Comms Dealer

ProVu's founder and Sales Director Ian Godfrey is to retire from the business paving the way for incoming Sales Director Craig Herrett who joins the distributor from VoIPon Solutions where he was COO following a stint as Sales Manager.

Herrett (pictured) brings 20 years sales experience and is no stranger ProVu MD Darren Garland who stated: "Having known Craig for a number of years I have always admired his approach to work and his enthusiasm."

Herrett added: "I will support the next level of growth while ensuring we stay true to ProVu's core values."

Start-up wireless networking distributor Cogent Distribution has plugged a gap in the UK channel market by offering an alternative set of solutions to resellers of wireless and mobile connectivity, claims MD Jim Kernahan.

The company launched this month following a link-up with Peplink which provides SD-WAN, load balancing, VPN and proprietary bonding solutions designed to increase and secure wireless bandwidth.

"The rapid expansion of mobile and smart devices underscores the importance of delivering reliable, high speed wireless connectivity," said Kernahan.

He also noted that the company has three core focus areas - high speed outdoor fixed wireless, indoor wireless and mobile data routing - and that technical expertise and fast product availability are also a priority.

"In the UK and Ireland there is a significant opportunity to bring Peplink products to a far wider audience," added Kernahan. "We are well placed to do so and looking forward to the challenge."

The Peplink portfolio is supported by radio solutions from Siklu and Mobile Mark's range of antennas that work with Peplink's mobile data routing products, as well as covering other areas of wireless connectivity.
?"Cogent is working closely with a number of manufacturers to deliver new products, consultancy and design services that integrate into existing customer infrastructures," confirmed Kernahan.

Analyst forecasts indicate that spending on wireless telecoms worldwide will hit circa $871bn by the end of 2017.

PMGC has acquired fellow Vodafone Total Communications Partner Pure Business Services for an undisclosed sum. The combined entity boasts over 70,000 connections and annual revenues of between £16m to £20m.

PMGC hopes that the deal will give it the critical mass and scale to become one of the largest independent telecoms and IT managed solutions providers in the UK, operating out of six offices (London, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Northampton, Manchester) and with an increased headcount of 110.

Shez Cheema will remain as CEO of the enlarged business. He previously played a key role at Azzurri Communications where, as CFO, he was involved in 16 acquisitions over a six year period that took the business to circa £150m turnover.

John Handley, CIO of Finance Birmingham and former Head of Lloyds Development Capital becomes Chairman of the business.

PMGC's Sam O'Donnell continues as COO while Pure's Ricky Bayliss takes the Head of Converged Services role.

Cheema said: "Growing the business organically and moving us from a pure play fixed and mobile provider to a unified telecoms and IT fully managed service provider is now our sole focus.

"The acquisition of Pure provides us with the springboard to enable some ambitious longer-term strategic aims that include IP voice, IT hosting and cloud computing.

"Further capability based acquisitions are being considered, and we are in discussions with a number of strategic IT, mobile and fixed line partners."

Helen Freestone, Partnership and Alliances Director at Vodafone UK, added: "It's exciting news to see two strong Vodafone Total Communications Partners coming together.

"Combining their range of skills in mobile, Unified Communications and IT services will be key as businesses increasingly look for fully integrated communications and technology support."

Pure was formed in 2006 and has a head office in Northampton and satellite office in Warrington. The firm generates £8m-plus annual turnover and is also a Strategic Gamma Partner.

Twenty four top channel sellers descended on PalmerSport's race track for KCOM's annual Fastest 4 racing incentive event on June 7th. Head of Channel Sales Henry West hosted the day which saw delegates put through their paces by Ben Collins, Top Gear's longest running Stig.

Collins said: "KCOM's 2017 Fastest 4 event produced a thrilling duel between two teams of tech-savvy speed merchants.

"They treated the brake pedal like the enemy and scorched around former F1 racer Jonathan Palmer's circuit like a swarm of cruise missiles.

"Driving the sporty Renault Clio Cup, twitchy Ariel Atom and bruising BMW M4 GTP cars was a new experience for many guests, and one that will take some weeks for both the cars and the racing instructors to recover from.

"I always try to ensure that I have the last word, and taking the guests for a time attack as passengers aboard the Palmer JP Le Mans car was one way to guarantee they left with a smile across their faces and, in some cases, a little lunch too."

The day conclude with prizes that rewarded driving skills, racing etiquette and all else in between.

KCOM's Fastest 4 incentive continues to attract new partners such as Jackie Killiard, Sales Manager at Diva Telecom, who enthused: "What could top being driven around the track at Palmer Sport by ex-Stig Ben Collins? Nothing!"

Channel Telecom has attributed a run of record breaking month-on-month Managed Internet Access Services sales to its commercial proposition and the launch of OPTIC, an online pricing portal.

Stuart Burdett, Head of Data Services, said: "Demand for cloud-based services is also a key driver for business grade connectivity. And since the launch of Nimbus UC in August last year our Ethernet orders have soared."

MD Clifford Norton enthused: "Successes like this motivate us to keep pushing the boundaries to find out what else might be possible.

"As interest in Nimbus UC grows we're noticing a series of positive knock-on effects throughout the organisation - and it's fantastic."

IT services provider NTT Data has appointed Simon Williams
as UK CEO, taking over from Steve Mitchener who retired in May.

Williams, who was previously Head of Telco Media, Insurance Consulting and Digital at the firm, said: " We have grown by over 20% year-on-year for the past four years and I am excited to take on the role of CEO as our business continues to go from strength to strength."

He started the consultancy Value Team in 2008 as CEO. After the NTT DATA acquisition of Value Team in 2012, he has held full P&L accountability for Telco Media, Insurance Consulting and Digital at NTT Data UK and is also responsible for global client account development. Recent successes have included the launch of NTT Data Digital.

Patrizio Mapelli, NTT Data CEO for EMEA, added: "Simon will drive growth in the UK with consulting-led client engagement, enabling our clients to create value through technology innovation and transformational change."

Ingram Micro has opened up to the channel its expanded configuration capabilities following the launch of a new service that builds on its acquisition of Comms-Care in May 2016.

The services will be delivered from its facility in Crick, Northamptonshire.

Matt Sanderson, Ingram Micro UKI MD, commented: "After the acquisition of Comms-care it was only a matter of time before both joined forces.

"In doing so we have been able to up-skill our configuration centre which now has dedicated Comms-care engineers on site, enabling a higher level of service through improved capabilities, where previously this was limited."

The Comms-care Configuration Service sits within the broader Ingram Micro service portfolio and supports its professional services offering.

Nimans's most dedicated staff who go the extra mile for customers and colleagues have been rewarded with a four day trip to Dubai, the culmination of this year's The Edge incentive scheme which is open to all employees who, if they win, can bring along their partners.

Mat Weall, Head of Sales Operations, said: "The Edge recognises, nurtures and inspires the highest levels of performance and engagement. The winners had an amazing time in Dubai and I'm looking forward to seeing who rises to the top this year."

The Dubai trip follows last years New York break and this year Nimans has lined up Monte Carlo as the star prize.

The ascent of cloud-based security has been underlined by figures from Gartner which suggest that the global market value in 2017 is up 21% on last year at $5.9bn.

Analysts have confirmed that the market will remain strong and predicts that the cloud-based security services market will hit $9bn by 2020.

Security information and event management (SIEM) and identity management access (IAM) along with emerging technologies are the fastest growing cloud-based security services segments, according to Gartner.

"Email security, web security and identity and IAM remain organisations' top three cloud priorities," stated Gartner analyst Ruggero Contu.

Emerging technologies include threat intelligence enablement, cloud-based malware sandboxes, cloud-based data encryption, endpoint protection management, threat intelligence and web application firewalls (WAFs).

Gartner says SMBs are driving growth in the cloud-based security services market as they are becoming more aware of security threats and have noted that cloud deployments can also reduce costs.

"The cloud medium is a natural fit for the needs of SMBs," added Contu. "Its ease of deployment and management, pay-as-you-consume pricing and simplified features make this delivery model attractive for organisations that lack staffing resources."

Gartner has also put a spotlight on new security defences and techniques that it says should be considered in 2017.

These include cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP), remote browsers that keep attacks off machines, deception security to trick and confuse hackers trying to attack systems, endpoint detection and response to pinpoint unusual behaviour, network traffic analysis, managed detection and response (MDR) third party services, micro-segmentation to limit damage from a breach, software-defined perimeters (SDP) and container security.

New Star Networks (NSN) has bagged hosted telephony provider iB2i and according to NSN CEO Mark Shraga the deal will add further value to iB2i's customers.

"The NSN service wrap will significantly upgrade iB2i's client experience," he stated.

iB2i MD Kamal Hussain added: "We chose NSN as it's a natural progression for our SME focused business offering.

"We aim to grow in partnership with NSN and ensure the personal touch is never lost along the way."