Comms Dealer

Softcat has welcomed 56 new staff who will be based across its five UK offices - the additions bring the Leeds office up to almost 25 staff within six months of its opening.

The majority of the new starts have joined as sales executives and support assistants for corporate and public sector customers, with others joining the company's technical graduate scheme.

Softcat currently has positions open for 14 different roles on its website, spanning sales roles, technical roles, graduate roles, admin and ops, and apprentices.

Martin Hellawell, CEO, said: "A key ingredient of Softcat's development is constantly bringing in more talent to the organisation to drive our future growth.

"Finding the right kind of talent - bright, enthusiastic, passionate people with a great attitude and strong work ethic - is far from easy. We spend an inordinate amount of time on finding and recruiting that kind of talent. The work never stops, we are now working hard on filling the next three intakes scheduled over the next six months."

NetPay Merchant Services has announced its support for Apple Pay, launched in the UK on 14th July.

With the launch of the iPhone 6 and new Apple watch, Apple has analysts predicting increased growth of mobile commerce and the digital wallet.

Carl Churchill, MD of NetPay, stated: "With the advancement of mobile commerce, we are excited to be able to offer our customers the ability to accept the Apple Pay Digital Wallet. Speed is of the essence to many consumers, therefore being able to tap and pay for goods and services will reduce queues and be more convenient for the consumer.

"Apple Pay can now be accepted across all of our terminal devices where contactless has been enabled, giving our merchants access to customers whose phones are permanently glued to their hands."

Analyst Dell'Oro Group says that, from this year on, cloud data centres will emerge as the sole growth driver for server shipments, as unit shipments into enterprise data centres decline. Server unit shipments are expected to continue to grow overall during its forecast period.

"Our recent interviews with end users, component vendors and system integrators, indicate that Cloud adoption is occurring faster than industry expectations," said Sameh Boujelbene, Director at Dell'Oro Group.

"The substantial increase in cloud uptake stems from both a declining scepticism of the Cloud among enterprise accounts, and the willingness of Cloud vendors to hear their customers' concerns, mainly related to security and resiliency, and to provide platforms to meet their needs. We currently expect cloud servers to reach 50% of total server shipments by 2017; a year earlier than previously projected," stated Boujelbene.

The report indicates that servers' migration to cloud holds significant implications for server form factor, even challenging the basic definition of a server.

The analysis also discusses the various Ethernet network connectivity options for each server form factor for cloud versus enterprise/premises deployments, and reveals that a minimum of eight network speeds are expected to co-exist for server access over the next five years.

Total handset sales are expected to grow from 1.88 billion to 2.16 billion units between 2014 and 2020 at a compound annual growth (CAGR) rate of 2.4 per cent, reckons analyst firm Ovum.

Smartphones will comprise 95% of global handset sales by 2020, up from 65% in 2014, and will first exceed 2 billion unit sales in 2020.

Android and iOS devices will continue to lead the market with 80% and 14% smartphone volume market share respectively in 2020, almost identical to 2014. Handsets based on Microsoft's Windows Phone OS will capture most of the remaining market with a 4.2% market share in 2020, equivalent to 86 million unit sales.

Africa and the Middle East and Latin America will lead the smartphone market in terms of growth over the next six years with a CAGR of 17% and 11% respectively, reaching a combined 576 million units sales by 2020, up from 254 million in 2014. In Asia Pacific, the Chinese market is reaching saturation with an expected CAGR of only 4.1% in the next six years, versus 19.7% for India and 16.3% for Indonesia. North America and Western Europe will be trailing behind with a CAGR of only 2% in the next six years.

Ronan de Renesse, lead analyst in Ovum's Consumer Technology practice, commented: "Smartphones are leading the path to digital transformation and therefore have yet to unlock massive opportunities in many markets. The fact that almost all handsets to be sold in 2020 will be smartphones will lead to great socioeconomic achievements across the world in the next five years."

Most of the growth in the smartphone market will come from the sale of sub-$100 devices in developing as well as developed countries. This price tier will represent more than 40% of global smartphone sales by 2020, up from 13% in 2014.

Ovum's global study of handset prices revealed a steep decline in smartphone prices: between 4Q13 and 4Q14, the median price of prepaid and SIM-free smartphones (representing 56% of all operator offers worldwide) decreased 28%, from $360 to $258.

This decline is largely attributed to a structural shift toward lower-end smartphone models rather than price decreases in particular segments. With 40+ manufacturers recorded via this study, the low-end smartphone segment is also the most diverse and competitive.

"The entire device value chain is bending backwards to manufacture and distribute cheap smartphones at an acceptable level of quality. The benefits of transitioning a feature phone user to a smartphone are significant for operators and for digital service providers like Facebook and Google, to the point of becoming a strategic imperative," added de Renesse.

Sabio has optimised BGL Group's customer engagement with pro-active outbound SMS messaging, leading to a 12% reduction in call volumes across key customer touch points.

BGL Group, a financial services business with more than eight million customers, worked with Sabio on the project to strengthen multi-channel customer engagement through the addition of context-sensitive SMS messaging.

Following an initial consultancy engagement and a successful messaging trial, BGL is now deploying outbound SMS messaging across its multiple businesses, providing pro-active support for customers at key touch points where, previously, they would have had to contact the company themselves.

The project, fulfilled through Sabio Network Services, has seen BGL significantly increase its volume of outbound SMS messages - from an initial volume of 50,000 every three to four months to a rate now approaching 500,000.

Key to the success of the BGL outbound project has been a determination to only deploy SMS messages at the right points of the customer journey. Areas identified - including customer confirmation messages, critical calls to action, and the sharing of address details for documents - followed a joint analysis exercise with Sabio identifying specific instances of caller frustration.

"Customers quite rightly expect to be kept informed on insurance policy details and claims, however we need to be smart about the communications channels we use.

In trialling outbound SMS we were determined to identify only those areas where we could intervene that would be both beneficial to customer engagement as well as our own internal processes," commented Paul Thorley, Senior Project Manager, Fusion Contact Centre Services at BGL Group.

"Working closely with Sabio, we have clearly been able to show how the appropriate use of outbound SMS confirmations across brands has proved helpful for customers - indeed we've already seen a 12% reduction in calls from customers wanting to confirm the status of their no claims documentation, and a similar improvement in customers registering for our online self-service portal."

Before deploying outbound SMS, BGL's Fusion Contact Centre Services team first worked with Sabio to identify current industry best practice in this area, and developed a set of specific BGL guidelines for SMS outreach.

Central to this approach is the need to simplify processes for customers, whether by pre-empting a customer's need to call, alerting them to upcoming card payment issues, or providing contact details.

"BGL was already strong in multi-channel customer engagement, however just because a business is active across a range of innovative online channels doesn't mean there still isn't a role for more traditional communications such as outbound SMS," added Sabio Director, Kenneth Hitchen.

"Detailed repetition analysis for BGL showed a number of specific areas where challenging contact centre demand via SMS was appropriate, and it's clear from BGL's analysis that this is a solution that works well for both customers and the different BGL businesses that have added SMS outreach to their contact channels."

True Telecom has taken a 'natural next step' with the introduction of payment services for SMEs following the launch of True.

Offering the latest terminal equipment at what the company describes competitive rates True aims to give UK SMEs the ability to effectively manage and process card transactions.

True offers a selection of card payment machines for different business needs - Countertop, Portable and Mobile, meaning that business owners do not need to worry if they are looking to take credit and debit card payments at the till point, away from the till or on the move.

True payment machines include built-in contactless technology to reduce customer waiting time, creating a simpler and more flexible way for business owners to take payments anywhere around their business, as well as customers being able to take advantage of a global roaming SIM with all mobile payment machine devices.

Behind the scenes, True payment machine customers are equipped with the ability to access transaction information and intelligent management reports, on the exclusive Revolution platform, in addition to a full 24/7, 365 day customer support, from a dedicated UK based customer service team.

Stuart Griffiths (pictured), CEO of True Telecom, commented: "We noticed a gap in the market and have taken advantage of cost-effective card payment solutions, reducing risk, speeding up cash flow and making payments more flexible for small and medium sized business owners across the UK."

Polycom has unveiled two new 'affordable' entry-level desktop phones as part of its voice solutions portfolio.

The new Polycom VVX 101 business media phone is designed for small and home offices, lobby areas and shared workspaces where people need access to a simple phone with a single line, said the vendor.

The VVX 201 business media phone is designed for organisations of all sizes and features two line support and a range of enterprise telephony features.

Both offer 'life-like' conversations with Polycom's HD voice, Polycom Acoustic Clarity and Polycom Acoustic Fence technology.

Ashan Willy, Senior Vice President Worldwide Product Management & Systems Engineers at Polycom., said "With the right combination of technology, people, and processes, organisations can improve productivity, boost innovation and hone their competitive edge."

In its financial results for the year to 31st March 2015 Adept posted its 12th year of rising EBITDA, up 13.5% to £4.6m on revenues, a rise of just under 6% at £22.1m. Debt was down to £1.5m.

"We have no intention of going cash positive as with interest rates so low, £1m in the bank at 0.5% interest pays about £400 per month income," said Ian Fishwick, CEO.

"It's quite scary when you look at it like that. We will therefore continue to buy companies."

In April 2015 Adept announced a new £15m debt facility with Barclays to fund more acquisitions, and just weeks later the company bagged Centrix, an Avaya Aura specialist based in Hampshire.

"This is the first time we have moved to a two site operation," added Fishwick. "Our capabilities are now much enhanced in the areas of IP Telephony, UC and Wi-Fi.

"And our 1,250 larger customers now represent around 70% of our sales revenue."

Billing provider ebillz has struck up a new partnership with IP telephony software provider VOIspeed, enabling it to offer additional services to its customers and resellers including white label billing with detailed itemised billing for end user customers.

Resellers will also benefit from regular commission statements and a breakdown of all their customers' invoices.

Combined with enhanced billing management reporting that updates relative to daily CDR loads, ebillz Enterprise also gives VOIspeed and its resellers an accurate snapshot of billing revenue at any point in the month.

Giuseppe Venturini, Director of VOIspeed, said:
"VOIspeed provides converged telephony, enabling clients to use existing analogue or ISDN lines as well as VoIP both in a cloud or premises-based environment.

"To complete our offering we also provide additional services like VoIP and broadband connectivity so this new billing service is great news for us.

"It highlights the advantages of VOIspeed technology in addition to providing our customers with compatible and value add services.

"Our existing resellers and customers are very positive about this enhanced offering and I trust it will attract great interest from prospective clients."

Arvind Meghani, MD of ebillz, added: "This is an exciting time for us as we continue to invest in our systems, and we look forward to being able to add even more value for our partners in future."

C4L and TalkTalk Business have joined forces to roll out superfast EoFTTC across the UK based in C4L's coreTX network.

The collaboration widens availability of EoFTTC and has attracted markets with its dual purpose of acting as a solution during provisioning of Leased Lines, then performing as a failover circuit.

"EFM is a solid connectivity option and will continue to be widely used, however the foresight is that this may be the beginning of the end of EFM as EoFTTC provides higher performance at a lower cost where it is available," said Matt Hawkins, Chairman and founder, C4L.

Alex Tempest, Director of Partners at TalkTalk Business, added: "We're excited to be able to roll out EoFTTC with C4L and we believe that it will give their customers unbeatable connectivity and flexibility."

This service is also Connection Voucher eligible meaning the install costs can be covered by the government scheme.