Comms Dealer

VoIP Distributors ProVu has added the Polycom range of SIP phones and Konftel conferencing phones to its automated provisioning services.

In a step to broaden the firm's provisioning capabilities ProVu's technical team have developed ProSys, a hosted provisioning platform to support both Polycom and Konftel.

ProVu has been providing resellers with a fully automated provisioning service for Snom, Yealink, Gigaset, Cisco and Panasonic for many years. Now, ProVu's provisioning service provides resellers with the ability to ship Polycom and Konftel phones direct to their customer's site and obtain their settings. Phones provisioned by ProVu just need to be connected and they will work out of the box.

ProVu's Managing Director, Darren Garland commented: "Adding the Polycom and Konftel provisioning to ProSys is a natural step forward for ProVu. It allows us to further support our ever increasing number of service providers and resellers with the wrap around services they expect from us."

Solar Communications has relocated its Salford-based office to new premises in Manchester with a state-of-the-art demonstration suite and service desk training room, which provides the space and accessibility for the service desk to test equipment and train employees. The office is also a hot-desking site for the northern sales team.

New CEO John Whitty said: "We have had a base in Salford for a number of years and it's proved to be an important location for our UK business. The new office will be a hub for the service and sales team and will be a focus for expanding our team, creating job opportunities in the local area."

Arrow has joined forces with CompTIA to launch The Cloud Enablement Programme via a webinar.

The Cloud Enablement Programme has been designed to help businesses transition to new cloud service models and maximise the potential of selling cloud services.

The programme offers a portfolio of enablement resources, consultancy, marketing, training and knowledge transfer. It aims to empower Arrow's channel customers to grow a profitable and sustainable cloud services business by eliminating both cost and complexity from development and delivery.

In addition to a webinar, CompTIA is offering free training in partnership with Arrow as part of the Cloud Enablement Programme. "We're excited to see the Cloud Enablement Programme complement our IT Channel Cloud content and other education offerings, as well as our Cloud+ certification," says Leanne Johnson, Engagement Manager for CompTIA. "Together, we offer a set of services to the industry so that companies of all sizes can implement cloud solutions with confidence."

David Fearne, Technical Director at Arrow ECS, added: "As cloud computing creates unique opportunities to generate more value from and for customers, it is important that businesses learn how to deliver cloud-related products and services. The Cloud Enablement Programme is basically designed to take all the stress away."

Exertis has signed an exclusive agreement with new smartphone manufacturer, Wileyfox, for the distribution of its devices in the UK.

Wileyfox is differentiating its first portfolio of devices in partnership with the operating system, Cyanogen, which is an enhanced version of Android, built on top of Google's releases of that platform.

Wileyfox is the first mobile manufacturer to offer the new commercial variant of Cyanogen 12.1 within Europe. The operating system is fully supported and embedded on Wileyfox devices.

Simon Woodman, Mobile Sales Director at Exertis, said: "Exertis is always focused on bringing the cutting edge of technology to its customers, and this new mobile operating system puts us on the bleeding edge. We expect the user base of Cyanogen and therefore Wileyfox's device sales to grow exponentially, and we are helping our resellers to get these exciting products out to end users," Woodman concluded.

Cyanogen was first named in 2009 and since then has been continuously worked on by developers around the world under the open source project 'CyanogenMod', which has been openly supported by many of the major phone manufacturers globally.

Today millions of Android mobile device users around the world are running downloads of CyanogenMod on their handsets, taking advantage of the customisation, privacy and security features that the operating system offers. However, Cyanogen has not hit the mainstream due to warrantee implications as it has not been a commercially supported operating system.

Amazon is selling Wileyfox's first two devices through Exertis and is shipping a significant number of units per day; Amazon is set to exceed unit shipment expectations this quarter, said Woodman.

Nick Muir, CEO at Wileyfox, commented: "Wileyfox is delighted to be the first brand to bring the latest Cyanogen OS, adding customisation, privacy and security features to Android 5.1."

M12 Solutions and Wessex Internet have officially joined the London Internet Exchange, also known as LINX - a neutral, mutually owned organisation of ISPs and content delivery service providers (CDSPs).

With over 300 members collectively carrying the majority of UK Internet traffic, LINX is the largest membership organisation for ISPs and CDSPs in the UK.

"This means that we are now part of an elite group of ISPs who are able to provide our customers with direct links to a number of major websites including Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Apple, BBC and Dropbox," said spokesperson.

"These direct links mean that rather than our traffic going from our network, on a route through various intermediary networks and then to the site they choose, for example Google, it goes straight from our network to Google. This provides greater resilience, reduced latency and better performing solutions to customers."

Customer contact technology specialist Sabio has been recognised for a second successive year fir its 40% growth in sales of Avaya UC&C solutions, picking up Westcon Group's 2015 UK & Ireland Growth Partner award.

"Over the last two years Sabio has grown its provision of Avaya solutions through Westcon distribution by an impressive 88%, while at the same time continuing to innovate, particularly in key sectors such as the mid-market," commented Garry Boon, General Manager for WestconGroup UK Unified Communication and Collaboration Solutions.

"Sabio's success is a result not only of strong growth in its Avaya enterprise business, but also through a commitment to innovation - with sales of its Sabio OnDemand hosted solution based on Avaya's midmarket portfolio already achieving over $1m in just six months since bringing the new product to market."

Sabio Director Andy Roberts said: "This award also recognises Sabio's commitment to growing not just our traditional Avaya enterprise business, but also innovating in the mid-market sector where we were able to design, build and bring to market our hosted Avaya-based Sabio OnDemand solution in under six months. We look forward to building on this success with WestconGroup, as we target further growth from our long-established Avaya relationship."

Employees of True Telecom have raised £430 for the Kent-based charity SCAR Crockenhill.

Over the past three months employees have been donating £2 to leave their suits at home on the last Friday of each month, opting instead to wear their home clothes.

SCAR Crockenhill is a non profit animal rescue and re-homing centre, based in Crockenhill, funded entirely by donations and run entirely by volunteers.

Christie Fogden, Head of Community Fundraising at SCAR Crockenhill commented: "We would like to say a huge thank you to True Telecom, Dartford, for the amazing £430 they raised for us by having a dress down day and donating to us for the privilege!"

Stuart Griffiths, CEO of True Telecom added: "We've seen huge growth as a business over the past few months and nothing makes us come together more than supporting charitable causes in our local area. Supporting charity has always been a priority here at True, so it's a real pleasure to raise some valuable funds for the charity SCAR Crockenhill."

Distributor Northamber PLC reported a narrowed pretax loss for its most recently ended financial year and said it remains 'prudently optimistic' it will provide a profitable business for the future. Shares were marked down in London.

For the year to end-June the company reported a pretax loss of £886,000, narrowed from a pretax loss of £1.2m a year before, as revenue rose to £65.5m from £62.9m.

The company labelled its performance a year of 'contrasting fortunes', with a positive first half performance followed by a second half that was hit by disruption surrounding the release of Windows 10 software.

Microsoft announced the cancellation of Windows 9 in March and launched Windows 10 in July. This drove uncertainty in the commercial user sector, producing a 'strong hiatus' in otherwise normal anticipated demand run-rates, it says. After the release of Windows 10, reports of problems with the product led to this hiatus continuing.

"While commercial users continue to seek to fully understand the new operating system's exact capabilities, or limitations, and the effect on their established in-use legacy software and hardware, they are largely refusing to commit to further hardware or software purchases," the company said.

Northamber proposed a final dividend of 0.3 pence, which brings its total dividend for the year to 0.6 pence, in line with the previous year.

"Although remaining optimistic regarding the future of the company, at this point in time I am unable to forecast the immediate future with any certainty but will continue to use our very best endeavours to deliver change and continue to aggressively dilute our empty revenue exposure to the commercial impossibilities of the mainstream hardware based sector," said Chairman David Phillips in a statement.

Resellers are best placed to cross-sell energy and exploit falling prices but only if they act fast, according to telecoms entrepreneur Simon Payne. He urges resellers to add energy to their  service portfolio on a wholesale basis and is offering cash up front for deals won through his wholesale energy business Fidelity Energy.

Payne said: "My partner Alan Shraga and I have dipped deeply into the funds we generated from the sales of Cable Telecom and VNetworks to offer up front cash commissions on wholesale and direct energy deals.

"The industry norm is to receive commissions month-on-month over the life of the contract. We are offering as much as three years cash up front. In some cases, this can even be upon signing the order, which helps if the handover doesn't occur for a year."

Payne and Shraga, who now run Henley-based ICT service provider Fidelity Group, have made millions in the telecoms industry for themselves and their reseller partners over the last 15 years and have now negotiated deals with 14 of the UK's top energy companies to launch Fidelity Energy.

Payne says his new enterprise has generated £11.7m of energy contracts in just nine months by selling to the existing base of clients managed by Fidelity Group.

He says the net profit on this revenue is £920k and is now rolling out a wholesale energy model to enable other channel businesses to cash in fast on the current energy prices which are at an all-time low.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally cleared BT Group's planned takeover of mobile phone network EE.

According to the CMA the £12.5bn takeover announced in February, was would not bring 'a substantial lessening of competition' in the UK.

The proposed acquisition would enable BT to accelerate its existing mobility strategy with seamless services that combine fibre broadband, Wi-Fi and 4G.