Comms Dealer

Claranet SOHO, a division of Claranet focused on small and medium businesses, has incorporated Microsoft Office 365 into its portfolio.

"Providing a range of services with tiered functionality, Claranet SOHO supports the needs of SMBs and ensures companies only pay for what the need," said Alan Tavernor, Claranet SOHO's Director.

"With our heritage as an ISP we are able to give customers the connectivity they need to communicate across the business, along with the applications that will enable them to get the job done.

"Having this range of capability with one provider simplifies licensing and eliminates the headache of managing multiple suppliers. This means SMBs can concentrate on moving their businesses forward with the help of the new technology."

Comms-care has attained a Microsoft Gold Cloud Productivity competency, becoming the only channel-only IT support provider in the UK to gain the designation.

Simon Day, Professional Services Director, Comms-care, said: "To add the Microsoft Gold Cloud Productivity competency to our three existing Microsoft Gold competencies showcases our expertise in, and commitment to, today's technology market, and demonstrates our deep knowledge of Microsoft and its products."

The competency demonstrates Comms-care's expertise in deploying Office 365 and the Enterprise Mobility Suite. With 60%of Fortune 500 companies purchasing Microsoft Office 365 in the past year, the Microsoft Gold Cloud Productivity competency can help Comms-care's channel partners take advantage of the growing demand among end user customers for cloud and hybrid solutions, claims the firm.

"By achieving a gold competency, partners have demonstrated the highest, most consistent capability and commitment to the latest Microsoft technology," said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft Corp.

"These partners have a deep expertise that puts them in the top 1% of our partner ecosystem, and their proficiency will help customers drive innovative solutions on the latest Microsoft technology."

Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Chi Onwurah MP has been confirmed as a keynote speaker for this year's FCS Comms Provider industry summit (17th September, London).

A qualified engineer and former Ofcom employee, Ms Onwurah also chairs the Pictfor cross-parliamentary comms and internet group at Westminster.

FCS Comms Provider is an annual business and networking day for CPs in the fixed-line voice and data market. It's open to FCS members and non-members and is free to attend.

Throughout the day there will be opportunities to network with colleagues and representatives from regulators and other associations.

Cloud-based resource scheduling specialist Smartway2 has teamed up with meetonvc to offer functionality that enables Smartway2 users to meet virtually via HD video conferencing from wherever they are, using their preferred device.

Smartway2 is the first scalable enterprise-grade resource scheduling solution with meetonvc integration, providing users with more flexibility as well as a combination of resource scheduling functionality integrated with cloud-based HD video conferencing capabilities.

Simon Hunt, co-founder of meetonvc, commented: "The market for video hardware solutions is in decline according to IDC, a situation that indicates that video conferencing hardware no longer fits with the way that people work.

"Another telling sign that businesses now want powerful collaborations tools that give them the flexibility that they need, is the relentless growth of the collaborative tools market which is enjoying a compound growth rate of 40%.

"With a significant number of business wanting to simply connect their existing IT investment they can now have a successful business-class meeting online without having to worry about how they are joining from any video or audio enabled device.

"We see a significant market shift towards people using the devices they already have, devices they are familiar with and ones they have already invested in. Our role is to simply enable that easier collaboration experience."

Industry veteran Paul Brown has been appointed VP of Exponential-e's US channel operations. He boasts 20-plus years experience working in the technology industry and has been recruited to support Exponential-e's goal of competing globally by establishing partnerships with US telecommunication and cloud operators. He will report into Michala Hart, the new Head of Channel Strategy.

Brown will be responsible for leading a wholesale team that enables overseas companies to expand into the UK without investing in their own points of presence (POPs) and facilities.

Using Exponential-e's wholly-owned 100 Gigabit Ethernet network, US partners will be able to offer connectivity, voice and cloud services through a single holistic platform.

"Using my deep understanding of both the direct and indirect international sales process, I look forward to supporting Exponential-e as it enters its next stage of growth," commented Brown.

He has held a number of leadership roles during his career and specialises in taking telecommunication companies into new geographies, developing sales teams and increasing revenue.

Prior to Exponential-e he served as VP of Sales at Terremark, VP of Data Services at Arbinet and VP of Channel Programmes and Customer Support at Sprint International, Teleglobe and PCCW Global.

"With Paul's impressive track record, we are excited about the energy and focus that he will bring to our company, as we concentrate on achieving scale outside of the UK," added Lee Wade, CEO at Exponential-e.

"We envisage that the development of our international channel programme will drive a significant increase in revenue originating from the US as we aim to continue achieving double-digit growth in the year ahead."

T-Mobile has selected Mitel to launch a cloud offering in the Netherlands.

Cloud & Clear is a fixed-mobile converged solution for SMEs that offers full flexibility and scalability and provides a smooth migration to the cloud.

Cloud & Clear will be offered directly by T-Mobile and through both Mitel authorised partners and T-Mobile Mitel certified business partners.

Cloud & Clear delivers a cloud UCaaS solution with collaboration and multimedia contact centre tools.

Graham Bevington, Chief Sales Officer at Mitel, said: "The partnership with T-Mobile is an obvious one. Together we have developed a fixed-mobile convergence experience previously unavailable in The Netherlands."

Milan Ruicka, Marketing Director for the Business Market at T-Mobile, said: "Customers are not under any obligation or time pressure and can even continue to use their existing contracts.

"This way the business avoids a situation of being forced to change and become technically locked-in. It also makes the migration process, which is managed by T-Mobile end-to-end, very smooth."

Sombreros, ponchos and hot chillies were in abundance during a Mexican-themed Plantronics sales focus day held by distributor Exertis.

Simon Foster, Plantronics Brand Manager at Exertis, said: "The market for mobility and wearable technology has increased around 40% in the last 12 months and we've seen this reflect in the demand for Plantronics headset solutions from the channel.

"Our series of focus days is in place to not only increase product awareness but to help our customers increase wallet share of 'attachment' products.
 
"We've started this campaign in true style and will celebrate by rewarding the sales team here with a variety of Mexican food and drink, including a last man standing chilli eating competition!"

Data centre operator Next Generation Data (NGD) has named Brian Popperwell as Chief Operating Officer.

He brings a wealth of secure government and commercial client experience gained from 15 years of IT and operational management at IT services giant CGI (formerly Logica) and has familiarity of the NGD operation from his time at CGI, a major customer of NGD since 2009.

Prior to CGI Popperwell held various technical support and management positions including a stint in the RAF.

Nick Razey, NGD's CEO, said: "Brian's extensive secure government and enterprise client background, and having already experienced NGD while at CGI, means he will offer us invaluable insights in terms of maximising operational excellence and service delivery as we continue to grow."

ITS Technology Group (ITS) is investing £1m into increasing its broadband footprint due to demand from SME businesses that have 'woeful' broadband speeds, including those on purpose built business parks.
 
The firm is an active supplier to the BDUK connection voucher scheme and has recently signed up over 1,800 businesses in the North West.

This includes 300 of the 1000 businesses located on Knowsley Business Park in Merseyside, and it is active in a further seven regions across the UK.
 
ITS also intends to make further investment into the 17km duct and fibre assets in Hammersmith and Fulham in order to offer the 22,000 businesses in the area superfast and ultrafast broadband under the BDUK scheme.

Working with its partner, Fluidata, a data delivery network aggregator, the network continues to attract high demand from businesses, wholesale partners and the public sector.
 
Piers Daniell, Managing Director of Fluidata said: "The ability to deliver services over fibre to the premises without the need of using a traditional Tier-1 carrier means services can be delivered in a different timescale and different commercial proposition.

"With fibre already available for quick deployment by the ISPs connected into our Service Exchange Platform, customers can be served quickly. Through ITS there is a proposition to businesses and consumers in the Hammersmith and Fulham area for high speed connectivity."
 
David Cullen, Director of Strategy for ITS Technology Group, said: "ITS has been a supplier to the BDUK connection voucher scheme since the pilot scheme began in June 2013 and became an accredited supplier in 2014. The appetite for superfast broadband has been phenomenal, as so many pockets of the UK have been overlooked and been left digitally stranded.
 
"We have, and continue to invest heavily in bringing affordable connectivity to these areas, which includes purpose built business parks, that have been campaigning for better broadband for years.

"For example, Knowsley Business Park in Merseyside, Pride Park in Derby, and Salmon Business Village in Oldham, to name a few. It means that thousands of SMEs now have access to superfast and even ultrafast broadband which has transformed their digital capabilities."
 
ITS is currently active in Manchester, Trafford, Salford, Tameside, Liverpool, Knowlsey, Oldham, Leeds, Coventry, Derby, London and York under the BDUK connection voucher scheme, and is also preparing to launch in Sheffield and the North East.

ITS also recently acquired the assets of Konek-T in South Wales which includes more than 500 business and residential customer contracts.
 

The latest figures released by MZA  show that PBX/Call Control extensions and licenses (excluding Micro PBX products) fell by 4% year-on-year in the calendar year Q1 2015 (January to March 2015 inclusive).

After two successive quarters of recovery the global market returned to year-on-year decline Q1 2015, with the financial crisis in Russia significantly steering the decline.
The decline was largely driven by solutions  <100 extensions/licenses which fell by 5% year-on-year, while solutions >100 extensions/licenses fell by 3% year-on-year as a recovery in the North American enterprise market against a poor Q1 2014 prevented a similar decline in the enterprise segments >100 extensions.
The Russian financial crisis partially driven by Western sanctions, including trade embargoes for Western and Japanese PBX manufacturers, saw the Russian Call Control market fall to unprecedented levels. While its neighbour, crisis-torn Ukraine, saw its market fall by similar levels.
As a result, the Eastern European market fell by 20% year-on-year, despite strong volume growth in Poland, the second largest market in the region.
With the exception of the North American market which remained flat overall year-on-year, all other regional markets suffered comparatively smaller declines at either 3% or 4% year-on-year.
?Global PBX/IP PBX Market - Q1 2015?NEC returned once more to lead the global Call Control (PBX/IP PBX) market in the first quarter of the calendar year with a market share of 12%, repeating its success in Q1 2014. Sales in its home market of Japan aided sequential share gains for the vendor, up three percentage points globally against Q4 2014.
The final quarter of the Japanese financial year is usually the strongest quarter in the Japanese Call Control market, and Japan accounted for 12% of the global market in Q1 2015.
Capital investment in Japan rose by 7.3% sequentially, allied to the weak yen which boosted the value of overseas revenue in yen terms, improving profits and prompting firms to expand investment.
NEC continued to dominate its domestic market witnessing a 1% share gain year-on-year. Allied to its Japanese sales, sales of the new Univerge 9000 series were strong in many international markets following its introduction to its partner network.
Avaya, the global leader in 2014, was in second position and improved its global market share to 12% in Q1 2015 from 11% in Q1 2014, once more the share gain was largely driven by year-on-year growth through its IP Office solution in the mid-market between 51 and 250 extensions, most notably in the Middle East and Africa region.
Cisco retained third position globally aided by year-on-year share gains in North America, and accounted for a flat 11% global share.
Mitel retained its fourth position of Q4 2014, ahead of Panasonic, with both vendors maintaining flat market shares of 8% and 7% globally against Q1 2014.
NEC retained its Q1 2014 leadership in the global  <100 licenses/extensions market (excluding Micro PBX products) as it took a 16% share in Q1 2015, supplanting Panasonic who led the market in the intermediate quarters.
2015 marked NEC's third consecutive top position for the first quarter of the calendar year, although its 16% share was down one percentage point against Q1 2014.
Panasonic saw market share grow by one percentage point year-on-year to 12%, aided by volume growth in Brazil and Mexico, and notably strong sales of the KX-NS500 in Italy and Spain.
Avaya continued to gain market share most significantly in the 51-100 extensions segment, and were up one percentage point in the  <100 licenses/extensions market overall.
Cisco and Avaya maintained their 20% and 13% global market shares respectively in the >100 extensions/licenses market in Q1 2015, with both manufacturers benefiting from improving volumes year-on-year in North America.
Huawei, who became a major player in the global enterprise market in CY 2014, retained its Q4 2014 third position with a 10% share, up one percentage point year-on-year.
NEC, enjoyed growth in the North American, Indian and Italian markets, which bolstered its traditionally strong first quarter sales in the Japanese enterprise market. Sequentially, NEC took fourth position from Mitel, who had held the position in Q3 and Q4 2014, with both vendors recording flat market shares against Q1 2014 of 9% and 8% respectively.
Microsoft, despite a slowdown in volume against Q4 2014 as enterprises waited for the launch of Skype for Business, nevertheless continued to improve its volumes against Q1 2014 with Lync's popularity improving most notably in Western Europe.
Microsoft took a 7% share in the quarter to claim sixth position. Unify enjoyed a return to share growth in seventh position as it captured 7% of the global market, compared to 6% in Q1 2014. This was largely driven by a 17% year-on-year uplift in solutions >100 extensions/licenses in the German market.
World IP Extensions/Licenses Market ?IP extensions/licenses grew by 3% year-on-year, outperforming the total market largely driven by the growth in the North American and Asia Pacific enterprise segments.
As a consequence, the North America and Asia Pacific total markets witnessed the largest shift towards IP solutions in Q1 2015, with the IP penetration rate (the % of IP extensions into total extensions to the desktop) growing by four percentage points year-on-year.
Cisco, Huawei, Avaya and NEC all helped to drive the Asia Pacific >100 IP licenses market up 12% year-on-year, while Cisco can be largely credited with driving an 8% growth in the North American market.
The global IP penetration rate rose to 47% from 44% in Q1 2014. That said, the quarter a year ago, was a particularly poor one for enterprise in North America, where IP extensions account for the vast majority of extensions deployed.
The global IP penetration rate fell in Q1 2015 sequentially against the 48% rate in Q4 2014, as the more TDM-centric markets of Asia Pacific, maintained their historical record of taking a greater proportion of global extensions compared to the final quarter of the year. With the exception of Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific accounted for the lowest regional IP penetration rate of 33%, up from 29% in Q1 2014.
A fall in IP solutions in EMEA resulted in Cisco maintaining a flat 21% share in the global IP licenses market from Avaya in second position, who took a stable 18% share.
Mitel followed in third position with a share of 9% ahead of Microsoft and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise who took 8% and 7% global shares.
Global PBX/IP PBX Market - Rolling Year ?Excluding Micro PBX products, the global PBX/Call Control extensions and licenses market over the rolling year CY Q2 2014 to CY Q1 2015 (April 2014 to March 2015 inclusive) was flat year-on-year, with solutions in enterprise (>100 licenses/extensions) marginally out-performing those in the SME ( <100 licenses/extensions) segment, by rising by 1% against a flat smaller systems segment.
The largest market Asia Pacific aided by continued growth in Middle East and Africa prevented a global decline, as economic problems pervaded Eastern Europe and Latin America, while economic factors coupled with technological changes such as the drift towards UC applications in ICT expenditure has seen the average lifespan of call control solutions increase in Western Europe and North America.
India's economy has shown some revival over the period with the new government implementing investment friendly policies culminating in it becoming the world's fastest growing major economy in Q1 2015 and Q3 2014 surpassing China. Notably, of the main world markets, India saw the greatest increase in extensions volume over the rolling year, equating to over a quarter of a million extensions.
In the competitive landscape positions remained largely unchanged when comparing the rolling year against MZA's CY Analysis for 2014. Avaya continued to lead the global market for with a stable 12% share, followed by Cisco exactly half a percentage point behind the market leader.
NEC and Panasonic closed on the market leaders in third and fourth positions, largely through the more buoyant Asia Pacific regional market. Mitel and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise remained in fifth and sixth positions respectively ahead of Huawei, Unify, Microsoft and Ericsson-LG Enterprise.
In the SME ( <100 licenses/extensions) market, Panasonic held first position for the rolling year for the second consecutive quarter. Indeed it really started to improve volumes across markets in Q2 2014 (the beginning of the rolling year) following the launch of the KX-NS series of communications platforms. Panasonic accounted for a 16% share, up three percentage points year-on-year. NEC remained in second position for the second successive quarter with a stable 14% share, ahead of Avaya who took a 10% market share.??Cisco continued to lead the global >100 extensions/licenses market, with a market share of 21%, down one percentage point. Avaya increased market share to 14%, up one percentage point. Significant volume growth in the large enterprise segments >500 extensions enabled both Huawei and Microsoft to gain market share, in third and fifth positions respectively. Mitel, with its acquired heritage Aastra solutions included, remained strong in fourth position with a flat 8% share.
Note: This analysis refers to user license/extension volume performance, due to the fact that this is the key performance indicator provided by all contributing parties, with no vendor providing sector specific analysis of revenue performance.