentice of the Year Vish Patel (BT); Christopher Mills Award Hadleigh Gaudreau (BT); Chris Seymour Award for Women in Telecoms, Nathalie Vafiadis (EE); ITP Mentor of the Year, Dave Davis( i-Direct).

At the ceremony ITP Chairman Lucy Woods also announced 34 Honorary Fellowships, awarded to individuals who have made substantial contribution to the industry through technical excellence, teaching, high level and successful leadership roles.

The ITP Fellows have also lead original research or other material activities which have moved the industry forward in a positive way. Among this number was Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT Group, who has also become a Patron of the ITP.

Adam Oliver, ITP's CEO said: "It was a superb evening, recognising the best talent across the telecoms industry, he added. "We are celebrating some great role models across all the awards."

Paul Lloyd is to lead Entatech UK's first move into the provision of cloud space-based services, heading up the distributor's white label cloud offering, Entacloud, set to be launched in early 2016.

He has much channel experience having worked for a number of service providers over the past 25 years, and in the 'as-a-service' market for the last 10 years.

"There is a great deal of confusion in the market and it is difficult for MSPs to know where to go, or what to do," said Lloyd.

"Entacloud offers a one-stop-shop for cloud services, based on a simple and intuitive interface and business support services to aid resellers as they make this business transition."

Dave Stevinson, Entatech Managing Director, added: "Paul has a clear understanding of the issues and challenges companies will face when looking to move from a transactional to subscription based business. "

Developed in conjunction with Egenera's Xterity Cloud Services, Entacloud will deliver a full range of dedicated, managed, private and hybrid cloud services, including Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DaaS) and Backup as a Service (BaaS) exclusively through the channel.

Informatica is a big company that you may not have heard of unless you are well into big data, but with subscription revenues growth figures of 44% in its last reported figures (Q2 2015), it is raising its profile.

Steve Murphy is the newly appointed VP for EMEA and is looking forward to continuing growth especially now that globally, some 40% of its business is with partners, and this is likely to be higher in EMEA. "I am relying on partners - they are the fastest way to get coverage in EMEA." and he promises to be flexible on partnerships, especially in the emerging markets where traditional roles are less well established. The company now has some 40% of its business "fulfilled by partners"; this has risen from 20% two years ago.

His channels are likely to include systems integrators, service providers, large ISVs, managed services businesses as well as more traditional channels as he predicts that enterprises are going to struggle with big data going forward. "Data is poorly understood, and many will find themselves out of their depths and looking for help," he says. As well as the usual big data targets - financial services and telcos, he can see potential in healthcare, retail and the parts distribution business.

There is a an accelerating pace of change in big data, he tells IT Europa, one that Informatica can only keep up with through its channels. And now that it is a private company, backed by Salesforce.com and Microsoft, it is in a position to do something strategic for the first time. "It really does make a difference, he says. And of course, the two powerful brands and their channels can also help him drive into particular markets, although he is also interested in the "more boutique-y" sort of partner who is a specialist in a particular area or technology.

But he also knows that he has to play the EMEA market differently from the way Informatica has worked in the US: " As well as culture and language, there is a different attitude to data." And he has to get the Informatica name out in front of his potential partners, so expect to see more announcements and events.

TD Azlan will distribute Veritas Technologies' products including SaaS. Veritas Technologies is the new name of the specialist in backup and recovery solutions that has been formed following the completion of the previously announced separation of Symantec into two companies.

Effective immediately, software solutions from Veritas will be available from Tech Data in 13 countries across Europe.

The agreement will enable resellers to use Azlan services, including Business Solution Centres for end-user customer briefings and demonstrations, Azlan value marketing for collaborative demand generation, sales and technical training, and professional services.

In addition, Veritas SaaS will be offered through Tech Data Cloud, enabling resellers and service providers to offer Veritas solutions as part of a hosted or hybrid infrastructure propositions.

Modern Networks has acquired the business of RADD Telecoms, a provider of cabling infrastructure, data and fibre optic cabling services to many construction companies.

"With the continued proliferation of connected devices and new smart building technology - Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE) - we are seeing increased demand for service providers to deliver unified, single network solutions into buildings,' said Matt Reeve, CEO of Modern Networks.

Modern Networks and RADD Telecoms now have the capability to deliver major cabling infrastructure projects with advanced network and data centre solutions as single work packages, without the use of a third party.

"With the acquisition of our company by Modern Networks we are now able to offer the proven expertise of its networking capabilities," said Richard Brewster, RADD Telecoms Director.

"We feel this will be of huge benefit to many of our existing client base who historically would need to deploy the services of several companies to achieve their final goal. We can now reduce this to a one stop shop, reducing inherent multi-company problems on major projects."

Joe Garner is to step down as CEO of Openreach after deciding to take up a new challenge as CEO of Nationwide, the building society with 15 million members and Britain's second largest mortgage and savings provider. 

Garner is expected to take up his new post in the spring of 2016 after handing over to his successor who will be named in due course.

He said: "I've greatly enjoyed my time at Openreach and deciding to leave has been an extremely hard decision, but Nationwide is a firm I long admired during my time in financial services.

"The opportunity to become CEO of one of Britain's most important financial institutions and service champions just proved too good to turn down."

Gavin Patterson, CEO, BT Group said: "I am sad to see Joe leave but he is moving to a terrific job and I wish him well.

Softcat has announced the successful pricing of its IPO, valuing the growing company at £472.3 million and securing a number of high profile institutional investors.

The company has appointed Vin Murria to its Board of Directors as an Independent Non-executive Director.

She has significant public company experience in the IT Services space, including tenures at Computer Services Group plc and Advanced Computer Software.

Softcat's first day of trading is expected to be 18 November 2015, and the company has been asked to open the day's trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Martin Hellawell, Chief Executive Officer of Softcat, said: "The successful pricing of our initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange reflects the positive response we have received from institutional investors as we have shared our equity story in recent weeks.

"We are delighted with the outcome of the IPO process thus far and now look forward to fully focusing on the running and future development of our business.

"The Softcat employees have done a fantastic job to get us to this stage and I would like to thank them, as well as our customers and partners for the great support and encouragement they have given us. We look forward to driving the company forward together."

Vapour Media founder Tim Mercer will lead the Brighouse-based business as newly appointed CEO as he looks to build on gains already made in the cloud space following this summer's merger with Everycloud and the subsequent launch of the Cloudware range including storage, hosted servers and managed back-up, all built on Vapour's cloud platform housed in UK-based data centres.

The services are procured through a client self-serve portal, meaning additional servers and storage can be managed and activated in a matter of minutes.

Vapour is also set to release details of its Dropbox alternative file share and collaboration product.

In a promotion to the channel Mercer is offering 20% off the entire Cloudware range, as well as access to the Vapour team of cloud sales and support specialists.

Mercer said: "Businesses are savvy to the benefits that cloud can bring to their organisations, however, there are a myriad of providers in the marketplace.

"We have witnessed a massive uptake in the number of customers who are requesting backup and data storage, and following the merger earlier in the year we have been able to develop channel-ready solutions at speed.

"We believe these new solutions, as well as our bolstered team, will promote increased competition within the market and also provide customers and resellers with assurances around their business critical data, ensuring their data doesn't have to leave the UK, with storage delivered within Vapour's private UK network."

Devoteam UK has appointed Derek Nutley as Country Manager, taking over from Roddy MacLennan who led the UK business since early 2013.

Nutley joined Devoteam in 2006 following the acquisition of AuSystems.

By running the Network Transformation (telecoms) business in the UK he has successfully contributed to the move of the UK business to cloud in the last 18 months.

Nutley will continue as Network Transformation Global Offer Director, in parallel.

He said: "We are looking at the next chapter in the UK. We want to take advantage of our position in EMEA as a leading actor in Digital Transformation to drive further the deployment of our vision in the UK."

Housing association Teign Housing has deployed a ShoreTel communications system from Incom Business Systems as part of a strategic business plan to improve the customer service experience.

Comprising ShoreTel Unified Communications (UC) platform and ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Centre (ECC), the solution enables the social landlord to move closer towards the integration of all critical business applications to achieve a 360-degree view of tenants' interactions.

Teign Housing manages over 3,600 homes across South Devon from Dartmoor National Park to Newton Abbot, Teignmouth and Dawlish.

Capable of seamless integration with Teign's existing housing management and rent payment system, the ShoreTel solution delivers simplified call management, automated reporting and 99.99999 per cent operational continuity.

As a result of efficiency savings, the total cost of ownership is significantly lower, aiding Teign's compliance with the Homes and Communities Agency's Value for Money (VfM) standard.

The deployment supports 130 extensions, including 80 people at Teign's headquarters, 20 users at their shop and 20 mobile workers.

Karen Johnson, Head of Customer and Corporate Services at Teign Housing, commented: "The solution is key towards us achieving our digital inclusion strategy and will bring about efficiencies in customer transaction processing."