Comms Dealer

Ongoing budget cuts and greater competition for donations have given rise to new forms of collaboration in the back-offices of charities, according to Annodata.

This observation follows Annodata's 400th customer win in the Scottish charity sector, largely down to its collaboration with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).
 
PwC conducted a review of charities following the economic downturn in 2008 and has charted progress each year since.

The latest 2015 research report shows that 34% of charities collaborate in some way on service delivery, while 5% report sharing back office functions.

"For Annodata, this growing trend towards greater collaboration between not-for-profit organisations and the sharing of back-office functions holds the key towards creating a more efficient and sustainable Third Sector, and should therefore be encouraged," said Joe Doyle, Marketing Director.

"Our partnership with the SCVO means that we have seen first hand some of the challenges that the Third Sector has had to adapt to in recent years.

"Reductions in public sector funding, squeezed income from donors, and an increased demand for their services have radically changed the landscape in which they operate and necessitated the development of new operational structures.

"Many charity leaders have prioritised raising money and getting the best value in service delivery, so, to-date, collaboration has mostly occurred in these two areas.

"But, encouragingly, we are starting to see more charities sharing back-office services and infrastructure and, with levels of funding unlikely to improve any time soon, we expect this trend to continue.
 
"Back office services tend to have a uniformity between organisations - they all need print services, IT and other similar support - so it makes sense to combine these functions where possible.

"Working with managed service providers can make it easier for organisations to collaborate and secure better economies of scale. Without these additional and largely unnecessary overheads, not-for-profits can spend money where it's needed most."
 
SCVO has played a critical role supporting Scottish charities by providing services ranging from litigation, payroll services, procurement, HR to consulting on improving charity performance.

John Ferguson, Director of Development at the SCVO, added: "Establishing preferred suppliers is an important part of our work to support organisational change in the charity sector, so that they can focus on what they do best - whether that's supporting the most vulnerable people in communities across the country or conducting cutting-edge research.

"Increasing the use of shared services in the charity sector in Scotland is an important objective for us."

According to Technology Business Research's 2H14 Carrier Cloud Benchmark, total Cloud as a Service revenue among benchmarked companies continued to grow rapidly in 4Q14, up 25% year-to-year.

Cloud services growth shifted from the Americas and Europe to APAC, led by China Telecom, KT and NTT. Carrier Cloud as a Service revenue grew slower in North America due to strong competition from AWS and Google cloud offerings.

"Carriers are going through a priority shift as they emphasise a network 'on-ramp' to cloud, competing against their own cloud services by partnering with major cloud service providers," said Michael Sullivan-Trainor, a TBR telecom executive analyst.

"The slow scaling of cloud services combined with the need to grow the network business causes carriers to partner with cloud rivals such as Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft. The strategy adds value to the network services business, which is often paired with the cloud unit, but diminishes the carrier's own cloud revenue."

Carriers are still focusing on cloud revenue growth by increasing their presence with customers, while some continue to grow through acquisitions. CenturyLink in the US continued to grow by acquiring and adding PaaS capabilities and scale, while carriers in Europe, Asia and Latin America grew revenue by transitioning their customers from legacy systems to cloud.

NTT's global expansion and investments in data centres led the carrier to the highest Cloud as a Service revenue among carrier cloud providers. NTT bolstered its leading market position through the e-shelter data centre footprint in Germany to become the third-largest data centre player in Europe. It also expanded its services in other regions.

Remote monitoring and automated management reduces the time to troubleshoot faulty networking devices by up to 75%, according to Dimension Data.

Consequently, says the firm, it takes 32% less time to repair such devices than those not managed in this way.

So finds its research which reaffirms a strong correlation between the failures caused by devices and their lifecycle stage.

According to the report, networks have continued to age for the fifth consecutive year, making 53% of the over 70,000 technology devices that were analysed either ageing or obsolete - up by two percentage points since last year.

There's also been a slight drop in the percentage of obsolete devices - down to 9% from last year's 11%, while the percentage of ageing devices has increased by four points.

The percentage of the current devices analysed is at its lowest in three years. The research looked at corporate networks in organisations of all sizes and all industry sectors across 28 countries.

Andre van Schalkwyk, consulting practice manager for Dimension Data's Networking Business Unit, said: "During the seven-year history of the Network Barometer Report, the average tolerance level for organisation's obsolete devices in their networks has been around 10%.

"Rarely do organisations allow this to increase beyond 11% before they refresh the relevant devices.

"The conventional assumption was that an overall technology refresh was imminent, but our data shows that organisations are refreshing mostly obsolete devices, and are clearly willing to sweat their aging devices for longer than expected.

"Organisations therefore focus their refresh initiatives mostly on technology that has reached critical lifecycle stages when vendor support is no longer available."

Stephen Dale has joined Volta Data Centres as Business Development Manager with a remit to drive its channel service offerings.

He will be responsible for introducing new businesses by targeting value added resellers and system integrators.

Dale, a former naval communicator, has been in the telecoms industry for 15 years and has experience in the managed networks and connectivity fields.

Prior to his appointment with Volta, Dale ran his own business, Modus Telecoms in the telecoms channel market, growing the company from a founding start to a £4.5 million turnover over three and a half years before selling it.

His previous work also includes account director at GTT and channel account manager for bandwidth infrastructure and network-neutral colocation firm, Zayo Group. He was involved in recruiting systems integrators, meeting the commercial teams and developing channel partnerships with the likes of Equinox and Fujitsu.

Other previous positions include business development consultant at National Voice and Data, global account manager at Masergy Communications and business development at Virgin Media Business.

In these positions, he helped National Voice and Data achieve 200% and Masergy Communications 125% growth in the telecoms channel market.

Dale said: "Data centres are becoming even more critical for businesses to be able to run and provide their services. I believe change is good, so decided to move into the data centre environment to be part of the growing cloud industry.

"With many services providers making their first venture into the cloud, it is extremely tough to predict business growth - and data centres that offer great business scalability are becoming even more critical."

Jonathan Arnold, MD at Volta, added: "Stephen's accomplishments in developing businesses and his channel expertise makes him a real asset to our company."

Scotland-based business system provider Eureka Solutions has extended its reach into the south of England, most notably along the M4 technology corridor where its has secured a growing number of customer wins.

The firm has made particular progress in the software, professional services and renewable energy sectors, providing solutions from NetSuite and Sage.

Eureka Solutions was named NetSuite's fastest growing EMEA partner in 2014 as well as  being awarded 5 Star partner status at NetSuite's annual conference in California.

In the last six months the company has increased the rate of uptake of NetSuite Cloud-based solutions by 200%.

Alistair Livingstone (pictured), MD, said: "More and more companies throughout the wider UK are becoming aware of the service, quality and support that Eureka Solutions can provide across a range of sectors."

Security intelligence specialist FireMon has named Ottavio Camponeschi as Vice President EMEA, responsible for driving FireMon's growing European, Middle Eastern and African business volumes and forming strategic channel partnerships throughout the region.

With more than 25 years of experience in the IT Industry, Camponeschi joins from Damballa where he held the position of Vice President EMEA.

Prior to this, he spent a decade at McAfee as vice president of its Southern European operations; and held senior management roles at both Ariba and BMC Software.

Camponeschi will be based in FireMon's Munich office where he aims to build on last year's 55% growth.

IT infrastructure provider Softcat has secured a bid for all 11 Lots within the new Technology Services Framework (RM1058) allowing it to provide a range of IT services - including network management, content security, desktop support and disaster recovery - for its growing public sector customer base over the next four years.

Softcat's tally of successful lots now totals 21 across four major Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Frameworks. This follows successful bids for three other recently awarded contracts - Technology Products (RM1054), Corporate Software Solutions (RM1042) and ICT Services for Education (RM1050) obtained during the last 12 months.

UK public sector bodies such as central government departments, the NHS and local authorities will use the Pan-Government Collaborative Framework Agreement, implemented by CCS to buy stand-alone IT services at competitive rates. The frameworks also allow customers to take advantage of cost-effective procurement efficiencies associated with pre-tendered frameworks.

"This latest success represents several months of intense work from Softcat's bid team having written responses for eleven separate lots covering a wide range of technology services," said Mark Brazington, Partner Alliance Manager.

"This award continues our 100% success rate with CCS frameworks and complements the products and services we are currently supplying via the Corporate Software Solutions and Technology Products Frameworks."

The investment climate and financial operations of the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) industry in Europe have been subdued in comparison to firms in the United States.

Nevertheless, as enterprises gain confidence in these solutions and mega trends such as smart cities, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) gather pace, the IaaS industry will evolve into a worthwhile investment domain.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan reveals that pure-play financial companies account for a major portion of investments. Strategic investments by corporate arms in early stage firms are negligible.

"The promise of stable recurring revenues lures investments into the IaaS industry in Europe," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Renganathan Krishnamurthy.

"High switching costs ensure that clients do not change their vendors frequently, resulting in predictable cash flows. This enables existing participants to strengthen profits."

While growth in big data, social media and the IoT is increasing the strategic importance of data centres, macro-economic conditions are still too weak to drive large-scale revenues in this industry.

Additionally, the data centre industry and some segments in the value chain involve relatively bigger investments, unlike new age industries such as social media and mobile applications startups.

Given the opportunity for smaller investments in other industries (and thus lower risk), the capital available for data centres is limited.

Further, the steep capital required makes it unviable for a single venture capitalist (VC) to support a start-up. To overcome this challenge, VCs in Europe are tying up with each other to boost funds.

"Start-ups must design innovative positioning strategies to counter the advantage existing participants will gain from economies of scale," urged Krishnamurthy.

"Apart from technology, firms looking to improve their returns must also acquire certifications and prove compliant in order to attract customers from regulation-intensive industries such as finance and healthcare in Europe."

Integrating multi-channel customer acquisitions has been voted a top challenge by over two thirds of organisations across EMEA, according to Experian, which has outlined new rules of customer engagement designed to enable financial services and comms firms across the region to meet greater customer expectations over the next five years.

Tom Blacksell, MD of Experian's Decision Analytics & Marketing Services, UK&I, said: "Across the financial services and telecoms industries, customer expectations are growing and vastly changing.

"They are seeking more from their providers than ever before, particularly when it comes to engaging across multiple channels.

"Access to price comparison sites, social media and customer reviews will continue to create a more empowered, informed and self-directed customer.

"This new type of customer will want to make contact through the channel of their choice, at a time and place that suits them. And they will want to be served quickly, with efficient application processes, pre-qualification for relevant products and services and instant credit decisions."

The research warns that in order for EMEA organisations to achieve the ultimate customer experience, they must refocus their priorities on five key areas:

Attain multiple and new sources of data
The survey revealed that 68 per cent of financial services and telecoms organisations in EMEA recognised the need to attain more data sources and planned to do so in the next five years. Organisations will need to ensure depth, breadth and quality of data, whilst respecting privacy, data policies and regulation on data security. This will require both structured and unstructured data, as well as the integration of internal and new external sources.

Achieve a holistic customer view
The research found that most organisations (90 per cent) were aware of the importance of a 360-degree view of customers and admitted they could be more customer centric. Internal silos were recognised as a barrier to achieving this by 42 per cent of organisations who plan to focus on eliminating data silos over the next five years, in order to bring together multiple data sources for a holistic view of customers and their circumstances.

Provide real-time, consistent and pre-qualified decisions
Delivering real-time, reliable decisions that meet increasing customer expectations was recognised by 82 per cent of organisations as a factor in improving the overall customer experience. Yet, just over half of those (43 per cent) rated their ability to provide real-time decisions as poor/significant room for improvement. The systems used for such decisioning will need to be easy to integrate into existing IT infrastructure. This will make decisions easy to push out to all channels and customer touch points.

Use multi-channel automation across all customer touch points
Integrating multi-channel applications was recognised as a top challenge by 69 per cent of organisations. Automated decisions should be applied across all channels and throughout the customer life cycle to enable positive customer experiences. These can be easily integrated with existing infrastructure and deployed across new and emerging technologies.

Embrace advanced analytics across the entire organisation
Advanced analytics provides a real opportunity for competitive advantage as recognised by 35 per cent of organisations who plan to outsource advanced analytics to a trusted partner in the next five years. Advanced analytics should be used across organisations and the customer life cycle to improve profitability, understand lifetime value and open up big data to drive good decision making.

Tom Blacksell, MD of Experian's Decision Analytics & Marketing Services, UK&I, added: "Our findings present a clear vision for data, analytics and decisioning in the next five years. We believe that organisations that focus their efforts on these five key areas will equip themselves to remain competitive and keep pace with the digital revolution and expanding data universe, while optimising the customer experience."

SpliceCom has introduced its new Intelligent Gateway Module family for connecting legacy devices and services to S716 and S8000 soft/virtual voice platforms and expansion for 5108 and 5100 hard IP PBXs.

Developed in-house, the three variants provide connectivity to legacy PBXs, Basic Rate ISDN, Primary Rate ISDN and DPNSS services, analogue phones, door entry systems, PDQs, fax machines and modems.

A low-profile design combined with LAN connectivity allows these modules to be placed where they're needed, reducing cabling requirements.

And Power over Ethernet (PoE) allows individual Intelligent Gateway Modules to be driven through PoE enabled LAN switches or mid-span/in-line PSUs.

Where higher densities are required, the Intelligent Gateway Module Rack for 19 inch cabinets is just 1u high and can be used to mount up to four modules and the optional Intelligent Gateway Module PSU.

"Because our new Intelligent Gateway Modules have been developed as a core system component, they can be deployed with SpliceCom Select cloud and hybrid services, in addition to providing legacy connectivity for our on-premise voice platforms," said Robin Hayman, Director of Marketing & Product Management at SpliceCom.

"It's this intelligent approach to system design that allows SpliceCom customers' to continue to maximise their existing investments in the products and services that traditionally get overlooked or cast aside in the transition to cloud based infrastructures.

"Analogue Phones, legacy PBXs with no IP capability, PDQ machines, door entry systems, fax machines - all can access the advantages of SIP trunks and cloud or hybrid solutions via our Intelligent Gateway Modules. This enables migration to new voice architectures in a totally controlled manner, as and when business needs and budgets allow."

Designed-in resilience also offers DR and business continuity.