Comms Dealer

Increasing demand for the provision of IT and telecoms as a managed service is revolutionising the IT industry and creating new opportunities for both vendors and resellers, according to IT Europa.

The changing buying behaviour that is accompanying this revolution and the demand for platforms and technologies to support the delivery and consumption of IT applications and services has created a fertile environment for the growth and development of a new generation of vendors with a range of applications to support the evolving needs of MSPs, believes the research house.

Many of these companies will be participating and speaking at the Managed Services and Hosting Summit, to be held in London on 17th September.

The range of enabling solutions they provide spans everything from professional services and remote management automation solutions, through data centre connectivity and Cloud-based security solutions to storage and financing.

"I think we can say that the baton has been passed to many new rising names in the supply of managed services," said John Garratt, Editor of IT Europa, who has been coordinating content for the Managed Services and Hosting Summit 2015.

"Our keynote, from Gartner's Mark Paine, looks at how managed services work in the digital economy, and I know he has research on how the whole traditional IT sales model is changing to engage with the new customers and how they buy.

"At the same time, among the 20 or so sponsors of the event, many of whom are making presentations, there are some very new businesses, as well as a number returning to the event from previous years."

They are reflecting changes in how technologies are being used. For example, the event will hear from Bob Aitchison, EMEA Sales Director at QLogic, talking about Connectivity and Productivity trends in the data centre.

The issues of managed security will be discussed by Nadia Karatsoreos, Community Manager at MAXfocus, while SolidFire CEO Dave Wright has a few things to say about how the cloud changes if infrastructure is not a limitation.

Breakout sessions will give the circa 350 delegates a chance to go into more detail, with presentations from Autotask, ConnectWise, Databarracks, Datto, MAXfocus, QLogic, Sciencelogic, SolidFire, Sunrise, Tintri, Webroot/Azlan and HP Financial Services in partnership with Westcoast. There will also be discussion panels and a final round-up session.

For further information or to register visit: www.mshsummit.com

Westcon Group is to stage a multi-channel technology summit at London's Grange St Paul's Hotel on 15th October.

The event, called ENGAGE2015, will see teams from the Comstor, Westcon Security and Westcon Unified Communications and Collaborations practices jointly host a full day of solution-selling seminars and vendor exhibitions.

The vendor line-up includes Avaya, Cisco, F5, Juniper, Microsoft, Oracle, Palo Alto, Plantronics, Polycom and more.

"This is the first time Westcon Group has brought its full portfolio of vendors together for a UK partner event," commented Tony Nevill, General Manager UK&I for Westcon Group. "We are focusing on sales leadership and partner development.

"We see our partners increasingly looking to undertake a consultative approach with both new and existing customers, offering solutions to address their day-to-day business challenges.

"At ENGAGE2015 we will not only present the latest technologies for partners' consideration but also task presenters with demonstrating how they solve those business challenges, identify how partners can exploit disruptive trends such as the increasing number of hacking threats and realise recurring revenues whilst differentiating their proposition."

Cybersecurity company Webroot has commended its channel for significant growth in the fourth fiscal quarter, following expansion of the company's network of MSPs and other channel partners.

Webroot drove strong license sales in consumer (up 14%), and business (71%); with OEM up 92% year-on-year.

For the fiscal year, Webroot added 5.3 million new home users, over 1 million new business endpoints and over 3,100 new MSP partners.

The company also welcomed a number of new and important strategic technology partners.

Webroot sharpened its focus on global channel development in FY2015 by signing 3,100 new MSPs, and a number of elite value-added resellers (VARs) and distributors in each region.

Channel announcements included the new Webroot Channel Edge Partner Program during the fiscal year.

Nimans is set to stage two NEC workshops with Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium named as the venue for one of the half-day sessions on NEC's SV9100 and SL1100 comms platforms (October 15th).

The second workshop takes place at NEC's Ruddington HQ near Nottingham.

Paul Burn, Nimans' Head of Category Sales, said: "The workshops are suited to existing NEC resellers - to boost their knowledge - and those new to the brand.

"These are interactive hands-on events with plenty of opportunity for delegate engagement and for resellers to get hands on with the equipment.

"The Old Trafford event features a pitch side view plus the opportunity of a stadium experience."

VoIP Distributor ProVu and Panasonic are hosting a SIP demonstration workshop on 3rd November at Panasonic's purpose built Solutions Centre in Bracknell.

The half-day workshops are designed to introduce resellers to Panasonic's technology roadmap and give them the opportunity to get hands on with the SIP range.

Attendees have the option of selecting either a morning or afternoon half day session and will receive a complementary KX-TGP600 DECT base and handset.

ProVu's MD Darren Garland said: "I am looking forward to welcoming as many resellers and service providers as possible to Panasonic's Solutions Centre.

"The TGP600 has already proven to be a revolutionary DECT solution and we are looking forward to sharing other exciting products in the workshops."

Other models to be featured throughout the sessions include the TPA65, HDV130 and the newly announced HDV230.

Commsworld has secured a significant contract with CGI to be a key provider in the City of Edinburgh Council new ICT contract worth £186m.

The firm will be working directly with CGI as its preferred network provider to deliver a 400 site Wide Area Network (WAN) for the Council delivering faster and more reliable connectivity for schools, libraries and other council buildings.

Commsworld will also rollout an IP telephony solution for 7,000 users and a 250 seat contact centre.

These aspects of the ICT contract will deliver significant benefits to the end users, while also creating a number of new jobs in the Scottish IT market, said the firm.

The WAN will utilise Edinburgh CORE - the pure fibre network Commsworld launched in May with infrastructure provider CityFibre.

Ricky Nicol (pictured), Chief Executive of the Edinburgh-based firm, believes the reach and benefits of this network will have a significant impact for the capital as a whole with council buildings achieving far faster internet speeds resulting in increased efficiency and access to a wider range of digital resources.

He said: "This is fantastic for Commsworld from a commercial perspective, but more importantly it will have a hugely positive impact on Edinburgh with some schools able to boast up to 100 times greater bandwidth than before - this basically means far faster internet and far greater capacity for all pupils and staff.

"This would not be possible without CityFibre's investment in the fibre infrastructure that will allow Edinburgh to become one of the best connected cities in the world.

"Since we launched the Edinburgh CORE network together in May we have seen huge demand from businesses across all sectors and it is now set to be the biggest gigabit city project in the UK."

The contract will result in the Edinburgh CORE being extended from 50km to 150km to include the council sites.

Greg Mesch, CEO of CityFibre, said: "In a matter of months CityFibre's partnership with Commsworld has begun a truly transformational infrastructure project in Edinburgh that continues to gather momentum.

"This contract, for hundreds of additional sites and a 200% extension of our planned network footprint, is CityFibre's largest to-date, and further demonstrates the power of our Gigabit City model.

"In our growing portfolio of Gigabit City projects we are now a true infrastructure alternative to BT Openreach."

Comms provider Metronet (UK) has opted for GENBAND's Session Border Controller (SBC) and Real Time Session Manager (RSM) to power its expanding IP voice business.

Having outgrown its previous SIP trunking solution, Metronet (UK) looked to GENBAND's scalable SBC and RSM to support the rapid growth of its enterprise business and the distribution of its service to a more extensive customer base.

"Deploying GENBAND's SBC and RSM equips us with the technology we require to deliver the quality of service our customers have come to expect, on a larger scale," said Wayne Mills-Kidals, Voice Services Manager at Metronet (UK).

GENBAND's SBC delivers advanced network security, simplified interoperability and session management along with carrier-grade capabilities for SIP trunking and IP Interconnect.

The RSM solution offers the ability to proactively enable and monitor service level agreements (SLAs), provide Quality of Service (QoS) metrics, and enforce subscriber and network policies.

Poole-based VoIP Unlimited has secured an official supplier relationship with Sahara Force India Formula One Team.

The partnership will see VoIP Unlimited deploy an Ethernet solution across Sahara Force India's multiple locations.

Mark Pillow, MD for VoIP Unlimited, said: "It's a great privilege to be able to work with Sahara Force India and deliver a reliable data transfer solution.

"We are excited about being part of the team's journey and look forward to a very successful partnership."

Sahara Force India's Chief Operating Officer, Otmar Szafnauer, added: "In today's fast-moving world we need robust IT solutions that improve our operational efficiency, which is why we chose to work with VoIP."

Voice services provider Natterbox has unveiled Wallboards, a real-time reporting engine that delivers visual performance management information for phone-based sales and customer service teams.

With 60% of customer communications still being phone based, it is a business priority to monitor performance of inbound and outbound phone-based customer teams to deliver the best possible customer response and optimise team resourcing, said the firm.

"Our customers asked us to provide Wallboards to help drive their call centre and sales team efficiency and increase their competitiveness," Said Neil Hammerton, CEO of Natterbox.

"A typical Natterbox Cloud PBX user has both an inbound and outbound phone operation covering sales and customer service, often across teams in multiple offices and countries.

"We are able to synthesise this complex data into easily read, interpreted and actioned information in a single Wallboard. Customer feedback has been positive."

Natterbox Wallboards also integrates related customer data directly from the customer record in Salesforce.com.

Cloud services provider EveryCloud and connectivity and voice specialist Vapour Media have merged to offer a white label cloud and connectivity proposition to the channel.

The combined businesses will operate under the Vapour Media brand.

Both organisations serve SMEs via the reseller channel.

With offices at Manchester-based Teledata, EveryCloud provides cloud services through a white label proposition, focusing on hosted servers, back-up and storage.

Brighouse-based Vapour provides connectivity and access to its own private MPLS network and voice services via its next generation VoIP platform.

Both companies have experienced growth and built respective infrastructures following investment, and are now focusing on growth via the indirect reseller channel.

The enlarged organisation boasts six data centres as well as its own private network infrastructure, delivering white label solutions including cloud-based services such as backup and storage, network connectivity and next generation voice.

The business will have the ability to instantly enable resellers to become cloud and connectivity resellers, incorporating provisioning and billing.

Tim Mercer, Vapour Media, said: "In the business environment there is the opportunity for a connectivity-driven revolution that enables business growth and improvement through cloud services.

"Traditional IT companies, telcos and cloud start-ups are offering a bewildering array of solutions to embrace this. These worlds are colliding and SMEs are stuck in the middle.

"There is a place for a new breed of provider, marking a move away from telcos dabbling in computing or IT businesses dabbling in comms. There is a requirement for an integrated cloud provider that can credibly provide an all-in-one offering."

Steve Dempsey, EveryCloud, added: "Our customers who are taking back-up and data storage services are increasingly looking to upgrade their connectivity and they are also likely candidates for phone and voice services too.

"This merger with Vapour Media will allow us to provide truly integrated cloud services to the SME market in a unique way that will be appealing to both IT and comms resellers."