Comms Dealer

Charlie Blakemore has joined Intercity Technology's Board of Directors as Non-Executive Director.

His current roles are Business and Transformation Director at BAE Systems Military Air & Information (MAI), and Chairman of a pension scheme with a fund of £300m and circa 2,000 members.

In his role at BAE Systems, Blakemore is responsible for transforming business performance of an organisation with a £4.6bn turnover and a 13,000-strong workforce.

Blakemore has also achieved success in the sports arena. He has played for, coached and managed football teams at a semi-professional level. And in 2007 he set a record when he managed his local football team, Chasetown, to the third round of the FA Cup. The lowest ranked side to reach the FA Cup third round.

Andrew Jackson, Chief Executive for Intercity Technology, said: "Charlie brings a wealth of experience and a network of contacts to support the Intercity Technology management team in delivering the growth strategy and acquisition plans of the business."

"Alongside his corporate credentials, Charlie is a fantastic people-person and can transcend from the boardroom right through to the football changing room."

Blakemore added: "I look forward to using the experience I have gained in my professional and personal endeavours to help further develop the high quality of solutions and services that Intercity Technology are already providing for their customers."

Webroot has added Northamber to its UK channel distribution for endpoint security. Northamber is complementing its product portfolio with Webroot SecureAnywhere Business Endpoint Protection.

"Our strategic partnership with Webroot provides us with intelligent endpoint protection that ensures our customers are secure against emerging threats," said Andrew Birch, business unit manager at Northamber.

"We plan to take market penetration of Webroot SecureAnywhere offerings and real-time threat intelligence to the next level."

Adam Nash, EMEA channel manager at Webroot, added: "The demand for Webroot products and services is growing quickly in Europe, and we look forward to working with Northamber and their customers as we expand across the UK."

A brace of deal wins have boosted Thevoicefactory's (TVF) advance into key verticals with premium partners scooping big deals in the hospitality and automative sectors.

One partner secured a contract to provide over 14,000 UC extensions across 40 UK hotels for a global hotel chain. The project is expected to be completed mid-2016

The solution integrates into hospitality software products including guest checkin/out, wake-up call, real-time billing, maid services and mini bar.

TVF Commercial Director Paul Harrison said: "We also developed a full Disaster Avoidance solution that enables the guest room to call the hotel or emergency services if the WAN is unavailable. This solution, including emergency service dialling, can now be implemented in 20 countries with regulatory support across Europe."

TVF's UC solutions are deployed in hotels and sales offices across 10 countries with thousands of bedrooms live.

In the automative vertical, TVF's BroadSoft powered UC solution is being rolled out across 14 UK car dealerships in over 100 sites.

The deployment includes thousands of hosted IP phones providing all telephony and UC requirements such as call centre, PCI compliant call recording with Sentiment capability, along with call analytics. 

"This rollout will continue to grow for many years to come with the target being tens of thousands of hosted extensions deployed," added Harrison. 

"Working with our joint development and support teams we have delivered software applications that enable the automotive industry to innovate and increase productivity with predictable costs.

"Utilising our BroadSoft platform with open APIs and test lab we have delivered a UC solution enabling all services to be delivered from the cloud.

"Our goal is to continue developing solutions that enable partners to move their customers to the cloud."

Zest4 is introducing M2M services to its network of reseller partners following a link up with Arkessa. The partnership meets demand from resellers looking to realise the growth opportunity in M2M and IoT services in sectors such as transport, construction, healthcare and property management.

Arkessa enables IoT device and applications developers to connect to the Internet of Things, regardless of network operator or radio technology.

Its managed services span single and multi-network cellular with first time connect capability and secure communications.

Mandy Fazelynia, Zest4's Operations Director, said: "The opportunity for growth and therefore revenue generation in this sector is huge, with predictions of over 10 million connected M2M devices by the end of 2015 in the UK.

"Our partnership with Arkessa allows us to transform and develop the M2M opportunity through our channel partner programme, thereby making entry into this market a reality for all of our partners."

Andrew Orrock, Arkessa's CEO, added: "The addition of Arkessa Machine-to-Machine services to the Zest4 communications portfolio creates an innovative and high-tempo partnership benefiting telecoms resellers across the UK."

The Twin Town Challenge 2016 has almost reached its 100 car limit and STL Communications MD Brendon Cross, the event organiser, has urged anyone wanting to take part to act fast and register now.

Last year 50 cars costing just £500 invaded France in a fun filled points based challenge to raise money for SpecialEffect. Next year organisers are doubling the event and taking 100 cars with the aim of raising twice as much for the charity.

Registrations are now open for the 2016 Twin Town Challenge which will see 100 cars costing £500 drive from Witney to its twin town of Le Touquet over a bank holiday weekend. Departing from the majestic setting of Blenheim Palace, the cars will travel to Brands Hatch for some driving challenges before heading to the tunnel and a civic reception in Le Touquet. The weekend will also include a visit to the Criox en Ternois circuit, a street party with live bands, a 'money can't buy auction' and a celebration event back at the finish in Oxfordshire .

Organiser Brendon Cross, MD of STL Communications, said: "The 2014 event raised £130,000 for SpecialEffect and made such a huge difference to this small charity. Couple that with the demand from teams to repeat the event, we decided to take 100 cars and raise £250,000 Businesses and groups of individuals can enter a team of up to four people."

SpecialEffect is an Oxfordshire-based charity that puts fun and inclusion back into the lives of people with physical disabilities by helping them to play video games.

Nick Streeter of SpecialEffect commented: "The twin Town Challenge was the biggest ever donation we have ever had and it has enabled us to employ another Occupational therapist, set up an assessment room and to help more people beat their physical disabilities to enjoy video games."

Sponsors for the 2016 event already include Gamma, Oak, Bridle and Focus who have given generously so that all the costs are covered, meaning that every penny given by the teams goes straight to the charity.

Cross added: "I am grateful to some of STL's friends and supporters for their very valuable support in sponsoring the 2016 event."

The Twin Town Challenge 2016 will take place from 27th to 30th May 2016. With places limited to 100 cars, businesses and individuals are being encouraged to register at www.twintown16.co.uk in order to guarantee a place on the starting grid.

To find out more visit www.twintown16.co.uk or contact the organisers on 01993 220666

We are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2015 Comms National Awards.

"The judges have deliberated long and hard to select this year's shortlist and we owe a debt of gratitude to them for the hard work and diligence they have demonstrated throughout the process," said Comms Dealer Editorial Director Nigel Sergent.

"The volume of entries this year was unprecedented - 30% up on last year - which demonstrates the esteem in which the Comms National Awards are held. The judges were also impressed with the quality of the award entries which seem to improve year on year. Those who did not make the shortlist it will be disappointed, but they will compensated by the fact that the standards were so high."

The finalists will now assemble at the imposing Grand Connaught Rooms in London's Covent Garden for the glittering 2015 Comms National Awards ceremony, sponsored by Nine Wholesale, where the winners and highly commended entries will be unveiled.

To book your table at the industry night of the year contact Simon Turton on 01895 454603 or 07759 731134 or vial email sturton@bpl-business.com

COMMS NATIONAL AWARDS 2015 SHORTLIST

VENDOR AWARDS

Network Category

Best Mobile Network Provider

O2

VODAFONE

Best Fixed Line Network Provider

BT WHOLESALE

ENTANET

GAMMA

GCI

VIRTUAL 1

VOICEFLEX

Service Provider Category under £10m

Best Wholesale Service Provider (under £10m t/o)

CHANNEL TELECOM

FIDELITY GROUP

GENIUS NETWORKS

MARSTONS TELECOMS

VAIONI

VOICEFLEX

VOICEHOST

ZEST 4

Service Provider Category over £10m

Best Wholesale Service Provider (above £10m t/o)

CHESS PARTNER SERVICES

DAISY WHOLESALE

ENTANET

GCI CHANNEL SOLUTIONS

HIGHNET

NIMANS NETWORK SERVICES

VIATEL

VIRTUAL 1

Best ISP

ECLIPSE

ENTANET

GAMMA

HIGHNET

SPITFIRE

VENUS

ZEN INTERNET

Mobile Data Category (Sponsored by O2)

Best Mobile/Mobile Data Wholesale Service Provider

2CIRCLES

ARKESSA

COMMS 365

PANGEA

PLAN

WIRELESS LOGIC

Telephony Category

Best SME On Premise System

3CX

ERICSSON LG

GCI CHANNEL SOLUTIONS

PANASONIC

SNOM

Best Enterprise On Premise System

3CX

ERICSSON LG

IP CORTEX

Best End Point or Device

ERICSSON LG

JABRA

SENNHEISER

Best Hosted Platform

BT WHOLESALE

CONTENT GURU

DAISY WHOLESALE

GAMMA

IP CORTEX

MYPHONES

SPITFIRE

THE VOICE FACTORY

Software & Application Category (sponsored by Spitfire)

Best Call Management Solution

BCS GLOBAL

CONTENT GURU

ENGHOUSE INTERACTIVE

IP CORTEX

TOLLRING

XARIOS

Best Billing Platform

ANVIL

EBILLZ

INFORM BILLING

PLAN

TMS

UNION STREET

Support Category (sponsored by Voiceflex)

Best Convergence Distributor

EXERTIS

NIMANS

PRAGMA

PROVU

SIPHON NETWORKS LTD

WESTCON UC

Best Mobile Distributor

DAISY DISTRIBUTION

PLAN

TECH DATA

TOTAL

Best Installer/Maintainer

AGILITAS

COMMSCARE

EXERTIS

RESELLER AWARDS

Contact Centre Category

Best SME Contact Centre Solution

ANTHEUS TELECOM

BDR VOICE & DATA

FRONTIER VOICE & DATA

IP SOLUTIONS

TRUE TELECOM

Best Enterprise Contact Centre Solution

ANTHEUS TELECOM

BDR VOICE & DATA

BRITANNIC TECHNOLOGIES

CALLSTREAM

COGNIA

IP INTEGRATION

Vertical Market Category (sponsored by Union St)

Best SME Vertical Market Solution

CHARTERHOUSE VOICE & DATA

CLOUDSOURCE TECHNOLOGIES

ECLIPSE INTERNET

GHM COMMUNICATIONS

GREENFIELDS

INCOM

SOLUTION IP

Best Enterprise Vertical Market Solution

CHARTERHOUSE VOICE & DATA

CISILION

CONTENT GURU

EXCELL GROUP

FOCUS

NG BAILEY

QDOS

Mobile Solutions Category (sponsored by O2)

Best SME Mobile/Mobile Data Solution

COMMS 365

EXSEL

iDATA

SAS

Best Enterprise Mobile/Mobile Data Solution

ASL

COMMS 365

COMMS SOLVE

EXCELL GROUP

PANGEA

SAS

Hosted Category

Best SME Hosted Solution

ETHOS

GREENFIELDS

INFINITY IT SOLUTIONS

LA CONNECT

LILY COMMS

Best Enterprise Hosted Solution

ANNODATA

CALLSTREAM

INFINITY IT SOLUTIONS

Unified Comms Category (sponsored by Jabra)

Best SME UC Solution

EXSEL

FREEDOM

INCOM

LILY COMMS

MIDLAND NETWORKS

MPS

SOLAR COMMUNICATIONS

Best Enterprise UC Solution

AZZURRI

CHARTERHOUSE VOICE & DATA

CISILION

FREEDOM

INTERCITY TECHNOLOGY

SOUTHERN COMMUNICATIONS

Special Awards

Nine Customer Service Award

ICA

IP SOLUTIONS

LILY COMMS

PSU TECHNOLOGY GROUP

GCI MD John Whitty has moved to Solar Communications as CEO and will leverage his 30 years industry experience to develop the company's portfolio and technical expertise and drive transformational growth. Whitty led GCI during its transformation from a traditional comms provider to become a provider of cloud, hosted voice and connectivity managed services.

At Solar Communications Whitty is charged with replicating GCI's transformation by driving operational effectiveness and developing the company's market proposition.

He said: "The Solar board has provided a clear mandate of obtaining growth and service excellence. Given its significant, existing client base and dedication to service, Solar now has an excellent opportunity to become the service provider of choice for all client communications and ICT requirements."

Mark Colquhoun, founder and majority shareholder of Solar Communications, will be a director on the board and focus on the strategic growth through acquisitions, sourcing new business opportunities and key partnerships.

Colquhoun said: "John has a proven ability to drive transformational growth, with the kind of operational leadership experience that we need to realise Solar's ambitious plans."

Ben Marnham, Chairman of Solar Communications, added: "John's experience of growing businesses through organic and inorganic means, combined with his technical heritage, further strengthens our ability to execute on our strategic plan of building an exceptional managed services provider."

John Whitty began his career as an engineer in the British Army and has held various senior technical posts since then, including CTO at Pipex during an acquisitive and organic growth period prior to its disposal to TalkTalk and private equity acquirers. Whitty has an MSc in Data Communications.

Enterprise data security company Vormetric has appointed Chris Smith as EMEA Director of Channels.

Joining from Fortinet, and reporting directly to the company's vice president and general manager EMEA, Louise Bulman, he will have responsibility for overseeing all of Vormetric's EMEA channel activities.

Smith will be in charge of developing and driving Vormetric's existing channel programme in the region, with a focus on new partner recruitment and establishing solid go to market plans with existing and new partners across the UK and Europe.

"The relationships we share with our channel partners are of the utmost importance and vital to the continued success of our business," said Bulman. "As an all-channel company, the distributors and resellers we work with are the ones we rely on to bring our products to market and, crucially, close business deals every single day."

Smith previously served as head of Channel UK and Ireland at Kaspersky Lab and, before that, director channels Northern Europe at McAfee Security.

"Whether tokenisation, application encryption, cloud encryption gateway or third party key management and Teradata encryption solutions, Vormetric tackles today's most pressing data security challenges head-on," said Smith.

Former MD of audio conferencing company Worldwide Group Paul Bailey is in a stable condition in hospital following a crash during a charity motor show in Hal Farrug, Malta, which also left 26 spectators injured.

Bailey's £750,000 Porsche Spyder span out of control and ploughed through the safety barrier into the crowd. 

Bailey, 55, and his wife Selena each owned 45% of the private shares in Worldwide Group Holdings and sold the business to Daisy in 2012 for £28m.

Lynchwood-based Worldwide Group was founded in 2001 and reported revenues of £36.4m and EBITDA of £4m in 2011, before its acquisition.

Bailey also made the headlines when he became the first person to own the 'Holy Trinity of hypercars' - the McLaren P1, LaFerrari and Porsche 918.

Mitel has bolstered its sales operations in EMEA with the appointment of two new sales executives.

The appointments come as Mitel expands its cloud and integrated real-time communications offering across Western Europe.

Wolfram Fischer joins the vendor as Senior Vice President for EMEA, moving from Aruba Networks EMEA.

In a previous role he managed EMEA and APAC for Siemens Enterprise Communications; and worked at HP heading up the Professional Services Unit in EMEA, managing the Enterprise Hardware and Service Business in Germany and was worldwide head of sales for the HP Services Unit.

Mitel has also appointed Christian Fron as Vice President of Sales for the DACH region having previously been Managing Director of DeTeWe. Fron's role will supplement the existing sales leads in EMEA.

These appointments coincide with the simplication of Mitel's Western Europe sales structure.

Graham Bevington, Mitel's Chief Sales Officer, said: "We see the business communications market in EMEA as being on the verge of a technology revolution, as enterprises and carriers start to adopt new cloud-based and mobile services to drive their business.

"With over 25 years of experience, Wolfram Fischer and Christian Fron were selected based on their knowledge and expertise in the industry. They are the right choice to shape Mitel's transformation to real-time cloud and mobile solution providers."

Fischer said: "Mitel is primed to embrace the next evolution of real-time communications."

Fron added: "Moving to a DACH regional structure simplifies and leverages Mitel's best practice across the German speaking markets, ensuring our partners and customers have immediate access to the right specialists regardless of geography, and a more effective support network around developments in future technology trends."