Comms Dealer

Last month's roll out of ShoreTel Connect (a common platform for on-site, cloud and hybrid deployments) has been followed up by the launch of a revamped partner programme.

The vendor says its Champion Partner Programme has been streamlined and is designed to dovetail with its new Connect platform, encompassing both cloud and onsite sales.

The scheme has moved to a points-based reward system with one annual target. It merges the cloud and onsite partner tracks and consolidates 11 tiers into four.

To help partners sell cloud-based solutions the vendor has established a Cloud Implementation Academy that offers free modular training courses, and those who gain certification above minimum requirements qualify for extra points that count towards their tier targets.

David Petts, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, commented: "Partners choose what to sell based on customer needs and are rewarded regardless of where they put their resources. The programme enhancements complement the ShoreTel Connect platform by rewarding partners no matter which deployment model the customer selects."

In other changes to the programme, partner names can appear on ShoreTel Connect CLOUD bills; the approval process for Opportunity Registration has been streamlined with the reward increased by 50%; MDF resources have been extended to cloud; and cloud commission options have been simplified.

IT Europa is to stage the European IT & Software Excellence Awards 2016 on 14th April at the Lancaster Hotel in London.

Now in their eighth year, the Awards have been designed to recognise and reward excellence in European software development and IT and Telecoms solutions provision.

The awards will bring together leading ISVs, Solution Providers and Systems Integrators from across Europe to demonstrate their ability to provide industry-leading IT solutions for their customers.
 
The awards are split into three sections. The first set of awards is for Systems Integrators and Solution VARs and acknowledges their skill and endeavour in delivering world class IT solutions for their customers.

The second set of awards, exclusively for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and software developers, highlights the applications that they have developed and delivered for their customers.

The final set of awards, for suppliers, highlights those vendors, distributors and service providers who best support their channel partners to deliver excellence.
 
2016 Award Categories:
 
ISV Categories 2016
 
Information & Document Management Solution of the Year
Big Data, IoT or Analytics Solution of the Year
Connected/Mobility Application Solution of the Year
Vertical Market Solution of the Year
Government/Utilities Solution of the Year
SaaS Solution of the Year
Software innovation Solution of the Year
 
Solution Provider Categories 2016
 
SME Solution of the Year
Enterprise Solution of the Year
Datacentre Solution of the Year
Vertical Solution of the Year
Public Sector and Utilities Solution of the Year
Managed Service Solution of the Year
Connected/Mobility Solution of the Year
Storage/Information Management Solution of the Year
Big Data, IoT or Analytics Solution of the Year
Security Solution of the Year
Customer Experience/Management Solution of the Year
 
Supplier Categories 2016
 
Channel Programme of the Year
Connected Technologies Vendor of the Year
Finance/Support Services Provider of the Year
Security Vendor of the Year
Distributor of the Year
Service Provider of the Year
Software Vendor of the Year
Technology Provider of the Year
 
"With the complexity of technology continuing to increase and new cloud-based and hybrid delivery models emerging, the role played by ISVs, solution providers and integrators in delivering real solutions to end-customers is becoming increasingly important," says Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa.

"The European IT & Software Excellence Awards are the only pan-European awards to recognise excellence in the creation and delivery of real solutions and are intended to encourage the development of partnerships between vendors and solution providers across the IT and Telecoms industries."
 

Channel Telecom is to launch both online and face to face sales training for partners during October.

In conjunction with BT Wholesale and Broadsoft, Channel Telecom has created this programme to help kick-start and accelerate sales of hosted UC (VoIP).

This two part initiative is intended to provide Channel Telecom partners' sales teams with the knowledge and know-how to increase sales of hosted VoIP.

The first part is an online course, designed by BT and Broadsoft, focusing primarily on how to qualify and close UC opportunities.

When participants have undertaken the eight online modules they will be assessed through on a multiple choice test. Partners who pass will be invited to part two, a face to face training event.

On October 20th, Channel Telecom will be hosting the first of these face to face 'boot camp' workshops at the BT Centre, London.

Tim Nelson, Head of IP Voice, said: "At Channel Telecom we have always endeavoured to provide our partners with the tools to thrive. Given the increasing demand for hosted solutions, training events like this are essential in keeping on top of a growing market."

This is the latest in a series of training events and workshops hosted by Channel Telecom this year. Recently Channel launched the second instalment of their nationwide MPLS workshops in Telford, with plans to host further workshops and hosted training events in Manchester and again in London.

Clifford Norton, Managing Director of Channel Telecom, commented: "We run these workshops so that our partners can continue to grow and succeed. Providing partners with product specific knowledge and information, means that they are more comfortable in selling and supporting the growing number of services we are able to offer."

A get-together of Plantronics partners, SIs and carriers at Goodwood Motor Circuit put them all on track for useful exchanges of information including product updates and delegate feedback on what the market really wants. Attendees also got to race fast cars around the circuit.

Paul Dunne, Head of Channel Sales UK&I, Plantronics, said: "We thanked our partners for their loyalty and hard work, and talked about our new Voyager Focus UC and BackBeat Sense headphones. We also heard about what they're seeing in the market, where customer experience is more important than ever, and companies are realising the need to make their agents, representatives and customer service teams more efficient and effective."

Entanet's CEO Elsa Chen has been named as one of the finalists in this year's PCR Women of the Year awards, recognising her 13-year commitment to the UK IT channel and significant achievements as head of wholesale connectivity provider, Entanet.

Chen has been with the company since 2002, first as head of its voice telecoms service and taking full responsibility for Entanet's data connectivity services in 2006.

In 2011 she was placed at the helm of the business and has been instrumental in its growth, which culminated with Entanet's annual turnover reaching just under £30m in FY2014.
 
Chen said: "I'm delighted to have been nominated for this award and view it as a real honour. We are lucky to have a channel full of inspirational and dedicated women and men driving innovation and success throughout the industry."
 
The winners will be announced at the awards event on 16th October.

Daisy Group has achieved Cisco Gold certification, building on its Cisco Advanced accreditation across collaboration, data centre services, security, Wi-Fi and enterprise networks.

Neil Muller, Daisy Group CEO, said: "In order for us to cater to the evolving needs of our customers it is essential that we grow our capabilities in line with the dynamics of the converging marketplace. This certification of Gold Partnership with Cisco is an example of us doing just that."

The Group's indirect partners will also benefit from the new status.

Richard Roberts, Managing Director for Partner & Commercial Sales, UK & Ireland at Cisco, said: "The Gold Certification recognises businesses that have an in-depth level of expertise across the Cisco portfolio and can demonstrate high customer satisfaction as a result.

"The ongoing investment that the Daisy Group has made to ensure that they have the sales expertise and capability to deliver as a Gold Certified Partner is clear to see. As a partner with Gold status, the business will have access to a whole new level of support with which I am sure they will continue to thrive."

Despite more than three quarters of the UK's SMEs admitting to relying on the internet to operate, half of those managing them are oblivious to the frequency and cost of downtime to their business.

That's according to research by IT and telecoms firm Daisy Group which also found that 47 per cent of business managers[ believe that their business never or rarely falls victim to poor connectivity, while a quarter admit to ignoring the issue altogether.

In reality, companies experience an average of 45 minutes of downtime each week- equating to over £500 per employee, per year, in lost productivity (the equivalent of a whole working week).

When asked, workers said that the average period of downtime lasts for 15 minutes, but some even said they have been without the internet at work for more than an hour at a time.

Graham Harris, product director at Daisy Group, said: "Unfortunately, many businesses often believe that 'one size fits all' when it comes to connectivity and are often lured into a deal based on price alone.

"If your Internet connection is not built with your users and business activities in mind, then it is likely to struggle with the demands made of it, potentially resulting in lost productivity and sales, and leading to poor customer service."

As part of the study, business managers were also asked how often they should be reviewing their connectivity provision. One in eight (13%) said they had no idea, 17 per cent said only when the contract is due for renewal, and one in six (17%) said only when staff start complaining.

The research was conducted to assess awareness amongst key decision-makers for the government-backed scheme, SuperFast Britain, which provides connectivity funding of up to £3,000 to eligible firms and discovered that 42 per cent were completely unaware of the initiative.

The study also looked into how employees fill the time during internet outages and found that two thirds (60 per cent) say they have allowed themselves to be distracted by personal business during instances of downtime, sometimes for more than half an hour.

Nearly half (48%) say they use downtime as an excuse to take an extra coffee break, a quarter spend the time on their smartphone to check Facebook, nine per cent look for a new job, and seven per cent even indulge in a spot of retail therapy. Just 30 per cent said they take the opportunity to swot up on some work-related reading.

Harris added: "Unlike a gas or electricity supply, you cannot simply install a business' internet connection and forget about it. Businesses should be reviewing their connectivity in line with business change and growth to ensure that their staff, and subsequently the business' growth, aren't being hampered by slow internet speeds and an unreliable service."

To help SMEs demystify the jargon surrounding business technology, Daisy has launched a series of short videos called #TechinThree designed to teach people the basics in just three minutes.

Swindon-based Excalibur's CEO James Phipps is to appear on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme on September 26th to respond to questions from presenter John Humphrys on the new leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn.

Phipps has previously worked with the BBC to offer thoughts on topics such as migration and legislation regarding overtime, and how it could affect businesses.

Karen Thornley, Head of Marketing at Excalibur, commented: "With his always fair and positive insight, James has become an important voice for SMEs, so it is encouraging to see his presence required by such an influential, flagship programme as Today."

Pictured above:  James Phipps (left) and John Humphrys

Node4 has become a Gold Cloud Provider of Veeam Software, a partnership that gives Node4's cloud customers access to a self-service portal from where anyone can quickly restore data from backups.

Mark Wilson, Cloud Architect, Node4, commented: "Our customers were telling us that high-speed recovery of data was placing an increasing burden on their IT teams and the traditional support process was causing delays that modern businesses, which require access to their data 24/7, cannot tolerate.

"As a result of our investment in Veeam our customers can empower their teams to recover files and virtual machines faster, while maintaining control of the backup process itself."

Wilson also noted that the combination of Node4's investment in Veeam Software and NetApp storage allows a significant part of the backup process to utilise storage snapshots, reducing load on production infrastructure and avoiding limitations of a traditional backup window.

With other recent investments Node4 is now able to offer a suite of data availability technologies to its customers, from cloud and on-premise to colocation equipment, through to cloud applications such as Office365.

Laurent Garcia, Senior Hosting & Cloud Manager EMEA, Veeam Software, added: "The integration of Veeam Availability Suite with Node4's cloud services will allow us to address a common target in search of efficient, secure and agile services."

Interoute has expanded its network in the Netherlands, adding 43 route km of fibre optic cables and increasing network capacity by 21% in its Amsterdam city network.

Part of this expansion includes the addition of 22 route km of cable between the Amsterdam Science Park and Amsterdam South-East areas of the city.

The improved connectivity in these areas will support businesses in the region, by enabling more high capacity data to flow and adding diverse resilient routes in this high traffic area.

Over the last three years Interoute has invested in the expansion of its Amsterdam city network to meet increasing demands for higher capacity. The current city network spans 230km of duct routes, and more than 275 route km of fibre optic cables, and is continuing to grow.

Amsterdam is one of the largest European markets for collocation and international capacity.

Martijn Ten Kate, Country Manager, Interoute Netherlands, said: "This expansion is testament to Amsterdam's importance as a global Internet exchange and key location for multinational enterprises. Not only are we expanding capacity, we are also offering diversity on routes in and out of Amsterdam that are imperative in this ever growing city."