Comms Dealer

York-based Locasys plugs a knowledge gap in business intelligence (BI) platforms, according to Howard Bedford, Chief Commercial Officer, who puts a spotlight on how resellers can profit from the integration of location-awareness technology into BI solutions.

The convergence of BI with mobile and big data has shifted data to the core of most organisations, yet even the best BI platforms may be lacking important 'location' information. The good news is that this gap can be bridged by the integration of Real Time Location Systems (RTLS). "Location Intelligence (LI) complements a company's metrics of who, what and when with real-time knowledge of 'where'," stated Bedford.

Locasys has patented ultrasonic RTLS systems and RFID products that communicate wirelessly with its application software, providing real-time LI information. All data can be stored, retrieved, reviewed and exported as required. The company's family of smart device apps also provide real-time information, status reports and push notifications to site personnel.

On-site RTLS is designed to operate with consistent accuracy indoors as well as outdoors across offices, factories and plants. "In such environments GPS and other location technologies become unreliable," said Bedford. "On-site reliability is best achieved by using active ultrasound and RFID technologies."

In a simple example of the Locasys system in operation, a network of locator beacons are installed on-site and active tags are attached to assets, or worn on badges by personnel (employees, visitors, contractors etc). The locations of the tags are monitored in real-time by the beacons and the location information is transmitted to a database. By applying business rules, the RTLS can be configured to provide operational efficiencies and improve safety for organisations.

"For example, when an asset is moved its travel route and destination are known in real-time," said Bedford. "If the asset is moved off-site the system can issue an alert. Also, in a data centre the RTLS can be configured so that a visitor is paired with a chaperone. If the two are separated an alert is raised."

The relevance and benefits of such applications, explained Bedford, are wide ranging and include operational efficiencies, improved asset utilisation, better decision making and workflow management, and improved safety in the workplace. Not surprisingly, in certain RTLS applications LI has become mission critical.

"In prisons and casinos, for example, the management of keys is core to operational success," added Bedford. "In these organisations, if a key leaves a room without the due procedures being completed, or leaves a building the entire operation can be jeopardised. If a key is not returned the RTLS provides the locational information of its movement and whereabouts in real-time. This prevents the expense of having to change all of the locks and keys."

RTLS offers 3D positioning, orientation, line of travel and within-room accuracy. "The LI data generated by an on-site RTLS is used to great effect in standard off-the-shelf offerings as well as bespoke solutions," added Bedford.

Open APIs allow third parties to seamlessly integrate location-awareness technology into their solutions. "The increasing performance requirements and expectations of all businesses and organisations in the private and public sectors, along with the insatiable need to control infrastructure costs, and the ease of use of real-time social connectivity are playing a vital role in shaping the future of the indoor real-time location market," Bedford explained.

Bedford joined Locasys in September this year and was previously a founder of DBAM Systems, the provider of bandwidth shaping and network acceleration products that was sold to Dell in 2010. His previous commercial experience includes over five years in senior sales positions; and as a qualified Chartered Engineer with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's degree in Business Administration, Bedford clearly knows his stuff and readers should be attentive to his viewpoints on RTLS as a big opportunity for resellers.

According to a report from Marketsandmarkets, the global indoor location market is forecast to grow from $935.05 million in 2014 to over $4,424 million by 2019, at an estimated CAGR of 36.5 per cent during the period. The indoor location market in Europe is also expected to see traction from new industries. "The benefits of location awareness and auto-identification at the enterprise level will continue to grow as the integration of analytical and visualisation software tools, maps and navigation applications enhance the power of RTLS-based solutions and make on-site LI commonplace," stated Bedford.

The healthcare, industrial manufacturing, Government and defence, process industries, as well as transportation and logistics sectors, have an increasing appetite and need to deploy RTLS applications to solve problems around the location of staff, contractors, site visitors and other assets in everyday operations and in emergencies. Bedford commented: "The growing appetite for location intelligence is fuelling significant growth in RTLS-based solutions across these and many other sectors."

Meet Greg Zweig, Director of Solutions Marketing at US-based GENBAND, who helped to create the world's first IP PBX, who understands the application of technological innovation and how to build a thriving reseller channel, and who quickly made significant gains in the UK having linked up with Timico and Voiceflex.

Who would have thought that a former farm boy would come to show technological innovation at its best? Zweig grew up on a farm in a town of 4,000 people and one traffic light. Here, a tractor with working headlights represented the dizzy heights of hi-tech. This seems a very thin basis on which to build a pioneering career in comms, but it was fertile ground for cultivating fresh thinking, curiosity and excitement about the possibilities of new technology. So much so that Zweig ultimately helped to create the NBX 100, the world's first commercially available IP PBX product. "A group of 80 incredibly talented people, most of whom had no telephony or PBX experience, changed the way every one of us communicates today," he said.

Zweig's introduction to telecoms - successfully selling key systems and PBXs - provided enough experience and know-how to secure a position with Ethernet telephony start-up NBX (which was acquired by 3Com) in the late 1990s. "I was employee number 12 of the first company to build and ship an IP PBX," he commented. "As a Product Manager for the first IP business phone ever shipped, I learned the technology from the inside out. I learned to make systematic product quality a pillar of product development. Don't let 'good enough' thinking rule the day because nothing impedes sales and a company's long-term growth as much as inconsistent quality.

"Today, I'm intolerant of systemic quality issues. And as a start-up, I also learned what it meant to build a reseller channel from scratch. My early experiences help me every day. I understand the technology and how to make it relevant in the real world."

With UCaaS, Zweig aims to take his experience to exciting new heights and he's swung his attention onto the UK where uptake of UCaaS is occurring faster than anywhere else on earth. On the horizon he sees world domination, but the near-term goal is to become a top three provider of UCaaS in the UK. Zweig's biggest priority is to grow GENBAND's reseller channel, and he is particularly focused on enabling wholesalers including new partners Timico Partners and Voiceflex. "The UK market is already incredibly dynamic and leading the world in terms of UCaaS adoption," said Zweig. "We are entering a decade or more of UCaaS growth and our multi-tenant cloud solution can scale with market demands. That's in stark contrast to solutions that were designed for enterprise use and later bolted into the cloud.

"GENBAND is also investing more in web and mobile UC technology that will be the key part of buying criteria. It used to be enough to sell a hosted IP phone but today that is table stakes. To win share we are investing heavily in WebRTC technology. In early 2016 we are launching a whole new generation of UC clients that use WebRTC to make it less expensive for enterprises to deploy and maintain them."

In 2013 GENBAND launched its first cloud solution, Nuvia Cloud UC. Two years after launching in North America the firm introduced Nuvia to the UK (along with Asia). A year later GENBAND launched Kandy, a Platform as a Service solution designed to make it easy and cost-effective to communication-enable mobile and web applications. "These efforts reflect the changing way we all consume communications and GENBAND's commitment to be a leader in this new world," added Zweig. "We support five million-plus enterprise end users and our Kandy service has over 15 million users after just one year in the market."

While the UK is blazing a trail for UCaaS uptake, most of the offers are 'literally identical', claims Zweig. "It's the same solution," he stated. "I'm not sure how resellers preserve their margin if they only have price as a differentiator. Nuvia Cloud UC is different. More importantly, our roadmap has a different focus and direction. Today, UC is still a separate application but as we move forward we have to give our partners simple tools to embed communications in websites and business apps. That doesn't mean we can ignore the basics, but we have to give them something more. We're giving partners more to offer than just another IP phone and a cool client."

Zweig believes that the next major disruption in the market will be Microsoft's attempt to bundle voice with Office 365. "It's the first over the top player that has the ability to take significant share from traditional providers," he said. "Our offers have got to be differentiated and we need to ensure that we have channels in place that can extol that value to end users. I'm sure that many Comms Dealer readers are concerned that Office 365 will simply be purchased directly from Microsoft, essentially eliminating them from the value chain. GENBAND wants to give them a competitive alternative that preserves their value."

Rewinding the clock, GENBAND was founded in 1999 as General Bandwidth by Paul Carew, Brendon Mills, Ron Lutz and Steve Raich in Austin, Texas, and received initial venture capital funding of $12 million. In 2004, Charles Vogt joined the company as CEO and President. He changed the firm's trajectory by aggressively undertaking a series of acquisitions, the most notable being the Nortel CVAS business in 2010. Along the way General Bandwidth changed its name to GENBAND and moved its headquarters to the Dallas area. While GENBAND started as a small media gateway vendor it has ultimately become an end-to-end solution provider for real-time communications across the world.

"The Nortel acquisition was the company's biggest milestone," said Zweig. "Not only was it a huge undertaking, it also provided the foundation for our current investment structure and management team."

Today, GENBAND is wholly owned by One Equity Partners (OEP) and led by a longtime member of OEP, David Walsh. The firm has more than 1,600 employees and provides real-time communications solutions to 700-plus service providers in over 80 countries. "The rapid acceptance of cloud services is transforming our business," added Zweig. "As a vendor that has built solutions for service providers for years, you could say that GENBAND was building cloud solutions before there was a cloud - it's our wheelhouse.

We're heavily investing in solutions that make cloud communications even more compelling and further drive down the cost and complexity of UC deployments. In addition, the cloud has changed the speed of adoption as customers are no longer limited to the communication provider in their area. We see a major change in how end users and our partners buy and resell services."

Zweig also observes that the consolidation happening in the UCaaS market is good for the industry as the alternative is irrational margin erosion from a constant stream of new entrants. "It just encourages us to look for wholesalers that have staying power, that are financially healthy and willing to continue to invest," he added. "Our Nuvia Cloud UC solution is new to the market so we have to build brand awareness and build more reference accounts in each vertical. Of course, it's already a competitive market but we also know that a majority of the resellers are selling the same solution. We know that we can deliver a differentiated offer so we are excited to build upon our early success and, for example, deliver a lower cost version of our contact centre for SMBs and localise the solution for more European languages."

Zweig says Nuvia will be the obvious growth engine but he expects Kandy to be the difference maker. "VARs will need a way to differentiate, to add value and find sticky services that can't be commoditised," he commented. "Their role has evolved radically as most resellers have had to become services-focused organisations versus classic product VARs. As the cloud becomes more dominating, the services revenue is also in jeopardy. VARs will adjust by becoming more like systems integrators, able to extend cloud services with vertical specific or application specific elements.

"For example, if a medical facility wants to deploy cloud UC, a VAR can't distinguish itself by selling the same solution as five of their rivals. That's why GENBAND developed the Kandy PaaS solution, to help resellers and developers embed communication services that stand out from the herd. Once deployed, these services are sticky enough to reduce price competition. This is the future. People in the industry should not reminisce about 'the good old days'. Times change, and we should appreciate our industry's heritage but not get trapped by it. There are plenty of great opportunities ahead, people just need to accept that we have to change to stay in the game."

Glasgow-based Exsel Group's Managing Director Tom McDonald has the Midas touch. He joined the fledgling company two years ago and quickly mapped out its growth journey towards a glittering SME of the Year nomination at this year's Scottish business awards.

McDonald is a man with growth on his mind. Exsel Group, he says, is perfectly positioned to expand in a market that is not yet crowded. Nevertheless, with elbows out he aims to jostle to top spot north (and south) of the border. "Scotland has a huge business community," he said. "There are a few fantastic ICT companies operating in the country but also room for us to rise and become the leader in the field. Our biggest challenge is learning from our rapid growth and managing the transformation from a small business mindset to that of a medium sized organisation. In three to five years Exsel will be one of the leading ICT brands in the UK. Hard work, determination and an indomitable spirit will get us there."

McDonald joined Exsel two years ago, moving from the Scottish sales office of Belfast-based Rainbow Communications which he headed up. His new remit is to create a strong sales arm and explore new product opportunities and expand the Exsel business. Remarkably, in the span of 24 months the company was nominated for the SME of the Year award at the Scottish business awards. "We have been nominated for a few awards and our growth statistics have been unbelievable, but I never thought that within two years we would be shortlisted as one of the best SMEs in Scotland," commented McDonald.

When he joined Exsel the firm generated just over £100,000 in revenue from 15 IT support contracts. In 2013, McDonald and IT Director Mike Wilson (who founded the company) decided to up the headcount to three, taking on Sales Director Craig Armstrong. The firm now has 36 staff and is poised to open a second office. Last year, revenues of £1 million were achieved and the target this year is over £2.5 million. With the new office up and running Exsel plans to employ around 50 staff with annual revenues approaching £5 million.

"We threw caution to the wind and decided to grow aggressively and reinvest all profits back into growth," said McDonald. "We quickly realised there was a massive gap in the market for an all-encompassing ICT provider so we decided to build strong relationships with mobile and hosted providers to offer our customers a modernised and future proofed ICT solution. The sky is the limit and we have the belief and confidence in ourselves to achieve. We operate an open and fun culture. Everyone knows they have a job to do but they need to enjoy themselves along the way. We give our staff a lot of responsibility and in return everyone at Exsel cares like they own the business. It's an amazing environment to work in."

Exsel Group split off from the old Exsel Digital Company 18 months ago to refocus and concentrate on new products and services. The company currently provides mobile, calls and lines, hosted IP telephony, connectivity, IT services and support. "The products are great but it's all about our sales style," added McDonald. "We never try to win a price war but consult with our customers towards a better way to run their solutions. The area I am working on at the moment is our cloud IT portfolio. I don't want to give away too much but I want something brilliant to take to market in Scotland from the start of next year."

His ethos on all products, no matter how brilliant, is to make it easy for customers to buy them. "We try and simplify everything for the customer, from installation to order process and even the pricing," explained McDonald. "The main strands of our growth strategy have been in business mobile and hosted IP. I see our cloud IT portfolio coming very close in terms of revenue over the next 24 months. Everyone has to be prepared for cloud services. Anyone who hasn't begun the adoption process may be joining a little late."

Another key trend that is driving market demand for Exsel's solutions is the big improvement in connectivity. "We are finally seeing the UK have a level of connectivity that enables new products, and existing products that have been shelved, available to SMEs as well as corporates," added McDonald. "Traditional IT and telephony is by no means gone but there are fantastic solutions that are more cost-effective, more productive, but most importantly available and functional due to the better connection speeds and reliability. This is our focus."

By Andy Grant, Managing Director, Bowan Arrow: What is the point of isolated campaigns? A joined up, integrated and planned approach to marketing campaigns will of course deliver better results.

Here's what I mean by integrated: Firstly, you need to identify the need, in other words, the problem you are trying to solve for your target market. You then need to articulate a solution to the problem you have identified. If you can provide evidence of differentiation, then show how your solution should be considered above your competitors.

Targeted data can really help the success of an integrated campaign.
A truly integrated campaign can take many forms, but today I would advocate including these five communication channels: Social, digital, mobile, print and telemarketing. It may sound like a long list but every element plays a part in creating a successful campaign.

Plan the steps that you would like your prospect to follow and at each step define the action you would like them to take. This will help to ensure that every step has a purpose and that you can track and understand the behaviour of every prospect.

This is where setting up your landing pages in an application like HubSpot is a real benefit, as you can run any number of metrics reports to pinpoint the exact behaviour of each prospect and the performance of every marketing asset that form part of the campaign. I like automation but we still need to use some proven techniques such as print and telemarketing - people still do business with people.

If you are planning to attend a large trade event you should also consider this approach to extend the value of the trade show investment to maximise the programme both pre and post event. Planning your integrated campaigns means success will surely follow.

Billing and channel support business TMS has announced a raft of management changes.

The Abingdon-based company, originally founded by husband and wife team Suzanne and David Chappell, has appointed channel veteran Martin Boiles (pictured) as Managing Director to work alongside fellow directors Duncan Wilkinson and Helen Booker.

Executive Director Wilkinson will take responsibility for strategy and marketing activities, while Booker will look after all the operational aspects of the business. 

Suzanne Chappell steps up to the role of Chairman and David Chappell becomes Executive Director with a special focus on IT.

Wilkinson told Comms Dealer: "Having  expanded our sales force and completely revamped our marketing focus and UK business strategy, we have realigned our board to make sure we take advantage of all the new opportunities which are rapidly developing.

"We are now looking for non-executive directors to help us build on the success we have already achieved."

NG Bailey's IT Services division has been awarded two positions on the Government's Network Services agreement.

Delivered through Crown Commercial Service (CCS), the Network Services agreement (RM1045) provides organisations across the UK public sector with continued access to savings against the delivery of networks and telecommunications services, including the Public Services Network (PSN).

It aims to deliver value, choice and flexibility while ensuring compliance with the government's digital strategy.

"With over 20 years of experience delivering leading voice technologies at scale in the UK's public sector, we are delighted to be extending our services to both our valued existing customers and those new to working with NG Bailey," comments Kelly Tedesco, Business Development Director, NG Bailey's IT Services division.

"Working with Crown Commercial Service, we have already begun supporting some of the largest public sector technology transformation projects in the UK.

"Quality ICT, together with the support of an experienced specialist services provider, can make a huge difference to public bodies across all organisations from education to healthcare, transport and local government.

"We can now ensure that public expenditure on both integrated and traditional telephony systems delivers real value for money."

NG Bailey was awarded a place on the EU compliant agreement following its participation in a competitive tender process.

The Network Services agreement was launched in August 2015 by CCS, an executive agency, sponsored by the cabinet office, which brings together policy, advice and direct buying to provide commercial services to the public sector.

Multi-channel contact centre and telephony applications software vendor CyTrack Intelligence Systems has appointed Steve Cobley to oversee its UK operations.

The appointment follows CyTrack's certification as a Gold and Highlighted product by Panasonic head office in Japan and its recommendation as the preferred product for contact centre solutions.

CyTrack MD Nick Milan said: "We have had a long relationship with Panasonic and this endorsement of our products by Panasonic in Japan gives surety for Panasonic National offices.

"We have direct engagement with the Panasonic Japan R&D teams and that provides great confidence that the right people can get together for creating better solutions."

CyTrack has successful implementations on the Panasonic platform all over the globe including UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and more.

Now being launched in the UK, Panasonic resellers can benefit from CyTrack's suite of modular business solutions including inbound and outbound multi-channel contact centre technology, call reporting, call recording, IVR, customer satisfaction survey tools and team training and evaluation modules.

CyTrack has appointed Steve Cobley to head up UK sales and support, and Gary Moss to lead professional services.

Cobley has been in the industry for nearly four decades at KCom, Rocom and as a former managing director at call recording vendor Retell, while Moss has over a decade of hands-on call centre software and dialler experience.

Cobley said: "Support is a key issue for resellers and I'm confident that they will be impressed by the systems and staff that CyTrack have in place. Helping resellers prepare quotes and providing online product tutorials is just the start.

"We have a project management system based on the Asana collaboration software so resellers and their customers can check plans and progress, and leave comments as required.

"For our issue resolution ticketing system we selected the Zendesk customer service software because - like CyTrack's own software - it handles multiple communication channels, and enables us to stay on top of any problems our partners or their customers are experiencing."

The CyTrack suite of products is available to Panasonic resellers in the UK via Trust Distribution.

One of the UK's fastest growing ice hockey clubs has brought in Excalibur Communications to enhance and manage its mobile and fixed line telephone system.

With attendances increasing every year for the past five seasons, Swindon Wildcats of the English Premier League had expanded its operations to include ticket bookings (previously managed by the local council), requiring its communications to be far more robust, flexible and easily managed.

Wildcats staff also needed more scope away from the office to network at events, raise awareness of the club and attract sponsors.

Excalibur has introduced Vodafone's One Net, a hosted telephone system that integrates fixed and mobile devices through a fully managed platform. One Net provides online access for managing call routing and handling, which ensures calls aren't missed.

Steve Nell, Managing Director of the Swindon Wildcats, commented: "Excalibur soon grasped what we wanted to achieve and their consultative approach has seamlessly developed into great service to support our revenue streams. We already feel like Excalibur is another arm to our business."

Wildcats' personnel can now leave the office and divert calls to mobile or engage their 'virtual secretary' to take messages. With one central voicemail, everyone can retrieve messages so that they can be dealt with much faster, including the large number of out of hours calls.

Lines into the club have been increased and are now more reliable, with calls immediately routed to the right member of staff. As the whole Swindon Wildcats operation continues to grow, the club can now add lines as and when required to support its expansion.

Content Guru has been named as a finalist in two categories at this year's Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards (TVBMAs), making the shortlist for the Dynamic Business and also the flagship Business of the Year categories.

The annual Awards, organised by the Thames Valley Business Magazine, will be held again at the Madejski Stadium in Reading on 19th November.

This year's TVBMAs will be hosted by BAFTA award-winning news presenter Huw Edwards and award-winning journalist Nadine Dereza.

It is the first time that Content Guru has been nominated for the Dynamic Business of the Year award, which celebrates businesses that have demonstrated ambition and drive to seize opportunities in their marketplace.

It is the third year running that Content Guru has been shortlisted for the overall Business of the Year award.

Content Guru CEO, Sean Taylor, commented: "2015 has marked our most successful year yet, with expansion into both Germany and the US and Content Guru's recognition by Gartner as the leading Challenger in the European Cloud Contact Centre market.

"With our tenth anniversary just around the corner, it is wonderful to have our achievements recognised in our home region as we continue to expand internationally."

CDI Comms, part of the CDI Group of companies, has laid the foundations for a 20% rise in revenue in 2016, backed by a new-look website, its first ever telemarketing team and an expanded engineering workforce.

The Birmingham-based company works in close partnership with distributor Nimans and specialises in providing clients with a competitive market advantage through advanced communication technologies such as telephone systems, hosted platforms, call recording, data networks and unified communications.

CDI Comms supplies and installs equipment from Panasonic as well as Wi-Fi solutions from Samsung.

"CDI Comms is the telecommunications division of CDI Group which was founded in 1987 as a data specialist company," said Sales Director Andrew Forster. "By comparison, CDI Comms is a relatively new trading division set-up last year. Business is brisk and exceeding all expectations."

"We are committed to helping our customers solve their ICT problems with innovative technology. The CDI Group operates across many market sectors, not only in the UK but across Europe, Asia and America.

"We employ over 60 technical staff at our Birmingham and Newcastle offices, which affords us the flexibility and control essential to make sure we provide the very best service to a demanding market."