Comms Dealer

Demand for IT workers continued to rise in August, according to the latest Report on Jobs published by KPMG and the REC.

The seasonally adjusted index measuring permanent vacancies in the IT sector climbed to 64.4, from 62.8 in July, signalling a strong and accelerated rate of growth that was above the UK average (63.7).

This placed the IT sector fifth out of nine in the demand for staff 'league table' during the latest survey period.

The respective index measuring demand for short-term IT staff slipped to 58.7, from 59.1 in July.

The latest reading signalled the slowest rate of growth for 26 months, albeit still solid overall. The UK average for temp staff was 60.5. The IT sector registered in sixth place out of nine in the demand for temp staff rankings.

Heath Jackson, Partner in the CIO Advisory practice at KPMG, said: "There was no respite for recruiters in August who were left struggling to fill vacancies after a vast swathe of Britain's job seekers appeared to take the summer off.

"Many candidates may have simply shelved their plans for the summer, believing their prospects to be stronger in September. However, this is of little comfort to those businesses needing staff now to meet demand for their goods and services.

"With candidates having their pick of the job market, companies need to offer more than just cash.

"In order to attract and retain the best people, businesses need to offer a bespoke package of benefits including flexible working, which can be tailored to suit the individual and their priorities and commitments."

Touchbase UC has redefined its strategy with a name-change to Natilik, a major rebrand and international expansion with new offices opening in both New York and Sydney.

The move comes five years after Touchbase UC performed a venture capital backed management buyout of the UK business.

The company has since grown 35% year-on-year and established itself as one of Cisco's key Gold Partners across collaboration, networking, security and data centre technologies.

"As we planned for the next five years of growth, it was key that we took the final step to establish our own brand that is a true representation of how we operate and the role we play with our clients," said Mike Danson, Chief Executive Officer, Natilik.

The Natilik name is inspired from the group of people who helped Roald Amundsen reach the South Pole - his confident guide.

It captures the ethos and purpose of Natilik, acting as the confident guide for their clients in the world of IT and communications, explained the firm.

In addition to the new name and brand, Natilik has opened new offices in New York and Sydney.

These offices further expands Natilik's reach and services capabilities across the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Combined with the UK office, it creates a single Network Operations Centre that operates across three regions on a follow-the-sun basis 24x7.

"We already support our clients in over 50 countries worldwide," added Danson.

"Traditionally, international organisations have had to go to the major global integrators or find local partners in each territory. We fill this gap in the market."

Cloud Distribution has launched a Hyperconverged Appliance solution, hyperserV, to the SME market.

Bruce Hockin, Director of Storage Solutions, Cloud Distribution, commented: "Hyperconvergence shouldn't be for the exclusive use of the enterprise, and channel partners simply don't want the pain of putting together an 'out of the box' solution themselves.

"By bringing hyperserV direct to the channel, we are empowering our partners to make Hyperconvergence accessible to the SME market and generate new revenue streams.

"We are now actively recruiting partners to embrace hyperserV, especially those who target education, local government, legal and not for profit organisations."

HyperserV is technically validated by DataCore as part of the 'DataCore Ready' Programme.

Brett Denly, Regional Director, DataCore Software UK, added: "There is an increasing appetite from SMEs for hyperconvergence in the UK, simply because of the ability to dramatically optimise storage environments without the overhead of SAN management."

hyperserV is available in four models with a choice of capacity points and hypervisors.

BlackBerry has strengthened its influence in the secure cross-platform mobility management space following the acquisition of Good Technology for $425m in cash.

The acquisition is aligned with BlackBerry's strategy to offer customers complete end-to-end solutions that secure the whole mobile enterprise across all platforms, said the firm.

Following the deal BlackBerry will expand its ability to offer a unified, secure mobility platform with applications for any mobile device on any operating system - supported with security that has been certified by governments around the world embedded in every component of the mobility infrastructure.

Good will bring complementary capabilities and technologies to BlackBerry including secure applications and containerisation that protects end user privacy.

With Good, BlackBerry will expand its ability to offer cross-platform EMM solutions. Good has expertise in multi-OS management with 64 per cent of activations from iOS devices, followed by a broad Android and Windows customer base.

"By acquiring Good, BlackBerry will better solve one of the biggest struggles for CIOs today, especially those in regulated industries - securely managing devices across any platform.

"By providing stronger cross-platform capabilities our customers will not have to compromise on their choice of operating systems, deployment models or any level of privacy and security," said John Chen, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO.

Good's technology will integrate with BlackBerry's enterprise portfolio and global network, creating a management solution for all mobile devices.

BlackBerry expects the transaction to be completed toward the end of the company's 2016 fiscal third quarter and the company anticipates the acquisition to be accretive to earnings and cash flow within the first year after closing.

BlackBerry also expects to realise approximately $160m in GAAP revenue from Good in the first year, including the impact of an expected write-down of certain deferred revenue of Good.

Chess Telecom has acquired Scottish Microsoft Partner IRW Systems, a specialist in software design, development and support. IRW Systems brings significant capability and market share within the growing Chess IT and software consultancy space, providing 50 additional Software Design Specialists working in Glasgow and Edinburgh and adding £3m annual turnover to the Chess Group.

Chess Chief Executive, David Pollock, said: "IRW Systems has proven expertise within the Microsoft solutions portfolio, cloud applications and technical services arena.

"Together, we are positioned to deliver a range of consulting and software services to our existing and new customers and partners.

"This foundation is essential for enabling the next wave of technological change for customers focusing on the transition to cloud-based technologies and applications."

Ian Warnock, MD of IRW Systems, said: "Our complementary technologies and portfolios will enable our continued success in the cloud solutions arena."

Chess Director Richard Btesh added: "Our expanding presence from telecoms to the cloud, data and hosted space is bringing us more high profile acquisitions enquiries."

IRW Systems specialises in software and portal design, development and support services. Its solutions are built around the Microsoft platform and tools, particularly SharePoint, .Net, CRM, Mobile, Power BI, Web and Cloud based systems.

IRW Systems has built a blue chip customer base across the public and private sectors including central government departments, health, police, local authorities, communications, engineering/manufacturing, finance, professional services and the voluntary sector.

The firm employs over 50 employees across Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Distributor ScanSource has enhanced its management structure for its Communications and POS and Barcode business units in Europe.

Ian Vickerage has been named President of ScanSource Communications, Europe, where he will lead all of ScanSource's Communications operations throughout Europe.

Vickerage previously served as Managing Director of Imago, the distributor of video and voice communications equipment and services, which he founded and ScanSource acquired in 2014.

Vickerage also serves as Managing Director of Imago ScanSource.

Rudy De Meirsman will continue as Managing Director of ScanSource Communications. He has served as Managing Director since 2013 and will continue to lead the strategic direction of the Communications business throughout Europe.

"We are excited to be able to build on the successful acquisition of Imago, as it enables us to realign our business and better focus our efforts, so that we can best serve our reseller customers and vendor partners," said Mike Ferney, president, Worldwide Communications and Services, ScanSource, Inc.

"The dedicated leadership, sales, merchandising, and technical support teams in each region underscores our commitment to our partners' success."

Maurice Van Rijn has been named President of ScanSource POS and Barcode, Europe, where he will continue to provide strategic leadership to the company's pan-European POS and Barcode business.

Van Rijn has been with ScanSource since 2002 and most recently served as Managing Director of ScanSource POS and Barcode in Europe.

Prior to that, he served as Sales Director for the company.

Distributor Exclusive Group has announced a record H1 for 2015 with sales of €370m.

While the €1bn target seemed demanding when first discussed, it looks like achieving it a year early.

"We are now thinking of new targets," says Olivier Breittmayer, CEO of Exclusive Group, talking to IT Europa.

He is dismissive of rival distributors attempts to keep up with his growth: "We probably invest more and have more demo kit than any other distributor in Europe."

With all parts of the business showing growth, and having secured more funding from its backers, the new emphasis may be on the BigTec data centre business which has seen very high growth and which can be expected to sign more new vendors in the coming months.

Group revenue was 60% higher than the same period last year (42% growth on a like-for-like basis), beating the Group's own expectations by more than 10%.

Sales were boosted by a strong performance across the global footprint of its Exclusive Networks cybersecurity and infrastructure value added distribution business, as well as larger-than-expected gains from the Exclusive Capital, BigTec and ITEC business units, it says.

While actual numbers of reseller customers have not changed greatly, at around 8,000, by concentrating on the higher profile business and getting closer to existing channels the distributor has generated more sales. In particular, sales in the core vendors in cyber security have lifted the business, he says.

The future may see it both adding vendors in a traditional VAD model, and expanding the finance arm Exclusive Capital which currently operates just in France, and the ITEC global services capability.

With the UK and Germany still targeted for acquisitions in IT finance, the next period may see a further dramatic jump in this segment of the business.

ITEC, with its logistics and export expertise is opening up many global deals, it seems, with 20 closed already and another 100 in the pipeline. "Complexity means opportunity," said Barrie Desmond, Chief Operating Officer.

A huge 'good luck!' to M12 Solutions MD Andrew Skipsey who on Saturday 5th September embarks on a charity nine-day 960 mile bike ride from Lands' End to John O' Groats.

"This is a going to be hard," he said. "Some days we'll cycle over 120 miles. It'll feel like I'm doing consecutive marathons and it's sure to take its toll on me.

"I have tried to build up my training. I am going to ache and then have to ride the next day and the next. The cycling is sure to go on and on and on, particularly when there is horizontal rain and headwinds!"
 
Skipsey is fundraising for The Royal Marines Charitable Trust, and Home-Start North Dorset which helps local families.

If you would like to support Andrew's huge undertaking please visit:

www.justgiving.com/andrewskipseyrab

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/andrewskipseyrab

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, EMEA Conferencing Services Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $1.9 billion in 2014 and estimates this to reach $2.6 billion by 2019.

The study covers audio, hosted Web, hosted video and managed video conferencing services. The communications service providers that have a sizable presence across these segments in EMEA are Arkadin, BT Conferencing, Deutsche Telekom, InterCall, Interoute, Orange Business, PGi and Telefonica.

"Hosted/cloud video conferencing services that enable interoperability across endpoints appeal to a broader user base in EMEA owing to the rise in complexity and number of devices on networks," said Frost & Sullivan Digital Transformation Practice Research Director Adrian Drozd.

"Feature-rich solutions that support mobility and the bring-your-own-device trend are also popular among customers in these regions."

Conferencing services are central to the collaboration strategy of any enterprise and there is a growing preference among users for integrated solutions, instead of standalone products, to support communication architecture and services.

In response, vendors in EMEA are increasingly looking to package complementary collaboration services such as webcasts, team workspaces with other unified communication applications like telephony, voice mail, instant messaging and presence.

Among the various market segments, audio conferencing services are experiencing low growth due to price compression and user migration to bundled packages. The gradual transition to IP-based conferencing, owing to the proliferation of IP PBX, is also dampening the need for audio conferencing services in EMEA.

"As the lines between video-centric and content-centric web conferencing solutions that include video continue to blur, the revenues of both segments will take a hit," noted Frost & Sullivan Digital Transformation Practice Senior Director Ashwin Iyer.

"Higher sales volumes of IP-based audio conferencing solutions as well as hosted and managed video conferencing services will, nevertheless, promote revenue growth in the market."

Market penetration is the highest in the United Kingdom, France, Benelux and the Nordic countries due to increasing business-to-business and business-to-customer collaboration.

Over the forecast period, Northern Europe is likely to see more demand for hosted video conferencing services, while Southern Europe experiences greater interest in managed video conferencing services.

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the Government's advisory group on broadband, has called for a continued focus on reducing costs to allow superfast connectivity to be made available to all business premises as quickly as possible.

In a new report BSG found that while median downstream demand for small business premises will rise from 5Mbit/s in 2015 to 8.1Mbit/s in 2025 demand for the 95th percentile will rise from 12.9 Mbit/s to 41.1 Mbit/s.

In reflecting the diversity of small businesses, the report found that their bandwidth needs (downstream and upstream) are as varied as their composition.

Unsurprisingly, the number of employees and industrial sector are important factors in driving demand with the report ranging from one person food manufacturers - requiring just 6 Mbit/s downstream in 2025 - to a 49 person software business which will require 193 Mbit/s by 2025.

Matthew Evans, CEO of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, commented: "Although standard broadband is adequate for most firms, some firms are already constrained.

"All small businesses will need access to superfast speeds in the next five years, and large numbers will soon need the ultrafast speeds that the Government committed to delivering in the recent Productivity Plan."

The BSG has called on Government to work with industry to ensure that all small business premise have superfast connectivity, continue to drive down costs of network deployment to facilitate the further deployment of ultrafast networks, and gather evidence on the productivity gains that companies who have used the SME Voucher Connection Scheme.